Leveraging the “First Stock Test”
by Thomas Gallanti (soma)
I touched on this in an article last week, but I’ve recently been fortunate enough to get my ass kicked in friendlies by the extremely high skill talent pool we generally have on Long Island. I’ve learned a few key tricks while doing so that I think are super important and netted me some wins I didn’t expect at CT GamerCon this past weekend. One of these is the “first stock test”.
To put it very simply, if you’re reading this, chances are you are someone who competes regularly in Smash, or at the very least, takes it seriously. In all of the hundreds of hours you’ve spent playing the game (and maybe thousands if it’s from previous entries to now), you’ve developed a second nature of how you play the game, almost as natural as riding a bike. Maybe you love to jump a lot. Maybe you never let a shield go ungrabbed. Or maybe, you love to watch what your opponent does and go for a punish, instead of rushing in.
Part of that punish mentality is what we need to channel in the first stock test. I find this works both in friendlies when people are auto-piloting (very important datapoints to be gained here), as well as in the first game of your bracket set to get a feel of how they play under pressure. Much like paying attention to what stage your opponent bans, figuring out what makes them tick and what movements and patterns they have in this first stock is like reading a GameFAQs guide on beating a Mega Man boss.
The first start to this test is to start looking at how they land. Since opponents will have to land either when they’re approaching with an aerial, or when they’re hit by your aerial, you can immediately discern if they have some habits. One of mine that I’m working on is to double jump once I’m hit, which leads to some early stocks lost on my part as a Cloud main against good players. I suggest using this first stock to up throw or up air your opponent to gather this datapoint (do they always neutral airdodge? Punish it by waiting that out. Always airdodge to ledge? Wait there and 2 frame them).
Next, pay attention to what panic options your opponent might make when sitting in shield or when nerves are high. These are typically going to be quick out of shield buttons for many characters, like Nair for Ness, UP-B for Cloud, etc. Extracting this info early in stock 1 allows you to be one step ahead and learn the punish for when they do it again each time. In order to gain this data, even if you aren’t a rush-down player, try adding some heavy burst rush down this first stock.
Even if some of these tactics end up with you losing an early stock, you’ve got 2 more to play with this game, so use these newly downloaded datapoints to read your opponent. I found many small openings in my opponent Interrobang’s Snake at CTGamerCon this weekend by applying these tactics in stock 1. For example, I noticed he would cook 1 grenade very lightly across full stage length and throw it upward, before fully cooking another to throw at my shield full stage. After I challenged this with a dodge and aggressive dash in approach, I realized he will always panic UpB Cypher when approached on the edge of the stage, which I always able to recognize stock 2 of game 1, and punish with a Cloud Limit Up B at the top of the stage, netting me a very early kill. Although I lost the set, I never felt like I adapted to my opponent as hard as I did here, and I felt great walking away knowing I can win the next one against them, or another Snake player.
Whatever you need to do to remember these habits, do it! Many players keep a physical or digital notebook to jot down helpful notes specific to character matchups - why not extend this to notating your first stock test? This works great with VOD review of your opponent, too, if you have the privilege of time beforehand. Let me know if this tip helps you as much as it helped me!
