This thread for discussion of the matchup against Olimar.
Matchup Rating: Slight Disadvantage
How to play the matchup
SUMMARY: Take full advantage of Sheik's quick moves. Antagonize with needles and try to stay within range as often as possible, but avoid getting grabbed when trying to close that distance. When Olimar is sent off-stage, edgeguard as hard as you can because it'll make a huge difference given your difference in overall KO power.
Watch out for Olimar's grab range, and don't rely too heavily on needles, since Pikmin can block even a full volley of six. His ground game can be absurdly difficult to deal with, but he's much less potent when sent into the air.
If we can get this little ***** of the stage, than it's a stock. IT HAS TO BE! If it isn't than we are begging for trouble.
Now then, away from the obvious things, his camp game is strong and white pikmin can do dumb amounts of damage if left unattended to. Most of our moves moves will kill most pikmin with the exception being purple ones. Those things can take a full needle storm and keep on chugging. We can ill afford not to pay attention to his line up, I got messed up by a lineup that contained either 4 purples or 3 purples/2 blues/1 white. We must kill the pikmin when given the opportunity.
I believe we can treat this menace as we do with ZSS, stay within range but avoid the grabs (something that ZSS cannot do well) If we get in close, do not stop. A string of moves can easily lead to a death. Something that works well is SH soft Nair -> rapid jabs. As crazy as it sounds, it is surprisingly effective, but immediately change it up if it stops working or if he catches on. Ftilts to aerials is a great idea but above anything else we need to keep in aerial. He is far less scary in the air than on the ground.
With boosted grabs and pivots, it's hard to always keep the lineup in mind and, Oli's will catch on to some one reading their line as well.
It does seem easy to get the gimp if you stay level or above him w/ Fairs/Bairs but you have to be careful of the Spike Olimar can pull off, and if you're going to edge hog, I'd say pull that off with the chain and don't pull up yet, since of course Oli's Up+B can stage spike us. Mixing up your game to do Full Hop needles and SH or FH needles at the edge or grounded Needles while oli recovers can allow you to move in quick and try to edge hog safely.
Grabs are his most ranged and annoying thing to deal w/ on the ground and it seems hard to approach, I'd need more practice in that to give any insightful input. So the ever popular Shield Dashing in this match should be cut down to a minimal, Try other Approaches like RAR's and or try the slight disjoint on Fair.
DACUS can be easily stopped by a quick pikmin toss as well, so time and use those sparingly. I Just think Olimar has a lot more options to deal damage and land a KO, but can be open to some gimps if you chain hits right.
First and fore most approaching. Rule number 1 is u DO NOT always have to approach needles are a pretty good tool and u can use them somewhat to hold him at bay. Alot of olimars like to sh throw pikimin u can get them on landing sometimes if they dont have pikmin already running back. However eventually u are gonna have to approach cause we cant out spam him. Pikin toss really isnt a big deal vs sheik because our jab is amazing at getting pikmin off of us all try and ftilt them off if u can to stale that ftilt. tHhe only thing that oli has that we hate is purple pikmin toss which is one of the best projectiles in the game. It messes up our rythme and makes us loose some stage control so watch for purple tosses.
The actual approach. If he sh pikmin tosses at the right range its a free DA which is a good way to cut down that distance. If he is pivot grabbing u have a few options 1 is to try and spot dodge it but the easier option is sh-ing over and aerial. I know people love to soft nair jabs which is good but dont rely on it cause soft nairs wont clank with his upsmash like our stronger moves will u have to deal within 10% of his upsmash to clank and be safe i like fair works ok and strong nair isnt bad. I wouldnt try running past and pivot grabbing him cause they generally will just try to pivot grab again if they miss and we cant out run him given the distance. Any way be cautious and cut down the distance cause the next part is the most important part of the MU.
Once ur inside. 2 rules. 1 dont let him get away no matter what this is where u want to be. 2 JAB!!!!!. Sheiks jab is this freaking MU its soooooo good vs olimar. If u dont know olimar has no grab armor so if u jab as he grabs u u break it. Jab cancel everything. Mix up 1 to 2 jabs because olimars will try desperately to sdi ur jab and get away. Mix up single and double jab grabs and jab to ftilts. If they sdi and roll away dash grab um and learn to mix up and bait those rolls or w/e. Once they are ftilted and in the air focus hard on juggling. Make sure they dont touch the ground. Pressure them with aerials but most importantly get used to ftilting them on landing to keep the juggle going. I have 0-deathed a few olimars by jab jab grab then ftilt aerial juggles ftilting them on landing. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF THE MU IF U DONT GET THIS STUFF DOWN THE MU IS ALOT HARDER.
Offstage. First of all getting him offstage can be difficult but fair is awesome for these purposes. but ftil any aerial is great for this. IF they are getting juggled hard they will start to AD to get out more so u can bait that stuff and get em off stage. Once they are offstage i was reading some other posts but to be honest it ISN'T a free stock when u play good olimars. infact i only hit logic off stage once cause he is ridiculous at recoverying. However this is ur best chance to take a stock so take advantage. Olimars have a few options when recovering. They will either save their jump and come in high and not go for the ledge. Its important to try and catch olimar early offstage and try to bait whistles and airdodges treat them the same tbh and learn the timing. If u manage to hit olimar offstage it IS a stock. Once u hit olimar once hes offstage run and tether the ledge its the best way to edge hog cause he cant grab the ledge and once he drop low enough to up b u, u can zip up and ur safe. The other thing they will do is comin in low and uair as they double jump right on top of the ledge. IF they do this u really only have one option and that is to either jump past the ledge and bair this has to be spaced well to avoid their uair but it is possible. The most important thing when edge guarding olimar to pressure him early when he is far from the ledge and try to bait airdodges/whistles and punish, tho if u cant then its much harder.
Last option and i wanted to throw this out there if u cant get to olimar before he gets to the ledge pull out the freaking chain!!!!! The chain is awesome when they are on the ledge its like free 60% watch my match vs logic game 2 and you'll see what im talking about u have to space it just outside his getup attack range.The only thing olimar can do to the chain is grab it with blue and white pikmin so they are helpless off the ledge. They will try to jump over u once they get behind u retract it.
Things pertaining to olimar. Olimars best pikmin IMO are purples and yellow purples are soooo much damage and the pikmin toss is great and yellow extend his range so watch out for these cause they really are his best. Also watch out for blue grabs over 100.
Stage picksGrabs are really good for us in this match up. forward air leads into very very good gimps regardless of DI. (ftilt fair, or fthrow fair, etc etc.)
All that said. Oli smashes make getting inside difficult especially well placed up smashes. his aerial game is pretty good too, but spaced bairs beat every thing he can throw out for the most part (like in most of sheik's match-ups) Just wait for his openings and capitalize while you avoid getting grabbed. Oli grabs leads into huge damage for us.
Needles are huge and learning to edge gaurd correctly is really important too.
SUMMARY:
Aim for starting on Battlefield/Smashville.
Ban Halberd, Castle Siege, Norfair, Distant Planet, or Delfino Plaza
Counterpick Frigate Orpheon, Rainbow Cruise, Pokémon Stadium 2
Ban Halberd: Yes here! He can kill you like Snake can here. As good as this place is to us, it can be just as good here.
Ban Castle Siege: The 2nd transformation is tood good for him here.
Ban Norfair: Olimar can live forever here, just don't do it. Another one of our good stages down the tubes.
CP Frigate: The initial transformation can really hinder him if you can keep him to that side. Be wary of his lineup though, I got stomped because of it. (That and TV lag XD)
Neutral: Battlefield, using the Platforms to stay out of range of a lot of grabs, and playing off them to bring Olimar to the air. Similar to how to play against IC's
FD is hard to avoid some of pivot boost grabs, so try to stay off that. Smashville is a great stage too for same reasons as BF.
CP: Rainbow Cruise, a lot of area to snipe and use needle gimps, make it hard for olimar to recover. A lot of areas to get some Uair to stage Spikes on the Left hand stage as it goes up. Jab cancel at the wall on the Ship.
Ban: Any stages that just don't allow you mobility to avoid a lot of grabs imo, can't think of any particular ones.
Neutrals, BF is good but at the same time oli is good here too. I would honestly only recommend flat stages cause oli benefits too much from slants because of his grab also flat surfaces make juggling easier to probably BF or SV.
CP's the oli in town loves CS which is good for olimar however i dont think it worth banning its not terrible for us the important factor is DONT FIGHT ON PHASE 2. Just stay at the top of the screen and go back and forth on the cloth over hangs. watch out for up bs and youll be ok.
Ban if for some reason Distant planet is legal ban that place u will NOT win lol.
Ban if u want ban halberd although it isnt bad for sheik as he said however u lose ur ability to to chain guard the ledge cause he can uair from underneathe.
Ban i would recommend banning Delfino just because like halberd u cant chain guard and the stage is just goo for oli for several reasons. There are serveral walk offs and and the stage saves from gimps every now and then.
CP's the best CP's imo are RC and PS2. ps2 is great because every transformation bar the ground phase is good for sheik and bad for olimar. Take advantage of wind phase cause thats ur best chance.
Cp Firgate is also pretty good although it isnt that good because the second phase is awesome for olimar and he gets tons of purples and yellows on this stage but phase 1 sucks for him so take advantage.
Cp Norfair is also good for u it promotes aerial fighting and althugh u cant edge guard him vanish is sooo safe on this stage. Make sure u control the bottom platform and ur fine.