I think MK has a lot going for him. He has a disjoint in almost all of his attacks, which means that he can play really safely against many characters. He has insane priority, good speed in general (including a great dash JC grab), a great kit of aerials including the very scary move nair (which can combo into itself, can do 20%, kill, and is very safe), a good grab game, the best recovery in the game, great kill moves for his weight class, and amazing edgeguarding against basically all of the cast. I think his worst matchups are ones where he is outranged, but there are very few character that outrange him, and even many of those characters he still has a good MU against.

Have you forgotten his horrible kill power that lets opponents live to rediculiously high %'s?

His range is short too, which leaves him vulnerable to disjoints.

How does MK have horrible kill power? Shuttle Loop, nair, dair, bair, dsmash, fsmash, dspec, and even uthrow are all viable kill moves, and almost all of them have low startup. Nair can kill DK at 120% on the stage, and Shuttle Loop can kill earlier than that. The most important thing, however, is that MK's kill moves can be comboed into. A combo into offstage nair or reverse Shuttle Loop can kill below 100%.

MK certainly is outranged by the likes of Ichigo. However, he has enough range so that it isn't painful to approach or play the neutral game, like Ichigo v Jiggz for example. He outranges chars without range or disjoints, and against chars that outclass him in range and disjoints he can still do work. I think it's pretty hard to wall MK out with any character.

I don't understand how this game in balanced. Can someone explain?

It's not so bad. Just a few bad seeds at the top, and two or so didn't get watered enough at the bottom. It's balanced because everyone is viable, not too big gaps here and there. I think the only problem is the upper-half of the *cough* theoretical tier-list are mostly characters who have defensive dominant styles that make them difficult to approach (AKA, also easier/safer to play).

everyone plays one of three characters and everyone also claimed to know the entire tier list within 15 minutes of release and their opinions have not changed since. the metagame is not developed for any character besides those three or four. the game is thus balanced because all three/four characters are viable. who's pikachu is that from zelda?

My opinions have changed a ton regarding the tier list. When it first came out I thought Chibi-Robo was at the top and Ichigo was at the bottom. Within a week Ichigo moved up to high tier and Chibi moved down to low tier. It took me a couple of weeks to decide that MK and Yoshi were really good, and there are at least 10 characters I have no idea how to place. I think that as time passes people will discover potential in characters with a high tech ceiling (Tails, Fox, Yoshi), and some characters will fall as people get better at punishing and reading moves.

Lol, it's so true.

I thought Marth would be top tier again, but then I was introduced to the new Fox and Ichigo which put his head in shame.

So, I think I've gotta good tier list going as of now. Keep in mind, it's only my opinion and experience with certain MU's.

None of the characters are in specific order in the tiers.


S
Fox
Ichigo
Tails
Donkey Kong
Peach
Meta Knight
Samus

A
Black Mage
Sonic
Captain Falcon
Ness
Yoshi
Wario
Sheik
Lloyd
Link

B
Mario
Marth
Zelda
Naruto
Kirby

C
Goku
Sora
Pikachu
MegaMan
Zero Suit Samus

K
Chibi Robo
Jigglypuff

Keep in mind, this only opinion. Also keep in mind I do know the characters extremely well and how to use their potential to the fullest, even if it is beyond my own abilities (though this is really for the veterans and some newcomers).
The characters are really much closer than what they have been in a long time, though there are still characters that are
considerably better or worse than others.

The characters I threw into C and K tier are characters that I ether don't have MU experience on, or characters that I can easily beat
without even trying that hard. Not to mention that most of those characters are largely unexplored.

Tell me what you all think.

@gEmmsbguy: Hmm, I agree with some of it, but not all of it. Idk about Fox for S tier, and DK will probably be lower after his Giant Punch is fixed in the patch. I think BM and Wario should be a little lower, and Sora and Naruto should be higher, especially Sora. But many of them are about right with the current state of the online metagame. I can explain any of my changes if needed.

I am so confused with this, mostly because of the wording.

Good. I'm not the only one. I know it's sarcasm, but what are you implying.

And i'm one of those people who thought Marth and Chibi Robo were god tier and Ichigo still trash, but played the thing more and changed my mind.

Pikachu is one of the least used characters for online mode and is least discussed on the forums too. Was just poking fun at the fact that nobody uses Pika so they might be shocked to know that he exists.

Pikachu's one of the least used? I guess you have server data on that or something, but I have face him quite a bit and use him. I've honestly feel like there are so few Fox, Marth, Falcon, players online, but lag does nerfed them. I've only ran into like 2 Lloyd players as well, and he's probably better online.

I'll give it a shot. I'll put (exp) next to the chars I have experience using. The others are where they're at based on my experience playing others. I'll also put a * next to chars that have an online advantage because they're easier to play.

SS
Lloyd (exp)*

S
DK (exp)*
Ichigo*
Wario (exp)*

A
Sheik (exp)
Pikachu (exp)
MK (exp)
Link (exp)*
Fox (exp)
Yoshi
Samus*
Peach
Tails

B
Mario (exp)
Ness
Captain Falcon (exp)
Marth (exp)
Zelda (exp)*
ZSS (exp)
Sonic
Black Mage*
Naruto*

C
Kirby (exp)
Goku (exp)
Sora (exp)
Mega Man*
Chibi Robo*

K
Jigglypuff

SS
I don't play Lloyd anymore because I think he's cheap/easy/safe/whatever you wanna call it. I don't see any value in being really good with him. That's not to say he's not fun because the opposite is true. He's the most freewheeling char in the game. You can jump around like a maniac throwing out moves and rarely pay for them. Or if you want to add a little camp, you can hide out under a platform on say Battlefield and spam demon fangs and dspecs, a strategy that leaves characters with limited approach options helpless. Simply put, he is the easiest character to be highly competitive with, which gives him is own tier. He could use a nerf or three.

S
My ranking of DK is mostly based on conjecture because I haven't played many (probably TRC's being the best and that was only once or twice). But I've played him a little myself and can feel his potential. If you really dedicate yourself to setting up Giant Punch (which I hear is getting nerfed), you can be godly. Plus his utilt, dtilt (underrated), nair, bair and uspec are all gold. Having all that PLUS very good speed is the kicker.
I have a hard time putting Ichigo here because I hate him. He's like a less fun and even less respectable version of Lloyd. But he eats so much of the cast alive with his blur antics.
Wario is here based mostly on Waft being a total game changer. If that were toned down (and it should be), he'd still be a very solid A. Great aerial mobility combined with high priority aerials. Wario is a very good defensive character. Combine that with a surefire low % kill every 1:30 makes him tough to deal with.

A
I think Sheik and Pikachu are the most underrated chars in the game and for mostly the same reason: they are kings of off stage aggression. Sheik's fair and Pika's dair are two of the most effective kill moves in the game, especially off stage where they kill at paltry %s. Pika also has a beautiful thunder spike that murders predictable recoveries. On stage, they each have a projectile to annoy those who don't and a variety of short hop attacks/tilts to combo people into kill positions. They're also great in the air and can go off stage fast for kills without having to worry too much about getting back.
MK has everything he had going in Brawl but with a few nerfs. I think he's given too much credit for his edge guarding ability because most characters can beat him back to the stage. He does have pretty good kill moves, but they become easy to defend against once you get into kill %, and many MK players get locked into those kill moves and end up taking damage in the process.
I think Link is really campy and shouldn't be able to edge guard certain characters from literally the other side of a stage. Super easy to be effective with. Boomerang shouldn't be able to go through attacks and projectiles. It's probably the campiest move in the game.
Fox has a pretty godly ceiling that I haven't been able to see the full extent of due to online play. Even the best Fox players can SD and lose matches because of it. But I really respect the char and those who play him. There are people out there who can take him into S territory, but far too few to have him up there.
I don't know much about Yoshi tbh, but enough respectable players have penned nice things about him for me to put him here. Whoever has a really good one, PM me.
Samus can be difficult to engage and is perfectly capable of doing damage once you get inside, sort of like Link. Pretty annoying to play against.
Peach and Tails are capable of putting up borderline walls of pain with their floating and spin dash/tap A, respectfully. They also have great priority with their aerials.

B
I feel like Mario and Ness are really similar in how they play on stage. Nice combo ability and a few kill moves that are a little too difficult to pull off for me to call great. Both suffer from weak recovery.
I have yet to see a competitively viable Falcon online. Sure he has potential, but reaching it is more difficult than for almost any other character, and I don't believe he has Fox's upside. My respect for the char and belief that people will take him to greater heights make him B, but I've experienced mostly C Falcons.
I've gone back and forth with Marth. I've viewed him as an A before based on what I've seen from a few players, but I've determined it's mostly just those players being really, really good. He's slow, struggles with projectiles, doesn't have kill power, sucks at recovering. If you play a great Marth, you're a great player, because overcoming those weaknesses is a handful. As always, great spacing can rack up % nicely, but I feel like Marth is always getting that first kill when he's at 30-40% of his second stock.
I think Zelda's strengths and weaknesses are fairly obvious.
I've tried ZSS a handful of times but haven't been able to get into her. I feel like she's most effective in a defensive posture, and that's just not my style. I think a slim minority can play her to low A potential.
Sonic (and Tails) are characters I won't try to claim to know well. I don't. Sonic seems to have a little less going for him than Tails, so he falls a slot below. Frankly, I need to try each one in greater depth.
Black Mage can be a tricky little SOB. He has pretty crazy range for being the size of a thumbnail. The shear variety of his move set can cause a headache, but none of his moves are that great. Stop is a good tool for forcing his way in. Players who can't deal with a little camp will struggle against him. Those who can should win more times than not.
Naruto's moves are easy to get off but difficult to kill with. If you took the super armor off Rasenshuriken, he could very well be a C. A camp master can make him competitive, but good players will find ways around his shenanigans. He does kill characters with limited approach options, though.

C
Kirby has too many counters to be higher than C. Floaties outside of MK (and even he is affected) can't deal with projectiles/range. He can beat up a slim part of the cast, but that's about it.
Goku is too weird to be higher.
A campy Sora can be a solid B, but we're not rewarding camp here. Once he gets in on you, he can combo horizontally and vertically with fairly weak moves, but he's likely not killing you until 160%+. No real approach options on ground other than a perfectly timed flow motion, which is pretty lame.
I don't know too much about MegaMan. If you can deal with projectiles, he seems like a pretty easy out.
Chibi is not K tier imo. His grab, nair, and uair are too good to put him there. He's a weirdo for sure, but I believe he has enough options to be competitive against a decent portion of the cast.

K
Jiggs is not competitively viable with his current air speed.

TL/DR not available.

DUD, STAP SPELLING MY NAME RONG!

Bro, the only reason you don't know how good Fox is because all you use is Peach. That specific MU is about 60/40 in Fox's favor.
Fox recks a whole bunch of the cast, you'd be surprised how much he destroys certain characters like Donkey Kong or Lloyd.

Have you even played a good Black Mage or Wario from a different perspective that isn't Peach? It gets quite interesting from there...

Sora and Naruto fail to be viable outside a few things in my eyes. Sora isn't as good as most would think, so until I play a good Sora, don't count on me changing my opinion. As for Naruto, he's just plain campy. I rarely find any good Naruto players, I myself ain't as good as I used to be with him. Sure he can camp put some and combo others, but just doesn't have what it takes to be high/top tier.

And remember, as I said, all the characters are really viable to eachother more than they have for a long time. The only exception I make is Puff who loses to a majority of the cast.