Beating shield grab with AC bair like MaNg0

[TheChocolateLava]

Tired of having your ac bairs shieldgrabbed?

https://twitter.com/ChocLavaSSBM/status/829209668538998785

Has this ever happened to you?

Improper AC bair execution = death

This bair was bad because I analog jumped at my opponent, hitting them early. This is a bad habit I've had for a while, and have trouble shaking, because mang0 seems to do it every tournament and no one shieldgrabs him!

but what mang0 is actually doing is subtly different. instead of jumping at his opponent with ac bair, he jumps straight up (neutral jump) and then drifts into his opponent.

Here's mang0 doing it to syrox and then getting a sick edgeguard

I tested vs 20xx full shield frame perfect grab. When I test in debug mode later I'll post frame data.

Bad ac bair

Good ac bair

I also started some discussion on reddit

 

[duckypotato]

Why does this work?

 

[1000g2g3g4g800999]

Best case scenario for this type of bair: Hit frame 19, deal 6 frames of shield stun, land frame 23, go through 4 frames of landing lag (23rd frame is the first). -1 on shield. Now you might not be hitting like that every time, but the awkwardness of dealing with a delayed hit on shield like that when moving early means you'll get hit isn't something most people are great at dealing with. If they try to act early, but you drift in more, they just get hit. It's one of the better uses of AC bair vs shield for sure. Also since grab is frame 7 you have a fair bit of leeway dealing with that option specifically.

 

[Brsijraz]

Why does this work?

Because the hit comes later so they will grab too early when you are out of their range. It isnt unpunishable but it is a lot safer