Safe On Shield/Shield Pressure Options?

[notsuchabadguy]

Hey everyone!

I'm sort of new to my local tournament scene, and I'm still trying to figure out some of my Sheik basics. One of my biggest questions is how I can put some fear of god into my opponents when they shield. I know I should be going for grabs and stuff, but I was wondering if there were any alternatives (attacks that do serious shield damage or are hard to punish out of shield) that I could maybe use to mix them up.

Thanks a lot!

 

[ChivalRuse]

Unpunishable on shield:

> Late fair on shield -> dash back (if they shield grab you will be too far out of range by the time their arms reach out).

> Extremely low strong nair on shield -> jab / tilt / dsmash / dash away / dash through / spotdodge / roll. (All of these are frame traps that should avoid you getting shield grabbed if you do it correctly, although watch out for ASDI down on shield grab spammers).

> Fully spaced f-tilt on shield should be unpunishable except by Marth's fair out of shield and a few other character-specific exceptions. (You have to do the f-tilt from far enough away that it only would hit their shield, not hit them directly).


> U-tilt from behind the opponent's shield is 100% unpunishable except by shine out of shield (the second hit of u-tilt has essentially no end recovery).

> Depending on spacing, d-smash on shield can be safe. Usually you have to get lucky and hit their shield with multiple of the hitboxes though. The general rule of thumb is that if you hit with the back part of d-smash, it's safer on block.

> Aerial needles on shield are safe if you have enough of them charged up.