• Ice Climbers Tutorial: Fundamentals
  • Explains the basics around Ice Climbers & how their desyncs work.
• Ice Climbers Tutorial: Level Up
  • Goes more in depth into desync tech.
• Ice Climbers JMU Doc
  • This doc goes over everything you need to know when going up against Greninja. The biggest takeaways are the following:
    • F-Air is also really good at stopping Squall. Final Cutter is very good at keeping ICs who mindlessly Squall everywhere, & interrupting Blizzard.
    • Kirby can play easily outside of their range & punish anything risky.
    • Always keep Popo & Nana away from each other if possible. If you manage to split them apart, do everything in your power to GET RID OF NANA.
    • If you grab ICs, ONLY USE U-THROW.
    • This MU seems pretty ghetto, so don’t get discouraged if you feel like you’re not playing super optimally. Do your best, don’t be hard on yourself, & have confidence in your gameplay!

Neutral:

• The Ice Climbers neutral is extremely bait-&-punish. Due to IC’s lack of range & movement, they’re forced to wait for the opponent to make a mistake. U-Tilt is IC’s primary anti-air, being able to start U-Air chains, racking up massive dmg. B-Air kills & spaces well against shield. Ice Block (Neutral-B) is used to gain chip dmg & stage control against the opponent. Squall (Side-B) is by far one of the best neutral tools for the Climbers, as it racks dmg & can lead into an easy desync (AKA: Squall Desync) allowing the Climbers to perform separate actions.
• N-Air is another common tool, it will often be used as an anti-air, combo starter, or just a spacing tool.
• A common tactic ICs use is called “Blizzwalling” having 1 climber using Blizzard (Down-B) & rotating between them. This creates space & allows for 1 climber to remain actionable. It is punishable however, as an overzealous player may leave their top side open to approach, or you can jump behind them & get them there.

Neutral Counterplay:

• Kirby will need to constantly be aware of the possibility of Squall, as it leads into easy desyncs & racks up a lot of percent. Squall is going to be IC’s main tool in neutral, so always be ready for it. Shield it, run away from it, just do everything you can to stay away from it. F-Air is also really good at stopping Squall. Final Cutter is very good at keeping ICs who mindlessly Squall everywhere, & interrupting Blizzard. DO NOT SPAM FINAL CUTTER MINDLESSLY. It can be hard punished if the IC is ready for it.
• Despite having Blizzard & a disjoint, ICs don’t have much going for them in range. Kirby can play easily outside of their range & punish anything risky.

Advantage:

• Always keep Popo & Nana away from each other if possible. If you manage to split them apart, do everything in your power to GET RID OF NANA. Popo will try to help her, so don’t ignore him. While they are split, Nana’s AI will kick in, & will only focus on getting back to Popo.
• When Kirby grabs ICs, his only real option is to U-Throw, as any of his other throws will allow him to be punished by the other IC. Grab isn’t too strong of an option in this MU unfortunately. No realistic F-Throw combos when both climbers are present for us.
• ICs actually do have a few options to get back to the ground. None of them are exceptional but they can be solid when used properly. D-Air doesn’t have too big a disjoint but can often get the job done when Kirby over commits to juggling them. They also have Squall. Squall gives them more horizontal mobility & helps them fall faster. Sopo Squall drops to the ground surprisingly fast. ICs can also use Ice Blocks to stall in the air a bit.
• Kirby being a floaty w/ multiple jumps, can be quite comfortable offstage. D-Air can send the Ice Climbers well down below the level & if Kirby sends one climber much further than the other, their recovery is dead. F-Air & B-Air make great lateral intercepts w/ good KB for killing in the drop zone. Kirby also has the option of throwing out a N-Air near the ledge, utilizing the strong lingering hitbox. Additionally, Kirby can intercept a low recovery from ICs w/ Stone.
• If Kirby Inhales any of the Ice Climbers, he can hit the other Climber w/ the swallow hitbox, sending each of them away from each other.