This is a brief guide to winning as Marie in survival. Marie is arguably the easiest character to play as she does not rely on difficult mix ups, combos or stances. Instead she's all about finding the perfect opening to strike. This small guide has most likely very little use outside of playing vs the CPU as players will sidestep to avoid stabs, whereas the AI does not (in virtually all cases except an unfortunate sequence).

Marie excels at long range and attacks fairly quickly at said range, being able to trade into various long range sweeps or strikes that had been initiated far before she reacts. Because her stabs come out quite fast she's also hard to defend against when caught off-guard.

Note that I'm no PvP veteran by any stretch of the imagination. Take most of the claims made her more as notions to consider than coming from an authority.

This is a brief description of matchup you will encounter, and how cautious you need to be when confronted with them.

Easiest matchups:

• Isabella
  Isabella is a very easy matchup vs the CPU. She is very easily forced into low guard, which immediately opens her up for a stab to the heart.
  
  Her attacks are quite slow which makes it difficult for her to trade into you. She does not need much to kill you however, so occasionally you'll die to barely even scratching the surface of her longsword - usually in a trade.
  
  
  
  
• Gedeon
  Despite being put in the "easiest matchups" alongside Isabella Gedeon is much trickier to defeat and might get a kill in here and there because you misjudged the situation.
  
  Gideon is very vulnerable to stabs in any stance he is in, but it's very ambiguous when he's open (as his parry comes out absurdly fast). Generally speaking you will get hits in trying over either arm repeatedly, and he doesn't do much to retaliate against this. However, a lot of your hits will end up in his shoulder, mitigating a large part of the damage. This sometimes leads to him killing you despite already having been hit several times.

Favorable matchups:

• Barabasz
  Barabasz is a slight step up in terms of difficulty from the previous tier. He has no obvious openings and isn't easily forced into low guard (even though it is possible). He is vulnerable to stabs in his neutral stance but doing so is very risky. Especially if he somehow manages to parry you're likely to die in a single hit.
  
  Barabasz is very vulnerable to "Down low" - a strike to the leg, if the appropriate distance is kept. This attack will hit him almost without fail because its hitbox is longer than you'd expect it to be. He can also be stabbed immediately after he moves his leg back from a low sweep. This is safe and will usually kill him, but sometimes ends up in his guard arbitrarily.
  
  
• Kalkstein
  Kalkstein is quite a bit more difficult than Barabasz as he's more likely to kill you as his attacks have deceptively long reach.
  
  Hes not very vulnerable in his neutral stance, so throwing stabs at him will not yield much. He is however very vulnerable (maybe even more so than Barabasz) to "Down low". He can also be forced into low guard easily to open him up for a stab. However this stab is much riskier than a similar situation in a fight against Isabella.

Hard matchups:

• Laszlo
  Laszlo feels like playing against a Barabasz 2.0. He does almost everything better than Barabasz in this matchup.
  
  He's taller than Barabasz, which means he's much more likely to kill you in a single hit. He's also vulnerable to stabs in his neutral stance but it's even more ambiguous and more dangerous than trying so against Barabasz. Sadly you don't have many more options as forcing him into low guard seems impossible. Due to his height he'll also reliably avoid "Down low". To top things off his overhead slash, which will kill you instantly without fail, comes out absurdly fast, giving him a great tool to punish you with.
  
  I found the best way to defeat this guy is to keep the appropriate distance and throw stabs over your primary hand. His neutral stance is vulnerable to this and he doesn't have enough range to punish you for it but the window is very small. Laszlo is definitely no easy matchup.
  
  
• Jacek
  In terms of difficulty almost equal to Laszlo. Due to his height he will, once again, reliably avoid "Down low". He's not very vulnerable to stabs in his neutral stance, unlike Laszlo, but can be forced into low guard to punish. This is however very dangerous still as missing this attack, which is something that is relatively easy again due to his height, will put you into a spot where you're likely to be killed.
  
  Your best bet is to immediately chain sweep into a stab, and cancel it if you feel you're too close/too far.

Hardest matchup:
Somewhat unsurprisingly the most difficult matchup is a mirror-match. The problem here is that many attacks that are safe in other matchups will now open you up to your own long reach. Sidestepping is an option and will usually, but not always, kill the opposing Marie, but this is a very finicky move and will sometimes get you killed even when seemingly timed properly. It also has much shorted range than other stabs.

A solid attack in this matchup is "Countertime" because this move seems to have insane priority (it will parry attacks used into it). Sidestepping would be your second best bet. Other than that stabs are a possibility but will often lead to trades.

Below I'll describe a few moves that are very useful in defeating the opponent. For keys I'll use the following abbreviations:
LR = low right
LL = low left
HR = high right
HL = high left

• Stab
  Performed moving towards the opponent and using any one of the attack keys. It is quite fast and has good range
  
  
• Leg Swipe
  Leg swipe is performed with ↓ + → + LR. It performs a very safe sweep for the legs that is unlikely to hit and even less likely to inflict serious damage, but forces the opponent into low guard
  
  
• Down low
  Down low is performed with ↓ + → + LL. It performs a stab straight to the feet. It has better range than it lets on, but is less safe than Leg Swipe. Should be used only at the appropriate distance from the opponent. When used properly is safe
  
  
• Countertime
  Performed with ↓ + → + HR. Performs a slow twirly stab which seems to have high priority. Not very useful in most situations, but has a tendency to parry stabs in mirror matches. It's still dangerous to use, but from experience you'll usually win if the opposing Marie reacts to this with an attack
  
  
• Sidestep stab
  Performed with ↓ + ↓ + HR. Allows you to sidestep and throw a stab. Especially useful in Marie mirror matches, but has shorter range than your regular stabs

What about the other moves?
From my experience no other moves are safer than using regular stabs. Some of which are very fun to use, like Fake Lunge, but tend to get you killed faster. Long guard stabs tend to have a little more range than regular stabs but come out slower and seem to end up in someone's guard far more often. I've stopped using them after a few games. Moves like Triangle are often too slow to have much impact; it's suicide when too close, but too slow to get a hit in at a distance.