Crouch Cancelling & DJC

[th3kuzinator]

Hey everyone,
Some quick questions.
1. When is it beneficial to crouch cancel? I feel that at high percents it may save a life, but a better strategy may be to just shield roll or other methods of evasion. Are there times when pros can predict an attack they can not block or evade and thus need to crouch cancel and if so should I make this a habit to try to crouch cancel every time I get into a bid situation?

2. What are the best moves for yoshi and ness to break shields? Im thinking djc d-airs for ness and n-airs for yoshi? Also is it more beneficial to djc fairs with yoshi rather than nairs? I feel that even though the nair comes out faster there can be much more baiting done if using fair.

3. And lastly what are some good moves to use when edgehoping with link. I feel at high percents the ledge recoveries are useless and a ledgehopped fair is too unpredictable. Any suggestions

-kuzi

 

[DMoogle]

1. I'm not entirely sure how to explain (partially because I don't completely know myself... right now it's more of a "feel" thing for me), but just experiment with it and hopefully you'll get a better feel of when to use it.

2. A full d-air hit with Yoshi will break a shield, although you can't practically do that on the same platform with DJCing. Just stick with DJC n-airs (and d-airs if your opponent is shielding on a platform above you). For Ness, forget b-airs and f-airs, they suck. D-air is the fastest and most reliable, but you have to be careful to hit your opponent's shield and not your opponent. When that's difficult, you may want to opt for u-airs (which are a little slower, but have a better hitbox). For finishing the shield off, use a n-air, since it destroys the shield more than his u-air and d-air do. The disadvantage with n-air is that it needs to be z-canceled, but if you finish off the shield with it, then it won't matter if you miss the z-cancel.

3. F-air is the best to use the majority of the time. N-air is OK too, since it's a faster (but has a MUCH smaller hitbox. U-air can sometimes be correct, but usually it'll only work if your opponent makes a major spacing mistake. Link's ledge attack is actually pretty good though.

 

[walsh]

"or Ness, forget b-airs and f-airs, they suck"

I disagree. If we are talking about shield breaking here, I like to DJC b-air into someone, z cancel, then start d-airing them until the shield goes boom. Its a good opener, and it throws them off. You can also b-air or f-air into some characters to do the last hit that breaks their shield.

 

[asianaussie]

1: Crouch cancelling is quite useful in many situations, there's lots of places where it's helpful. You can survive a high percentage Luigi Up-B or similar move if it's spontaneous (rather than comboed). Fox's shine doesn't knock you over if you are crouch cancelling either. Since you can start a dash, jump or D-Tilt from a crouch, crouching instead of standing when the opponent approaches may give you an advantage.

As for shield/dodge rolls, these are supremely predictable, and if the opponent isn't occupied, he can easily pursue you and punish you.

2: DJC F-Airs and B-Airs are probably better than N-Airs for baiting with Yoshi. For shield-breaking, I'd guess N-Air is easiest (move forward each time though) and U-Smash/D-Smash to finish. Dunno about Ness.

3: Link can edgehop a few decent ways. The simplest is, as you said, F-Air, but this can easily be pivot smashed.
If the opponent is large-ish and/or a bit above you, U-Air can start something, akin to Falcon edgehopping U-Air.
D-Air may work if you are very quick, but forget about it if you've been hanging for a while.
Up-B is an option, the hitbox is large enough to go through walls and you can regrab and edgehop more safely if successful.

My favourite is still edgehop boomerang - it's not incredibly practical, but as long as you don't go as far forward as you can, it can work a charm.

 

[DMoogle]

Actually, you're right about b-air being a good starter.

I'm pretty sure d-air/u-air/n-air are just about always going to be superior to f-air for the last hit though.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and cheeseball makes a good point about Link's up-B. Drop from the ledge, then use an up-B to go straight up, regrab the ledge, and if you hit your opponent with the up-B, then he should be far enough so that you can get back on the platform safely. This is something that used to be popular, but I haven't seen it used much in a long time. I should start doing this more often, it's actually quite effective.

 

[SSBPete]

crouch councling provides useful when attempting to parry with yoshi. parries come out the same whether your crouching or not, so if you miss-time the parry and get hit, you dont take as much knockback.
easiest shield breaks with yoshi in my opinion: land a fair on their shield, gives you just enough time to react with a nair then link it to another nair, nair. i like to avoid smashes when shield breaking.

 

[quote]

Actually, you're right about b-air being a good starter.

I'm pretty sure d-air/u-air/n-air are just about always going to be superior to f-air for the last hit though.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and cheeseball makes a good point about Link's up-B. Drop from the ledge, then use an up-B to go straight up, regrab the ledge, and if you hit your opponent with the up-B, then he should be far enough so that you can get back on the platform safely. This is something that used to be popular, but I haven't seen it used much in a long time. I should start doing this more often, it's actually quite effective.

Up-B is a good option if anything else, for it's flexibility. You can come up with it in a variety of ways. It's got good range so you can space it to good effect and cancel it by grabbing the ledge. If someone is staying at the right range you can outprioritize a lot of attacks by going over the ledge. Unlike F-air it comes out faster so you can catch some people expecting a F-air. Less notably, you can make it to one of the platforms in dreamland. That's not really too useful, but it's an option if you want to get there for whatever reason.

 

[asianaussie]

Oh yeah, Up-B can edgecancel on a Dreamland platform, and options ensue. Be careful with it though.

 

[blaze3927]

crouch cancelling +parry +down b makes entertaining defensive mind games
for yoshi.