• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

(As Fox). Is the advice I got good, and also, how do I safety exert pressure in neutral?

Tylt

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jun 27, 2016
Messages
4
(This got no replies over on the fox boards so that's why I'm here)

Hey guys. So in neutral I've been too reliant on dash dancing/platform camping cause I thought that was the optimal way to do stuff (which I now know is stupid because after looking at some vods dash dancing is not actually used nearly as much as I thought it was)

I was given advice that to get rid of the mindset of "only dash dancing and nothing else is safe" that I should be going balls to the wall aggro, just throwing out moves, and exerting pressure, even if it's not safe, just to learn the limits of fox' aggressive limits. After that I can bring back dash dancing because then my opponent will know that I'm a threat.

So 1. Is this good advice? Should I be going balls to the wall aggro to get rid of that mindset and learn fox's aggressive limits?

And 2. How do you exert safe pressure in neutral?
 

iAmMatt

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Oct 18, 2015
Messages
452
Location
Southern RI
NNID
mattgw420
1. No. Assuming your opponent is smart and shields your pressure, one missed l cancel, one attempt at a tomahawk and you're grabbed. What I do is wait for the opponent to slip up and then take advantage. i.e., fox lasering too close so I can dash in and grab

2. I'm pretty new to fox as well, so I just use lasers and occasionally shffl nair when they drop shield, because they're unlikely to shield again.
 

ECHOnce

Smash Lord
Joined
Feb 22, 2014
Messages
1,191
Location
Bellevue, WA
Playing safe is good, but not going in means you're dropping a lot of opportunities. If you're a new player, that also means that you're not learning about which aggressive moments are safer than others, and so you won't have a chance to develop your punish game. That's probably what they were trying to say. Go balls deep into things with aggression. Just do it - it doesn't matter whether you're winning or losing when you just start off. It's better to lose way more often for a month or so to broaden your perspective on how to play, and then go back to how you prefer playing now with all that new info. Even if you don't think you'll end up finding anything worth integrating into your play (highly unlikely, if you try to look for good aspects in that more aggressive style sincerely), you'll still gain a better understanding of how those types of aggressive players think - what they look out for before they jump in, what they're afraid of, when/where they feel uncomfortable based on stage positioning, etc.
 

Tylt

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jun 27, 2016
Messages
4
Playing safe is good, but not going in means you're dropping a lot of opportunities. If you're a new player, that also means that you're not learning about which aggressive moments are safer than others, and so you won't have a chance to develop your punish game. That's probably what they were trying to say. Go balls deep into things with aggression. Just do it - it doesn't matter whether you're winning or losing when you just start off. It's better to lose way more often for a month or so to broaden your perspective on how to play, and then go back to how you prefer playing now with all that new info. Even if you don't think you'll end up finding anything worth integrating into your play (highly unlikely, if you try to look for good aspects in that more aggressive style sincerely), you'll still gain a better understanding of how those types of aggressive players think - what they look out for before they jump in, what they're afraid of, when/where they feel uncomfortable based on stage positioning, etc.
Yeah I know it's not about winning, just in my head I thought the optimal strat was just to not approach (like the Hax thread said). After watching a few vods I realize that that's actually a stupid mindset cause after watching some vods, other than in very specific moments, not a lot of dash dancing actually happens. There's actually a lot more throwing out moves
 

Delta Chae

The Observer
Joined
May 20, 2015
Messages
194
Location
Indiana
I don't think "never approach" is the right advice. I think a better way to put it would be "don't commit unless your opponent does" as an approach does not necessarily entail committing to something unsafe. Dash dancing can be used aggressively as much as it can defensively. Weaving in and out of your opponent's threat zone to scare them into taking a defensive option that you can punish is probably the most common way to do this.
 
Top Bottom