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How do I beat sonic

Quick_S

Smash Rookie
Joined
Dec 10, 2018
Messages
15
Who better to ask then the sonic mains?

How do I best beat your character?

What are his weaknesses?
 

Luigifan18

Smash Master
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Feb 19, 2015
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He has no projectiles. Good luck getting enough distance from him to abuse yours, though.
 

Mental Surge

Smash Apprentice
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Yeah i have no idea how to deal with sonic either. The thing that really sucks though is that even if you are winning in percent it's not hard for a sonic to just waste time until sudden death because hes impossible to catch. Nearly every game against a sonic that I have played has gone to SD.
 

PH Blues

Smash Rookie
Joined
Dec 31, 2018
Messages
3
Would like for this to be talked about. Unlike smash 4 I can no longer just wait for the spin dash spam with shield and punish them with an aerial when they blow by. Why you ask? Well for two reasons: shielding is so ineffective in this game that sonic can just easily oppress you until a shield break/stab. Second reason if you are fast enough they can just mash homing attack right after opening you up anyway. Why not just hold shield for this? See reason 1.
 
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shinhed-echi

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Dang... I understand why people hate Sonic. But I've never ever used him to run away to win.

It would have come in handy in tourneys, not gonna lie, but it's not in my Nature to play that way. When I think of Sonic I just think of agressive playstyle.

But ok, you want to know what I as a Sonic Main struggle with?

Lingering hitboxes, such as Mario's Nair. Those that stick out for a while. It's a real Sonic noob Slayer if you ask me.
 
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Camalange

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Would like for this to be talked about. Unlike smash 4 I can no longer just wait for the spin dash spam with shield and punish them with an aerial when they blow by. Why you ask? Well for two reasons: shielding is so ineffective in this game that sonic can just easily oppress you until a shield break/stab. Second reason if you are fast enough they can just mash homing attack right after opening you up anyway. Why not just hold shield for this? See reason 1.
Spin is way easier to deal with in this game.

Non-fully charged Spin Dash doesn't pass through shield. It also lacks invincibility on it's release like it had in Smash 4. It also just straight up clanks or loses out to a lot more moves now.

Homing Attack is much stronger, yes, but the same mix-up existed in 4, just better now with the overall HA buffs. If you spotdodge HA, it has massive end lag.

There's really zero situation where Sonic should be breaking your shield, especially with any spins.

:093:
 

ZephyrZ

But.....DRAGONS
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I have no idea how to play neutral against Sonic.

I can't play out footsie him with Squirtle, he's fast enough to make Captain Falcon look like a joke.
I can't space aerials or zone him out with Ivysaur because again, he's so fast that zipping through even the slightest opening in my defenses is a breeze for him.
Trying to play neutral with him with Zard just feels like a lost cause, Zard's attacks are just way to punishable to deal with a patient Sonic.

Any advice? Strategies I should try or things I openings I should look for?
 

SomeGuyInAPlace

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jan 25, 2019
Messages
7
Switch FC
SW 7040 4243 4159
I have no idea how to play neutral against Sonic.

I can't play out footsie him with Squirtle, he's fast enough to make Captain Falcon look like a joke.
I can't space aerials or zone him out with Ivysaur because again, he's so fast that zipping through even the slightest opening in my defenses is a breeze for him.
Trying to play neutral with him with Zard just feels like a lost cause, Zard's attacks are just way to punishable to deal with a patient Sonic.

Any advice? Strategies I should try or things I openings I should look for?

Sonic is extremely vulnerable if he misses a homing dash. His down-air and smash attacks are also punishable. You can challenge Sonic's spins with your own attacks if they have good priority, but you'll need good timing.

Sonic struggles against disjointed hitboxes stuffing his approaches. BUT he's fast enough to bait a sword swing out with a dash dance and then punish it if you whiff, so be careful with that.

Don't play zard. zard is poop

He has no projectiles. Good luck getting enough distance from him to abuse yours, though.
Instead of trying to hit him with projectiles, you should use them to limit his movement options. Covering stage space with a boomerang, holy water, or even Isabelle's down-b forces Sonic to move more predictably, so you can hopefully read him and then punish accordingly.
 
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Reptillicus

Smash Rookie
Joined
Aug 3, 2015
Messages
15
ok so how to beat my main huh? well lemme think.... I can tell you this: sonic can struggle to get a killshot once your at high percent. there are only a few moves a sonic has to kill on stage. he will have to either: smash attack, B-air, back throw at the ledge, possibly up throw on the top platform (when on battlefield), and sometimes up-air. So just watch for these moves and punish him when he whiffs, and remember he had bad range if he wants to kill you he'll have to commit to taking a shot up close. That's your time to either, hit him with a disjoint or grab him.
 

Ryu Myuutsu

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Dang... I understand why people hate Sonic. But I've never ever used him to run away to win.

It would have come in handy in tourneys, not gonna lie, but it's not in my Nature to play that way. When I think of Sonic I just think of agressive playstyle.

But ok, you want to know what I as a Sonic Main struggle with?

Lingering hitboxes, such as Mario's Nair. Those that stick out for a while. It's a real Sonic noob Slayer if you ask me.
On the bright side, Ultimate favors more offense than defense so Sonic won't be as cheap as he was in Smash 4.
 

Mr Saturn Fanboy

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Feb 6, 2019
Messages
76
Location
Massachusetts
I absolutely caqnnot get in on a sonic. That spin has next to no lag, that f-smash hitbox is absolute malarkey, my projectiles are way too slow, my disjoints are too small, grabs seem to work like once every 10 times, and as previously mentioned, they can just run away all day to no punish. It seems that sonic is so fast, that he can literally just move directly around hitboxes. Not to mention, those aerials linger like a bad fart.

Watch as the Ness gracefully floats back down to the stage going a grand total of 4 miles per week; But what's this?! A blue circle has appeared out of nowhere! Quic-oh he already died. womp womp

How can you attack a character thats so fast, even his lag has no lag?
 
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Reptillicus

Smash Rookie
Joined
Aug 3, 2015
Messages
15
I absolutely caqnnot get in on a sonic. That spin has next to no lag, that f-smash hitbox is absolute malarkey, my projectiles are way too slow, my disjoints are too small, grabs seem to work like once every 10 times, and as previously mentioned, they can just run away all day to no punish. It seems that sonic is so fast, that he can literally just move directly around hitboxes. Not to mention, those aerials linger like a bad fart.

Watch as the Ness gracefully floats back down to the stage going a grand total of 4 miles per week; But what's this?! A blue circle has appeared out of nowhere! Quic-oh he already died. womp womp

How can you attack a character thats so fast, even his lag has no lag?
ok lets see if I can't help you out here..... Off the top of my head I can think of a couple things ness has in his toolbox. For one thing, you can easily challenge spindash with a PK fire. lets see.... what else.... sending pk thunder after him when he's off stage is a good idea. As i said before sonic can struggle to kill even at high percent so he will have to commit to something like a B-air or F-smash and those can be punished if he whiffs.
 
Joined
Sep 4, 2014
Messages
46
Location
Bountiful, UT
This character is so ridiculous when you don't have good match-up practice. I swear to God I've seen him spin dash through my shield without it being fully charged, I've seen him homing attack my shield and jump away safely afterward. He may not be the best in the game, but he definitely has the tools.
 

Camalange

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This character is so ridiculous when you don't have good match-up practice. I swear to God I've seen him spin dash through my shield without it being fully charged, I've seen him homing attack my shield and jump away safely afterward. He may not be the best in the game, but he definitely has the tools.
You can OOS aerial homing attack. You can also landing trap Spin Dash jumps or if he passes through your shield and screech stops there's enough cooldown to punish.

:093:
 
Joined
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Messages
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You can OOS aerial homing attack. You can also landing trap Spin Dash jumps or if he passes through your shield and screech stops there's enough cooldown to punish.
Can you? I very often see him bounce too far away and then he double jumps away.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by landing trap spin dash.
 

Camalange

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Can you? I very often see him bounce too far away and then he double jumps away.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by landing trap spin dash.
It's tricky, HA can hit shield and Sonic has some control over how far back he retreat. It's easier to punish if he doesn't save double jump but a character like Falcon can potentially get OOS Uair. You can also just spotdodge it which puts Sonic in a really bad position, but that requires some guess work since Sonic can hold still for so long. Additionally, you could always just hold shield, wait or predict where he will retreat, and then attack.

For Spin Dash, I mean that if Sonic passes through your shield and is still in a ball he has to land eventually, and being above someone is the worst position to be in. Falcon is fast, so you can just make landing difficult instead of trying to punish spin itself.

Conversely, you can hit Sonic out of spin with something stronger, or stay in up-close range which doesn't give him time to charge.

:093:
 

Camalange

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Alright, cool, that's some more stuff that I can use to try to make this match-up a little easier on myself. Thanks for taking the time to write that out.
No problem! It can be frustrating to deal with still for sure, but I think the big thing is that once you learn how Sonic's disadvantage works it becomes much easier to manage. It becomes less about punishing Spin and in some cases and more about how to punish after he Spins.

:093:
 

Anubiz4Hire

Smash Rookie
Joined
May 8, 2019
Messages
4
Who better to ask then the sonic mains?

How do I best beat your character?

What are his weaknesses?
uuhm i ussually do a side special to recover on to the stage.
projectiles also stop sonic dead in his tracks while spin dashing.
Falco's neutral b or Mario's any projectile that makes a character flinch.

Also, Sonic players tend to be a bit aggressive in terms of play style,
someone like marth has the potential to put sonic in a very bad situation when he's off-stage
using well-timed forward/back airs since his up b goes vertically.

When your against a sonic that spin dashes all over the place simply block upon first contact and move away slightly
this will cause sonic to drop his dash which ussually results in him having recovery frames to deal with.

Hope this helps!
 
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BuddydaBomb

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jun 17, 2019
Messages
15
Try to play as ivysaur the most and get as many grabs as possible throw him upwards and juggle him he will be mad and start playing more recklessly take advantage of that and find his weaknesses
Hope this helps
 

MERPIS

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What the hell am I supposed to go against him as wolf? I get one laser out and by the time I do that this braindead character is already in my face and hitting me with the poor excuse of a move that is homing attack, and wolf can't punish it for crap because of his lacking out of shield options.
 

Camalange

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What the hell am I supposed to go against him as wolf? I get one laser out and by the time I do that this braindead character is already in my face and hitting me with the poor excuse of a move that is homing attack, and wolf can't punish it for crap because of his lacking out of shield options.
You can't really be complaining about Sonic as a Wolf main. If homing attack is your biggest problem, you should be punishing what he does after the move. If you just stay in shield you're fine. It's not like he has any follow-ups from it, and it's laggy. Plus if you time spot-dodge correctly he'll whiff and be in tons of lag. You can Nair most of Sonic's options, just rely less on lasers and wait for him to come to you.

:093:
 
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