Beating Sonic

[Furret24]

Sonic is my most hated matchup as Game and Watch. He punishes anything and everything I do. His speed makes it virtually impossible to land our strong moves (his smashes) and he can kill us fairly early with an smashes, uthrow, and certain aerials. Do you guys have any idea how to beat him?

 

[steuben]

first, deal with his approach. i'd interrupt his dash and spin dash attacks with jab. after the first few times he falls for it, he'll stop approaching that way and will likely attempt to run in and shield grab, or use his homing attack which you can punish with a well timed up-smash. chef also effs up homing attack.

also, power shielding is my friend when it comes to sonic. none of his approach options are that safe on shield, and anything from the air can be dealt with using nair, or (as i mentioned above) your up-smash.

two of my favorite things to do against sonic:
letting his dash attack pass me by with my shield up and then sweetspotting with down-smash.
floating his dair with the manhole cover. try it, it's absolutely hilarious if your opponent ever thinks it's a good idea to use his dair. they just drift sideways in the air stuck in their dair animation and it's the perfect setup for a smash or hammer.

 

[Folie]

sonic is definitely one of our worst MUs, the best thing I've found to do is to try to read his approach and stop him out with jab, ftilt, bair, fair if you're really that good at reading the timing of the approach and try to play neutral from there. At least his gimping tools aren't as dangerous on us bc of the iframes on our up b

can't say much more, I haven't been able to get a lot of practice on good sonics

 

[Kathuzada]

If they approach with one of his various Spin Dash Moves that usually leads to an aerial you can shield it. What I would do here (other than Bair) depends on the percent of the Sonic, 0%-75% I would go only for Nair (Damage building), 75%-105% I would try for the Toot Toot (trying to get an early kill and I don't know when that links on Sonic.) 105% + I would try Fire (Knock them off stage and get ready to edgeguard)

As for getting punished for the smashes I would make sure you are either close enough to guaranty it hits or far enough away where you can see their approach coming and can react

 

[SeanS]

Be a god. That's really what it boils down to.

Easily G&W's second worst MU. I personally throw out Mewtwo for this to get some kind of zoning and kill throw game on Sonic.

However, if you are really serious about taking this on as G&W, dash attack is the main asset you have. It will beat out spin dash if you don't challenge the invincible startup, it will punish missed homing attacks, and it is okay at preventing Sonic's usual shield rushing tactics if it is not expected.

All aerials are unsafe in this matchup. Even a campy back air is unsafe if you do not have a solid read on an active spindash movement. You will get dash grabbed.

The best thing you can really do is test the Sonic player's patience and wait for him to **** up, honestly. The defensive tactics you have to this end are good, and he has no real ability to kill you until very high percents from fthrow if you play correctly in this sense. DI away from up throws to decrease the chance of good players doing a dair followup from uthrow, and focus on air dodging a potential uair in this situation. Abuse invincibility on Up B offstage if he tries to dair spike you from the ledge (hard in practice though, and you can die if you don't have a good sense of the timing for this... but if you land it, a stage spike is inevitable and you're back on stage).

Really, anything you do can be punished off reaction oos in theory in this matchup. Just terrible. Strongly advise a secondary switch unless you are very confident about knowing your opponent's habits.

 

[NotAsian]

Always had good luck with dash attack and waiting for his spin dash to attack your shield then jumping up and using an Ariel attack, I got good at landing up air after he spin dashes

Sonics toot toot range is 94-100 and connects fairly easily compared to other opponents

 

[NouveauRétro]

Don't forget to always spotdodge Homing Attack!

 

[NotAsian]

Don't forget to always spotdodge Homing Attack!

Easier said than done! Lol I always react wayy to early but anyway i hate when sonics just run and grab the whole time it takes me forever to adjust

 

[Mr. Escalator]

Sonics toot toot range is 94-100 and connects fairly easily compared to other opponents

It's actually 94%->105% for the kill percentage range of Toot Toot (works at lower percents too, which is noteworthy if you catch him on a platform).

At 0%, go for Uthrow -> UpB -> FAir. At 0%-15%ish, Uthrow -> UpB -> UAir Windbox might be able to get a cheesy kill if they UpB immediately out of hitstun. At around iirc 28% upwards, that's when you can Dthrow -> NAir -> UpB for great damage - you can land all of that minus UpB from slightly lower percents too. You might be able to get some really optimal punishes at specific percents, but I never played around with those.

You can get a true combo from Dthrow -> Side B at 37% in training mode, but it doesn't work on 9 hammers lol

Oh, and good luck grabbing Sonic.

 

[phantoon]

you need good timing and the sonic player will likely adapt, but if you upsmash with your back turned to where the spin dash is coming from, the upsmash invincibility with protect you and you'll make him eat the hit, quite satisfying imo. at low percents you can combo this with nair and you'll rack up some nice % and at higher percents you can go for the KO. this is how i've been dealing with sonics and it's been working so far

 

[NotAsian]

I think one of the most important things to practice is not just hitting buttons but actually watching what sonic is doing and reacting I know he's fast but if you focus you'll do much better