Mii Swordfighter (SSB4)


 * Anyone Can Join The Battle!

Mii Swordfighters (, Fencing Type), formatted as Mii Sword Fighters in the PAL version, are one of the three different types of s that appear in Super Smash Bros. 4, along with s and s.

Mii Swordfighter is unranked on the current tier list, but was 56th out of 57 on the third tier list (when only taking their default moveset and size into account), placing them in bottom tier and making them the lowest ranked newcomer along with Mii Brawler. The Mii Swordfighter has several noteworthy strengths, such as having disjointed range, respectable combo ability, and one of the game's fastest grabs. When granted access to their custom moves, they also enjoy a slew of unique and flexible tools that make them an adaptable fighter, including access to three useful disrupting projectiles, along with being the only swordsman with access to a reflector in Reversal Slash.

However, this versatility is made null by the banning of custom moves since EVO 2015, and they are forced to contend with unimpressive mobility, surprisingly low KO power, and a laggy, unsafe moveset that creates a very poor approach both on the ground and in the air, alongside an ineffective recovery, especially vertically. This fact is further apparent due to the Mii Swordfighter being outclassed by all other swordsmen in the game; they have less range than all others, especially and, below-average ground movement, and considerably less power.

Because of these factors, the Mii Swordfighter has a notoriously poor tournament representation, and it has very few results to its credit, barring some tournaments that continue to allow customs.

Attributes
The Mii Swordfighter has overall average mobility. Of the three Mii types, the Mii Swordfighter has the median dash, the fastest walking speed, and the lowest jumps, as well as being the only Mii type that is incapable of wall jumping. Their attacks are also weaker yet slower than the Mii Brawler's, as well as lacking the dominant range of the Mii Gunner's, though the Mii Swordfighter outreaches the former and outspeeds the latter. Compared to a Mii of average height and weight, a larger Mii improves their range, weight, and damage while giving up speed in their attacks, while a smaller Mii does the opposite - becoming faster on the ground and the air, jumping higher, having less endlag and attacking faster, at the cost of weight and range.

Although they possess the ability to keep opponents at a distance with their disjointed hitboxes, the Mii Swordfighter is particularly hampered by their previously mentioned mobility, along with unusually weak and punishable KO moves compared to other sword-wielding characters. Of all their attacks, their most reliable finishers are their forward and down smashes, forward tilt, up and back aerials, along with Blade Flurry, Power Thrust, and Hero's Spin. Many of these moves have high ending lag, making them highly punishable if missed. Because of their low mobility and laggy attacks, the Mii Swordfighter's moveset, especially on the ground, can be quite easy to punish, especially by quick, powerful characters like. The Mii Swordfighter is more at home in the air, thanks to their quicker aerial moves that can either be used for low-percentage combos or gimping, notably their neutral and forward aerial, two of their fastest moves, their surprisingly powerful up and back aerials which can KO at a respectable percentage, and their down aerial which can meteor smash. The Swordfighter also possesses the fastest grab out of any sword character, and one of the fastest in the game. They possess a decent combo game thanks to their moderately fast aerial attacks, throws, and down tilt, notably their down throw to up aerial or down tilt to neutral or forward air, although they lose viability once the opponent is above a certain percentage and require bad DI on the opponent's part when above these percentages.

Regardless, to make up for the lack of mobility and power of the other Miis, the Mii Swordfighter comes packed with versatility in their special moves. The Mii Swordfighter is one of the few sword-wielding characters with access to projectiles, and is the only one to bear a reflector. With three projectiles in its custom arsenal, the Swordfighter can be played as a solely camping character with their push-inducing and projectile-eating Gale Strike, damage-over-distance Shuriken of Light, or approach-hampering Chakram, allowing them to pester opponents from a distance or force opponents into a bad position (especially with a small Mii, allowing them to quickly position themselves once needed). This defensive playstyle can be coupled with Power Thrust, which allows the Mii Swordfighter to quickly move around the stage and punish mistimed rolls or air dodges. Blade Flurry and Hero's Spin grant the Mii Swordfighter a few more finishing options that aid in their ability to efficiently and flexibly take off stocks, and they boast a counterattack in Blade Counter and a reverser in Reversal Slash allows them to deter excessive use of melee attacks and projectiles alike. Their recovery can be improved with Hero's Spin, their overall most reliable recovery option, Airborne Assault, which grants tremendous horizontal distance, and Skyward Slash Dash, which has more trajectory control than any of their other recovery options. However, most of these moves have flaws of their own: Shuriken of Light fails to cause knockback at point blank range, and many of their projectiles are naturally dangerous to use up close. Outside of Airborne Assault's incredible horizontal recovery, the Mii Swordfigher's other horizontal recoveries, Slash Launcher and Skyward Slash Dash, give mediocre distance. Stone Scabbard gives high vertical distance, but presents too great a risk of self-destructing to properly compensate for its poor horizontal distance.

Overall, the Mii Swordfighter is a flexible fighter and can complement different playstyles depending on the custom moves employed. However, they are held back by their lack of KO setups and generally risky finishing options, along with a lack of competitive representation, although few dedicated players such as have brought some degree of tournament success and continue to develop the character's metagame.

Update history
The Mii Swordfighter has received a wealth of buffs in various updates and received very few nerfs. The lag on its moveset has been reduced, its damage output has been increased and the range of its attacks is also slightly higher. The Mii Swordfighter also seems to benefit from the changes on shield mechanics more than the other types of Miis, due to it making its forward smash safer on shield and the Blade Flurry's and Chakram's multi-hit nature being notably benefited, although this is not enough for the Mii swordfighter to increase in viability as well as the lack of improvements since update 1.1.0 and onwards led them to be noticeably underbalanced compared to the rest of the cast.

 1.0.4

 1.0.6

 1.0.8

 1.1.0

 1.1.1

Moveset
All damage listed in this table assumes a default Mii of perfectly average height and weight.

Stats
All stats listed in the following table assumes a default Mii of perfectly average height and weight.

Tier placement and history
The Mii Swordfighter's initial reception was arguably the most obscure of all Mii Fighters; overall, players acknowledged that they were one of the few fighters with disjointed range and projectiles, while the sheer variance of their custom moves allowed them to have the largest amount of potential playstyles. This made them viewed as one the most flexible Mii Fighters in the early metagame, especially with smaller variants of Mii Swordfighter, who had superior mobility and frame data (albeit with a cost of some range) to allow them to play more offensively and defensively. However, all three kinds of Mii were quickly looked down upon due to the controversy surrounding the allowance of custom movesets in tournaments, with the ban restricting the Mii Swordfighter to a very lackluster special moveset, with a poor projectile in Gale Strike and linear recovery options, flaws which were further compounded by slow mobility, heavy lag despite their disjointed range being average at best, and a notable lack of KO moves. The ban also restricted custom Mii sizes, forcing Mii Swordfighter to stay in its default size, which notably hindered their approach approach potential, their combo potential, their recovery and their ability to run away in comparison to their smaller counterpart.

While at first the Mii's choice for custom movesets was up to a tournament director's discretion, when custom special movesets/mii sizes began to be discussed, the Mii's tier placements once again began to rise in the eyes of many players, though in the case of the Mii Swordfighter, many would then go on to consider it to be a low-tier character (at least for their default size), mainly because of its similarities with fellow swordfighter, and due to their movesets not being as impressive as initially thought. After the universal ban of custom movesets/mii sizes post-EVO 2015, however, expectations of the Mii plummeted once again, and they would go on to be widely viewed as some of the worst characters in the game. For the Swordfighter, it would at first rank at the 53rd spot of the first 4BR tier list, then see a drop to 57th on both the second and the third (and current) tier list, with all placings ranking it as the worst kind of default Mii. However, due to its better placements than the, some professionals such as did not think the Swordfighter should have been ranked as the worst kind of Mii, due to its strengths being decent enough compared to the Brawler, as well as having better representation in tournaments than the former Mii.

Due to a very large stagnation of data on the Miis, as well as no response on whether or not they should be allowed to use custom moves, the Miis were excluded from placement voting on the fourth and most recent tier list and with the game coming to the end of its competitive lifetime only a year after the tier list was released, it is unlikely that the Miis will be added to any official tier lists in the foreseeable future. Tournaments near and after the end of the game's competitive life were more lenient towards the Miis having access to their custom moves, which would leave Mii Swordfighter in a better spot but by exactly how much is unknown.

Notable players

 * - Placed 9th at GUMS 19.
 * - Ranked 10th on the Southern Ontario Power Rankings.
 * - Ranked 10th on the Southern Ontario Power Rankings.
 * - Ranked 10th on the Southern Ontario Power Rankings.

Base game

 * The color of the costume depends on the Mii's original color from the Mii Maker.

Trivia

 * The design of the default Mii Swordfighter used in promotional material and in-game renders is based on a slightly edited version of Guest B, one of the pre-loaded Miis available for use in titles with Mii support. Of the three, the Mii Swordfighter has the least drastic change in design; simply changing the design of his hair and widening the eye placement a bit.
 * The Mii Swordfighter's sword trail varies with the outfit they are currently wearing: most outfits use 's afterimage-heavy sword trail, while the Neon and Cybernetic Suits give the Mii's sword 's glowing tipper (although this is only aesthetic).
 * Due to the Mii Swordfighter's model being right-handed, two Mii outfits based on other characters do not follow the original character's dominant hand.
 * In Xenoblade Chronicles, Dunban is unable to use his right arm from overexposure of the Monado's power. Because of this, he holds his weapon with his left hand, while a cape-like fabric that is part of his costume covers his right arm. The Smash 4 Mii costume reverses this, making the Swordfighter use the arm draped under the cape instead.
 * Link is depicted as left-handed in The Legend of Zelda series, with it being one of the staples of his character. The Smash 4 costume follows the right-handed style featured in Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword and Breath Of The Wild, which was done due to the reliance on the more common right-handed motion controls and control scheme, respectively.
 * There seems to be an oddity if the Mii Swordfighter equips the Chrom outfit. When using Blade Counter, during the swing, they will hold the crossguard of the sword instead of the handle.
 * All of the Mii Swordfighter's chargeable special moves share the same charging sound.
 * The default Mii Swordfighter has a slightly larger nose in his trophies than in his promotional art and the Mii Fighter character select art.
 * When editing a Mii Swordfighter with the Viridi costume, the staff appears to be much larger and longer, however it reverts to normal size in a match.

Espadachín Mii (SSB4)