Sup Jonah. This is technically more fitting for the Sheik video thread, but I'll just give it a shot now and mods can move it there if they find it necessary.
I've found in my Fox games that the tech chase is literally the most important aspect of the game, and that it is essential to have that aspect on point, even if it's your first match of the day. Know that your needle camping is better than their laser camping as well, as you have better mobility and options with them than Fox has with lasers because of their hitstun, varied trajectory, charge/cancel option, and higher damage output. So Fox has to approach more than you need to, which leads to setting up a grab for the tech chase. Scope out how Foxes react to this techchase (i.e. which tech options do they prefer, do they purposely miss techs to throw off reactions, do they avoid the ledge, what do they do to throw off your reactions, etc.). Your inevitable goal is to get Fox near the ledge so you can throw them off for the early percent KO, which essentially comes down to good edge play. Needles, sweetspot BAir, dropzone fair, SH Nair, wall jump fairs in some cases, and Dair from ledge to punish on stage recoveries are all great tools for that. This is the theoretical standpoint I'll be working with, to better inform my commentary.
So that first grab was fantastic, but where you failed initially is in reading the DI and following it with a wavedash: fox DI'd left and then techrolled left. This information tells you that the Fox is trying to escape a techchase situation, which means he's afraid of the techchase. This information in relation to the situation at hand shows he's afraid of the ledge, too (he DI'd away AND rolled away). Invariably, the Fox is reacting in a textbook fashion, and should inform your later techchases.
Next, you do a few questionable up airs which I don't fully understand the point of. They seem like empty moves that don't control a lot of space (given the specific hitbox of UAir, as your first attempt proves) and in effect limit your own options. Fox could've easily read your landing and gotten a grab after the second one at ~7:45. Nair would've landed in the first attempt, for example.
After that you get a Jab to Downsmash which sends a Fox away, and he misses the tech: this is also a techchase opportunity. Instead of following his DI (toward the edge) you stand and charge needles, letting Fox reestablish neutral and get off with 13%. This is probably cautionary, as the same situation arises again shortly thereafter and you eat an upsmash for it (possibly because you didn't boost grab, which feels like the best option).
Now your first stock loss was because of a movement flub: you missed a perfect wavedash onto the platform. I have to ask, though: why did you need the wavedash? You took the platform to avoid Fox's aerial, but the wavedash puts you far away from Fox (who again is near the ledge). I feel as though getting above Fox in general isn't a great option, given his strong aerials (particularly UAir) combined with Sheik's weak downward aerial and anti-air options (Nair being the strongest). You may have subliminally had the idea of the wavedash to bair idea lingering from when it hit at 7:56, but it doesn't actually make sense here. Going to the platform is also questionable, since Fox is also at a high enough percent that f-tilt will set up for an aerial or platform techchase (this is further aided by the fact that Fox went for a DAir).
You do recover with a KO shortly thereafter, but you give up your stage control when you fully charge your needles. Fox drops the conrol and you get a solid needle grab, though, but it's something to be conscious of: that extra 3% isn't worth the stage control you give up. Your next techchase off of that needle grab is much better, but the way you drop it again doesn't make any sense: fox has no way of being where you grabbed, so I suspect it's a flubbed input again. The DSmash on the next missed tech is really suboptimal as well: a dtilt or ftilt would've popped the Fox up, a jab reset would link into a strong DSmash for an edgeguard as well as a dtilt or ftilt, or you could've even read the roll behind (based on your first techchase's information) and regrabbed. It covered a lot of options, but it's comparatively a very weak punish: depth over breadth is an applicable ideology here.
At 8:40 you approach with dash attack, which is just a really bad habit that a lot of Sheiks (myself included) are in the habit of doing. Replace any of those instances with boost grab and you'll be doing a lot better: just think about what happens most of the time—a shield grab.
You do get an edgeguard situation around 8:50, which is where you REALLY need to control space and limit Fox's options. That REALLY high side-b went completely unpunished when you should've been setting up your wall of bairs.
At 9:00 you land a UAir, but then make that mistake of overestimating the hitstun, and fox jumps away while you're stuck in an aerial (another uair, which probably stopped your momentum) so you can't follow up. What I've started doing is faking that aerial chase so that they burn their jump, but I can follow up and catch their landing. Again, it's limiting options in that sort of edgeguard mentality.
At 9:05 you follow the DI again and go for a hard punish with down smash and whiff it. Slow down a bit and apply the same tech chase ideas you would use with a grab. If they missed the tech, they only have four options: roll away, roll toward, standing, and get-up attack. This is another instance where you can dash toward them, faking a follow-up that you can't actually get, which scares them into doing something. In this case, you did a real follow-up which forced them to do the roll toward option, which caused a whiff. Had you wavedashed, you could've grabbed, back threw, and edgeguarded.
At 9:15 you use a similar kind of idea: Fox failed to edgeguard you and ended up reversing the situation: you're on stage and he's on ledge. He rushes to get the followup, but is too slow and gets down smashed for it. This could've been you just ten seconds ago!
But then at 9:25 you try to do another hard read with that upsmash after the grab. I'll give you that Fox did an unexpected option (roll toward ledge), but your choice also didn't cover the roll to center (the option I'd have expected). He whiffed a grab and got downsmashed, but still punished easily. This should tell you that the downsmash also wasn't a good option (because it's not: Fox doesn't even get knocked down from it). Had he pummeled more in his grab to UAir, it would've been a stock.
And I think it's your habit of throwing out Up Airs recklessly that costs your stock directly thereafter. I don't think there are any situations where Up Air is the best aerial you can throw out against a spacie: they tend to be able to jump out of it, it's difficult to follow up, and it doesn't set up for edgeguards. Nair covers the most space, fair is a solid neutral hit, and dair is a great move to follow up on. Up Air is more useful vs. floaties where it's actually a stronger KO option than Fair (think of how powerful down throw to up air is against Peach).
After that stock you again give up an opportunity to use your invincibility to gain stage control in favor of a needle charge. It's really not worth it: use your invincibility to pressure Fox to run away to a less favorable position. You do get Fox into an edgeguard situation at 9:45, but you trade with Firefox and he gets back: it feels like a panic move, probably due to the jump directly before; you're facing backward, not confident with the turnaround f-tilt, so just downsmash and hope for the best? Truth is, you shouldn't have jumped, but even though you did, you could've b-reversed or just dropped in with a bair outright to hit Fox out of his recovery; if you hadn't jumped, you could've wavedashed to ledge and baired, or you could've f-tilted, or you could've waited to punish the landing. The jump limited your own options and forced a trade which inevitably would've been okay had you teched it, which tells me you didn't view the downsmash as a panic move that would not work perfectly (or you flubbed an input). The grab after was SO crisp though. I don't see why you didn't forward throw, and I definitely don't get why you jumped.
That down smash at 10:12 is another example of a panic move, I think. Down smash is extremely commital and punishable, so I think running away and restoring neutral is a far better option, especially considering Fox shielded after the ledge climb (a very strange choice). Again, it's a repetition of 9:15 where the edgeguard situation reverses, but this time the Fox is more cautious. Ledge options are very similar to missed tech options: they can do a regular get up, roll in, or roll away (ledgehop). Your best option is to move in to punish those options, but the fear is real, I'm sure. Neutral isn't bad; downsmashing is unless your read is perfect.
The same sort of thing happens AGAIN at 10:20 where you down smash and Fox just rolls through it with his invincibility and then gets the KO. You could've just grabbed. He's even at >100%, so you KNOW the slow get up will telegraph his option. In that situation, wavedash back and a grab read is all you needed to take the stock. Instead you get shine KO'd. The down smash edgeguard at 10:45 was perfect: that's the situation you use it in.
The dash attack at 11:05 is another opportunity to boost grab, as is the roll away after the grab, which itself shouldn't have happened as you could've jab reset on the no tech.
This is already a lot to digest, and I think I spent entirely too long writing all of this, so I'll stop here for now. General takeaways:
- Integrate the techchase more into your game, and understand that it works off of any move—not just grab.
- Tighten up your inputs. There were a lot of situations that could've just been control flubs, but those shouldn't happen regardless.
- Slow down a bit and understand your options, especially hitlag and ending lag. Observe situations where you make questionable decisions and avoid repeating the same mistake twice.
- Stop using up air in the Fox match up. There's [probably] never a time that it's better than a fair.
- Save down smash for opportune moments. It's good at low-mid percents to keep Fox away and rack up percent, but once he can't CC d-tilt (someone help me on the percent?) d-tilt is the better option because it combos more readily. It's rarely your best edgeguard option, but there are situations where it works (and this game proves it).
- You seem uncomfortable with your edgeguarding, given that you never seem to set up for an edgeguard when you can (this might even account for your UAirs). That is one of Sheik's strongest game plans: USE IT.
- Don't sit where there's light blinding you.
The time she spends coming back to the stage gets you a full needle charge. I find that to be more fruitful than trying to predict where Puff is going and hitting with bair.
