Black Mage (Super Smash Flash 2)

Black Mage is a playable newcomer character in Super Smash Flash 2. Released in demo v0.7, Black Mage was the first unannounced or surprise character to appear in SSF2. His sprites are custom made and based on his appearance in Final Fantasy. He mainly uses devastating magic to combat his opponents, but as an extra, he also uses Blue Magic, as seen in his "Goblin Punch" and "Chocobo Kick" attacks. Black Mage is a starter character since demo v0.8a.

Black Mage is ranked 8th on the tier list; A large leap from his 15th place position last demo. Black Mage has a solid aerial game, good reach in the majority of his attacks, long-lasting hitboxes, and a variety of KO moves, including his forward and up smashes, meteor, and dash attack. Black Mage is one of the best edge guarders in the game due to the large variety of attacks he can use for different situations, making it is extremely hard to guard break Black Mage. Additionally, he has a way to reflect projectiles with his neutral special, Stop, which can be useful against characters with powerful projectiles such as '.

However, most of his finishers are rather sluggish and smart opponents can escape his combos, so Black Mage players must have good cerebral and technical ability to be able to make reads and overwhelm enemies. Black Mage also has quite poor mobility, so he can easily be outmaneuvered by fast characters like and. Black Mage is also brought down by his recovery; while it covers good distance, it is predictable, with a large window of time that the enemy can gimp him out of the charging stage. Black Mage's lack of reliable approach options also hinder his effectiveness.

His great power potential is certainly not to be overlooked, but his array of problems, as well as his mediocre matchups, prevent him from going into the higher tiers. Despite this, Black Mage is seen as a more effective character than in previous demo versions, which has given him a high-tier placement. Like many other characters, Black Mage does not see much usage in tournaments, however players including, but not limited to, Drarky have shown that the character can be a powerful contender in tournaments.

Attributes
Black Mage uses devastating magic in his attacks. Black Mage has good reach in most of his attacks with many of them having disjointed range. Black Mage has KO moves in his uncharged forward and up smash, dash attack (which grants him Super Armor) and Meteor. When fully charged, his smash attacks covers 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). He can juggle with his up tilt and up aerial. His down aerial is a meteor smash and when Sweet spotted, it inflicts death which will meteor smash the opponent after a certain amount of time. Black Mage has a decent grab game, despite possessing the seventh shortest grab in the current demo, being able to chain grab with his down throw. His back throw can kill at high percentages and his forward throw can set up his excellent edge guarding ability. Black Mage can use Haste to edge guard his opponents. Warp gives him a long recovery.

However, Black Mage suffers from poor mobility which allows characters with better mobility to rush him down. (ex. and ). 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 gives him a long recovery is easily predictable because the opponent knows where he is going to land based on the green circle. 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.

Changes from v0.9a
Black Mage has received a mix of buffs and nerfs. Black Mage benefits from the lower hitstun due to being less susceptible to combos while being able to combo like last demo. Black Mage is seen as a more effective character.

Tier placement history
Since his introduction into Super Smash Flash 2; Black Mage was already viewed as a low-bottom tier character. In the tier lists for demos v0.7; Black Mage was ranked 12th of C tier on the first list and was ranked 14th of Kirby tier on the second list. In demo v0.8b; Black Mage's tier position didn't change that much when he ranked 15th of D tier. In demo v0.9a; Black Mage held on to his 15th place position where he is now viewed as a mid tier character. However, in demov 0.9b, Black Mage has risen into A tier where he is ranked 8th and is finally no longer viewed as a low, mid or bottom tier character anymore.

Trivia

 * Black Mage is the only character whose fully charged smash attacks are different from his non-charged smash attacks.
 * Black Mage is the only character whose down throw induces poisoning on opponents. He is one of 2 characters so far to induce said status (the other being Peach, if she pulls an Oddish from her down special).
 * Black Mage could be unlocked in demo v0.7 by playing 10 battles on Brawl mode, then beating him in a duel on Chaos Shrine. Doing this also unlocked the latter stage.
 * Black Mage, along with, , and  are the only characters so far who wear their default costumes in team battle when they are on the blue team.
 * Black Mage and Mega Man are the only characters so far whose normal attacks act as projectiles. In Black Mage's case; his fully charged forward smash.