ArikadoSD
the cream of the crop
Fox is another matchup for Sheik that should be slightly in her favour or at worst even, but if the Sheik player isn't used to it then it can be pretty problematic. The main thing here is that Fox has an amazing aerial game, his uair is amazing and we can't challenge it from above, mix that with his good up throw and we'll be in a disadvantage whenever we're in the air above him. Another amazing aerial is his bair which is pretty much identical to ZSS's bair, it has amazing kill power and autocancels from a shorthop, it's hard to challenge but it's not as bad as uair because we can challenge it with Sheik's fair.
Fox has a hell of a lot of good tools that are problematic to Sheik also. I mentioned bair and uair but his best tool might be utilt. Sheik's a fastfaller so she can get combod really hard by utilt at lower percents, and they lead to aerials at later percents. That's the one thing we have to always be on the lookout for. His utilt is amazing.
Lasers aren't a big thing in this MU because needles > lasers, and Sheik can also crouch under lasers which is convenient. Moving on to his recovery, it's pretty damn linear, but you have to know what you're doing to edgeguard Fox's Side B (which I'll refer to as Illusion from now on.) Fox's hurtbox is always ahead of Illusion and not behind it. The hitbox is behind where the hurtbox would be.
In this image, the blue part is the hitbox, Fox's position is the hurtbox. The gap between the hurtbox and the hitbox isn't always the same but I'm not sure about the measurements, I might need to test them more. But generally speaking try aiming your hits so that you hit in front of where Fox appears and not where he actually appears in the animation.
Fox's combos on Sheik besides utilt comboing to itself and utilt > aerials are all from down throw at low percents. Dthrow > Bair or Dthrow > Fair depending on your DI would be his main combo and that stops working rather early, so the only thing Fox gains from a grab is stage positioning. This might not sound intimidating but in practice it is absolutely scary because as I explaied, Fox's uair is just that good and you DON'T wanna be above him. Still, keep in mind that he has no combo throws or setups from his grab at all so sometimes shielding might be the best option. In general when Fox gets an up throw on you double jump and bouncing fish away, try to get the ledge or land back safely on a platform or whatever.
He basically only has 2 kill setups as far as I'm aware. Weak nair to Usmash, and fast fall dair to Usmash. If you avoid those or DI away from him and always tech then you should be fine.
So far I've only written what Fox can do, but what can Sheik do in the matchup?
Combos:
First of all, Fox is a fastfaller. That means he can be very easily combod. The most optimal combos that you can do are the following:
(FH = Full Hop | SH = Short Hop | FF = Fast fall | SHFF = Short Hop Fast Fall)
From 0%: Fair > Grab > Fthrow > FH Fair > FF Nair > Grab > Fthrow > Bouncing Fish
......................................................................OR
................Fair > Grab > Fthrow > FH Fair > FF Nair > Grab > Fthrow > FH Needles > FF Nair > Bouncing Fish
That's the most optimal combo you can get on Fox. Another good combo that does less damage but is more consistent is simply the following:
From 0%: Fair > Grab > Fthrow > SHFF Fair > SHFF Fair > (you might sneak in another SHFF fair here) Grab > Fthrow > Bouncing Fish
This should work every single time regardless of DI. If you don't get that to true combo then you're doing something wrong.
Fthrow > Bouncing Fish should work until at least 80% depending on Sheik's rage and if you do it correctly.
Falling Fair > Bouncing Fish is an amazing combo that starts from around 40% and lasts up until ~100% again depending on rage.
Nair > Bouncing Fish works the same way as Fair > Bouncing Fish.
Weak Nair > Bouncing Fish is a kill setup that starts working at high percents depending on rage, maybe around 110%.
Dthrow > Uair can be a good kill combo if the Fox player doesn't DI correctly (away from sheik).
Edgeguarding:
As I said before, you have to understand how Illusion works in order to edgeguard it optimally. I found that there are pretty much 3 ways to interrupt it: Vertical needles, falling nair, and fair. Out of the three, vertical needles is by far the easiest because the hitbox lasts a while if fully charged and it can lead to a needles > bouncing fish kill confirm if Fox is at kill percent. Very easy to do and efficient.
Interrupting it with Nair and Fair is a lot harder though. You have to pretty much commit to a read and hope that it works. Fair is especially hard because the hitbox doesn't linger the same way Nair does.
If Fox lacks a double jump and he's below stage height, then you can interrupt his Fire Fox (up b) charge, or grab the ledge and drop down Bair every time he tries to get the ledge. This should be easy enough that anyone can do it consistently. He'll eventually die unless you somehow mess up.
Additional Notes:
- Needles are really good in this mu, you can punish all of Fox's landings and he can't do anything about it. You can also use them to interrupt Fire Fox while on stage which is also great. You shouldn't worry about Fox's reflector because they don't deflect needles in full range.
- Don't throw out punishable moves such as Sheik's smash attacks or a random on-stage vanish; Fox can run up Usmash and you can do nothing about it. You don't want that.
- Fox is light, so a Fair off-stage at maybe 120% can kill him. Use that to your advantage.
- Shielding is pretty effective against Fox because all he gets from them is stage positioning and he can't kill you with a throw combo or anything.
- Regarding stage choice, I generally dislike fighting Fox in Battlefield or Dreamland because he can pressure us from underneath the platforms with Sheik, and he could link Uairs thanks to the platforms. FD would be my favourite pick, followed by Smashville and T&C. There aren't really stages where either is dominant though.
That's all I have to say about the Fox MU. It's an MU I've struggled with for a while but I'm finally coming to terms with it. Feel free to comment if you want to add anything else.
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