This may be the final nail in the coffin for the contentious character.
Our blocky pal may have finally done himself in, as, following the discovery of a new Minecraft Steve tech, the Smash Bros Ultimate competitive community is more serious than ever about banning him; in fact, some tournament organizers have already confirmed Steve’s ban in certain regions.
Minecraft Steve was already a fairly contentious character in the community. Though he wasn’t immediately the most dominant character upon his DLC addition to Smash Ultimate in October 2020, after a while, skilled Steve players began to show off just how strong the character was, due to his ridiculous damage output, oppressive stage control, and surprisingly good movement options.
At this point, many consider him to be the best character of the game, so it’s no surprise that ban talks surfaced so quickly, as this new tech only makes him stronger. Labeled the “Phantom MLG” (or PMLG for short), this tech allows Steve to cancel the hitstun of any move that doesn’t send him into tumble.
Essentially, by performing an aerial attack, then pressing the special button in the air, you’ll do what’s known as a “phantom block”. If you get hit during this time (and it’s a weak enough hit that it doesn’t send you into tumble) and press the special button again, then Steve can act faster than the person that hit him, and essentially punish them for hitting him, as seen above.
Though it only works after Steve does an aerial, it makes dealing with an already difficult character even harder at low percents, and would make players hesitant to even try to hit him.
Furthermore, multi-hit moves don’t send characters into tumble prior to the final hit. So, even if Steve is at high percents, moves like Link’s Up-Smash or Cloud’s Forward Smash can be escaped by using this tech. To many, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the already dominant character. Via Twitter announcements, Smash Ultimate scenes in Florida, Kansas, and Missouri have already confirmed they’ve banned the character, while the Collision tournament series in New Jersey has opted to ban only the PMLG technique.
There’s currently a division in the community on whether tournaments should only ban the tech or ban the entire character. Though banning the tech would be fairer for Steve players, many claim that it would create a logistical nightmare for tournament organizers, as it’s very difficult to prove if someone actually used it. Smash player MKLeo, arguably the best Ultimate player in the game’s history, recently commented on the matter with the simple question, “what if we ban steve?”
