Playing against CPUs

[Nightblade]

I know it is much better to play against people, preferably someone your level or higher. Here's the thing, I don't have a lot of buddies in the area who can regularly (say twice a week) play smash with me so I often play against Lv9 CPUs that I find/found difficult.

However, I saw something that said it was detrimental to my game. Now here's my concerns:

Neutral A counters are a pain in the *** because they time it perfectly. Against a Ganon especially where it has quite a bit of knockback. Allows them to counter moves that most players would not have the reflexes for.

"Power-shielding" I believe is the term, but basically they shield just before a hit and there's a slightly hollow sound and puts me off guard for a bit. They. Do. It. Constantly. Most players I've met barely do it.

Mindgames don't work on a computer, period.

Dash-dancing, unless I'm doing something wrong, doesn't work against a CPU.
Wavedashing often doesn't help, though my wavedashing isn't all too good.
Lack of DI/FastFall. I think this is self-explanatory, but basically facing off most of the time against players that don't (CPUs) and then players that do (people) I'm getting myself into patterns.
Stupid recoveries. Fox and Falco are the main ones as it is easy to "force" a stock due to stupid use of their Fire Fox.

Mindset. I main Marth and when you catch a Fox/Falco on a tipper utilt from the side, they'll go straight up a little but they don't fast fall, techroll, DI out of it and so I can usually get two more utilts to a fmash for quite a bit of damage with the mindset that it is ok to "gimp" a stock or two because of the Neutral-A counters, lack of mindgames, and near 100% power shielding.

Thoughts/Comments would be appreciated. I do play against Lv1 CPUs to try combos against, but that's generally a warm-up before Lv9 CPUs.

 

[Cort]

There is absolutely no benefit against playing level 9 CPUs.

You can practice basic combos on level 1 CPUs over and over, and if you're a Marth player you can practice chain grabbing level 1 or 4 Foxes due to the way they DI. Level 9 computers always DI up... it's strange.

But uh.. yeah. That's about it.

 

[SilverDraco134]

If you want a challenge without the cheapness, play a level 8 computer. They're almost as tough and don't use those cheap tactics as much as a 9.

 

[drago980]

Nightblade, I have the same problem. Except I have NO ONE to play with, only dumb CPUs. I have never even thought of applicating mindgames into my game. I have no idea when to wavedash, waveland, or all those other stuff.

 

[urban_shinobi]

everyone i have to play sux, so i can just about only play comp. comp tircks are very good though, and if you can learn, even to do the shield tactic a lottle, it can help you game. recently i want to try and learn how to regualr shield deflect.

 

[GoldenArwing]

I find those problems also when playing level 9's personally I like the challenge and play on larger levels when playing them. But i gotta say when they can sheild block the "fox illusion" (Side B) some things wrong