Good thing you brought this up greeny mcgreen. I actually brought this up earlier today, and Tenki I'm quite sure has mentioned this quite a few times, but you're right, it should be in this thread.
Anyways, as Pheonix Dark pointed out, I use this mostly for pivot grabs, as Its much better than Sonic's pivot grab since it stops you in place, and it gives you that instant boost. Usually when you try to pivot grab with Sonic you just run past your opponents and end up totally whiffing it, with this, not so much. And its a great surprise tactic too.
However, I never thought of the applications of this in the ways you brought up, all of which seem viable. I especially like the Idea of the reveerse spinshot. Like if your opponent is trying to chase after you, then an all of a sudden you reverse spinshot and Bair them... too good.
As for the go vertical thing, we call it VSDJ(Vertical SDJ =P)
I had also mentioned in another thread how awesome it is to Reverse Aerial Rush ASCs. Seriously, its sooo much less predictable and harder to counter than just running up to your opponent jumping, and using ASC. This would let you run past them, and then very quickly SH ASC backwards. If you can get a reverse grab off of landing the ASC(Not exactly sure how this works...), then its awesome
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On another random note.... I was thinking about triple hit ASCs... I know it usually happens on larger heavier characters at low percentages... but I was wondering, what if there were a way to perhaps make it easier to land all 3 hits(maybe even more?) of ASC?
I came across this tiny clip, and started to wonder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJS4D-7d9tc
I mean 38% in less than 2 seconds... thats pretty darn sweet.
So this is my reasoning:
ASC isn't automzaticaly multi-hit. It only becomes so by you continuing to hold forward as you progress through the air.
The reason why ASC isn't usually more than 2 hits is because Sonic usually has already gone past his opponent by the time he gets the chance to connect a third time. That clip above is an exception.
So what if you could somehow make it so that you slow the movement of the ASC through the air?
But you may say, you can slo it down depending on how much you hold forward, but if you don't hold forward, it wont be as powerful...
Yet for ASC to hit full power, all you have to do is hold forward the INSTANT as you are about to go through your opponent.
So if you could theoretically, quickly move the control stick back and forth, to speed up and slow down the ASCs momentum for each and every hit... you might get more reliable triplehit ASCs...
Things would basically go like this:
Hold forward>first hit>quickly push back to slow ASC down, then push forward againfor the second hit>rinse and repeat.
You are basically slowing down the ASC between hits, so you don't travel past your opponent so quickly...
So yea, this is all theory craft, but I think its worth a try. It seems like youd need extremely quick fingers to get it to work at full speed, but how about someone try it out at 1/4th speed to see if its even possible at all? If it can be done at 1/4x, then someone wth quick enough fingers could do it at full speed...
A possible flaw I was thinking of however, is that ASC scends your opponents upwards, so if you are slowing it down, your opponents might get sent up too much and escape the combo anyways. Another possible flaw is that Sonic's aerial acceleration is too poor to really make a difference at such short time intervals of hitting back and forth.
Anyone wanna try? I dunno if I'm going home this weekend =/
Edit:
Big flaw, ASC's power is determined by velocity not just wether you are holding forward I believe. So yea, no clue if this will work at all. But if it makes triple hit ASCs any more common, it's worth knowing.