As most of you know, if you press the attack button immediately after pivoting during a dash Sheik will throw out a backwards forward tilt while sliding in the direction you were dashing. At first glance this seems like a defensive technique. If this AT was purely defensive then it wouldn't help a character that plays so aggressively, however I believe I have found a few ways that the "retreating" f-tilt can be used quite effectively for offensive purposes. I've put retreating into quotation marks because it is being used to approach.
If you preform this variant of a f-tilt while very close to an opponent (just close enough not to do a cross up) you can hit them with the very back of your f-tilt box. This has the same knockback as a normal f-tilt. It will push the opponent slightly towards the way Sheik is facing and up. However, due to Sheik's new position in relation to this knockback some interesting options are opened up here.
At low % combos you'll usually spam f-tilt till they get out of range. Mostly the knockback at these low %s is sideways so Aggressive "Retreating" f-tilt->pivot->f-tilt->f-tilt.... effectively adds one (possibly 2 with staling) more f-tilts before they are out of range. It also places you right beside your opponent giving you the most possible f-tilts.
F-tilt isn't the only follow up though. With the positioning you get from this reversed f-tilt u-tilt is a very good follow up. It will be able to hit mario (off of a fresh "retreating" f-tilt) until he gets to around 55%. The u-tilt will send the opponent either direction horizontally. You can tell which way they will be sent by their position in relation to Sheik.
At lower percents it is viable to chase this horizontal knockback and do another "retreating"f-tilt->u-tilt (when fresh this combo deals 15%). From 0% it will work at most 4 times (3 on lights) before the knockback is too much. This can then be followed up with a fair, bair, or bouncing fish depending on which way they are launched on the final hit.
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(this is probably the least likely one to fully land, but I figured I'd mention it because Its got the potential to do 4 15% combos (before staling) and a 12% hit making this a possible way to go from 0-70ish% in one string, but again it seems really unreliable.)
At the higher end of this spectrum (50% on mario about 60% on cpt. falcon) u-tilt will just barely hit (another option would be a sweet spotted u-smash to get into a juggling position). They will be launched too far for most moves, however bouncing fish can catch them. You'll need to short hop it and DI to them, however I've found it to be a really easy hit to get the hit off. When fresh f-tilt->u-tilt-> SH->Bouncing fish deals 27%. This is a lot of damage from a combo done at these higher %s. Again, they can be launched either way so its important to be good at reading the direction they're being thrown.
Sadly I'm fairly certain that these aren't true combos. I definitely see some potential with these strings as punishes (especially the F-tilt->U-tilt->SH-> Bouncing fish because this occurs at %s where we have trouble comboing.) The damage off of both hits of u-tilt is almost 3x that of a f-tilt, and the knockback makes for an easy follow up. Working this skill into our combos helps a lot, and the back hit of f-tilt gives perfect positioning for our u-tilt.
There are some definite limitations on this: lack of hitstun, hard positioning, a small hitbox, and vectoring being the most notable. However, I'd love to get some more testing done on these. I hope these strings prove useful to some of you, and that other uses for an aggressive "retreating" f-tilt will show up in the near future providing us Sheik mains with more options and improving some of our match-ups.
If you preform this variant of a f-tilt while very close to an opponent (just close enough not to do a cross up) you can hit them with the very back of your f-tilt box. This has the same knockback as a normal f-tilt. It will push the opponent slightly towards the way Sheik is facing and up. However, due to Sheik's new position in relation to this knockback some interesting options are opened up here.
At low % combos you'll usually spam f-tilt till they get out of range. Mostly the knockback at these low %s is sideways so Aggressive "Retreating" f-tilt->pivot->f-tilt->f-tilt.... effectively adds one (possibly 2 with staling) more f-tilts before they are out of range. It also places you right beside your opponent giving you the most possible f-tilts.
F-tilt isn't the only follow up though. With the positioning you get from this reversed f-tilt u-tilt is a very good follow up. It will be able to hit mario (off of a fresh "retreating" f-tilt) until he gets to around 55%. The u-tilt will send the opponent either direction horizontally. You can tell which way they will be sent by their position in relation to Sheik.
At lower percents it is viable to chase this horizontal knockback and do another "retreating"f-tilt->u-tilt (when fresh this combo deals 15%). From 0% it will work at most 4 times (3 on lights) before the knockback is too much. This can then be followed up with a fair, bair, or bouncing fish depending on which way they are launched on the final hit.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
(this is probably the least likely one to fully land, but I figured I'd mention it because Its got the potential to do 4 15% combos (before staling) and a 12% hit making this a possible way to go from 0-70ish% in one string, but again it seems really unreliable.)
At the higher end of this spectrum (50% on mario about 60% on cpt. falcon) u-tilt will just barely hit (another option would be a sweet spotted u-smash to get into a juggling position). They will be launched too far for most moves, however bouncing fish can catch them. You'll need to short hop it and DI to them, however I've found it to be a really easy hit to get the hit off. When fresh f-tilt->u-tilt-> SH->Bouncing fish deals 27%. This is a lot of damage from a combo done at these higher %s. Again, they can be launched either way so its important to be good at reading the direction they're being thrown.
Sadly I'm fairly certain that these aren't true combos. I definitely see some potential with these strings as punishes (especially the F-tilt->U-tilt->SH-> Bouncing fish because this occurs at %s where we have trouble comboing.) The damage off of both hits of u-tilt is almost 3x that of a f-tilt, and the knockback makes for an easy follow up. Working this skill into our combos helps a lot, and the back hit of f-tilt gives perfect positioning for our u-tilt.
There are some definite limitations on this: lack of hitstun, hard positioning, a small hitbox, and vectoring being the most notable. However, I'd love to get some more testing done on these. I hope these strings prove useful to some of you, and that other uses for an aggressive "retreating" f-tilt will show up in the near future providing us Sheik mains with more options and improving some of our match-ups.
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