Black Mage

> *This article is about Black Mage's appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Switch. For other uses, see Black Mages.*
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## Voice Actor

### Japanese

N/A

**Black Mage** (ブラックメイジ, *Burakkumeiji*) is a playable newcomer in *Super Smash Bros. Switch*, being the 2nd representative of the *Final Fantasy* series. He was one of the first characters to be announced for the game, and being one of the first third party newcomers, sharing this distinction with fellow Square Enix owned Sora, Konami's Bomberman, and Bandai Namco's Lloyd. He doesn't have any voice actor, but instead makes noises from the classic Final Fantasy games.

Black Mage takes most of his design from his appearances in the Mario Sports titles, having a longer robe, and being much thinner than it's classic counterpart.

## Attributes

Black Mage uses devastating black magic in his attacks. Black Mage is a medium weight character with below average accelerated falling speed, who has good reach in most of his attacks with many of them having disjointed range. He has KO moves in his forward and up smash, dash attack (which grants him Super Armor), forward throw, back throw, back air, down air, and Haste. When fully charged, his smash attacks cover great distances, especially both his down and forward smashes. Black Mage has good priority and reach in his aerials giving him a solid aerial game.

Black Mage is one of the best edge guarders in the game and his guard is hard to break. Black Mage can use Stop to freeze and reflect projectiles giving him a way to nullify most characters projectile camping; it also paralyzes his opponents who come in contact leaving them open(depending on how long stop has been charged).

Black Mage has a good grab game, despite possessing the seventh shortest grab in the current demo. He is able to chain grab with his down throw at low percents and can allow him to rack up a lot of damage on his opponent. His up throw can be a good combo starter. His forward and back throw can kill at high percentages and his forward throw can set up his excellent edge guarding ability.

However, Black Mage suffers from average mobility which allows characters with better mobility to rush him down. (ex. Captain Falcon and Fox). Even with having a pseudo wavedash; due to Black Mage's high traction it is very short and not very useful for mobility.

Warp, although giving him a long recovery, is easily predictable because the opponent knows where he is going to land based on the green circle, and can punish him easily for recovering.

He has problems dealing with characters who can really camp him out and Stop can only reflect one projectile on one side at a time. A prime example of this would be Fox's Blaster; Fox's Blaster is fast, can be spammed, covers a good distance and does not make the opponent flinch so even when reflected it will not deter Fox from projectile camping Black Mage. Also combined with his poor mobility gives him less options on how to prevent camping.

Black Mage does have an outstanding edgeguarding game but he himself also suffers from being easy to edgeguard, and being offstage is a very disadvantageous position for Black Mage to be in especially against characters with great edge games such as Lloyd.

Black Mage also has low accelerated falling speed, which makes him more susceptible to getting KO'd off the top boundary than most characters. He also has problems dealing with characters who posses better range and high priority attacks.

## Moveset

### Ground Moves

 Forward Air
 Back Air
 Up Air
 Down Air

### GrabsEdit

 Forward Throw
 Back Throw
 Up Throw
 Down Throw

### Other AttacksEdit

 100% Ledge Attack
 Floor Attack

### On-Screen Appearance

Gets selected from a menu of classes, and floats onstage. A reference to the first Final Fantasy titles.

### Taunts

Side - Sits on a staff, hovers for a while, and gets off.

Up - Spins and raises a hand into the air while some fanfare from the *FINAL FANTASY* victory theme plays.

Down - Black Mage begins chanting creating a rune circle around him that will send sparkles upward and  a gentle wind will rustle his clothing- moving or being attacked will exit this taunt.

### Idle Poses

* Puts his hand on his chin, and taps his foot, as if thinking of what move to do next.

## Victory

### Theme

A flourshed remix of Final Fantasy 6's victory theme.

### Poses

* Jumps onto her floating scepter and folds her arms while a large red, yellow, green, or blue crystal orbits around him; the color varies depending on which player slot the Black Mage was in.

* Spins, and waves her arms up and down. A reference to the classic Final Fantasy games whenever the player's team wins.
* Sits with the Ninja, White Mage, and Fighter and poses with them. If Fighter was in a match with Black Mage, the Fighter will be replaced with the Monk.

## Trophies

### Black Mage

* A reoccuring class of wizards hailing from the Final Fantasy series. Although there may be popular Black Mages, such as Vivi from Final Fantasy 9, they are mostly a generic role, as anyone can be a Black Mage. They normally focus on spells that revolve around attacking, but some in the series learn spells that effect your opponent with status effects. This Black Mage learned some Blue Mage skills as well!
	+ NES: Final Fantasy (1987)

### Black Mage

* Black Mage might not be the most durable, and he might be clumsy in close quarters combat, but at long range is where his strengths truly shine. Use Warp to teleport to move around quickly and avoid projectiles, and use your Gravity attack to send airborne opponents to the ground! Remember to watch your MP, as your Smash Attacks will get weaker if you use to much!

### Ultima

* Use your strongest attacks to barrage your foes! Meteor! Flare! Bio! Blizzard! Thunder! Aero! Combine all and finish it all off with one final explosion! This will truly make this battle a Final Fantasy for your opponents!

## Trivia

* Even though most Black Mages are shown to be either males, or gender-neutral, this one is shown to be a female.