Morty is a Bruiser character that plays more like a Mage. He has multiple projectiles that have somewhat long cooldowns, but can be used in a lot of creative ways. He also has some good tools to increase his survivability, and great recovery options. His kit is versatile, and with enough practice, can usually adapt to various situations. However, some of his melee moves are either slow, or a bit weak, meaning it can be hard for him to distance himself from the enemy if they are playing aggressively when he is out of tools.
Morty Match-up Chart
Morty can struggle a lot against characters that have projectiles that beat out his own. With the projectile update, several projectiles can beat out his grenades and remove them from play. Things like...
If you try to approach with a grenade, and the enemy destroys it, then you are put in a bad position. If the character is fast, like batman, he can almost always beat your moves in that situation. So learning to either mix-up your options against these match-ups is key. A good move is your snake projectile, it's fast, and can help catch enemies before they throw something out. Morty's whole move set can be used in different ways, so in these difficult match-ups, try to think outside the box. Things like splitting your grenade with your earth spike (Grounded Side B), or using your snake projectiles to hit the bottom of a platform can help. With characters like Wonder Woman, she can pretty easily destroy your grenades or just power through them, so trying to hit them at range is key to winning. Against bugs, your plumbus move (Grounded Down Attack) can remove his rabbit hole if you are using the Extra Fleeb Juice perk, as well as it can remove Tom's Mousetrap.
Morty does really well against characters that must get extremely close to hit. Shaggy and Taz are examples. You can zone them out with your grenades and other moves, and if you can predict where they are going to go, then it makes it even better. Harley is lighter, which can make killing with grenades easier. Some of her kill moves can be pretty telegraphed, so knowing what she is going to do lets you punish with a grenade or your ground spike. Morty does well against LeBron as he can easily destroy the ball with most of his projectiles, and after that, Lebron has very short ranged attacks until he can get another. Things like your portal door (Aerial Side Special), or your space ship (Up Special) can help reduce LeBron's ability to ledge guard you as well, which is one of his biggest strengths.
Best Perks for Morty
For Attack Perks, That's Flammable, Doc! can let you rack up more damage. Morty's attacks are a bit weaker in terms of how much percent they do, so being able to add 1-3% to some of your attacks can help rack up damage faster. Nice to Beat You! will let you add slow to your projectiles, making following up with one of your aerials easier. Being able to combo off of your projectiles is very important for Morty, so slowing them a bit can help you hit more reliably, and can help your teammate do it as well. I'll Take That is also great, as Morty's has multiple cooldown moves. You can apply debuffs with your Grounded Down Attack or your Grounded Side Special. Your Aerial Up Attack can apply fire, but can be hard to hit after it as it sends up. You can also combine this with the other two perks listed here to force projectiles to apply a debuff, allowing you to get more value out of I'll Take That.
For Defense Perks, Toon Elasticity can further increase your survivability, and help against Tom and Jerry's frying pan (Aerial Down Attack). Clear The Air can also help against characters like Tom and Jerry, and Batman, in case your having a hard time dealing with their projectiles. With this, you can instantly destroy Batman's Batarang, for example. You can't destroy Jerry this way however, so keep that in mind. Things like Bug's Pie, Lebron's ball, or Gizmo's arrows can be destroyed. Slippery Customer helps you dodge through attacks easier, allowing you to more easily get past multiple attacks.
For Utility Perks, Coffeezilla is always really nice. With so many cooldowns, reducing them is helpful and can help some of your survival or combo starting tools come back faster. I Dodge You Dodge We Dodge gives you 10% on every successful dodge, which also is good for Morty for the same reasons Coffeezilla is. Tasmanian Trigonometry also increases Morty's already good survivability, and can let you get out of things like Arya or Bugs combos easier.
Morty's best signature perk is Oh That's Still A Grenade in my opinion. It lets your grenades have an easier time to kill your opponent, and improves your passive ability. Your teammates grenade is always at max range, and this can expand how you place your grenades and their effective range. Do note, that the size of the explosion is based of how long the grenade cooks, not how long you charge the throw. So it is based off of the yellow circular bar around the grenade that shows how much longer until it explodes. It also makes splitting the grenade with your ground spike (Grounded Side Special) more effect as both grenades will shortly after explode with the largest radius. This covers quite the large area, and is good at warding off enemies or adding damage during the middle of a teammates combo. I'm More Than Just A Hammer is very fun to use, and can catch opponents extremely well, especially when they are trying to recover. However, you have to really commit to it, and if the enemy has a good Downward attack, can just hit you out of it easily. Also, from my experience, it seems it trades kill power for being continuous, as without it, the single hammer swing can kill as early as 100% against some. Also, charging the hammer can be a good mix-up tool as the opponent tries to dodge in to avoid the hammer, but by delay it, they still get hit.
Placement in the Tier List
I would place Morty in A tier. With the most recent hitbox\hurtbox update, he has really felt better to play as. His jab combo is more reliably, and since his passive got enabled, he's even better in teams. I would say he still struggles against certain match-ups, but ultimately I think his biggest weakness is just his difficulty. He isn't someone you can just pick up and play, you have to devote time to him to really start to see results. He has pretty strong aerials and can really get going if you start to predict where the enemy is going to go. His amount of unique tools to get him out of various situations is really good, especially in doubles. Rick or Reindog are very good teammates that can rack up damage for you, while you set up for a grenade kill, or keep them away with all your tools. Tanks can also be good, as on top of their weight, do good damage, and can live longer. You can make them live even longer by using your Down Special, and save them from being rung out.