Wizard/Form Change

**Form Change Wizard** is all about... well, Hurricane Style, really. His other forms are kinda neat, too, but if you're here, you're probably after Hurricane Big Magic.

We'll talk about the other styles in case you feel like actually playing the character, though.

## The Four Styles

As a Form Change character, Wizard's four different styles are accessed by flicking the analog stick.

 **Land Style** | Analog Stick Right

Transformation between each style has some invulnerability frames attached to it, but don't count on it to get you out of pressure consistently.

**Flame Style** is Wizard's "default" form and is the most balanced of his forms, with a mix of close and long range attacks.

**Water Style** provides Wizard with some fairly strong poking tools and the Bind magic to catch over-cautious opponents off guard.

**Hurricane Style** gives Wizard a lot of mobility and some very fast, far-ranged poking tools as well as Hurricane Big Magic, which we'll get to.

**Land Style** has the biggest focus on the ranged game, with multiple projectile normals, while still retaining a strong up-close game and decent okizeme with Defend magic.

## Command List

### Rider Art

**Flame Style:** High Speed Dash. Press RA or S again to perform Big magic.

**Water Style:** Super Jump

**Hurricane Style:** Super Jump

**Land Style:** High Speed Dash. Press RA or S again to perform Drill magic.

### Special Moves

#### Flame Style

**n.S:** Light magic. A blockable projectile-type move with slow startup, but causes crumple stun on hit. Used very rarely as it can be very easily beaten and combos from very few moves. May be useful when opponent is guard crushed.

**dir+S:** Big magic. Wizard smacks the opponent around with a giant hand for two hits. First hit stuns, second hit knocks down. Second hit has slightly more range than the first. Does a decent amount of guard damage. Can be useful as an occasional poking tool at its optimal distance.

**j.S:** Shooting Strike. Wizard halts his aerial momentum before shooting a fireball from his weapon. An okay ranged tool. Mostly seen as the ender to his Aerial Combo.

#### Water Style

**n.S:** Slash Strike. Wizard peforms a low sword strike and then a spinning overhead slash. Somewhat slow startup, but fairly good range.

**dir+S:** Bind magic. Wizard shoots out two beams of light that tie up your opponent on hit, allowing a free combo. Slow to start up, but is unblockable.

**j.S:** Liquid magic. A two-hit divekick attack. The second hit has slightly more range than the first. Mostly seen as an ender to his Aerial Combo.

#### Hurricane Style

**n.S:** Slash Strike. Similar to Water Style's Slash Strike, but instead performs two flipping overhead slashes. Significantly faster startup while still keeping the decent range. Common ender after Aerial Combo ground bounces.

**dir+S:** Big magic. Different to Flame Style's Big magic in that the hand only strikes once, but it fires a large whirlwind. Great startup, incredible range, whirlwind has a lot of active frames. Does a ton of guard damage -- a guard break is all but guaranteed from this move alone.

**j.S:** Kick Strike. A regular old divekick. Sometimes used as an Aerial Combo ender, but Slash Strike is used for this more often.

#### Land Style

**n.S:** Defend magic. Summons a wall of sand a short distance in front of Wizard. Active for a decent amount of time. Cane be useful on wakeups.

**dir+S:** Drill magic. Wizard teleports underground before appearing below his opponent with an upward hitting drill attack. Slow startup and easily avoided. Not very useful.

**j.S:** Shooting Strike. Wizard shoots three shots of sand in a horizontal arc in front of him. Halts aerial momentum, can be useful for controlling space.

### Notable Normals and Strings

#### Flame Style

**f+LLL:** a spinning roundhouse kick followed by a sword slash and a gunshot. f+L moves forward a decent amount, is decently fast and has good tracking.

**LH j.LHHS:** Aerial Combo. j.LHH causes a ground bounce, but grounded follow-ups are very limited. Best to just end with S. The full Aerial Combo is actually meter-neutral, so it's not a bad use of meter by any means.

**f+HHHH:** fires a shot from his weapon, then backflips twice while firing two more shots and ending with a backflip kick that knocks down. Can be a decent string to approach with from longer distances. f+HHH can also be used to cross over your opponent on their wakeup if you want to try some shenanigans.

**j.H:** fires a shot from his weapon. Doesn't halt aerial momentum -- doing a j.H early into a forward jump can be a good way of covering your approach.

#### Water Style

**f+LH j.LHHS:** Aerial Combo. f+L doesn't have much range, but is a decent close-range poking tool. j.LHH also causes a ground bounce, but is much lower than Flame Style. Very slightly meter-negative, but the S at the end leaves your opponent knocked down right next to you, making it easy to follow up with any kind of okizeme.

**HHHH:** Wizard takes a step forward and slashes vertically with his sword, then follows up with a three hit combo for a knockdown. First H has decent range and speed, HHH causes decently long hitstun, allowing either a combo into Bind magic with an RC or a potential pressure reset.

#### Hurricane Style

**f+LHH:** f+L is a vertical sword slash with insane speed and horizontal range thanks to the very large step forward he takes. The follow-up combo causes a knockdown which puts the opponent in a position where they will have to deal with Big magic. An insanely good footsie tool.

**LH j.LHHS:** Aerial Combo. More hits than Flame Style, causes the same kind of ground bounce. Commonly followed up by landing and using Slash Strike. Either way, the combo is meter-neutral. Slash Strike ender makes this combo slightly meter-positive. Also puts your opponent in a position where they have to deal with Big magic.

**j.H:** a spinning sword slash. Not as useful for jumping in as j.L, but j.H pushes Wizard back slightly, even on whiff, making it useful for cross-up/fake cross-up mixups.

#### Land Style

**f+LLL:** fires three shots while retreating. The first two shots cause a very long stun -- a valid strategy is to land f+LL and then Rider Art in and go for a mixup/pressure reset.

**HHH:** Wizard fires two shots while stepping back, then fires two more shots, knocking down. H on its own is a useful move for putting on some pressure while retreating.

**LH j.LHHS:** Aerial Combo. Insanely meter-positive, building almost a full second bar after the first. You can make your opponent block a Defend magic after this at the edge of the stage.

**j.L/j.H:** j.L fires one shot, j.H fires three. Both halt aerial momentum, making it useful for baiting some anti-airs, as well as in some okizeme situations.

## Strategy

1. Pick Hurricane Style
2. Make them block Big magic
3. Congratulations they're guard broken now
4. Go ham

That's literally it. Big Magic is technically avoidable, but from the distances where you'll be using it from, it's very hard to actually punish unless you're playing as certain characters, and even then it's risky.

Against characters with strong ranged tools, it can be worth going into Land Style and trying to counter any keepout attempts with f+LL and Rider Art in on hit, letting you set up your pressure game.

Since you have the threat of a mostly guaranteed guard break after any knockdown in Hurricane Style, it's certainly a good idea to spend your meter on Rider Cancels if you expect your opponent to burst. This and Aerial Combos are Wizard's main ways of spending meter.

### Combos

In all styles your go-to combo will almost always be your Aerial Combo as long as you have one bar of meter. The only thing that may change is the ender.

**Flame Style:** LH j.LHHS

**Water Style:** f+LH j.LHHS

**Hurricane Style:** LH j.LHH land n.S

**Land Style:** LH j.LHHS

Omitting the ender altogether often gives you enough time to change styles and set up oki (which means you get into Hurricane Style and use Big magic).

If you have more meter it may be worth an RC to convert random pokes into Aerial Combos, too.