I promised long ago that I would no damage the 9.0 Master Core like I did to all the Brawl bosses, and I have finally gotten around to doing it.
The biggest obstacle to doing this was having to go through 9.0 Classic first for every single attempt, which takes about a good 1015 minutes every time, as there's no way in the game to go fight the Master Core directly, and dying at any time bumps the difficulty down on a continue, so I couldn't just SD and immediately retry again upon getting hit. If it wasn't for that, I would have managed this in a few hours at most, and got it done long ago instead of procrastinating and sporadically trying here and there. Now for some analysis on each phase:
The Hands phase is easy, as the Hands start off predictably with attacks you can easily counterattack, and you can easily beat them before they really get going. Focus offense on Master Hand and preemptively get your shield up for the first attack, as it can be a quick hand swipe or finger flick, which will end a no damage run before it can begin if you got overly aggressive at the start.
When it comes to the Giant, don't be afraid to go offstage, as it'll help a ton in evading otherwise hardtododge attacks. The scream attack in particular has to be watched out for, as the headgrabbing animation can hit you, and it comes out extremely quick with no apparent pattern. As long as you don't flub going offstage when needed, the Giant isn't that hard to no damage.
The Beast is tricky; you can beat this phase really fast, as you can use Mario's down smash to deal a rather quick 22% in one blow, but using any sort of lengthy move against the Beast is unadvised as it can attack so fast. As such, I play very safe here, and don't go for doublehitting down smashes or any sort of move with a lengthy completion, as the Beast can easily attack and hit you while you're stuck in hitlag/ending lag.
The Edges were probably the most difficult phase, with a bevy of difficulttododge attacks, no safe zones, and the ability to trap you with its longlasting largecoverage projectiles. Fortunately it does give you a couple of ample opportunities to get a charged doublehitting down smash in to keep the phase from lasting too long.
The Shadow was also difficult, as one little mishap can result in you getting hit. Luckily for Mario, his infamous down throw to up tilts to up aerials combo will wipe out about 3/4ths of the Shadow's health. Another thing to take advantage of is the Shadow doesn't use air dodges like normal CPUs, and doesn't really defend itself from attacks (though it will use counteraerials and will easily hit you first if you misspace).
Then finally for the Fortress, it's the easiest part; unlike the other phases, it'll be 100% identical every time, right down to the first attack enemies in the Fortress will use, and the threats in the Fortress are easily overcome with Mario. If you got the Fortress strat down, you should be able to no damage through it every time. I should eventually do this with more characters (and maybe someday with everyone), and hopefully when Wii U hacking advances and becomes accessible, there becomes a way to skip Classic and go straight to fighting the Master Core.
Overall, no damaging the 9.0 Master Core wasn't that difficult with Mario, and despite all the theatrics, 9.0 wasn't much harder than SSE's Duon and Tabuu were to no damage.
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0:00 Intro
0:20 Master Hand & Crazy Hand
0:56 Master Giant
1:32 Master Beast
2:03 Master Edges
2:37 Master Shadow
3:05 Master Fortress Phase 1
4:07 Master Fortress Phase 2
5:18 Core