Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - PYRA & MYTHRA CHALLENGER PACK 9 (DLC)

Challenger Pack 9 drops two fighters into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a single character slot - Pyra and Mythra, the Aegis blades from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The core hook is a live swap mechanic triggered via Down Special, and it works. Pyra is the slow, heavy-hitter side of the pair: her forward smash carries knockback on par with Ganondorf and can close out stocks at surprisingly low percentages, but her frame data is sluggish and her horizontal recovery is genuinely bad. Mythra flips the script entirely - she has some of the fastest movement and frame data in the whole roster, her Foresight ability (triggered through a dodge) can absorb an incoming hit at half damage and open a counter window similar to Bayonetta's Witch Time, and her Photon Edge side-special covers a huge amount of stage. The intended loop is straightforward: use Mythra to rack up damage with her quick tilts, aerials, and combo strings, then swap to Pyra the moment a kill opportunity opens and close it out with a lethal smash or her Blazing End footstool setups. It reads clean on paper and it genuinely holds up in practice. Competitively, the duo landed near the top of Ultimate's tier list on release and stayed there. Players like MkLeo, Sparg0, Cosmos, and Shuton used them to place at major events, and the Aegis sat in S-tier or near it across multiple community tier lists. Patches trimmed a few things - Blazing End picked up extra end lag in update 13.0.1, making footstool routes harder, and Mythra's air dodge intangibility was tuned back - but neither character's core identity changed. They're still a high-ceiling, high-execution pair that rewards knowing when to swap and punishes players who get too attached to one mode. The sticking point for a chunk of the community has always been the same complaint that follows every sword character into this game: another disjoint fighter in an already crowded field. That criticism isn't baseless. The roster has no shortage of blade users and Pyra and Mythra don't exactly break the mold visually. Their recovery is the other real weakness to flag - neither form handles horizontal edge pressure well, and good edge-guarders will body them if they're caught too far out. The Foresight counter helps Mythra stay alive in those situations but it's not a full answer. For Xenoblade fans this pack is an obvious yes. For competitive players who want a character with real ceiling and a genuine decision layer built into every neutral interaction, the swap mechanic earns its keep. Casual players who just want to mash will find Pyra's smash attacks satisfying in a beefy, crowd-pleasing way, even without optimising the swap timing. The pack also ships with a new stage and a music selection that's solid even if the spirit board content feels thinner than earlier packs. If you were hoping for Rex instead of his blades, that's a fair gripe with Nintendo, not with how these two actually play.

Fred · Scout Team

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