| abstract | - Black Mage is a playable newcomer character in Super Smash Flash 2. Released in demo v0.7, Black Mage was the first surprise character to appear in SSF2. His sprites are custom made and based on his appearance in Final Fantasy. He mainly uses devastating magic to combat his opponents, but as an extra, he also uses Blue Magic, as seen in his "Goblin Punch" and "Chocobo Kick" attacks. Black Mage has been a starter character since demo v0.8a. Black Mage is ranked 13th on the tier list; a slight rise from his 14th place rank on the previous tier list. Black Mage is one of the best edge guarders in the game due to the large variety of tools he can use to cover almost any attempt to guard break him, to the point where he has the potential to take off an opponent's stock every time he knocks them offstage. He has a solid aerial game, giving him the ability to approach and combo with forwards air, juggle with up air, rack up damage with neutral air, and KO with down air. He also has a very strong down throw that can potentially chain into itself, a command grab with a large reach that can hit most downed opponents, and a variety of KO moves, including his forward and up smashes, Meteor, dash attack, and back throw. Additionally, his neutral special, Stop, can be used to enhance his combo game, set up for a free KO, or reflect projectiles. However, Black Mage has a rather weak neutral game due to his average movement speed and over-reliance on forwards air, forward tilt, Meteor, and Stop as spacing options. Similarly, most of his finishers are rather slow and his combos are easy to drop, giving him a steeper learning curve due to a greater emphasis on precision and reading the opponent. Black Mage has only average mobility overall, allowing faster characters such as Captain Falcon and Fox to completely outpace him. Similarly, he has difficulty fighting against characters with greater reach than his, such as Lloyd and DK. Black Mage is also brought down by his recovery, which covers a long distance, but is very predictable and easy to gimp, as he effectively turns into a sitting duck until he gets his teleport into place. He also has below average accelerated falling speed, which allows him to be KO'ed vertically early. His strengths are definitely not to be underestimated. However, his array of problems have only become increasingly more apparent as the meta has developed. He also has disadvantageous matchups against most of the higher-ranked characters, keeping him out of top tier.
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