SSBM/Yoshi

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Introduction

Everyone's favorite egg-laying dinosaur, Yoshi is one of, if not the most unique and difficult characters in all of Melee. Yoshi's uniqueness stems from boasting a vast amount of mechanics only held by the green dino itself. Additionally, Yoshi is known for having fast & flashy platform movement, which when combined with a very strong punish game, makes for a character bound to get a crowd on their feet. While it may seem like Yoshi would be an explosive, rush-down character, a lack of ground speed and safe ranged attacks makes reaching the opponent difficult. Yoshi must instead rely on tricky movement with his unique mobility as well as assuming a "bait & punish" style of play. Additionally, Yoshi's high skill floor makes for an unforgiving character; one where even the slightest of mistakes can result in a lost stock.

By principle, Yoshi is a "reversal-based" character, meaning that the toolkit is mostly designed not to create your own openings, but rather punish your opponent for theirs. Yoshi's trademark parry allows for reversals on the ground, while double jump armor allows for reversals in the air. Additionally, Yoshi's unique shield cannot be shield poked and lacks shield stun, which allows for quick and easy reversals out of shield on platforms. These unique mechanics, however, are also the sources of Yoshi's weaknesses. For one, Yoshi cannot jump out of shield, causing for poor options out of shield if not on a platform, making shielding on the ground risky. Furthermore, Yoshi's double jump armor is more likely to break at higher percentages, which means that a highly valuable reversal option is worsened as you take damage. Yoshi also lacks recovery outside of double jump, which can lead to early stock losses if the double jump is lost.

While the weaknesses may seem daunting, Yoshi is a character with a rich history in beating expectations. It's no wonder this character has had the greatest rise on the tier list amongst the entire cast.

Strengths

Weaknesses

Scrap Master: Yoshi's parry, double jump armor, heavy weight, and lack of shield stun give Yoshi some of the best tools in the game to punish his opponents for daring to hit him. Yoshi excels at setting up baits and punishing his opponents for overcommitting. In some cases, these tools can even be inserted into his shield and corner pressure for offensive use. Dino Tank: Having double jump armor on top of being one of the heavier characters in the game, Yoshi is able to live to higher percents than most of the cast and take trades favorably. Unlike other characters where low % gimps can happen frequently, Yoshi can often force his way back on stage with double jump armor. Edgeguarding Yoshi almost always takes multiple attempts and reads on where he’s landing. Combo Fiend: With Yoshi’s double jump canceled aerials and tech trap setups, Yoshi can quickly rack up percent and setup into a kill or edgeguard. Fast fallers especially have to be careful of getting 0-to-deathed off of a counter-hit. Movement Mixups: Yoshi has unique movement options in double jump canceling and an easier-than-usual perfect waveland. These combined with Yoshi’s fast fall speed gives Yoshi access to burst movement from nearby platforms, the ability to change momentum mid-air, as well as the ability to mixup the timing on when he comes down. Utilizing these options well is a key component in getting openings. Egg coverage: Yoshi’s Egg Toss is a versatile move with a multitude of uses due to its range and ability to grab ledge. On-stage, it can cover opponents trying to get down from the air or moving to a platform and confirm into aerials. Off-stage, you can grab ledge while intercepting recoveries and setup for a continued edgeguard or even a kill. And for recovering, Yoshi can stay somewhat safe while he throws eggs from ledge, letting him get back on-stage despite his lack of a good ledge dash.

No Jump out of Shield: While Yoshi’s unique shield properties give him some of the most powerful tools in the game, it also has the major drawback of not being able to jump out of shield. Using shield like any other character would is a quick way of losing most of your defensive options. Instead of having it as a fallback defensive option, Yoshi players have to be much more proactive about using their movement and other defensive tools in its stead. Exploitable Recovery: Despite being able to armor through most moves to mid-high percent, Yoshi’s double jump is the only recovery he has, and it’s fairly linear. Once Yoshi’s armor can be broken, he has to be really careful about how he uses it in neutral and recovery. Against certain characters like Captain Falcon and Falco, Yoshi has to be especially careful since they can break his double jump armor at very low %s. In addition to this, Yoshi’s ledge game isn’t foolproof. Yoshi has a very slow ledge dash like Peach, and while Egg Toss helps in getting back on-stage, it has counterplay that can result in lost stocks. High Execution Barrier: Yoshi is one of the most technical characters in the game. Techniques like Parrying and Edge Cancelled Eggs require a lot of practice and precise timing, where messing up can mean death or eating a knee to the face. Add on that most of his movement and tech makes frequent use of his double jump (his only real form of recovery), a single mistake or bad decision can lead you to being off-stage and dead. Lack of grounded speed + approach options: Despite having a nice variety of movement mixups through DJC and platform movement, Yoshi is actually pretty slow when it comes to pure horizontal speed. His horizontal burst movement is limited to the areas around platforms, and outside of that he lacks solid moves for getting in. If he can get in, he has great options for starting combos or shield pressure. But reaching that point can be difficult if the opponent doesn’t want to approach. Kills take work: Compared to the characters above him in the tier list that often have straight up kill confirms, Yoshi frequently has to close out an edgeguard or build up more % to kill his opponents.

Physics
Weight	108 (5th)
Fall Speed	1.93/Fast 2.93 (11th/20th)
Gravity	0.093 (17th)
Ground Movement
Walk Speed	1.15 (11th)
Initial Dash Speed	1.33 (7th)
Initial Dash Length	13f (13rd)
Run Speed	1.6 (17th)
Traction	0.06 (23rd)
Jumping
Jumpsquat	5f (22nd)
Jump Height	Full 34.857/Short 18.33/Air 52.5(8th/4th/?th)
Air Speed	1.2 (2nd)
Air Acceleration	0.048 (20th)