Leveraging Baits Part 3 - Baiting from Disadvantage

Part 1 Here and Part 2 Here

Aggressing out of disadvantage is among the most commonly committed errors. Most often, it’s a lapse of discipline, a moment of poor judgment, or a manifestation of fear. Ideally, a tight defensive game can be refined such that it is flexible and resilient against both brute force as well as trickery, as wily foes will trick you into making bad decisions. Of course, some characters are naturally more resilient when at disadvantaged state, so those who suffer most at disadvantage will more often opt for hopeful reversals. Nonetheless, being wishful when at disadvantage is something to be avoided, regardless of what character you main. Baiting from disadvantage can yield better positions or even juicy openings, but such baits can be scary and difficult to implement. Playing to reduce your disadvantage rather than net an opening is fundamentally sound, but if you’re locked in and can be deeply attuned to threat ranges, sometimes you can flip the table and turn your disadvantage into a moment of opportunity.

Let’s start with an unequivocally defensive spot where the only way to net an opening is through maneuvering: when your opponent has respawn invincibility. Mango is known to be the best player at achieving a victory during his opponent’s invincibility without leveraging ledge intangibility. Here are some examples from Smash Summit 11 grand finals:

To achieve these victories, Mango gets Zain to extend just as his invincibility ends, and Mango repositions quickly, such that Mango can punish Zain during the lag of his extension. Because most players will want to play assertively during their invincibility, this is an ideal outcome. If they are not extending during invincibility, it’s probably better to exercise your discretion and be happy just to play from neutral or minor disadvantage when their invincibility ends. Regardless of how they are playing it, don’t make a habit out of outright conceding any possibility of playing from neutral. Here’s a couple clips of me going for riskier invincibility play to try to net juicy neutral openers. If you’re feeling yourself, it can be an excellent way to snowball a lead or to mount a comeback when you sense your opponent is getting antsy for that next opening, making their impending aggression predictable.

The next most disadvantaged situation where baits can be leveraged is recovery. Some of this is pretty obvious and intuitive, that if you are able to coax your opponent into committing and dodge them, e.g. a Mangle, you might get rewarded. This doesn’t seem worth spending too much time delving into, but I should just note that the way to do this is often to just do something highly similar to what you did in a previous recovery iteration but slightly vary it, like delaying a jump timing out of a shine stall. For good measure, here’s a clip that might feel reminiscent of Bobby Big Ballz side+bing to top platform but showing that even characters with bad recoveries can sometimes turn the tables if you’re ready.

Most important of all, baits can be leveraged to find ways out of corner situations, particularly against opponents who prefer holding space, zoning, or whiff punishing. Against players who do aggress quickly and deeply into the corner, you probably won’t have enough leeway to set up a bait, as the most risky part of baits is the time it takes to set them up. In 2025, the “M2K WD FSMASH” or dash attack to the edge of the stage isn’t very common. The second type of corner pressure described in this SSBM Tutorials vid

is much more common, i.e. zoning attacks (think Zain doing fairs and nairs, Plup doing fair bair ftilt, non-Mango Falcos spamming bair, etc). Still, here’s an example of Jojo using a bait to reel in a juicy opener on someone who decides to full on approach, showing baiting still may be an excellent play if you have a feel for your opponent’s rhythm.

And here’s a classic undershoot bait to combat “type 3” pressure, i.e. whiff punishing, most likely with DD grab. Using that little bit of space you have and aiming your hitbox shy of your opponent may induce a whiff that you are able to punish, completely owning them at their own game. This is the most common “bait from disadvantage” situation, but let’s not focus too much on that, since type 2 zoning pressure is by far the most common in the current meta. Just remember if you’re the aggressor here, a dash dance is only effective if it has some threat to it. If someone knows a dash forward is going to be followed by a dash back or a shallow approach, they may undershoot in a way that induces a missed whiff punish. And this is advisable because again, the risk associated with baits is mostly getting hit out of the start up, which is something that the defender is not afraid of in this situation.

Forcing your opponent to approach to close out the stock by showing you are not going to run into their wall is a good first step in extending your stocks. That way, you can actually read their commitment and try to punish them. Here’s a clip of me playing doubles, though the same concepts would apply in singles. Let’s call what I achieve here “doing a lot with a little.” This phenomenon is what happens when you play really sick Ganon players like Epic Murloc and they seem to just constantly outspace you by a pixel even though the character is insanely fat and slow. Even the slightest variations in timings and spacings make a world of difference. When cornered here, I first do a full hop with forward drift and quick fast fall. Notice they also jump and throw projectiles, so that alone has slightly improved my position in terms of how much stage I have and giving me some frame advantage with me getting grounded first. Next I do a backflip full hop with fast fall down, earning me no additional stage but timing my movement slightly differently. Third, I start to feel this is the moment that I’m likely to get approached, and a jump read is the most logical approach based on how I’ve been moving, so I manage to dodge the approach with a quick double jump back, giving me more aerial drift.

Here’s two clips of me with a realistic save state I set up and one tournament clip, all showing basically the same thing. A risky gambit where you run off stage and expend your double jump, but one that can beat out an approach if you sniff out the timing, and as you’ll see in subsequent clips, it can beat out attacks besides grab as well.

The most crucial skill PvP skill here is having good discretion for how long you can sit in disadvantage and when your opponent is likely to approach. If they are doing type 2 or type 3 pressure, there is a low level of urgency on you. However, players will eventually recognize that if they want to take your stock based on having you cornered, they may have to make a move if you’re not giving them anything reactable they can kill you for. If they decide not to make the move at all and back off, that’s a big win for you already. Corner play is often underappreciated because ledge invincibility often covers up the need for it, but it still has its place, especially for characters with low GALINT or in doubles situations, where urgency is much greater and type 2 pressure is less prevalent (and usually terrible honestly). And if you’re slick in the corner and can thus compel your opponent to want to close out the stock before their opportunity gets away from them, this opens up a possibility for good ol’ run through mixups, one of the most satisfying moves to pull off.

Given I just recorded these clips in my room some may look a bit unrealistic, but I assure you I have seen this last interaction play out exactly as above with this dumb looking up tilt at least 30 times in my Melee career. And below, Fox players don’t often bair like this, but the concept is still applicable if you can tell they are not going to immediately nair/dash attack/up smash into the corner. Just remember, changing your own timings can make a world of difference. But if you’re trying to pull of corner outplays like this and bait your opponent while in such a precarious spot, your execution has to be rock solid. Recognizing what you’ve conditioned them to expect can result in some pretty deep layers of counterplay.

Or sometimes you can be kinda stupid and it still works I guess. In seriousness, Falcon players are starting to do more drift mixups with ledgehop aerials too and I see it working for Zeo and Ka-Master, so that for sure has potential to help wriggle your way out of bad corner spots too.

One of the hallmarks of the modern meta is playing low commitment, such that one does not squander advantage and tries to gain openings without risky extensions. Cody Schwab is a prime example of a player who manages to skillfully navigate out of disadvantage and to assert pressure while staying safe. However, most players who cling to their advantage telegraph their reluctance to commit, and baits can be a strong answer to this philosophy of play, because the inherent risk of a bait is mitigated by their reluctance to commit. In a meta that has become predicated on conservative play and not squandering advantaged state, resetting to neutral from disadvantage can be a tall order. But when people play their advantage complacently, you yourself can capitalize by playing your disadvantage patiently and using this leeway to find creative ways to finesse your way back to neutral or advantage.