Q&A Ask For Advice Here: Sheik Video Critique Thread

[Simikins]

Here are some matches I've lost:

https://youtu.be/HjcL6tuFJwo
https://youtu.be/bjLRv11A-w8
https://youtu.be/0VW9wTOa7dM

Set 1 VS Gunblade:
I've noticed that you've been going for bouncing fishes to finish off your fair strings, and they aren't connecting, putting you in a bad position. Either do a bouncing fish after the first fair, or finish the string with an up air.
You are also throwing out a lot of smashes, when a simple tilt would have been safer and more effective. Be careful with that, because over committing will cost you damage.
Beware of jumping too much at kill percent, as characters like mario can just upsmash and take you out.
In your position, I'd be throwing more needles and forcing him to approach, as mario's approach isn't very good.

You have a very aggressive play style, but sometimes you need to hang back and be more careful.

Set 2 VS Dugan:
Fox is a fast faller, juggle him!
You were doing a lot of unsafe things, running up and grabbing randomly, charging at him, etc. When it works, it really works, but when it doesn't it really doesn't. Sheik has the ability to play very safely with high reward, abuse that!
Also, make sure to learn all of sheiks combos. BNB isn't always enough on it's own, you have to know the situational stuff. For example, at 5:44 that was a Void combo! You could've killed him then and there. Or even if you didn't have a full needle charge, that would've combo'd into BF.
You were playing quite reckless that set, and it cost you.

Set 3 VS Dugan (Winners Finals):
You're movement was what let you down in this set when you were playing as mario, but I'm assuming you want feedback on the sheik game.
Similar to the other 2 sets , you are overcommitting a lot. Just going in straight for a grab isn't always a good option. You were getting punished hard for charging in. You need to space around more, utilize tech such as dance trotting and C-bouncing. Also don't be afraid to reset to neutral.

Overall:
Know your options - Learn the situational combos sheik has, like her needle combos and Utilt combos.
Don't over commit - Bait your opponent out, don't always just charge in.
Neutral - Work on spacing and movement.

Hope this helps.

 

[RizMF]

Thank you! I really appreciate the criticism and I played dugan again a few days ago and even though I hadn't posted here yet I did end up applying some of the things you said like playing much more safely and over committing less. It hasn't been uploaded to youtube yet but when it does I'll be posting a few more matches again.

 

[Simikins]

Thank you! I really appreciate the criticism and I played dugan again a few days ago and even though I hadn't posted here yet I did end up applying some of the things you said like playing much more safely and over committing less. It hasn't been uploaded to youtube yet but when it does I'll be posting a few more matches again.

Glad I could help

 

[Spark31]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6O_TIF3g-Qg-Q

This is a match I had against a local Luigi named web. I don't really know any other local smashers in the area for me to practice against, so this is the best I could get. Any advice?

 

[RizMF]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dXLf7iuZks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jskUcwMB7s4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S6VTepdcdk

these are a week old but were just uploaded today

 

[HoSmash4]

http://www.twitch.tv/datteamlive/v/20387396

2:10:10

i have 3 sets starting from there vs a pikachu, rosalina and pit.

If anyone could give advice, i'd really appreciate it.

 

[keikashi12]

OK so I watched all three matches and here's what I saw. I'll start with rosalina. When you were facing her, you had the right idea to get rid of luma and sometimes you did a good job of that, but there were multiple times where you would attack luma and get her on the edge of the stage and then go back to rosalina. Any opportunity you have to get rid of luma optimize it. Take away luma and it pretty much halves rosa strength. Next do not sit there and pummel rosalina when you get a grab, immediately throw her and combo with b fish or fairs but don't overextended on rosa because luma is just waiting to punish lol. Next and this is for like all the matches I watched. PLEASE STOP VANISHING ONSTAGE LOL. If you had a more alert opponent, they would've caught on to the vanishes onstage and it's altogether a bad idea because of the lag of the move. You also didnt challenge rosalina offstage very much. Rosalina has no hitbox on her up b so give rosalina a rough time when shes trying to recover. Overall not bad with rosalina your spacing was good and you killed alot with tipper up smash which is hard to hit so kudos for that. With pikachu, i would say work on playing patient needling and punishing. Quick attack can be annoying to deal with, but dont go out on a frenzy and start throwing out random attacks. Nair oos is a good option to combat quick attack if you suspect it coming. Otherwise sitting in shield and reacting is better than frantically trying to punish pikachu. I also recommend working on your combo strings. You were using f throw to b fish at percents that it doesn't work. Also pay attention to di when you use f throw because when they di up b fish is true combo at only low percents on most characters. Check out the boards for a list of b fish combos. Sheik is all about comboing and putting your opponent into 50 50 situations to secure kills and getting them offstage and gimping.learn how to string together fairs and practice your combos so they become muscle memory and utilize your needles a bit more with pikachu. You were good at power shielding his Thunder jolts so good stuff on that. With pot you gave up stage control way too much for my liking. I don't think you should really challenge pit offstage until higher percents like above 60 or so. The one hit you may get on him isn't worth losing stage control. It was during these matches that you used no needles so make sure you start using your needles more in your matches. Pit has some weight to him so you can combo him quite easy. At low percents fair strings are not that hard to pull off on pit and it gives you stage control. Also consider dropping a grenade off the ledge when edge guarding. You never know when you could catch your opponent with a grenade and steal a stock. Oh yeah dont down air unto an opponent above you. Its typically a bad idea in general because it can be easily challenged and its laggy if shielded. Do it as a mixup if your opponent is very very aggressive but dont make a habit out of this move. So now more general stuff. use needles. There were matches that you didn't needle one time and that's one of sheik's most powerful tools in neutral because it forces your opponents into shields and helps you dictate the flow of neutral. Your spacing was pretty good so good job for that. Oh and one more piece of advice. It is optimal to go for vanish kills at certain percents, but I personally think you should condition your opponents with up airs instead of going for vanishes right away. Anyone with decent match up knowledge on sheik knows not to air dodge when you get down thrown so start out with up air and then mix it up whenever you think they have been conditioned enough. That's all I got really. Sorry it's so long lol

 

[keikashi12]

http://www.twitch.tv/datteamlive/v/20387396

2:10:10

i have 3 sets starting from there vs a pikachu, rosalina and pit.

If anyone could give advice, i'd really appreciate it.

Hey I'm keikashi. My two cents on your matches are below. Hope it helps you out.

 

[MiloniVanili]

I've got a couple more sets from last weekend that i would really appreciate some advice from, The first one is Me vs Nom(currently 8th on michigan PR) in a pretty close set that i took

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO3aTj0AWH0

Next is another set of me vs zinoto(2nd on michigan PR behind ally) where i feel like i did decently well but got out played and lost 0-3,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebBPj9MU2hg

any advice is appreciated

 

[Danimal197]

I've got a couple more sets from last weekend that i would really appreciate some advice from, The first one is Me vs Nom(currently 8th on michigan PR) in a pretty close set that i took

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO3aTj0AWH0

Next is another set of me vs zinoto(2nd on michigan PR behind ally) where i feel like i did decently well but got out played and lost 0-3,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebBPj9MU2hg

any advice is appreciated

Just after watching for a few minutes versus diddy, I have to tell you that your biggest issue is the way you're approaching the MU. After talking to zero about the MU, as well as watching Zero vs Vinnie, The biggest thing about diddy kong is that you DONT want to be fighting him in the air a lot, as his fair beats yours straight up. Work on your grounded and combo game, and do everything you can to prevent him from returning to neutral. Also, you kept approaching him, and needles are completely bonkers against diddy. You want to force him to approach by charging needles.

 

[Absol]

critique please

 

[Vapo]

So I've been considering maybe picking up Sheik lately and decided to try practicing with her a bit in FG:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrL5oWPkw2c

Critique would be appreicated~

 

[HoSmash4]

Hey guys, I got 5th at the UK Monthly, but I feel there is a lot I can improve on.

I felt overall I was landing with fairs too much leading me to get grabbed a lot. I think this happens when I feel nervous and use fair as a comfort blanket but I may often fair when in a positon where it would hit their shield and I would get shield grabbed. I also have trouble with my getup options. I feel I am sometimes predictable with how I get up and also I feel I airdodge hastily sometimes. I was missing the downthrow uairs a lot because I wasnt performing the uair optimally which I will work on. I feel sometimes I was going for a lot of airdodge reads at non-kill % when it may have been better in the long run to take the guaranteed damage. Overall in this tournament I was playing a very defensive sheik which I feel has been giving me more reward. But sometimes I need to know how to apply safe agressive pressure. This is a aspect I need to work on.

me vs gp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGZa8Qs_GI8
me vs miller https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdqhf2qgbRw
me vs 8va (sonic) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlHA42bWf8U

 

[alexthepony]

please add my skype sazzy.sabino
Thanks

 

[Ra']

Hello everyone i have a vid versus a dk who a practice with. I know my biggest flaw this match was being too impatient but i would like to hear exactly what you would have done differently to finish my opponents first stock or had you gotten spiked at 00:49. How would you comeback considering how strong and tanky dk is?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJpnm6YhpN8

 

[Simikins]

Hello everyone i have a vid versus a dk who a practice with. I know my biggest flaw this match was being too impatient but i would like to hear exactly what you would have done differently to finish my opponents first stock or had you gotten spiked at 00:49. How would you comeback considering how strong and tanky dk is?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJpnm6YhpN8

I'll reiterate what I said before, play campy, safe, and cancerous. You can shut down anything DK tries to do with needles and fair UNLESS he manages to get that punch, which is what he managed to do. Remember sheik is a combo based character. You can never go for raw strong moves, you have to combo into them.
Basically, play like you did in the first half of the game, for the whole game, regardless of whether you're behind. I'm guessing the DK was used to you going for the needles > vanish and punished. Vanish gliding would be a better option in that situation.

 

[Ra']

critique please

First off, Excellent zone control/breaking ability. I really have two things i want to discuss rather than critique. Do you use tap jump? I recently have applied a safer way to "open up" my opponent especially in the dk MU. (My most practiced matchup) When playing against characters who rely heavily on grabs or bait and punish i think the best f-air isn't the one i saw you and most sheiks(myself included) using the most often. Instead of spacing your self with your first jump and Falling down with the fair, instead do a short/full hop "rising" fair that sweetspots your opponent on the first frame possible. Not only is this safer but harder to read and can be done immediately out of sprint and shield. I've been watching alot of zero, mr. r, and vinnie lately. All of them use these f-airs abusively, they are more difficult to land and combo in and out of, but trust me, if you can master this tech meta knights and dk's really can't play the game till 90%.
(Sorry for dragging along)

This ties directly into my second part of this discussion, HOW DO WE KILL PEOPLE WITHOUT DYING IN THE PROCESS? I want to tell you that you used BF to much, especially once your opponent was near 95% or above. But i also know it can be used to fient your opponent to land a b/n/f-air etc. The problem really lies in the fact that me, you, and your opponent all knew when you were mostly likely going to do it. I believe it was this overuse that allowed MetaKnight to win on DuckHunt. So I would like to end this with a question, what do you think is the biggest difference between the BF's that get kills and the ones that get you killed?

 

[RizMF]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEZnhPckwcY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcYsCTgeY78

Apparently I have a sonic problem that I didn't know about. Any critiques on these specific matches or help with the matchup in general is very appreciated.

 

[HoSmash4]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHPXwzmMTSA wifi set vs mister eric

What things can I Improve on? I feel like I still need to be more patient and mix up more when trying to get the kill setup.

 

[Simikins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHPXwzmMTSA wifi set vs mister eric

What things can I Improve on? I feel like I still need to be more patient and mix up more when trying to get the kill setup.

This is an interesting matchup for Sheik. The thing with ROB, is that if you don't know the matchup well, he becomes far more dangerous. Little things like dealing with the Gyro and DI-ing his weird UpAir will make this matchup a lot easier for you.

Game 1:
Overall, you played well (I mean, you won game 1 and that speaks for itself) but there were a few mistakes that you made that, had you known, you could have beaten him much more efficiently.

Spacing & Movement: You were spacing around quite nicely with Fair, auto-cancelling then dashing back, not over committing on anything. There were a couple of times when you went to hit him on the shield and then jab to beat an OoS option from him, but he didn't even shield it, so you could've gotten a free followup. You also did some nice fullhop airdodge, jump away baits, but he didn't fall for them. Movement wise, you were playing it pretty simple. Lots of rolls, random dash grabs, jumping around, etc. I would've liked to see you implement more needle reversal play, to duke him out, and things like that, but what you did worked so w/e. Just make sure you don't roll too much, as it gets predictable. There were times when you rolled behind him then went for tilts, DANGEROUS! It can work once or twice but more than that gets predictable and punishable.
While playing on a stage like lylat, you have to make sure to use movement options that work on that stage specifically. Crouch sliding is amazing on lylat, and needle duking off platforms is tricky, especially as we can cancel the lag when we land.
Try mixing up your approaches, and don't be afraid to make him come to you. Not much negative to say, so some of the things I said were a stretch.

Followups: I noticed that several times in the game, you had opportunities for clean followups, but due to either lack of knowledge or not fast enough reactions, you let him get away free. An example would be that near the start of the game you got a late nair at low percent, and a dash grab would've been guaranteed. Instead you went for a rising nair that whiffed. There were also other times that you got fairs and bairs but didn't follow up. Make sure to learn all your followups.

Matchup Specifics: Against ROB you have to remember several things. Firstly, hit Nair has two hits, so make sure to shield both of them. His upair has crazy weird knockback. See this video by Beefy Smash Doods for how: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH_46_2BtOM
And his Gyro is a pain in the ass, and is one of his most important tools. See this video by My Smash Corner for how to deal with projectiles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGiWeq_t9V0

I was going to give feedback on every match, but I got a bit distracted
This covers almost everything anyway, so yeah. Hope this helps.

 

[HoSmash4]

Yeah I was keeping it real simple because I didnt want to overextend at all. Also if you keep pressing buttons vs rob his punishes it hard with laser/gyro.


A lot of missed followups are partly down to my reactions and wifi.

Thanks for it though!

 

[Joaco]

Please help me I suck in this MU

 

[Marusero]

I'd like to share a set I had on stream at UFSmash (a Brazilian national that happened recently), I'm Puzoormarcelo (in-game tag is ˆˆ).

Game 1 is Sheik dittos and Games 2/3 are Sheik vs Mario.

If anyone could give any tips on how the MU goes, things to look out for or any advice I'd be very thankful.

https://youtu.be/qChfxGCOqfA?t=15m23s

(it starts at 15:23)

 

[0R31T]

uuuuh , just a small question , i wanna share an video of me getting an 82 percent perfect pivot combo versus an ganondorf but i dont know where . is there something like an " sheik combos "thread ?

 

[{Kyro}]

uuuuh , just a small question , i wanna share an video of me getting an 82 percent perfect pivot combo versus an ganondorf but i dont know where . is there something like an " sheik combos "thread ?

There is a forum dedicated specifically to videos, which would probably be the best place to put it. If you want a place on the Sheik boards, probably the Sheik social.

 

[0R31T]

ok thanks

 

[Danimal197]

Please help me I suck in this MU

Sorry for the extremely late reply, but I'll take a shot at this.
A. Ban Lylat, that **** is an awful stage for us because needles.
B. Recognize what fox wants to accomplish in the MU. Fox wants to abuse his incredibly safe neutral game of throwing out a ton of really safe hitboxes that all confirm into uair, usmash, bair etc. So to avoid this, you want to just play incredibly safe yourself. Use needle baits, do retreating fairs, etc. Fox is not very good at killing people who are in shield.
C. Get fox offstage, do runoff rising nairs to beat phantasm, when phantasm becomes obvious at kill percents, use bouncing fish to murder him. Fox is awful offstage.
D. Get fox offstage.

E. Specific to your play- fox is one of the easiest characters in the game for sheik to combo the ever living hell out of, but you always opted for fthrow-bfish at low percents. This isn't optimal, a grab at low percents without you having rage should result in fox taking at least 45+ damage and leave him offstage. Work on comboing fox. Zero posted a recent video involving optimized combos on fox, check it out!

 

[{Kyro}]

Danimal197 I don't know if I'm missing something about "because needles" (besides platforms) but Lylat is actually an okay stage for Sheik because of her buffed waveland which gives her broken spacing options. Zero's 84% combo wasn't completely guaranteed, but I agree with the combo game and offstage parts. Fox is a glass cannon in this specific matchup.

Also Sheik's usmash reaches all of the platforms and is a good landing punish

On the first match a lot of times you got pressured on ledge you tried to go for big punishes when you could have just done an attacking getup to reset neutral. Don't be greedy, it cost you. I don't know if that was just habit or not, but you have to stop doing standard getup into shield. He kept hitting you over and over because you chose that option

 

[Absol]

Could really use a critique. _Tree I can't stand ryu man lol. Maybe the old relic #HBC | Scary could give me some advice too, just like the old brawl days? I'm also considering corrin for this match up, good idea, bad idea?

 

[{Kyro}]

Could really use a critique. _Tree I can't stand ryu man lol. Maybe the old relic #HBC | Scary could give me some advice too, just like the old brawl days? I'm also considering corrin for this match up, good idea, bad idea?

I'm not trying to say that I'm a tournament-worthy Sheik by any stretch of the imagination, but why were you in the air so often? Specifically you were double-jumping a ton and I felt like you were giving him too much stage control.

Obviously (no sarcasm here) I'm not as good as you, so someone tell me what I missed please

 

[Absol]

I'm not trying to say that I'm a tournament-worthy Sheik by any stretch of the imagination, but why were you in the air so often? Specifically you were double-jumping a ton and I felt like you were giving him too much stage control.



Obviously (no sarcasm here) I'm not as good as you, so someone tell me what I missed please

Falling aerials will beat ryus rising Nair and fair. Ryu owns the stage in that mu. I'm not going near that utilt and dying at 75%

 

[{Kyro}]

Falling aerials will beat ryus rising Nair and fair. Ryu owns the stage in that mu. I'm not going near that utilt and dying at 75%

I just watched a video of Vinnie playing a Ryu, and while I have to agree that Ryu has the stage, Vinnie was staying much more grounded than you were

 

[_Tree]

Could really use a critique. _Tree I can't stand ryu man lol. Maybe the old relic #HBC | Scary could give me some advice too, just like the old brawl days? I'm also considering corrin for this match up, good idea, bad idea?

I tried my hand at on-the-fly critiquing for this, but when I got the 30 minute recording audio got stuffed up + there was slowdown so RIP. I'll try using more stable programs next time. The video is uploaded here. There's some small stuttering throughout but the audio remains relatively consistent up until 18:00, where it just cuts out entirely.

The way I saw it though, you played the first match almost perfectly. You played super lame and abused what our character has over Ryu. This included heavy needle usage, as well as walling him out with F-air. You rarely came in with a forward moving F-air here, sticking to fade back F-air. This gave you a great amount of success because what the Ryu here did (plus what a lot of other Ryus do) is kind of just throw out aerials and wait for you to run into them. They get so much area control by doing this because their aerials lead into so much as well as hitting hard, but if you've got a long range aerial (such as F-air), we can keep him out of our zone while invading his.
You also ran away a ton, which worked because Ryu's air mobility isn't great. He can't keep up with you jumping across the stage and camping platforms, which is something you did much less in the following match.

Game 2 is where you starting rolling a lot more, and the Ryu started catching onto this. He gets Up-tilts and grabs out of this. You start 'moving past' him a lot here (whether it be dashing or rolling), which isn't great because he can just U-tilt and catch you in the middle of it. Any time both of your hurtboxes intersected, Ryu came out on top.
He also started reading your platform movement, getting free B-airs and U-airs on you more than once. Needs more mixups or restraint that you showed in the first match?

Game 3 wasn't too different than the last one. One of the mains things of note is that you start going for extra aerials after getting a hit once. One thing I point out in your first match is that you often just get one aerial poke and then back off, which is good in this MU due to Ryu's ability to screw you up with his punish game. In this last match you go for extra stuff, which more often than not lands him percent on you.
You were approaching a lot more as well. This is what cost you the match actually (misspaced F-air < perfect shield shoryuken). I don't know if this was due to you being frustrated or w/e, but you did seem flustered in your play in this match (compared to the stone-cold excellence of the first match).

So basically, play the MU super lame. Run away if you have to, and abuse needle camping, fade back F-air and our superior air mobility. Avoid approaching, and it kind of goes without saying but you really can't afford to make mistakes. U-tilt to Shoryu is dumb.

 

[Absol]

I tried my hand at on-the-fly critiquing for this, but when I got the 30 minute recording audio got stuffed up + there was slowdown so RIP. I'll try using more stable programs next time. The video is uploaded here. There's some small stuttering throughout but the audio remains relatively consistent up until 18:00, where it just cuts out entirely.

The way I saw it though, you played the first match almost perfectly. You played super lame and abused what our character has over Ryu. This included heavy needle usage, as well as walling him out with F-air. You rarely came in with a forward moving F-air here, sticking to fade back F-air. This gave you a great amount of success because what the Ryu here did (plus what a lot of other Ryus do) is kind of just throw out aerials and wait for you to run into them. They get so much area control by doing this because their aerials lead into so much as well as hitting hard, but if you've got a long range aerial (such as F-air), we can keep him out of our zone while invading his.
You also ran away a ton, which worked because Ryu's air mobility isn't great. He can't keep up with you jumping across the stage and camping platforms, which is something you did much less in the following match.

Game 2 is where you starting rolling a lot more, and the Ryu started catching onto this. He gets Up-tilts and grabs out of this. You start 'moving past' him a lot here (whether it be dashing or rolling), which isn't great because he can just U-tilt and catch you in the middle of it. Any time both of your hurtboxes intersected, Ryu came out on top.
He also started reading your platform movement, getting free B-airs and U-airs on you more than once. Needs more mixups or restraint that you showed in the first match?

Game 3 wasn't too different than the last one. One of the mains things of note is that you start going for extra aerials after getting a hit once. One thing I point out in your first match is that you often just get one aerial poke and then back off, which is good in this MU due to Ryu's ability to screw you up with his punish game. In this last match you go for extra stuff, which more often than not lands him percent on you.
You were approaching a lot more as well. This is what cost you the match actually (misspaced F-air < perfect shield shoryuken). I don't know if this was due to you being frustrated or w/e, but you did seem flustered in your play in this match (compared to the stone-cold excellence of the first match).

So basically, play the MU super lame. Run away if you have to, and abuse needle camping, fade back F-air and our superior air mobility. Avoid approaching, and it kind of goes without saying but you really can't afford to make mistakes. U-tilt to Shoryu is dumb.

So....I should play the mu like a mega man boss

 

[WondrousMoose]

So....I should play the mu like a mega man boss

I guess just think of him as Punch Man. Beating him gives you a Hadouken.

 

[Absol]

Guys. What if I DONT kill ryu.

And make his utilt not work due to rage?

What if I DONT do combos on him

What if I just platform camp and chip his approaches.

Maybe if I just stop thinking about killing ryu....I'll win?

 

[{Kyro}]

Guys. What if I DONT kill ryu.

And make his utilt not work due to rage?

What if I DONT do combos on him

What if I just platform camp and chip his approaches.

Maybe if I just stop thinking about killing ryu....I'll win?

Just make sure your fishing doesn't mess with your neutral when you "kill ryu".
A 0% Ryu with one stock is always better than a 150% Ryu with two stocks

 

[#HBC | Scary]

Could really use a critique. _Tree I can't stand ryu man lol. Maybe the old relic #HBC | Scary could give me some advice too, just like the old brawl days? I'm also considering corrin for this match up, good idea, bad idea?

Relic signing in. I'll break this down once I'm home.

 

[Absol]

Relic signing in. I'll break this down once I'm home.

Ty ScaryRelic

 

[#HBC | Scary]

On the road to a tourney now but literally rewatch game 1 and see all you did right. Your spacing was great and you did so well at creating space.
Compare that you your other games and you you were literally watching two different players play. He started to break your spacing reliably and you started to try and press forward more. Keep your mobility up and maintain the Bair spacing that you had going in game 1. You were also doing a great job swatting him away by mixing in Fair; that all vanished in the next two games.
Essentially the matchup is more discipline to your spacing and resetting space once he gets in.