Todo List:
Intro
When your opponent uses their shield, you want to be in a position to capitalize on it. A shielded character only has access to their Out-of-Shield (OoS) options.
The best way to beat a shield is to grab.
Shield pressure is when you safely threaten your opponent's shield in the attempt to force them to commit to an unsafe OoS option. As their shield gets smaller, they become more at risk of being shieldpoked or having their shield broken. In most ssbm situations, shield pressure is a mindgame-oriented tool which depends on your opponent's impression that you are safer than they are.
Crossing Up
An easy way to safely pressure your opponent's shield is to cross them up. This is when you perform an aerial on their shield and you land behind them, emasculating their shield grab.
This is most effective against characters with poor OoS options, but you can still be punished by something like Sheik's Nair OoS if you mess up your L-cancel or something like that.
Tomahawk
During a match, it is easy to condition your opponent into expecting you to attack their shield when they put it up. A tomahawk is when you empty land to throw off their reaction. The most common application is a tomahawk grab. Since grab is one of the few things that beats shield, many players will overuse shield. A tomahawk is a good counter to that habit (as long as you mix it up).
Fake Shield Pressure
Many ground moves are unsafe on shield. A skilled opponent can wavedash OoS as soon as shieldstun is over and punish you during your endlag.
After Autocanceling (AC) a Fair on shield without crossing up, a Sheik player may be tempted to followup with a jab.
All the opponent needs to do is hold both shield and down/forward on the control stick, then mash shield grab. Even if they miss-time it, they'll just Crouch Cancel (CC) whatever you do.
Ideally, the Sheik would want to grab rather than using a ground attack. However, AC Fair is -1 on shield, which means that a frame-perfect AC Fair -> grab would be 1 frame slower than a frame-perfect shieldgrab after shieldstun ends. She would need to crossup, mindgame/mixup the opponent, or dash/roll away.
BTW, to CC grab you need to Jump Cancel (JC) or Shield grab, because hitting Z while crouching will cause a Dtilt.
Also, a CC works by holding down to provide Automatic Smash Directional Influence (ASDI) downwards on the first frame of hitstun, causing them to land-cancel the hitstun. Thus, CC only works against moves which have an upwards trajectoy. A move that sends down won't get them off the ground. CC stops working after a certain % b/c the knockback becomes too great for the ASDI to overcome.
Spacie Shield Pressure
Spacies are the only characters with real shield pressure. As mentioned earlier, Shiek's tools give her imperfect options for shield pressure that she has to work around, and they're considered really good for a non-spacie.
Kira has provided several excellent videos about Falco shield pressure, which are the main sources for this section:
Beginner Falco Shield Pressure 1
Beginner Falco Shield Pressure 2
Intermediate Falco Shield Pressure
I will do a concise writeup based on those vids in the near future, but until then you can watch them.
OoS Frame Data:
http://smashboards.com/threads/out-of-shield-options-frame-data.294336/
*Gifs of ppmd/mango/etc shield pressure applications.
*Magus said something about fake shield pressure, I'll try to find it. (Maybe it was this?: http://smashboards.com/threads/crouch-cancel-grab.251375/)
*Data on shield recovery rate, shieldstun/lag, etc.
*Sections for spacie SP: Shine Grab, aerials->shine, multishine, etc.
*Magus said something about fake shield pressure, I'll try to find it. (Maybe it was this?: http://smashboards.com/threads/crouch-cancel-grab.251375/)
*Data on shield recovery rate, shieldstun/lag, etc.
*Sections for spacie SP: Shine Grab, aerials->shine, multishine, etc.
Intro
When your opponent uses their shield, you want to be in a position to capitalize on it. A shielded character only has access to their Out-of-Shield (OoS) options.
The best way to beat a shield is to grab.
Shield pressure is when you safely threaten your opponent's shield in the attempt to force them to commit to an unsafe OoS option. As their shield gets smaller, they become more at risk of being shieldpoked or having their shield broken. In most ssbm situations, shield pressure is a mindgame-oriented tool which depends on your opponent's impression that you are safer than they are.
Crossing Up
An easy way to safely pressure your opponent's shield is to cross them up. This is when you perform an aerial on their shield and you land behind them, emasculating their shield grab.
This is most effective against characters with poor OoS options, but you can still be punished by something like Sheik's Nair OoS if you mess up your L-cancel or something like that.
Tomahawk
During a match, it is easy to condition your opponent into expecting you to attack their shield when they put it up. A tomahawk is when you empty land to throw off their reaction. The most common application is a tomahawk grab. Since grab is one of the few things that beats shield, many players will overuse shield. A tomahawk is a good counter to that habit (as long as you mix it up).
Fake Shield Pressure
Many ground moves are unsafe on shield. A skilled opponent can wavedash OoS as soon as shieldstun is over and punish you during your endlag.
After Autocanceling (AC) a Fair on shield without crossing up, a Sheik player may be tempted to followup with a jab.
All the opponent needs to do is hold both shield and down/forward on the control stick, then mash shield grab. Even if they miss-time it, they'll just Crouch Cancel (CC) whatever you do.
Ideally, the Sheik would want to grab rather than using a ground attack. However, AC Fair is -1 on shield, which means that a frame-perfect AC Fair -> grab would be 1 frame slower than a frame-perfect shieldgrab after shieldstun ends. She would need to crossup, mindgame/mixup the opponent, or dash/roll away.
BTW, to CC grab you need to Jump Cancel (JC) or Shield grab, because hitting Z while crouching will cause a Dtilt.
Also, a CC works by holding down to provide Automatic Smash Directional Influence (ASDI) downwards on the first frame of hitstun, causing them to land-cancel the hitstun. Thus, CC only works against moves which have an upwards trajectoy. A move that sends down won't get them off the ground. CC stops working after a certain % b/c the knockback becomes too great for the ASDI to overcome.
Spacie Shield Pressure
Spacies are the only characters with real shield pressure. As mentioned earlier, Shiek's tools give her imperfect options for shield pressure that she has to work around, and they're considered really good for a non-spacie.
Kira has provided several excellent videos about Falco shield pressure, which are the main sources for this section:
Beginner Falco Shield Pressure 1
Beginner Falco Shield Pressure 2
Intermediate Falco Shield Pressure
I will do a concise writeup based on those vids in the near future, but until then you can watch them.
OoS Frame Data:
http://smashboards.com/threads/out-of-shield-options-frame-data.294336/
- Applicable Games
- Melee
