Shield pressure

[Foxco]

Got a questions about shield pressure, does anyone know the truly optimal thing to do on shield pressure? I used to believe shine grab was a great option but you cant react to them shielding, generally nair>shine so as a result I find that I will just guess when my opponent will shield it. If the shine hits and you go for a shine>grab then you miss a follow up, and if they shield the shine and you wavedash through their shield they escape or can even punish you. If anyone has some opinions or even some evidence to back that it would be appreciated.

 

[AscendantAquila]

I don't truly know if there is an optimal shield pressure because there are so many mixups revolving how people want to exit their shield and trying to read it. Nair-shine is the safest option I believe, although you don't get a whole lot out of it, if you're not reading rolls and jumps out that is. Drillshine is less safe than Nair because all Dairs can be shield grabbed if you land in front of them (a frame perfect drillshine requires a frame perfect shield grab). Honestly I go for a lot of shine-grabs and when the person is conditioned to stop shielding so much, I try to read their escape from shield. Also, if someones shield is sorta small, then a dair that's not fastfell will usually shield poke and you can convert into a combo. If someone is holding shield excessively and you don't shinegrab, you may be able to full hop uair and shield poke with it, I've never done this and it requires your opponent to really respect your pressure. Like I said because I don't know if there is a truly optimal thing to do because it's basically trying to condition your opponent into doing something that puts them into an even less advantageous position.

 

[MH | Joeschmo]

To be exact late fade away nair shine is the safest shield pressure. There really isn't any 100% optimal shield pressure, because like Aquila said there are a lot of mix ups both you and the opponent can do. Though nair shine will cover a lot, they can roll out of it, but it does over most options.

 

[Foxco]

Thank you both for your answers! That's actually a very good point i hadn't considered on conditioning, I'll make note of that. Appreciate the replies!

 

[MH | Joeschmo]

I reccomend going for those late nair > shines into a jc grab or a double shine jc grab and if you spaced it correctly, usmash. Or maybe you could try for falling uair to poke their heads/ full hop bair.

 

[1000g2g3g4g800999]

The optimal pressure is also dependent on where you are relative to the shielding opponent, which why either of you are facing relative to the other, and what character is being pressured. Certain things also become more optimal as you go away from center stage, and platforms also can change things.

Even percentage is relevant, as they can ASDI down if an attack hits them.

This is of course, if we're limiting our view to attacking a shield. You can also just grab.

Personally, I'd say the best pressure is to stand outside the range of out of shield options you can't confidently react to, and wait for them do do something. If it's moderately lowered from sitting in shield to much or any other reason, you can walk a little closer and put up shield yourself if you aren't entering grab range.