Ivy Stage Discussion

[WickedWarlock]

So I love me some Ivy but I can never decide which stage to use to complement her moveset best.

Dreamland might be her best cause you can recover from mostly anything and I like the platforms for followups. Also a great stage to utilize her bair gimps. The matchups I might not take here are the likes of Sonic, G&W, or Snake, who gain height off their up special if you try to gimp them.

I also really like Yoshi Story and WarioWare for the platforms and also her great stage control on stages that small. She can kill fairly early with a Vine Whip or bair or even usmash/uair. I am just never sure how the blast zones effect her. What kind of tips do you have for this stage or matchups that might work here?

The of course there are the Smashville's and Yoshi Island's of the world where you can heal off balloons and Shy Guy's. It is a great way to recover health, but I don't like the singular platforms. Also On Yoshi's Island the lips at the end of the stage are terrible for dsmash since. I had the same issues on Metal Cavern so thank god that stage is out of competitive play.

As for the others I consider PS2 pretty neutral. The short ceiling can be good or bad, long sides are generally good. I think that the width of the stage is generally a negative for Ivy cause she has great stage control in smaller areas but not the same kind of range as a Link or something. Then on the otherhand the ledge can be tough for a spacie to sweetspot and is no issue for Ivy so I never know what to think of the stage. Battlefield is also probably a neutral though I feel very comfortable with the boundaries and platforms and stage size.

TL;DR I think Ivy is very versatile when it comes to stages and you should often pick which stages might be detrimental to your opponent than those that benefit Ivy. I generally prefer large blast zones, smaller stage sizes, and platforms.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Ogopogo]

Warioware is... alright... but Yoshi's Story is not that ideal. Randall will screw you over. PS2 is better for Usmash or Vine Whip kills, and Battlefield is better for gimps + recovery. You'll be killing upwards a lot later at Dreamland, but you can recover for days. I really like Yoshi's Island and Battlefield.

 

[Swann]

Due to Ivy's limited mobility, I find that, generally, stages with lots of horizontal room are worse for Ivy and stages that force the characters a bit closer are more favorable... but this is mostly preference.

I have never made it a priority to strike to stages with heals. I guess they're good, but if you're not comfortable on Smashville or Yoshi's Brawl you shouldn't make a point of going there just because you can maybe get some heals/charge.

Seems to work out best all around tier
WW, BF, FoD, PS1, GHZ

"Can we just strike to here" tier
PS2, Smashville

Good if you're okay not controlling the pace of the match tier
Skyworld, Yoshi's Island, FD, DL64 (Distant Planet and Dracula's too I guess)

Randall tier
YS

IMO WW is Ivy's best stage. If you want specific stage advice just give a scenario (stage and/or character).

 

[TimeSmash]

Dreamland is definitely a battle of attrition, but like opgogo said you can survive for forever. This is assuming down air boost/stalling stays in, but even if it doesn't, you can still recover for a while haha. Because Bair is a good horizontal kill, WarioWare is good to use too, but remember you can also get killed quite easily, with moves like Marth tipper FSmash

 

[WickedWarlock]

I know Randall is a pain in the ass. He screws with tether in ways PMDT couldn't even fully explain to me. Aside from that though, I feel like Yoshi's Island is a great stage for Ivy. You can tech read on the top platform for a Vine Whip without even jumping and it's almost a guaranteed kill on a stage so small. Ivy's stage control in small areas is awesome since they can't just run away from a razor leaf, fair, bair, or dtilt without giving up stage control. However the short blast zones make for easy death for Ivy and the occasional Randall stock cancel (albeit it's somewhat rare for me). The lip is also beautiful for dsmash gimps since you can angle it slightly below the ledge.

Point being, I think every stage has some level of attrition for Ivy. Quick bair or upB kills, but less ridiculous recoveries on small stages. Crazy recoveries and great gimping on larger stages, but loss of stage control. Kinda an interesting dynamic, but I feel like there are not many strong counterpicks against Ivy overall unless the matchup itself is tilted given a certain stage.