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Pianta - Mario Superstar Baseball

Pianta is perhaps the most interesting development in Mario Superstar Baseball history. At a casual level, and at the very beginning of the meta, he was undoubtedly the worst character in the game. A power-based character who only had the same batting stat as Mario, low trajectory meaning he very rarely hits home runs as his balls are more apt to line drive, no pitching potential, low speed, AND his bat has a weird sweet spot that is later in his swing than most characters, meaning that batting with him has to be a learned skill compared to the rest of the cast. Pianta was a meme, the idea that some day, he will rise up from the depths of mediocrity and become meta relevant laughed at and lobbied about, tossed only on teams looking to through or BM.

He then rose up from the depths of mediocrity and became meta relevant.

Pianta is a pull hitter, meaning that he naturally gains more power hitting to the opposite field of his handedness. Pianta is a right-handed batter naturally, but you can swap the handedness of any Mario Superstar Baseball character before the game. Leftie Pianta pulls toward right field, which just so happens to be marginally more shallow than left field, and that small change is JUST enough that Red Pianta, specifically, can clear home runs. Not only that, but his low trajectory means that hes hitting pop flies a lot less often than contemporaries like Wario and Bowser Jr, making him more reliable to at least get on base, if not slamming the ball home. Five variants of Pianta (Blue Left/Right, Yellow Left/Right, Red Right) were utter jokes, but Left/Red Pianta? He was the Pink Menace, And players quickly discovered that he didnt just play a mean second base, he potentially played the best 2nd Base in the whole game. Piantas a big body, like DK, and also has the Laser Beam ability, denying runs by tossing the ball home with multiplicative force. However, Pianta ALSO has the second best throwing arm in the game, behind Petey Piranha, meaning that he is THE fastest denial tool in the game. Other 2nd Basemen tried to outdo him - Daisy, Wario, even Birdo. And while Birdo did offer more consistent outs, Pianta is an absolute general of the basepaths, a purely defensive wall, and shockingly from his worthless origins, a paragon of consistency. It says a lot that even though he has anti-chemistry with Petey, undoubtedly the best catcher in the game, making him occasionally throw errors way off the mark to the plant, Pianta is STILL the primo 2nd base choice in the meta. This would be an incredible cinderella story BUT THEN Pianta goes and adds onto it! The Falcon Pop was discovered, a near guaranteed singles star hit if your character had both the Pop Fly star ability and could properly hit the ball in a jammed/poor contact state, AND was right handed.

The Pink Menace is the absolute best Falcon Popper in the entire game, his sour spot massive enough that he will almost never hit the ball too far, and his natural power causing the ball to cruise into the gap without fail. There is now a debate on what HANDEDNESS Pianta should be in order to achieve optimal play, something that NO other character in the cast could even pretend to have to the same degree. Pianta has gone from the most useless character in the entirety of Mario Superstar Baseball into its most multi-faceted, able to perform some roles better than nearly anyone else, squeak by as the weakest character that you can reliably expect a home run from, and is a character who now sees almost every single game, guaranteed. Man has a NARRATIVE. Freakin incredible.

Will get to Ryu and Bayo later, could only manage these ones on breaks today.