Edgeguarding

Edgeguarding is the act of attempting to stop an opponent from successfully recovering in the series and Fraymakers. It is performed when an opponent is offstage and can be used to KO them before they can return to the stage. The opposite of edgeguarding is known as guard breaking, in which the offstage opponent attempts to counter the edgeguarder.
== Edgeguarding strategies ==
There are several different ways to edgeguard, with certain characters being better at certain strategies depending on their movesets and attributes.
=== Offstage guarding ===
One of the main methods of edgeguarding is to chase the opponent offstage and hit them with an aerial attack. If landed successfully, this can interrupt the opponent's recovery or knock them too far offstage to recover again. This is most effective with for characters with long, safe recoveries, such as , , and in SSF2, whose multiple midair jumps allow them to travel far off the stage and successfully return to it after landing the attack. Jigglypuff in particular notably has access to a wall of pain technique in which it repeatedly hits opponents with forward aerials or back aerials to push them towards the blast line. Characters with strong, long-ranged, or long-lasting aerial attacks are also effective in catching opponents offstage or outright KOing them.
This method of edgeguarding can put the opponent in a very tricky situation, as they generally have few options to defend themselves with. These include staying out of the edgeguarder's reach, counterattacking with a move that comes out before or has better reach than the opponent's attack, or, in SSF2, air dodging at the correct time to avoid the opponent's attack. However, these can also backfire by directing the opponent too far away from the stage to recover. This risk can be reduced with strong recoveries, but in cases where a character's recovery is linear, predictable, and unsafe, such as in SSF2, they often cannot deal with this type of pressure.
=== Onstage guarding ===
Players can also edgeguard by staying on the stage and attacking the opponent when they attempt to return onstage or grab the ledge. This is often done by using low-reaching attacks that can hit the opponent before the reach the ledge, including various down tilts and down aerials. If the opponent travels higher than the ledge, then powerful attacks such as smash attacks in SSF2 or strong attacks in Fraymakers can be used to knock them back offstage or potentially KO them.
The most effective way to guard this method is to sweetspot the ledge with moves such as 's Raptor Boost in SSF2, which can be used to grab the ledge before the edgeguarder is able to hit them. Alternatively, characters may avoid grabbing the ledge and instead recover high, such as by using the Captain Viridian Assist in Fraymakers to travel too high for the edgeguarder to reach.
=== Using projectiles ===
A character with projectiles can use them to attack an opponent from far away. For opponents recovering high, long-ranged projectiles such as 's Charge Shot in SSF2 or the Tankman Assist in Fraymakers can be used to push them farther offstage or outright KO them. This becomes especially effective with controllable, downward-facing, or gravity-affected projectiles, such as 's in SSF2 or 's Laser in Fraymakers, which can reach opponents attempting to recover low.
A projectile-based edgeguard can often be broken by maneuvering out of the trajectory of the projectiles and then sweetspotting the ledge. However, this can also be difficult for characters with below-average recoveries, as they may be unable to avoid the projectiles while also reaching the stage.
=== Edgehogging ===
Ledges in SSF2 and Fraymakers can only be used by one character at a time, which allows players to edgeguard opponents "hogging" the ledge to prevent them from grabbing it themselves. This is usually done after the player who is trying to recover has performed their recovery move and is attempting to grab the ledge. As players gain intangibility when grabbing the ledge and during ledge getup animations, this also momentarily prevents them from being attacked. The only possible guard break is to either land onstage or attack the edgehogger after their invincibility frames have ceased.
== Gallery ==
Edgeguard.png| doing a spike guard on .
Edgeguard2.png| projectile guarding .
Edgeguard4.png| edgehogging .
Edgeguard5.png| doing a "Fence of pain" on .
Edgeguard6.png| edgeguarding with Homing Attack.
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