A complete rundown of the Meta Knight amiibo

by Dreadfather, Guest Contributor

This collection of notes are Dreadfather’s findings on the Meta Knight amiibo post-9.0. This isn’t meant to be a Meta Knight amiibo training guide, it’s actually much more in-depth, with most of the moveset being explained. Everything here is copy-pasted from what Dreadfather sent me. Dreadfather is the foremost Meta Knight expert, having spent more time labbing out Meta Knight than anyone else.

Notes on training Meta Knight / things I’ve found so far

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Meta Knight’s current placement on the amiibo tier list.

Playstyles:
–Air Camping has potential on platform stages, but training him to air camp is finnicky. It does have uses on training him how to successful land out of a juggle situation though.
–Defensive playstyles do not really work with him, as most defensive gameplans rely on waiting for your opponent to screw up, and then hitting them with a dash attack at 15% and killing them with a ladder. And despite 2 other amiibo in the game having access to their own ladders, MK has no such luck.
–Optimal playstyles is likely hyper aggressive
–He HAS kill power on stage, unfortunately the AI has issues using this kill power due to various drawbacks and some AI issues. A good overall gameplan is to focus on landing aerials into dash attack and more aerials, DSmash if the opponent gets too close, and abuse the HELL out of Fair and Nair.

AI Issues:
–FTilt has a weird issue where he’ll lightly poke the opponent with ftilt 1, and then stare at the opponent for a second
–Training him to edgeguard is very finnicky. Sometimes he’ll acquire a sticky habit where he’ll save the opponent by knocking them back to the stage with bair or nair. No idea why he does this or if I can fix this.
–For the love of all that is Sakurai, do NOT TEACH HIM TO USE DOWN SPECIAL IN THE AIR. For some reason he still SDs with this move. What happens is he’ll try to DCape to ledge from midstage, and miss the ledge.
–There appears to be a hard cap to how many UAirs he can string (2) before he’ll stop attacking and give the opponent a chance to retaliate.

Moves and their uses (or lack thereof)

Ground attacks:

Jab — Jab has potential as a damage builder and a way to launch an opponent offstage for an edgeguard, currently my build of MK uses the occasionally, but be aware that it is extremely punishable if whiffed. It’s also useful in a matchup where the other amiibo is very parry-happy.
DTilt — Frame 3 poke, It’s only advantage over DSmash is that it’s less punishable. That said training it to use dtilt when the opponent is close and dsmash at max spacing is a decent defensive strategy
UTilt — lmao no
Ftilt — Has kill potential at ledge. If you can get him to consistently use all 3 hits, then great. If not, drop the move it’s not worth eating a Doriyah to the face.

Dash attack — THIS is one of MK’s best tools. Teach him to follow up ALL landed aerials with either this or a grab. He has a built in ability to combo out of hits with this move. DO be aware that this move has 3 hitboxes that send at quite different angles. Ideally aim to use this move point plank or at medium spacing. Max spacing is amazing in human play for setting up ladder kills, but well … anyways try to avoid hitting this with the tip of his sabaton. Point blank dash attack is extremely useful because it A) set’s up for aerial strings and followups, and B) crosses the opponent up which give MK a few extra frames and extra safety if the move is parried.

Grabbing — Don’t fucking dash grab. Laggy and he struggles to land it (like many amiibo). When you do land a standing grab, Dthrow if you’re in the middle of the stage and go for FAir or NAir. If you’re by the ledge, you can throw them offstage or kill potentially with BThrow.

FSmash — Maybe I should move this to AI issues, but MK SEEMS to be aware of how this move works in terms of knockback. MK’s fmash is like all of Roy’s moves in that it has the greatest knockback at point blank range. The AI tries to space for this. The problem? The move has 24 frames of startup. That is enough time to fuck off for a soda. What happens the is he’ll walk up to the opponent and just use FMash right in front of them. And likely get killed because of it. It IS still a useful kill and damage move, but be sparing in how you use. It also is one of MK’s safer moves on hit unless parried, so you can try to teahc him to use FSmash when he’s far away from the opponent to bait them into an approach he can punish.
DSmash — Frame 4 smash attack that hits on both sides and deals OK damage. This is his best defensive tool on the ground. Next to dash attack this is one of his best tools
USmash — This is an OK kill option and anti air. Can be used sporadically, but if you see MK trying to hit in front of him with USmash, you’re using it too often.

Aerials:
THIS is where … well MK doesn’t really shine in any area, but he at least sucks less in the air.

UAir — The AI is mentally handicapped when it comes to chaining this move. There MIGHT be a way to get him to consistently get him to land UAir chains, but so far I can only get him to consistently chain 2. Moreover, the move does like 4% damage lol. If you want a raid boss, this move is ok, otherwise don’t ever fucking use it. I KNOW the temptation to ladder is there, but just … resist it.

NAir — Since MK has a habit of headbutting his opponents anyways, this move is great. Try to get him to perform landed NAirs into Dash attacks / Drill Rush. It’s also one of the 2 tools he should use when edgeguarding.

FAir — This is his aerial MVP. Chains into itself and is a good edgeguarding move due to it’s high minimum knockback, range, and good framedata.

DAir — I have mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand MK CAN chain this move very reliably and it is a Frame 4 aerial with a good amount of range, but on the other hand once he starts using it onstage, he will inevitably try to use it offstage. And this move has a habit of saving otherwise dead opponents when he goes for the edgeguar. Avoid unless you’re training a hype raidboss.

BAir — Use minimally except for one scenario: Drop Zone edgeguards. The AI CAN learn to do drop zone BAir which can lead to some cheeky kills after a ledge trump.

Specials:

Mach Tornado — Have heard that this move has edgeguard potential, but I have yet to get him to use this move offstage. I’d avoid this move unless you want to try labbing stuff out.

Shuttle Loop — Do. Not. Use. This. On. Stage.
Seriously don’t. Is it a kill move? Yes. But it is unsafe on hit and the AI is VERY bad at using it intelligently. A.K.A. He’ll go for this move when the opponent is at like 3% and probably die because of it.

Drill Rush — As Blank demonstrated in a recent tourney, this move is undervalued and really, REALLY fucking good. He can use it to tech chase when the opponent is at too high of a % to be hit by other dash attack followups. Also it’s a multihit that carries to opponent to the blast zone, deals a lot of damage for MK, and opponents are REALLY bad about blocking this attack. Opposing amiibo have a tendency to block the first few hits, and then they drop shield because I guess they just enjoy pain.

Dimensional Cape — Oh Mae Wa Mu Shindeiru. Jokes aside this move has potential. Yes, he WILL SD with this move if you teach him to use it in the air, but this move has a lot of … weird effects on the AI.
Let me explain. Opposing Amiibo ALWAYS know where MK is when he’s moving around with DCape, and because they see the MASSIVE hitbox of the attack, they’ll do dumb things. Like try to attack an invisible MK and get slashed in the back. Unfortunately this also means they can parry it, and this move has (checks notes) 30 frames of endlag if you attack with it. Big oof. If you DO want to use this move, keep this in mind:
Do not always move the maximum distance with this move when you plan to attack. When you do plan to attack you ideally want to come out of the move RIGHT behind the opponent. If you mess up the spacing, exit out of the match. Seriously if you want to teach him to use this move you cannot miss with it.

Again I have no real street cred or performance to back up these notes, but hopefully somebody whose a better trainer than me can do something really cool with this little ball of failure.