Approaching and Spacing Options?

[N7S]

I'm a Dedede secondary, but I have a blast playing as him though and I look to fix some issues in my game. I struggle with approach options and spacing options with Dedede. I usually throw out Gordos, F-Tilts, and D-Tilts for spacing and to find an opening. But it gets really difficult because I know the opponent will try to pressure me and most heavy weights are combo food under pressure. It forces me to be aggressive and approach with him (I don't mind doing that because I main Falcon, so I know how to apply pressure), but I get too predictable by throwing out Gordos, F-Tilts, Grabs, and D-Tilts and get read for my habits. Are there anymore options I can do with Dedede to improve my game or make me less predictable? Help is much appreciated. I use 1111 btw in case you're wondering.

 

[cwjakesteel]

Yes. The simplest answer is neutral B special. It is a command grab that can suck people out of shield. It works great against people trying to run up and grab you or those who play very defensively.

If you're enemy is a sourpuss and doesn't like to approach you at all, that's what I do. Also try setting up vertical gordos to protect you.

You can also B-reverse it (kinda), B-reversing won't change your momentum at all, but only your direction.

 

[Muskrat Catcher]

Here are a few ideas that I find useful for characters that force me to approach (that were not already mentioned):
Against characters who lack a projectile, gordos are huge part of your strategy. Approaching while behind an up-tilted gordo is generally safer, and it forces your opponent to hesitate before attacking you. It forces your opponent to make a decision, and I can punish them at times for trying to hit back the gordo, shielding it, or jumping over it.
For characters that are fond of reflecting gordos with projectiles, like mario, I find it useful to jump so that you can land a gordo directly on top of the opponent. They usually shield or dodge, giving you time to at least land near them and attack, or if you are lucky they will be hit by it.
As you can tell, I believe that Dedede should usually approach with a gordo by his side, but there are people that are really good at taking advantage of the times that you chuck gordos, and if this starts happening, use them less for approaching. A great way to get within clobbering range of your opponent is to wisely use fast fall combined with various attacks. My favorites are FF N-air followed by an up tilt, FF B-air, which takes some practice to get down, but can actually KO quite well if your opponent is too slippery to get a finishing blow on, FF into a tilt or grab on the ground, or even going off and below stage on purpose to try and bait an edge guard, then retaliating with U-air or other aerial.
Dedede is strong when approaching from the air, and you can always abort your approach thanks to the 4 midair jumps. Anyways, those are my ideas.

 

[Lord Horatio]

I reccomend pivots to bairs; the hitbox for D3's bair can surprise a lot of people when they approach.

 

[Ghidorah14]

EDIT: Hey smashboards, ya know what I love about you the most? You're ****ing stupid "nightly backups" that destroy the long posts I type out because I dared to attempt to help another person by going into great detail about something. THANKS FOR THAT, I'M SURE THE NIGHTLY BACKUP IS SO WORTH IT. Now you'll just get the tl;dr version, sorry.

I primarily use gordos and ftilt to approach, but I like making my opponent approach me by harassing them at a distance.

Shorthop fairs, pivot bairs, nairs are good.

Walking works too. Use your disjointed hitboxes to space them out.

 

[abx]

I had some success with approaching projectile users like Toon Link form the air. I fly around a little, wait out their spamming and see what they do. Maybe I throw in some Gordo from above As soon as they present an opening (sometimes they do the dandiest things) I land on them with downfall+nair. This can be mixed with pseudo nairs a little bit to the side of your opponent followed by ftilt or utilt. Notice that the initial nair can be easily shielded and punished with a grab. Experienced players will adapt to it immediately, but sometimes opponents take a few times. You can change your formula by using downfall+grab which is usually fast enough because your opponent will anticiapte a nair attack and shield too long for grabbing first.