Brave Marth

Weapon: Genesis Falchion

Assist: Positional Assist 

Special: Shining Emblem / Noontime / Sol

Passive A: Distant Counter / Distant Pressure 

Passive B: Spurn / Null C-Disrupt 

Passive C: Joint Drive Atk / Joint Drive Spd / Pulse Smoke 

Sacred Seal: Atk/Spd Solo / Mystic Boost / Steady Breath

• The combination of an amazing 41/41/43/32/25 statline and Genesis Falchion makes Marth one of the strongest Aether Raids Offense and PvE superunits in the game, with Genesis Falchion’s myriad of effects making it a great Enemy Phase weapon.
  • Its -1 Special cooldown reduces Shining Emblem and Noontime’s cooldown to 1, allowing Marth to activate them on counterattack if no Guard effect is active. Alternatively, with Special acceleration via allies such as Brave Lucina, Summer Hilda, and New Year Velouria, he can achieve the same feat with ordinarily-3-cooldown Specials such as Luna and Sol.
  • Dragon effectiveness is nice for securing OHKOs and ORKOs against Dragons. Considering his best Mythic ally if using Shining Emblem as his Special is Ashera, an Astra Mythic, Dragon effectiveness is valuable for handling Duma and Seiros, 2 of Anima’s most common Mythics.
  • If Marth initiates combat or he is within 2 spaces of an ally, he gains +5 to all stats, furthering his offensive and defensive capabilities.
  • Finally, Marth gains a variety of effects depending on the total visible buffs of the 3 allies with the highest visible buff totals:
    • If the total is ≥ 10, Marth gains Null Follow-Up, neutralizing effects that guarantee the enemy’s follow-up attack (such as Quick Riposte and Slick Fighter) or prevent Marth’s follow-up attack (such as Wary Fighter).
    • If the total is ≥ 25, Marth gains +5 Attack during combat and heals 5 HP for each attack he lands.
    • If the total is ≥ 60, Marth gains a Vantage effect, allowing him to counterattack before the enemy attacks when the enemy initiates combat.
• Shining Emblem synergizes nicely with Genesis Falchion. Granting +6 Attack to allies within 2 spaces at the start of the turn already guarantees that Marth gains Null Follow-Up, the most important effect, during combat as long as 2 allies were within 2 spaces. On activation, bonus damage equal to 35% of Marth’s Speed significantly boosts his damage output, and granting allies +6 to all stats after activation guarantees that Marth gains every bonus-locked Genesis Falchion effect. Note, however, that granting +6 to all to himself at the start of the turn (and after every Shining Emblem activation) can be harmful because of the ubiquity of Panic. While this does not matter for Genesis Falchion’s bonus effects (as long as Marth’s allies avoid Panic), if Ashera’s【Null Panic】effect is unavailable, Shining Emblem can be replaced by a healing Special such as Noontime and Sol or a damaging Special such as Luna to increasing his sustainability or damage output respectively.
  • For 3-cooldown Specials, Marth will need Special acceleration in order to activate them on his first counterattack. This can be achieved in a variety of ways, such as Brave Lucina, Summer Hilda, New Year Velouria, and the Steady Breath Sacred Seal.
• While Marth’s native Distant Pressure grants him +5 Speed and allows him to counterattack against ranged enemies, its 5 recoil damage is undesirable for Enemy Phase longevity, making normal Distant Counter preferred. However, his base Spurn is his strongest B slot option, reducing damage by 4% for every point of Speed he has over the enemy (up to 40%) and adding +5 damage to Special activations. If he is receiving damage reduction in some other form (such as Flayn’s Caduceus Staff), Null C-Disrupt can be used to counterattack against enemies that would normally prevent counterattacks, such as Staff units with Dazzling Staff, units with Firesweep weapons, and particularly speedy units with Windsweep.
• Since Marth already requires an ally to be within 2 spaces to gain Genesis Falchion’s +5 to all stats on Enemy Phase, Joint Drive C slots are his most consistent options. Joint Drive Atk and Spd are particularly helpful for damage output regardless of the situation, whereas Joint Drive Def and Res can be situationally useless. Alternatives include Pulse Smoke and Atk Smoke, with the former inflicting +1 Special cooldown on the target and enemies within 2 spaces (to shut down Defense Keeps reliant on activating their Specials) and the latter inflicting -7 Attack on enemies within 2 spaces after combat.
• Atk/Spd Solo is chosen as Marth’s Sacred Seal to further bolster his offenses, although Spd/Res Solo can be used to perform better against magical enemies. Mystic Boost is another alternative, shutting down Wrathful Staff (which allows Staff units to deal normal damage as opposed to halved) and healing Marth for 6 HP after combat. This may encourage players to use a damage-boosting Special rather than a healing one if they replace Shining Emblem, as 5 healing per attack from Genesis Falchion + 6 healing after every combat can often suffice for sustainability.

Weapon: Genesis Falchion 

Assist: Positional Assist 

Special: Shining Emblem / Galeforce 

Passive A: Atk/Spd Boosting A Slot

Passive B: Windsweep

Passive C: Even Tempest / Odd Tempest

Sacred Seal: Atk/Spd Solo / Flashing Blade / Blade Session

• 41/43 offenses and Genesis Falchion allow Marth to become a phenomenal Player Phase specialist. The latter grants Marth -1 Special cooldown, +5 to all stats, and Null Follow-Up (neutralizes effects that guarantee enemy’s follow-up attack, but more importantly, also ones that prevent Marth’s follow-up attack), making him a consistent damage dealer that can quickly activate Specials.
• The key to this set is Windsweep, a B slot that prevents physical enemies from counterattacking if Marth’s Speed is greater than theirs in exchange for Marth losing the ability to perform a follow-up attack. While this seems terrible, Genesis Falchion’s aforementioned Null Follow-Up effect neutralizes Windsweep’s follow-up prevention, meaning Marth can both avoid counterattacks and perform follow-up attacks against physical enemies as long as he is faster than them.
• Shining Emblem becomes a 1 cooldown Special thanks to Genesis Falchion’s Slaying effect, allowing Marth to activate it on his follow-up attack assuming no Guard effect is active. Granting +6 to all stats to Marth and +6 Attack to allies within 2 spaces if there is an ally within that range at the start of the turn, in addition to granting +6 to all stats to allies after activating it, makes it a very self-sufficient and easy-to-use Special.
  • Alternatively, he can use Galeforce to perform another action after activation. Note that Marth requires Heavy Blade or Flashing Blade in his Sacred Seal to activate Galeforce in 2 attacks (assuming no Guard effect is active). Galeforce makes Marth less reliant on refreshers for additional actions, although he sacrifices some offensive power via his Sacred Seal and requires refreshers anyway if a Guard effect is present.
• Marth’s A Slot and Sacred Seal are devoted to further boosting his offenses for even better damage output and ensuring that he avoids counterattacks against even the fastest physical enemies. Atk/Spd Push 4, Surge Sparrow, Life and Death 4, Atk/Spd Solo, and Swift Sparrow are all excellent A Slot choices, with all except the lattermost granting Marth +7 Atk/Spd as long as certain conditions are met (≥ 25% HP for Push, initiation for Surge, not being adjacent to any allies for Solo) and/or in exchange for caveats (5 recoil damage for Push, -5 Def/Res for Life and Death). Atk/Spd Solo and Blade Session are Marth’s strongest Sacred Seals, with Solo consistently granting +6 Atk/Spd as long as he is not adjacent to an ally and Blade Session granting +X Atk/Spd, with X being 3 * the number of allies that have already moved + 3 (X’s minimum being 3, and its maximum being 9).
• Even and Odd Tempest are Marth’s best C slots, as 3 Movement on even or odd turns respectively offers much more leeway for hit-and-run strategies.

Weapon: Genesis Falchion 

Assist: Positional Assist

Special: Shining Emblem 

Passive A: Distant Pressure

Passive B: Special Spiral

Passive C: Joint Drive Atk / Joint Drive Spd 

Sacred Seal: Atk/Spd Solo

• When the total visible buffs of the 3 allies with the highest visible buff totals is ≥ 60, Marth gains a Vantage effect from Genesis Falchion, allowing him to counterattack before the enemy attacks when the enemy initiates combat. Using this, Marth can become an Enemy Phase nuke focused on OHKOing with his counterattack before the enemy even gets to attack.
• The combination of Genesis Falchion’s Vantage effect, Shining Emblem’s 2 cooldown, and Special Spiral makes Marth a potent OHKO unit. Shining Emblem deals damage equal to 35% of Marth’s Speed, making it the most consistent Special for OHKOing. It also grants Marth +6 to all stats and allies within 2 spaces +6 Attack as long as at least one ally is within that range, augmenting his damage output and working towards Genesis Falchion’s ally buff total condition of ≥ 10 in order to grant Marth Null Follow-Up during combat (to ensure, as much as possible, that he survives his first combat). On his first Enemy Phase combat, he will activate Shining Emblem on his counterattack as long as no Guard effect is present; this will grant all allies +6 to all stats to achieve the ≥ 60 total ally buff condition for Genesis Falchion’s Vantage effect. After combat, Special Spiral will decrease Shining Emblem’s cooldown by 2, meaning it will immediately be activated again; this time, though, in conjunction with a Vantage effect, giving Marth the opportunity to OHKO before the enemy can even attack him.
• Marth’s native Distant Pressure is his best A slot. Counterattacking against all enemy types is vital for ensuring he gets the opportunity to OHKO them before they attack him, and the +5 Speed for 5 recoil damage after combat is well worth it to maximize his Shining Emblem bonus damage and ensure avoidance of Windsweep effects that would prevent his counterattack if he were slower than the enemy. 
• Joint Drive Atk boosts Marth’s Attack by 4 during combat when he is within 2 spaces of an ally, bolstering his OHKO potential and being his most consistent way of increasing damage with his C Slot. Joint Drive Spd can be used instead to further increase Shining Emblem’s bonus damage and chances of avoiding Windsweep effects.
• The combination of Genesis Falchion and the Atk/Spd Solo Sacred Seal grants Marth +11 Atk/Spd during combat as long as he is both within 2 spaces of an ally and not adjacent to an ally, making Atk/Spd Solo his strongest Sacred Seal choice.