infinitely less so
mk is one of the most oppressive characters ever, unless youre ICs a punish means getting a hit or two and then return to neutral where MK is better than you. he plays defensively and you cant break it unless MK fucks up
fox overwhelms you offensively but if you get a punish, fox might easily die from just the one slipup.
op was prolly inspired by this video but who cares
I say this as if people still play competitive-style Brawl matches in the year 2023, but eagle-eyed Meta Knight players may already be aware that there is another character with grab advantage against the character, and it's not who you might think it is. Meta Knight's grab release animation in Brawl is just
barely long enough to make him vulnerable to Marth's chain grab, although not to the same extent as his chain grab on the PK Kids remains in this game. Extra vulnerability to grapplers may have been one of the ways Brawl's balance team intended to "balance" Meta Knight, knowing how four of Meta Knight's so-called "worst matchups" (Icies, Marth, Falco, and Pikachu) all have something to do with a throw combo.
The problem with Brawl Meta Knight in bracket is actually moreso with the Ice Climbers in my opinion. All of Marth, Falco, and Pikachu lose more often than not to a well-played Icies, who in turn loses against a well-played Meta Knight if we're looking at matchup charts. What this means in practice is that the characters players might choose to counterpick Meta Knight can't make full use of these already polarized matchups since these same players can't beat the Icies players featured in the same tournaments. The other remaining top tiers I haven't listed yet, those being Olimar, Diddy Kong, and Snake, are even worse off because they can lose against both Meta Knight and the Icies while having varying matchups against each other.
Again, I say this as if people are still actively playing the game as much as Melee or Ultimate,
but I actually think banning the Ice Climbers would be healthier for the post-modern Brawl metagame than a Meta Knight ban would be. One of Brawl Meta Knight's biggest appealing factors to begin with is the fact that he's arguably the Icies' worst matchup as is, meaning that taking away this matchup would indirectly give players slightly less of a reason to pick Meta Knight anyways. Furthermore, an Ice Climbers ban would help out some of those other "still loses against Meta Knight but fares better than others" kind of characters I mentioned earlier in this post, since Marth, Falco, Pikachu, et cetera mains would be more likely to face Meta Knight players at a later round in bracket. Making a deep bracket run with Meta Knight becomes harder on both ends of the spectrum without needing to ban Meta Knight himself, who most players would agree has a more ssizeable playerbase than the Icies regardless. If Meta Knight still proves problematic in an Icies-less metagame, then further action can be taken after the fact.
was melee fox more or less oppressive than brawl meta knight
I would say the metagame influence of each of these characters in their respective games is about the same, as the two have a similar impact on the character select screen for newer players looking to enter the competitive scene. In a similar example to the Meta Knight/Ice Climbers meta of post-modern Brawl, newer fans of Melee might not be the biggest fan of the spacies and Jigglypuff. During Jigglypuff's height of dominance, Hungrybox alone won 24 of the 48 major tournaments held during that timespan. The problem here isn't with Hungrybox as a player, though. The real issue as I saw it was how the rise in Jigglypuff usage by people who wanted to be, quote, "the next Hungrybox" would further result in more players picking up Fox and/or Falco to try and beat those new Jigglypuff players.
The fact that Melee's current top four characters on the PG Stats tier list consists of Fox, his two worst matchups (Marth and Falco), and Jigglypuff is no accident in my opinion. The metagame impact of those four characters creates a sense of disparity at low and high levels of Melee tournaments alike, since between those four characters, you also have the other 22 characters already accounted for in your matchups. This isn't an issue that could be fixed by banning Melee Fox, either, as those players could either switch over to Falco or benefit from Jigglypuff herself losing her own worst matchup.
