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Sheik vs Falco
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Anyway, if you're getting stuck in shield on nair oos then it's a timing issue. I'm not sure what you mean by "grabbed". If you mean you produce shield grabs accidentally, again, timing issue. If he's shine-grabbing, then you're gonna have to add rolls and sidesteps to your oos repertoire. Or time the nair better (since it technically can work vs shine grab because Sheik is too good).
If he's not forcing you to face him with lasers, bair is also really effective. It trumps most of his aerials (except his own bair because of how jump heights wind up working out) and you can d-tilt or whatever in that case.
When I have Falco in close quarters, and he's trying to fight me, I'm basically just trying to protect myself from his counterattacks while poking him. I have a few options I use a lot. Usually, I like to initiate with Fair in this position because I think it's one of her strongest options but Bair, movement based stuff (dash dance --> dash attack, grab, etc), and even grounded moves (space them) are good.
The one nice thing about Falco is that he can't really run away from you without the laser. So you can actually take your time a bit more once you've got him off balance (provided you deal with panic attacks properly) because he's actually in a really vulnerable spot here. Keep that in mind. You don't need to rush things.
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Anyway, I generally have three go-to options when I initiate with Fair at lower percents. You can do other stuff (a lot of other stuff) but these three are my staples.
1) SHFF AC Fair --> SH
2) SHFF AC Fair --> grab
3) SHFF AC Fair --> some kind of wait (dash dance, WD back, block, etc)
The first one is good because jumping again will leave you ready to initiate another round of pressure. Continuing pressure via a set of needles (y'know how I keep saying having a few needles handy is absolutely amazing? Yeah, this is another shameless plug of that) is a good way to get a free grab if you observe that he's crouching, waiting for more. If not? You can swing at him. This kind of links up to the third option because after SH you can wait in the air and check for a roll or sidestep (needles --> grab works on sidestep too if you have enough or shoot late) and punish those. After enough SH aerials you can go for empty hop grabs (which you did, and seeing that pleased me).
Second one is mainly something you do if you notice they like to CC --> block, CC and wait, etc. Or if they just don't anything. It's very good. Always good to check for, because this gives you the most payoff at low percents if you hit a successful tech chase with the throw (which you can). Not much explaining required.
The third is similar to the first. Dashing away, waiting (at medium percents, when they're pushed outside CC range), etc. enables you to scout defensive options. Because you're sticking to the ground, you keep grab, dash attack, tilts, and down smash open as viable options.
In terms of ground-based stuff, traditional Sheik games work on him pretty effectively. I think dash attack and grab should be prioritized, but f-tilt and d-tilt are also really good. F-tilt for stuffing his jumps. D-tilt for sneaking under non-dair hitboxes. Against dairs I think just grabbing or dash attacking the landing lag is probably best, rather than challenging it. That said, you can challenge it if you want; I recommend bair & fair. Just be wary of dash attack and nair (and to a lesser extent up tilt) if you start doing that, because his counter is to sneak under your aerials and that can ruin your position.
You can do other stuff, obviously. SH nair is often very good, as I'm sure you noticed. But these are some of the ones I like and tend to use because of their safety and payoff. Depending on the habits of the opponent, you can gamble a bit more with whether something is susceptible to crouch or not. In general, as long as you're spacing well and action quickly after your aerials, you won't be crouch-punished or shield-punished very often by Falco.
Editor's Note: In this position, presenting your shield SPARINGLY is not always bad because you can get them doing a lot of panic attacks that will be performed with speed & priority abuse in mind, rather than safety vs a shield. I'm sure we've all seen the arbitrary Falco F-smash come out, the random high dair approach that makes no sense, and the zany dash attack from left field. Shielding these can get you a huge payoff either via nair OOS or other creative options you find suitable (I'm currently trying to get into the habit of up smashing OOS on dash attacks, but with little success thus far).
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Sheik vs C.Falcon
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If he approaches with a SHFFL or SH aerial, I like f-tilt, fair, and d-tilt for defense. Especially d-tilt. If he approaches from higher, I like bair, up tilt, and f-tilt as a defense. But fair also works.
I really like crouching in this matchup because it's difficult for Falcon to do tight movements efficiently because of how much ground he covers with everything he does. So by compacting your body when you're not moving, it makes you that much better defended from his typical "spacing aerials" like nair and whatever. He has to aim lower or predict you moving out of crouch, which makes his air vs your ground game a lot more simplified, which Sheik likes.
If Falcon doesn't DI away from your throw, you can combo most of your relevant ground moveset on him (basically any tilt, jab, and down smash). Knowing this can make for some good combos. Also, Falcon can ASDI out of your jab resets at 32% so don't do those after 32%. He can SDI out of them below that and it's not too difficult, but if you hit one you can fairly easily hit him with the double up smash hit, which leads to massive damage and often good combos (to perform, dash inside his body as he's standing and JC up smash; both hits connect; it's easiest when he DIs away but you should be up tilting on non-DI away most of the time anyway).
I'd talk about ranges but my opinion of significant ranges for Sheik is sort of under construction for this MU at this point so I'm not really sure what to say about it. So maybe Teczero or someone can field that one for me.
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Sheik Ditto
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•Background information:
Sheik vs. Sheik is becoming increasingly common in tournament setting and it's not too difficult to see why-- with such strong representation from players like M2K and Amsah, Sheik has, in recent years, developed a bit more of a following. Aside from more people being open to playing her, others are also once again recognizing her value as a secondary character.
If you are new to maining Sheik and want to play her in every MU, currently main Sheik and want to improve your Sheik ditto game because you feel you lack direction, or are in the process of picking up a Sheik secondary to use for the Sheik ditto and need some help to get you started then the following section of this guide is for you!
•Mechanical Information:
Sheik can chain grab herself to 80% or so (barring platform interference) and finish herself off in a variety of ways. Tipped up smash works on anything but horizontal DI away and KOs starting around 75% (percentage is prior to the hit; hitting the tipped up smash at its minimum KO percentage can be very tricky and I generally don't recommend it). Beyond tricky things like that, you can simply kill by setting up an edgeguard at the end of the CG and following it appropriately (usually by fair, or tilt > fair).
If you are playing without chain grabs, you treat the combo tree pretty much the same as you would against Marth (only you don't regrab the DI away at low percents). D-throw > dash attack begins to be effective around 30% on DI away. If they DI elsewhere, generally up tilt is the best move (f-tilt is also acceptable at times, though).
Regardless of whether you're playing with or without CG, it is strongly recommended that you learn how to d-throw > dash SH rising fair at 50% or so. This allows you to finish CGs at the edge and transition into edgeguards effectively, rather than relying on them having bad DI on an f-tilt or whatever. It's very good (it is also very good against Ganon, Link, Pikachu, and several other characters).
To edgeguard, you generally want to force her to recover onstage and then punish her. Wavelanding from the edge onto the stage (henceforth to be referred to as "ledgedashing" for the remainder of the guide) into grab is one of the best things you can do because you can turn around and face off the stage, which traps them (run by nair if they DI behind, fair the DI away, either way they go offstage). You can also stand > grab, stand > d-smash, ledgehop dair, and a variety of other things.
If possible, needle to stop Sheik's momentum when she's offstage. Her air mobility is poor, and this will improve your chance of forcing her to Up+B, or prevent her from being able to reach the stage with Up+B, etc.
If she's close to the edge, remember that she doesn't get invincibility on her Up+B until frame 18. This gives you a good window to hit her out of its startup. Covering options with offstage nairs, bairs, fairs, etc. are a good way to rob her of her jump and sometimes even get gimps on her. It's very good.
•Combat Stratagem:
Combat in a Sheik ditto boils down into a pretty simple spacing game. One of the major players in this system is SH fair, simply because her SH fair is absolutely beastly. The other major tools are her grab, crouch cancel, shield, and tilts (in no particular order).
In general, Sheik's fair will beat most of her options if spaced properly under general conditions and is a fairly generic means of attacking (or defending, even). SH FF AC fair is therefore one of the widely popular and prolific techniques used in this MU.
Countering SH fairs is trickier than it looks. F-tilt works, but it's prone to trades (or even straight losing) because of how ridiculous SH fair actually is (consult the hitbox thread in the resources section for more detail!). Generally, for your f-tilt to beat her fair, you need to tilt proactively rather than reactively. Nair and bair can also be used to beat fair, but they generally have to be used proactively rather than reactively; given how long these moves hang out, this can be dangerous (although they make a great mixup!).
To reactively beat SH fairs, your options are generally going to revolve around getting under her hitbox and sneaking your hits in (rather than directly challenging it). For this reason, d-tilt, d-smash, and even dash attack are common answers to it. The first two are easily set up by simple crouch-WD movements, and even dash cancels if you're ballsy. The last can be implemented by a combination of trots, dash dancing, and using WD > dash variations to get momentum.
Countering opposing low hitboxes from the air is doable in a variety ways. One technique that Unknown showed me a while ago that I initially discredited was simply dairing over their move. However, further exploration of it (and playing with M2K) has lead to some revision and it's not that bad of an idea. Although dair can be true-CCed for a while, it begins to knock over fake-CCers at fairly reasonable percents (40%?). Jumping over dash attacks, d-tilts, and similar with dair can lead to some very silly punishment opportunities. Similarly, air needles can often be a pretty good answer and link to grab for heavy punishment. Doing an aerial like bair, nair, or fair later to compensate for the crouch is also a good option, although it can be countered by the opponent doing an attack that hits higher, earlier (this RPS system shift is largely unavoidable, though, and one of the reasons why crouching is powerful in this game; this also obviously counters the dair strategy as dair hits late naturally, because of its delay).
Ground vs. ground in a Sheik ditto generally boils down to whoever is more proficient at punishing lag and whoever's better at being evasive. If the opponent is playing mostly grounded but you have better movement and defensive habits, playing ground is probably a reasonable idea. In this case, you want to be aware that the ground game will be very crouch-heavy, in addition to being very movement-heavy. F-tilt will often miss if you do it close to a crouching Sheik, and her tilts in general are CCable for a while. Grab, down smash, dash attack (space it so you finish far behind them), etc. become very good tools in ground vs. ground Sheik dittos. Hurling a boost grab into their crouch, dash dance, etc. space can be a pretty good way to get a KO (but I'd generally be cautious about using it because if it gets predicted you can be grabbed back; it's not a bad idea if you can tell how they like to move, though).
As a side note: M2K claims that down smash is very strong in non-CG Sheik dittos. Drephen likely agrees with this, if his style is any indication. I personally find the move hit or miss and somewhat situational, but it does have some great moments and it's one of the few moves that can straight beat her aerials reactively because of the invincibility. It's also a fairly good edgeguard, combo finisher, etc.
Another little tidbit: You don't want to be on platforms for very long in this MU. Although the prospect of optimal needle angles seems good, in practice you give the opposing Sheik too much time to get a good position. Either by getting under, or by getting a good angle to attack you from. Using platforms to reposition is great, and they do offer a good angle to attack from at times, but don't get comfortable on them. Staying on platforms is a good way to get wrecked by bairs, up airs, and various other shenanigans. It's a hard position to hold effectively.
•The Anti-Shield Game
Sheik's shield is massive and her oos game is great so she gets her own section on how to engage a blocking doppelganger. If the opponent shields in a Sheik ditto, you have a variety of ways to attack it, but they all have counters, with varying degrees of severity. This does not mean that you shouldn't attack shields period, but be careful. Look for habits and condition (if possible and/or necessary).
The most common way to engage a shielding Sheik is to space your fair outside their shield grab range. You can do mixups with jabs and whatever but be careful because CC shield grab and CC grab mashing will rape that pretty hard and you'll get hurt. I think you can space the jab far enough for it to be immune to that garbage, but I'm not 100% on it so don't quote me on it. Fair > dash away is pretty good for this reason, because it allows you to punish counterattacks out of shield pretty easily but the drawback is that if the opponent retreats (with WD oos, etc.) it's very difficult to capitalize.
The reason for jabbing, tilting, or even down smashing after you hit a shield is to catch jumps, shield-grabs, and other shenanigans. Doing so, however, will encourage them to hold block and wait for the follow (whether they'll learn or not is another matter, though). If you can condition them to hold shield, fair > grab becomes pretty good.
Empty jump > grab is also a fairly reasonable technique because most Sheik shield pressure revolves around hitting an aerial and then following with an action (or waiting). This preys on the complacency many have, and the belief that "Sheik will hit my shield with an aerial."
Low nairs are also good because, after doing it, neither character is at frame advantage (assuming full power nair) which allows you to do a variety of things afterwards, including: dash behind the opponent (requires you nair sort of deep into their shield), dash away (requires you not nair deep into their shield), attack (grab becomes a reasonable option because, assuming they shield grab, whichever grab is timed better will win if you break even in terms of frame advantage and it's easier to learn offensive timings), and waiting.
Generally, you can counter most delayed aerials as Sheik with simple things like nair oos but you have to be careful against fairs because nairs have less priority. You can also generally look for spots to WD back, which is also an effective way out of shield pressure. In general, your goal should be to avoid doing something that will get you grabbed or hit into a massive combo when you're shielding. Counterattacking is a secondary concern.
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Sheik vs Peach
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Peach Sheik in NTSC...
Make her get into the air and slap or bair her appropriately. Needles are good for making her go airborne. After you slap or bair her, your follow (assuming you get a follow) depends mostly on positioning and stuff. I find bair > bair is pretty common at low percents, and fair > f-tilt > fair is pretty common too. Fair > dash attack > ??? becomes pretty good at mid percents.
You can f-tilt through her aerials too, if you want to. You have to do it proactively rather than reactively, though, so be careful with it. You can also dash attack under her aerials (not dair) if you time it and position it correctly. Takes some getting used to, though.
If Peach decides to not approach when floating, remember that her float only lasts so long. You can honestly just sit back and charge ground needles and throw them at her when she's coming down if she's trying to be hyper conservative. Just be prepared to cancel the charge and swing at her (or retreat) if she starts coming at you. Her only option at that point is to attack (which is fine), try to throw you off with garbage like air-dodge that doesn't do anything about needles, or retreat to a platform. Peach being on a platform is a good position for you as long as you're not stupid (just don't jump into down smash).
When blocking, you can't counterattack after FC aerials. You can counterattack after dash attack, jabs, and down smashes. And anything that's spaced badly (f-smash, badly spaced d-tilt, etc).
If she decides to play a ground game, it's not too different, only you're supposed to play a bit more defensively because attacking recklessly into Peach's ground game gives her more chances to get under you. Use a bit more bair. WD back, shield, dash dance, etc. Just flaunt how your movement is much better than her's and you'll be fine.
Protip: When you're spacing bairs, if she comes in for a dash attack, instead of bairing just triangle jump away from her and then punish appropriately. I like to turn around and grab, but if f-tilt tickles your fancy and it's at a percent where it'll work, then go for it.
She's gonna crouch a lot so you have to be good at aiming your aerials relatively low to the ground (while still retaining the AC in the case of fair).
Lightshielding near the edge to force yourself to grab the edge is massively underrated and very good because she can't actually do that much about your poofstall without being kind of obvious about it. I mean, if you just poofstall over and over again she can eventually steal the edge, but you can see her getting that position and switch it up (baby ledgedash is amazing). If you can catch a turnip, you can make it really hard for her to cover all your recovery options onto the stage even if you forgo the use of the ledgedash so keep that in mind.
If they're really campy, if possible, push them to the edge (get them trapped under a platform, etc). From there you can just pressure them and zone them until you hit them offstage and then do some systematic aerial & tilt algorithm and you'll cover just about everything. You shouldn't concern yourself too much if she grabs the edge because you can cover most of her getup options really easily because she doesn't have a proper ledgehop (no ledgedash, really slow ledgehop aerial, loses almost all invincibility if she tries something funny, etc). Needles are amazing in this position.
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Sheik vs Luigi
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Against Luigi:
Use a lot of needles (aerial & ground, depends on how far he is), fair & bair, and d-throw > f-tilt > block at low percent (after like 30% switch to fair or uair [if he doesn't DI away just fair > ??? or uair always]). Run off platform fair. Shield > punish (sometimes WD oos is required) is good against his entire moveset except grab & super spaced f-tilt & some down smashes he'll get enough momentum to be safe from you on (although WD oos needles actually can work on the latter & is ****ing annoying).
Use needles to stop misfires preemptively during his recovery and to prevent him from getting distance from tornado & green missile. Fair > bair if you can hit it on him. Take away all his options & hog him (or hit him away).
You should DI all his throws behind him. CC to block, d-smash, or grab if he does jab stuff.
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Sheik vs Doc
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Doc:
SH fair. SH bair. Run off platform fair. Use a lot of fair & bair. Space them. Air needles are pretty good too. Grabbing him is really good, too, and your ground movement is better. F-tilt is dangerous against shields if they're good but most of them suck (they can up smash oos but only Shroomed does it). Crouch cancel > block, d-smash, or grab if he jabs (Docs like to jab > d-smash so CC > block > WD oos punish works a lot). His game is mostly centered around crouch-punishes, grab attempts, and getting under you with up tilt, uair, or up smash so if you play to avoid those you'll be fine. Your f-tilt rapes his aerial approaches.
If he camps pills, just charge needles and then prepare to engage him. It's easy to run under them, WD under them, crouch them, nair through them, bair to protect yourself from them, etc.
The combo tree is similar to that of Marth. On DI away, d-throw > dash attack isn't 100% guaranteed (jumpable, possibly even vulnerable to Up+B) but it works enough that I recommend it anyway up to about 45%. After that, f-tilt or fair (or get creative with nair or something).
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Sheik vs Mario
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Treat it exactly the same as Doc only expect Marios to be more aggressive about holding the middle & stuff. If you go berserk with aerials you might get f-smashed so play a bit more grounded. You can also be f-smashed if you go for nooby shield grabs and whatever on spaced moves, so don't do that. They're gonna try to bait you into being f-smashed a lot. So block, stay spaced, etc. It's not a great plan on their part or anything, but it's easy to get complacent when you have a big character advantage. If you deny them their random smash attacks & grabs, there's not much Mario can do about you.
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Sheik vs Fox
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tbh it's really easy to nair OOS on dair-shine pressure. So if Fox is doing a lot of dairs I sometimes just block more and nair OOS rather than try to do SDI stuff. You can also just do aerials aimed at his head because he doesn't protect himself as well as he does with nair because of lower range.
24-25% is the magic number for f-tilt. Beats anything but true CC at that point onwards.
A good start to the defensive spacing strategies vs Fox is to stay just outside his SH nair range and space SH fairs preemptively. This protects you from a far approach. From there, you pay attention to how he goes about moving into a closer range or maneuvering around you and then counter accordingly. As soon as you figure out how he's trying to close the distance, you can just counter with an appropriate Sheik thing. Running under him when he's doing FJ approaches or awkward high approaches is really underutilized because he will try to manipulate the circumstances to prevent f-tilt and other crap like that from being a good option (either by initiative or other shenaniganry).
