Black Mage (SSF2)

Black Mage is a new starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. He was added in Version 0.7 as a surprise hidden character. His sprites are custom-made and based on the appearances of Black Mages in the classic Final Fantasy games. His moveset revolves heavily around using the various black magic spells he has at his disposal, with a few knife and cane attacks for close-range.

Black Mage is currently ranked 17th in the tier list for Version 1.3.1.2 of the game. He has an arsenal of ridiculously strong magic attacks that cover a lot of range, giving him strong zoning and some of the best KO power in the game. His edgeguarding game is unparalleled, as he possesses a ridiculous number of options to cover any and every type of recovery, giving him free reign to take stocks against offstage opponents. His grab game is likewise very strong, as his up throw can chain grab fast-fallers and combo into any aerial, down throw inflicts poison that racks up a lot of damage over time, and forward throw launches opponents far away even at low percents. He has strong combo tools with up tilt, forward air, up air, and especially neutral air, allowing him to tack on even more damage while setting up for a strong followup like back air or Haste to force the opponent offstage. He also has Stop, which allows him to freeze opponents in place for several seconds when fully charged, even when blocked, giving him guaranteed followups with his super charged smash attacks.

Despite this, true to his nature as a squishy wizard, Black Mage is rather slow and lightweight, giving him an awkward defensive game. This is further exacerbated by his low falling speed, which makes him particularly susceptible to star KOs, and his recovery, which moves slowly and leaves him highly vulnerable to gimps, giving him weak survivability overall. Many of his attacks are either really slow or lack range, leading to a weak neutral game with an over-reliance on forward tilt, neutral air, forward air, back air, and uncharged Meteors. His combos are unforgiving and many of his attacks require precise spacing to be the most effective, giving him a steeper learning curve than most characters at higher levels of play. These flaws give him difficulty fighting against characters that outpace him, like and, or outrange him, like , and.

Black Mage is an interesting character who can be used to great effect by players who have mastered him, in spite of his shortcomings. As such, he sits securely in high tier.