Intimidation
The Art of Pressure
1. Introduction
By now I hope that most of you have grasped the basics of Smash gameplay - avoid getting hit, hit the opponent, all that jazz. From that, you've probably got a decent handle on how to keep yourself safe from harm as well. This article will hopefully cover the measures one can take to break through such a barrier when your opponent sets his own defenses up.
2. Shield Pressure
The most obvious pressure, as well as the riskiest. In Brawl, shieldstun may as well not exist, and any improperly spaced attacks (and even several properly spaced ones) will earn you direct punishment if they connect with a shield. For all intents and purposes, you will not want to apply shield pressure unless you are either completely sure that it is safe enough to escape punishment, or you're setting up a trap (more on this later).
2a. Safe Shield Pressure
This is the stuff you'll usually want to go for - retreating aerials, lagless projectiles, etc. It's pretty much designed to discourage your opponent from continuing to shield, because you're obviously not punishable on your end, and his shield is dwindling away without any opportunities for punishment on his end.
This will probably not net you any hits, save for one or two shieldstab hits, but it'll force the opponent out of shield. Try to set your position up to capitalize once that happens.
EXAMPLE 1: As Falco, your opponent is shielding, hoping to bait an attack for some reason. You, being clever enough to not directly attack a shield, just start firing SH lasers from a safe distance. Your opponent, realizing he's not going to get any chance to hit you from his position, tries to close in past the lasers by jumping over them. Meet him out of his jump with an aerial.
EXAMPLE 2: As Meta Knight, you keep dj.dairing your opponent's shield. To avoid the eventuality of getting shieldstabbed, he rolls. TORNADO!
EXAMPLE 3: As Peach, you keep dancing on your opponent's head with dairs. He rolls. Land, jump up and float again, and repeat until he either gets shieldstabbed or gives up on life.
2b. Unsafe Shield Pressure
This usually involves SHFFing an aerial straight into an opponent's shield, or dash attacking, or whatever into his shield. Which is immediately punished by any number of options out of shield.
EXAMPLE: As Marth, you SHFF.fair an opponent's shield. He shieldgrabs you. ggpo
Obviously, you want to stop doing this and immediately work on removing this easily punishable aspect from your game. Figure out what drives you to such a dumb habit and kill it. Of course, it's not entirely that simple. After all, your opponent just shieldgrabbed you. That's a five-frame startup punishment. Do you have anything quicker?
EXAMPLE: As Marth, you SHFF.fair an opponent's shield. As he attempts to shieldgrab you, you immediately Dolphin Slash him in the face because of your invulnerability frames on startup.
This is where we'll start getting into traps and mixups based on situationally unsafe shield pressure.
2c. Frame Traps
A term in most fighters for an attack that seems unsafe on block, but is actually safe and can punish out-of-block poke/punish attempts. In Brawl, this generally involves jumping in with an auto-canceled aerial and then jabbing to catch shieldgrab attempts. Keep in mind that this isn't a universally good idea and it won't automatically make your normally unsafe shield pressure safe - it's simply shifting the punishable part over a little.
EXAMPLE: As Marth, you once against SHFF.fair the opponent's shield. Expecting a shieldgrab, you Dolphin Slash. He continues shielding your Dolphin Slash. You are now extremely punishable. ggpo
Which is why we'll go into mixups.
2d. Mixups
Now that you've conditioned your opponent to block your jump-in, you can play with his reaction, or lack thereof. Instead of going straight for a frame trap, instead grab him while he keeps shielding. Or just run away. You're essentially punishing him for trying to read your pattern by you not sticking to it. Again, pretty situational, and if your frame trap keeps working, don't bother with this 'cause he'll just keep trying to punish your first attack conventionally and end up getting you because you went for a mixup.
2e. Crossup
In most fighters, a way to fool the opponent's guard by attacking from behind him. In Brawl, not very helpful because the shield covers the entire body, but landing behind him after unsafe shield pressure can keep you safe from a few things. Just watch out for symmetrical attacks (most dsmashes) and quick behind-reaching aerials. The most effective way of using a crossup is either with a natural crossup like Diddy's and Meta Knight's dash attacks, or by landing your aerial right on top of the opponent so he can't immediately tell whether you're going to end up in front or behind him. Still, this is probably the least useful way to cover your shield pressure, so don't rely on it.
2f. Generally Safe Shield Pressure
I assume you Wario players already know how to do this. Basically just attack a shield with something and weave back out of range before the attack finishes so you are no longer in a position to get punished, but have effectively reduced your opponent's shield time. This usually prompts some sort of action from smart people, and prompts a whiffed shieldgrab from dumb people. This also prompts an invincible Up+B out of shield from a few characters, hence the term generally safe.
3. Zoning
Applying pressure without actually connecting your hitbox on anything involving your opponent. This is pretty much a way to prevent your opponent from coming in from a certain angle. The most obvious example that comes to mind is SHing fairs with most characters to cover the ground right in front of you. If your opponent finds no way through it he'll inevitably retreat, at which point you can continue to advance with your brickwall until he's backed into a corner.
4. Intimidation
The namesake of this thread, I guess. If your opponent likes escaping or attempting to capitalize on an opening in a certain way, punish him until he no longer tries it. Take apart his game piece by piece. This works a lot better on lesser players, but can also be effective when your opponent becomes impatient. You can do this with zoning, punishment with your shield pressure, whatever. Basically this is the epitome of offensive pressure, and if done well then your opponent will be at a loss for how to get through you. By this point you've completely outplayed him and can kill him at your leisure.
4a. Being a ****ing man
For some reason when you stand RIGHT IN FRONT OF A SHIELD doing nothing a lot of people react by rolling or spotdodging. Since they did this while you were standing, you can probably think of all sorts of ways to punish an unprovoked dodge or roll. Works extra well if you have respawn invincibility.
5. Stuffs
I might come up with stuff later, I pretty much wrote this in half an hour 'cause I was bored and I couldn't sleep all night, lol.
The Art of Pressure
1. Introduction
By now I hope that most of you have grasped the basics of Smash gameplay - avoid getting hit, hit the opponent, all that jazz. From that, you've probably got a decent handle on how to keep yourself safe from harm as well. This article will hopefully cover the measures one can take to break through such a barrier when your opponent sets his own defenses up.
2. Shield Pressure
The most obvious pressure, as well as the riskiest. In Brawl, shieldstun may as well not exist, and any improperly spaced attacks (and even several properly spaced ones) will earn you direct punishment if they connect with a shield. For all intents and purposes, you will not want to apply shield pressure unless you are either completely sure that it is safe enough to escape punishment, or you're setting up a trap (more on this later).
2a. Safe Shield Pressure
This is the stuff you'll usually want to go for - retreating aerials, lagless projectiles, etc. It's pretty much designed to discourage your opponent from continuing to shield, because you're obviously not punishable on your end, and his shield is dwindling away without any opportunities for punishment on his end.
This will probably not net you any hits, save for one or two shieldstab hits, but it'll force the opponent out of shield. Try to set your position up to capitalize once that happens.
EXAMPLE 1: As Falco, your opponent is shielding, hoping to bait an attack for some reason. You, being clever enough to not directly attack a shield, just start firing SH lasers from a safe distance. Your opponent, realizing he's not going to get any chance to hit you from his position, tries to close in past the lasers by jumping over them. Meet him out of his jump with an aerial.
EXAMPLE 2: As Meta Knight, you keep dj.dairing your opponent's shield. To avoid the eventuality of getting shieldstabbed, he rolls. TORNADO!
EXAMPLE 3: As Peach, you keep dancing on your opponent's head with dairs. He rolls. Land, jump up and float again, and repeat until he either gets shieldstabbed or gives up on life.
2b. Unsafe Shield Pressure
This usually involves SHFFing an aerial straight into an opponent's shield, or dash attacking, or whatever into his shield. Which is immediately punished by any number of options out of shield.
EXAMPLE: As Marth, you SHFF.fair an opponent's shield. He shieldgrabs you. ggpo
Obviously, you want to stop doing this and immediately work on removing this easily punishable aspect from your game. Figure out what drives you to such a dumb habit and kill it. Of course, it's not entirely that simple. After all, your opponent just shieldgrabbed you. That's a five-frame startup punishment. Do you have anything quicker?
EXAMPLE: As Marth, you SHFF.fair an opponent's shield. As he attempts to shieldgrab you, you immediately Dolphin Slash him in the face because of your invulnerability frames on startup.
This is where we'll start getting into traps and mixups based on situationally unsafe shield pressure.
2c. Frame Traps
A term in most fighters for an attack that seems unsafe on block, but is actually safe and can punish out-of-block poke/punish attempts. In Brawl, this generally involves jumping in with an auto-canceled aerial and then jabbing to catch shieldgrab attempts. Keep in mind that this isn't a universally good idea and it won't automatically make your normally unsafe shield pressure safe - it's simply shifting the punishable part over a little.
EXAMPLE: As Marth, you once against SHFF.fair the opponent's shield. Expecting a shieldgrab, you Dolphin Slash. He continues shielding your Dolphin Slash. You are now extremely punishable. ggpo
Which is why we'll go into mixups.
2d. Mixups
Now that you've conditioned your opponent to block your jump-in, you can play with his reaction, or lack thereof. Instead of going straight for a frame trap, instead grab him while he keeps shielding. Or just run away. You're essentially punishing him for trying to read your pattern by you not sticking to it. Again, pretty situational, and if your frame trap keeps working, don't bother with this 'cause he'll just keep trying to punish your first attack conventionally and end up getting you because you went for a mixup.
2e. Crossup
In most fighters, a way to fool the opponent's guard by attacking from behind him. In Brawl, not very helpful because the shield covers the entire body, but landing behind him after unsafe shield pressure can keep you safe from a few things. Just watch out for symmetrical attacks (most dsmashes) and quick behind-reaching aerials. The most effective way of using a crossup is either with a natural crossup like Diddy's and Meta Knight's dash attacks, or by landing your aerial right on top of the opponent so he can't immediately tell whether you're going to end up in front or behind him. Still, this is probably the least useful way to cover your shield pressure, so don't rely on it.
2f. Generally Safe Shield Pressure
I assume you Wario players already know how to do this. Basically just attack a shield with something and weave back out of range before the attack finishes so you are no longer in a position to get punished, but have effectively reduced your opponent's shield time. This usually prompts some sort of action from smart people, and prompts a whiffed shieldgrab from dumb people. This also prompts an invincible Up+B out of shield from a few characters, hence the term generally safe.
3. Zoning
Applying pressure without actually connecting your hitbox on anything involving your opponent. This is pretty much a way to prevent your opponent from coming in from a certain angle. The most obvious example that comes to mind is SHing fairs with most characters to cover the ground right in front of you. If your opponent finds no way through it he'll inevitably retreat, at which point you can continue to advance with your brickwall until he's backed into a corner.
4. Intimidation
The namesake of this thread, I guess. If your opponent likes escaping or attempting to capitalize on an opening in a certain way, punish him until he no longer tries it. Take apart his game piece by piece. This works a lot better on lesser players, but can also be effective when your opponent becomes impatient. You can do this with zoning, punishment with your shield pressure, whatever. Basically this is the epitome of offensive pressure, and if done well then your opponent will be at a loss for how to get through you. By this point you've completely outplayed him and can kill him at your leisure.
4a. Being a ****ing man
For some reason when you stand RIGHT IN FRONT OF A SHIELD doing nothing a lot of people react by rolling or spotdodging. Since they did this while you were standing, you can probably think of all sorts of ways to punish an unprovoked dodge or roll. Works extra well if you have respawn invincibility.
5. Stuffs
I might come up with stuff later, I pretty much wrote this in half an hour 'cause I was bored and I couldn't sleep all night, lol.
