Dolphin Slash

The Dolphin Slash is Marth's Up Special Move. Marth flies quickly upwards, blade extended vertically.

Overview

It provides decent vertical recovery, but very little horizontal recovery. It can be used as an OoS (Out of Shield) option and can be used to edgeguard an opponent.

This move in Brawl has several more advantages than the version in Melee. It goes slightly more horizontal, and its vertical recovery is still great. It is also one of the few moves to retain its original speed. However, it lacks the higher potential to KO in comparison.

Dolphin Slash's damage and knockback is strongest in its first few frames of attack. The longer the attack is out, the weaker it gets. As such, it is best used point blank as an attack, since the later frames of the attack are weaker than the beginning frames.

What makes this move really shine are the invincibility frames starting on frame 1 to 5, allowing Marth to escape chain grabs and multi hit attacks. The move hits the opponent on frame 5, same as it was in Melee, making Dolphin Slash Marth's fastest move.

Marth using Dolphin Slash in Melee

Marth using Dolphin Slash in Brawl.

Marth using Dolphin Slash in SSB4.

Marth's Special Moves
	Melee	Brawl	3DS/Wii U	Ultimate
Standard Special	Shield Breaker
Side Special	Dancing Blade
Up Special	Dolphin Slash
Down Special	Counter
Final Smash	—	Critical Hit

Reverse Dolphin Slash

A "Reverse Dolphin Slash" can be performed by starting the attack and quickly moving the joystick backwards. This will cause Marth to turn around just before jumping upwards, and if it hits an enemy close to him as he starts the move, it provides much higher damage and knockback, due to the hitbox and sweetspot layout of his sword.

In Brawl, the regular Dolphin Slash appears to be at least as powerful as Melee's Reverse Dolphin Slash. Marth can be seen jump-cancelling a shield into it for potential kills at about 100% (130% on heavyweight characters).