SuSa
Banned via Administration
Hello everyone, probably only a few of you know me around these neck of the woods. Some friendly, some not. But whatever.
I've decided to make this thread to spill a lot of my ideas about Sheik. Many of these things will likely be things some of you will go "Well no **** sherlock, we've been doing this for months! If not years!" but others may even freshen up your memory or be something you've never even thought of!
Feel free to share your tips and tricks in this thread as well, but I won't be adding them to the OP unless I feel they are super duper awesome. Alrighty?
First off I'd like to touch on my view of Sheik as a character. She is well rounded, relies on baits and reads, and has speed that is hard matched in this game. Her attacks are fast, even if lacking a bit of range, and she has trouble killing. Nothing new so far? Right?
Well, most of you will know her offstage game is great. When she's on the offensive, but it's bad when she needs to recover. Her Up-B isn't amazing, it's punishable, side-B can be risky, and not many legal stages have clingable walls. For this reason, I don't personally feel Sheik is a viable Game1 character - unless you're going to Yoshi's Island (brawl). She has quite a few good counterpick stages however, so she makes a great pocket char - which is how I plan to use her.
I have not done amazing with her in tournament yet, but I plan to start using her and getting her rep starting my next tourney. So everything I say, take with some grain of salt.
Let's really begin now, with my dump.
November 1st, 2010
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A great recovery mixup I enjoy doing when I use the chain to recover, is to save my second jump. After using the chain, I let it bring me towards the stage and I press down to cancel it - use my second jump, and catch my opponent off guard. Sometimes I'll even instantly cancel it and do this! Many opponents expect for you to instantly press A to go to the ledge, so this is just another mixup.
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I feel a B-reversed (read: not wavebounce, just B-reversed) needle cancel can be very useful if you are able to pull it off fast enough. You can pull off-stage bair-->fair-->bair combos and such which only helps Sheik's gimp game. If you're feeling risky, you can even use needle in a few matchups to ensure they die (Diddy Kong especially)
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Sheik has an amazing banana/item in general game. Due to her speed and her fast aerials, she can perform double item drops to fair/nair and just apply such an unrealistic amount of shield pressure. It's not a spot your opponent wants to be in, and man is it amazing for Sheik!
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Sheik easily has one of the best grab games in this game; barring characters with chaingrabs and "true" techchases (Snake).
Her fthrow is a complete frame trap, and is unpunishable at most percents. If you SH after the throw, you outspeed most characters and can hit them before they can hit you. If they airdodge, you can pause and hit them as they come out of it. I've had fthrow's even go straight into ftilt locks into usmash KO's so often I don't even know how many times I've done it now. It's an AMAZING move.
Likewise, her bthrow at mid/low %'s throws opponents perfectly as the Battlefield platform height level. You can throw them and they WILL land on that platform, allowing you to apply some awesome SH uair/usmash pressure from below while they're laying (or even teching perhaps) on that platform. I've managed to do bthrow --> sourspot bair lock --> repeat --> tippered usmash. While that one's really hard to get off, in a few matchups it actually KO's!
Uthrow and dthrow are for higher %'s imo. Both of them are actually read bad at low %'s (dthrow often gets me punished) and so I save them for higher %'s. Both place your opponent up into the air, which is always a bad position - especially when you're against Sheik.
Like I said.. amazing grab game.
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Watch out for possible locks. Whenever your opponent misses a tech (or is in a position that they may possibly tech) throw a needle. Did it hit? Close that distance! Go for a grab, dash attack, DACUS, do SOMETHING! Did it miss? Oh well, try again. I don't feel enough Sheik's capitalize on their opponents when their opponent fails to tech. You can get this after fairs, off dash attack, and (really rare) even dsmash! Don't forget those platform push-offs that some people don't attack out of, or even those accidental footstools (go for the soft bair lock in this case, and if at a higher % try to drift and b-reverse a needle at them)
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Single, and several needles are sometimes better than the full load! I find myself sometimes getting punished due to it taking longer to fire all the needles off when fully charged. If I get a bad read or shoot them off in air, it's a little more likely to hit but it puts me in a punishable spot.
Because of this, until my opponent is at about 60%+ I avoid charging my needles past a few. Just remember to double-tap B and you'll do fine. It also keeps the needles off your opponents mind because you aren't glowing. They might think you're going to throw one, then you let off a small barrage!
Again - mixups are everything!
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Down tilt. Oh how I've always underrated this move for Sheik AND Snake! For both characters it is their furtherst reaching ground option from a standing position. Often times you can counter aerials by just crouching beneath them, and dtilting your opponents landing. For Sheik (since her's is a little faster than Snake's and her jump isn't 11 ****ing frames) she can really capitalized on this against her opponent.
I often find when my opponent is staying just out of ftilt reach, throwing out a dtilt can suddenly switch all momentum into my favor. I also randomly throw this out sometimes as a scare tactic, and because people think it's laggier than it really is.
I find dtilt to be superior to up tilt in most positions. (In fact, up-tilt pretty much sucks.. but that's another story and I don't want to touch up on it here)
Oh, did I mention it shield pokes? <333333
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Earlier I said that Sheik is a pocket character. What did I mean by this?
She's a character not many have experience with, she has some gimmicks but is overall a character that has a very powerful read and bait game. If you're able to get into your opponents mind and read them, Sheik is ONE HELL of a force to be wrecked with! I've had many times where I've had 0-100%+ combos with the use of only 1-2 ftilts through the whole thing, and those were only for a quick shield pressure! (Ftilt-->Dtilt poke)
But, she has exploitable flaws. One large thing being her recovery, and due to the current starter stage list - all someone has to do is strike Battle Field and Yoshi's Island (Brawl) and you're starting off on some pretty bad stages. FD is 'aight, but Smashville and Lylat are bad.
Because of this, I don't trust myself to go Sheik Game1.... Snake has a strong starter-stage list setup and is, no duh, a better character overall. I can't bring myself to use Sheik as a main because of this.
However she's good on MANY stages (again, IMO)!
On Rainbow Cruise, she has a WALKOFF GRAB RELEASE KO) as well as a GRAB RELEASE INFINITE (against one of the 3 walls) on some of the cast. Her Usmash KO's much sooner, her gimp game is pretty amazing, there are a few walls for her to abuse here and there, and gimping her is actually a pretty hard feat (except during the pendulam)
This might be my biased love for RC in general ( I take EVERYONE there... even as Snake ) I feel Sheik does amazing here as well....
Yoshi's Island Brawl, the ghost platforms and a clingable wall? The ceiling is a bit higher but for the advantages you're gaining I feel it's a fair trade to rack up another 25-30% to guarentee that KO. Not much else to say here.
Delfino Plaza (extremely matchup dependant) - I have a love/hate relationship with this stage. Except during transitions, a gimp can be pretty hard. Theres a lot of gimicks and ledges Sheik can abuse, and she's able to teleport through the stage to safety. Overall it's not one of her best, but it's better than Smashville (IMO.. again)
Halberd (even more matchup dependant) - Lower ceiling, clingable walls, but you have to live through the floating platform to get there first... that's by far the hardest part of this stage. Do it and you are rewarded with a stage you can needle camp on, and a platform placed well enough to use some grab setups and get a tipper usmash setup for yourself. What's not to love?
4 stages = good enough to be viable. Nobody can ban all 4.
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Sorry, but the chain sucks. Yes, I know how to use it. It's only good for edgeguarding a very select amount of characters, but otherwise. it sucks.
That is all.
__________________________
Jab mixups. Love them, but I feel this is so stupidly known about and obvious I'll leave it out. (Jab grab, jab dtilt, jab ftilt, jab jab grab, jab jab ftilt utilt, jab jab dash away....)
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End November 1st, 2010
That's all for now! Just remember everything here is from my personal experience, a touch of theorycraft (if anyone knows me, my theorycrafting is pretty legit), and my knowledge of this game. I know much of this is probably known, but I feel like sharing and it's nice to know my tips may help someone, somewhere.
I'll update whenever I have more to say and change the date in the title.
:leek:
I've decided to make this thread to spill a lot of my ideas about Sheik. Many of these things will likely be things some of you will go "Well no **** sherlock, we've been doing this for months! If not years!" but others may even freshen up your memory or be something you've never even thought of!
Feel free to share your tips and tricks in this thread as well, but I won't be adding them to the OP unless I feel they are super duper awesome. Alrighty?
First off I'd like to touch on my view of Sheik as a character. She is well rounded, relies on baits and reads, and has speed that is hard matched in this game. Her attacks are fast, even if lacking a bit of range, and she has trouble killing. Nothing new so far? Right?
Well, most of you will know her offstage game is great. When she's on the offensive, but it's bad when she needs to recover. Her Up-B isn't amazing, it's punishable, side-B can be risky, and not many legal stages have clingable walls. For this reason, I don't personally feel Sheik is a viable Game1 character - unless you're going to Yoshi's Island (brawl). She has quite a few good counterpick stages however, so she makes a great pocket char - which is how I plan to use her.
I have not done amazing with her in tournament yet, but I plan to start using her and getting her rep starting my next tourney. So everything I say, take with some grain of salt.
Let's really begin now, with my dump.
November 1st, 2010
A great recovery mixup I enjoy doing when I use the chain to recover, is to save my second jump. After using the chain, I let it bring me towards the stage and I press down to cancel it - use my second jump, and catch my opponent off guard. Sometimes I'll even instantly cancel it and do this! Many opponents expect for you to instantly press A to go to the ledge, so this is just another mixup.
I feel a B-reversed (read: not wavebounce, just B-reversed) needle cancel can be very useful if you are able to pull it off fast enough. You can pull off-stage bair-->fair-->bair combos and such which only helps Sheik's gimp game. If you're feeling risky, you can even use needle in a few matchups to ensure they die (Diddy Kong especially)
Sheik has an amazing banana/item in general game. Due to her speed and her fast aerials, she can perform double item drops to fair/nair and just apply such an unrealistic amount of shield pressure. It's not a spot your opponent wants to be in, and man is it amazing for Sheik!
Sheik easily has one of the best grab games in this game; barring characters with chaingrabs and "true" techchases (Snake).
Her fthrow is a complete frame trap, and is unpunishable at most percents. If you SH after the throw, you outspeed most characters and can hit them before they can hit you. If they airdodge, you can pause and hit them as they come out of it. I've had fthrow's even go straight into ftilt locks into usmash KO's so often I don't even know how many times I've done it now. It's an AMAZING move.
Likewise, her bthrow at mid/low %'s throws opponents perfectly as the Battlefield platform height level. You can throw them and they WILL land on that platform, allowing you to apply some awesome SH uair/usmash pressure from below while they're laying (or even teching perhaps) on that platform. I've managed to do bthrow --> sourspot bair lock --> repeat --> tippered usmash. While that one's really hard to get off, in a few matchups it actually KO's!
Uthrow and dthrow are for higher %'s imo. Both of them are actually read bad at low %'s (dthrow often gets me punished) and so I save them for higher %'s. Both place your opponent up into the air, which is always a bad position - especially when you're against Sheik.
Like I said.. amazing grab game.
Watch out for possible locks. Whenever your opponent misses a tech (or is in a position that they may possibly tech) throw a needle. Did it hit? Close that distance! Go for a grab, dash attack, DACUS, do SOMETHING! Did it miss? Oh well, try again. I don't feel enough Sheik's capitalize on their opponents when their opponent fails to tech. You can get this after fairs, off dash attack, and (really rare) even dsmash! Don't forget those platform push-offs that some people don't attack out of, or even those accidental footstools (go for the soft bair lock in this case, and if at a higher % try to drift and b-reverse a needle at them)
Single, and several needles are sometimes better than the full load! I find myself sometimes getting punished due to it taking longer to fire all the needles off when fully charged. If I get a bad read or shoot them off in air, it's a little more likely to hit but it puts me in a punishable spot.
Because of this, until my opponent is at about 60%+ I avoid charging my needles past a few. Just remember to double-tap B and you'll do fine. It also keeps the needles off your opponents mind because you aren't glowing. They might think you're going to throw one, then you let off a small barrage!
Again - mixups are everything!
Down tilt. Oh how I've always underrated this move for Sheik AND Snake! For both characters it is their furtherst reaching ground option from a standing position. Often times you can counter aerials by just crouching beneath them, and dtilting your opponents landing. For Sheik (since her's is a little faster than Snake's and her jump isn't 11 ****ing frames) she can really capitalized on this against her opponent.
I often find when my opponent is staying just out of ftilt reach, throwing out a dtilt can suddenly switch all momentum into my favor. I also randomly throw this out sometimes as a scare tactic, and because people think it's laggier than it really is.
I find dtilt to be superior to up tilt in most positions. (In fact, up-tilt pretty much sucks.. but that's another story and I don't want to touch up on it here)
Oh, did I mention it shield pokes? <333333
Earlier I said that Sheik is a pocket character. What did I mean by this?
She's a character not many have experience with, she has some gimmicks but is overall a character that has a very powerful read and bait game. If you're able to get into your opponents mind and read them, Sheik is ONE HELL of a force to be wrecked with! I've had many times where I've had 0-100%+ combos with the use of only 1-2 ftilts through the whole thing, and those were only for a quick shield pressure! (Ftilt-->Dtilt poke)
But, she has exploitable flaws. One large thing being her recovery, and due to the current starter stage list - all someone has to do is strike Battle Field and Yoshi's Island (Brawl) and you're starting off on some pretty bad stages. FD is 'aight, but Smashville and Lylat are bad.
Because of this, I don't trust myself to go Sheik Game1.... Snake has a strong starter-stage list setup and is, no duh, a better character overall. I can't bring myself to use Sheik as a main because of this.
However she's good on MANY stages (again, IMO)!
On Rainbow Cruise, she has a WALKOFF GRAB RELEASE KO) as well as a GRAB RELEASE INFINITE (against one of the 3 walls) on some of the cast. Her Usmash KO's much sooner, her gimp game is pretty amazing, there are a few walls for her to abuse here and there, and gimping her is actually a pretty hard feat (except during the pendulam)
This might be my biased love for RC in general ( I take EVERYONE there... even as Snake ) I feel Sheik does amazing here as well....
Yoshi's Island Brawl, the ghost platforms and a clingable wall? The ceiling is a bit higher but for the advantages you're gaining I feel it's a fair trade to rack up another 25-30% to guarentee that KO. Not much else to say here.
Delfino Plaza (extremely matchup dependant) - I have a love/hate relationship with this stage. Except during transitions, a gimp can be pretty hard. Theres a lot of gimicks and ledges Sheik can abuse, and she's able to teleport through the stage to safety. Overall it's not one of her best, but it's better than Smashville (IMO.. again)
Halberd (even more matchup dependant) - Lower ceiling, clingable walls, but you have to live through the floating platform to get there first... that's by far the hardest part of this stage. Do it and you are rewarded with a stage you can needle camp on, and a platform placed well enough to use some grab setups and get a tipper usmash setup for yourself. What's not to love?
4 stages = good enough to be viable. Nobody can ban all 4.
Sorry, but the chain sucks. Yes, I know how to use it. It's only good for edgeguarding a very select amount of characters, but otherwise. it sucks.
That is all.
Jab mixups. Love them, but I feel this is so stupidly known about and obvious I'll leave it out. (Jab grab, jab dtilt, jab ftilt, jab jab grab, jab jab ftilt utilt, jab jab dash away....)
End November 1st, 2010
That's all for now! Just remember everything here is from my personal experience, a touch of theorycraft (if anyone knows me, my theorycrafting is pretty legit), and my knowledge of this game. I know much of this is probably known, but I feel like sharing and it's nice to know my tips may help someone, somewhere.
I'll update whenever I have more to say and change the date in the title.
:leek:
