I wanted to look at a different aspect of DACUS that's usually not talked about much. I'm starting to think more and more that DACUS not only gives Sheik more potential kill power with her grab release setups and making it exponentially easier to land tippers, i'm beginning to think that if you don't choose to master DACUS and utilize it's potential you are missing out on a critical aspect of Sheik.............unpredictability.
Brief history lesson so bear with me. I've known about DACUS for a while. I've been on this board and would like to think that i've been a contributor for about Brawl's existence (little over 2 years). When DACUS was discovered and InnocentRoads' various Dacus vids were posted, I thought it was flashy.....maybe worth looking into. Didn't really pay much attention to it after messing around with it after a while. Seemed like a waste of motion to me and I didn't feel that the risk/reward factor of it was paying out enough for me. In fact I started to think that outside of the GR setup on MK, the move wasn't worth the wasted effort.
About a year ago I saw vids of Light for the first time. Somehow he was able to nail DACUS nearly 100% of the time and use it safely and effeciently. This renewed my interest in DACUS. I was tired of having Marth, MK, Kirby, and Wario players being able to zone me through the air with no risk to them.
Of course you can attempt to punish their landing with needles and that's all fine and dandy.......but your opponent is aware of this. I had to face the fact that needles are not outstanding(they're good don't get me wrong), but they in no way are great for punishing characters on landing and they definitely don't help when your opponent takes to the air. I then began to put the pieces together......DACUS makes needles more dangerous.
Think about it. When your in the Marth matchup....most of the time the Marth is going to take to the air to avoid your camping and Sheik doesn't have the moveset to deal with Marth in the air. So of course the inevitable happens. You charge needles while Marth begans his fair and nair spacing to get inside. Now I know Sheik can deal with Marth once he's inside, that's not the point. With DACUS, you make the Marth player weary of SH aerials. ESPECIALLY at higher percents he can't afford to risk you landing a tipper. What does this leave him? You have him almost scared to approach aerially or at least have conditioned him to be extra careful when taking to the air.....no longer does Marth have an easy time zoning Sheik....there's always going to be that worry of a random DACUS from you in the back of his mind.
Then I started mixing in a little chain here and there. I now have a sort of semi-wall built up in that I:
1. Have a charged needle storm ready to punish a misspaced landing
2. Have a ranged move in the chain that I can mix in to halt approaches
3. Have my opponent also thinking of DACUS. At any time I could end his stock INSANELY EARLY.
This can limit my opponents options. Now what does he do? Approach from the ground? Dash shields? He's now playing right into your hands. Even at that dtilt zone range that MK and Marth players love you have made them worry about Sheik's unpredictability. I think instead of us being overly catious and hiding in our shield a lot.....we could be doing the same thing to our opponents?
Against certain characters I think Sheik may be a defensive monster. Then you throw in the fact that certain characters like MK have to be extra careful of grabs at like 90% or their dead lmao. I don't know many characters in the game that have the ability to kill MK as early as Sheik does.
To sum up my scattered thoughts. DACUS is really good. A lot better than I originally thought. It can eliminate Sheiks problem of killing early. I think DACUS may evensingle-handedly change some matchups.
Thoughts? Am I totally off base here?
Brief history lesson so bear with me. I've known about DACUS for a while. I've been on this board and would like to think that i've been a contributor for about Brawl's existence (little over 2 years). When DACUS was discovered and InnocentRoads' various Dacus vids were posted, I thought it was flashy.....maybe worth looking into. Didn't really pay much attention to it after messing around with it after a while. Seemed like a waste of motion to me and I didn't feel that the risk/reward factor of it was paying out enough for me. In fact I started to think that outside of the GR setup on MK, the move wasn't worth the wasted effort.
About a year ago I saw vids of Light for the first time. Somehow he was able to nail DACUS nearly 100% of the time and use it safely and effeciently. This renewed my interest in DACUS. I was tired of having Marth, MK, Kirby, and Wario players being able to zone me through the air with no risk to them.
Of course you can attempt to punish their landing with needles and that's all fine and dandy.......but your opponent is aware of this. I had to face the fact that needles are not outstanding(they're good don't get me wrong), but they in no way are great for punishing characters on landing and they definitely don't help when your opponent takes to the air. I then began to put the pieces together......DACUS makes needles more dangerous.
Think about it. When your in the Marth matchup....most of the time the Marth is going to take to the air to avoid your camping and Sheik doesn't have the moveset to deal with Marth in the air. So of course the inevitable happens. You charge needles while Marth begans his fair and nair spacing to get inside. Now I know Sheik can deal with Marth once he's inside, that's not the point. With DACUS, you make the Marth player weary of SH aerials. ESPECIALLY at higher percents he can't afford to risk you landing a tipper. What does this leave him? You have him almost scared to approach aerially or at least have conditioned him to be extra careful when taking to the air.....no longer does Marth have an easy time zoning Sheik....there's always going to be that worry of a random DACUS from you in the back of his mind.
Then I started mixing in a little chain here and there. I now have a sort of semi-wall built up in that I:
1. Have a charged needle storm ready to punish a misspaced landing
2. Have a ranged move in the chain that I can mix in to halt approaches
3. Have my opponent also thinking of DACUS. At any time I could end his stock INSANELY EARLY.
This can limit my opponents options. Now what does he do? Approach from the ground? Dash shields? He's now playing right into your hands. Even at that dtilt zone range that MK and Marth players love you have made them worry about Sheik's unpredictability. I think instead of us being overly catious and hiding in our shield a lot.....we could be doing the same thing to our opponents?
Against certain characters I think Sheik may be a defensive monster. Then you throw in the fact that certain characters like MK have to be extra careful of grabs at like 90% or their dead lmao. I don't know many characters in the game that have the ability to kill MK as early as Sheik does.
To sum up my scattered thoughts. DACUS is really good. A lot better than I originally thought. It can eliminate Sheiks problem of killing early. I think DACUS may evensingle-handedly change some matchups.
Thoughts? Am I totally off base here?
