Shield, Roll, Spotdodge, Grabs, Attacks - When to use and how to punish?

[Dreamaholic]

There's a really frustrating wall I don't really know how to get past and I am pretty sure it's because I don't completely understand how the "rock,paper,scissors-system" works with shields,rolls,spotdodges,grabs,attacks.

For example:
It often happens to me that I put up shield for an upcoming attack I've predicted but I can't punish it because the shield stun is too high and/or the attacks recovery too fast or my out of shield options too slow and most of the time I end up in a neutral position or worse.
What should I have done instead? Wouldn't it be too risky to spotdodge or to try to perfect shield? Wouldn't it be to slow to roll?

What exactly do I have to do and when to punish my opponent's action?
Which action beats which and under what kind of circumstances?

I mainly use: and a bit less but still quite often
I have a hard time trying to punish: and some others.

: If I try to get through his arrow, bomb and boomerang wall of spam I often just get hit by his really fast and almost no lag down smash, jab or something.
: Can I even punish him? His down B has priority over most attacks and he's too fast to shieldgrab him, if I miss he'll just neutral B me.
: Is kinda like but with less K.O. potential.
: Hard to punish because very fast and very low lag on everything.
: Lives long, deadly recovery, much range and much K.O.power, I have to be really careful so how am I supposed to punish him properly at the same time?
Is kinda like

It feels really bad to lose against a worse player just because the lame playstyle he thought of worked against me.
There're even some times where I just don't understand why I even lost, what I did wrong, etc.
I'm not an inexperienced player in competitive smash at all so It made me confused and frustrated.

 

[Inger]

I've had the exact same troubles as you. The solution is mainly just improving your movement and dodging capabilities.

Against link spammers its just a game of running and blocking. Approach him with foxtrots so you can block when he sends something out. When you get close dont attack immediately, just block again then counterattack, since he will almost certainly smash or do some laggy move. If you are fast enough, you can also do an aerial approach and catch him in his throwing animation.

Sonic is the trickiest. Most of his moves arent punishable. Just make smart shields and wait for him to make a mistake. After every spin dash (downB) he will always use nuetral B. After he hits your shield with neutral B its an easy punish.

Just stay close to samus. She cant do much then. If its missile spamming, just jump over them and approach from the sky.

Yoshi is really weird. Extremely good aerial mobility and a strange double jump. The good thing about him is that he cant do much if you shield. All of his hitboxes are part of his body, which means he will always be close to you in order to hit. If you shield his aerial, he will be gaurenteed in grab range. If he spams projectiles, approach him with shields. His grab is very risky, so most noob yoshis dont even bother, which means your shield is always a safe option.

Dedede's recovery is not deadly. If they spam it, you can just shield through it. If he spams gordos, counter spam him with any projectiles you have to hit the gordo back. If you dont haev projectiles, dont try to hit it back. Just shield. A lot of his moves are very laggy. Dodging instead of shielding or jumping is the safest option.