In the beginning, there were two Sonic approaches: dash attack and dash grab. Both were awful.
Then, we started discovering a few new methods like the reverse bair, hyphen smashing, and dashing shield-grab. They helped.
I've been looking at a few slightly trickier options for approaching the opponent, a few of which are working really, really well. I figured I'd put them up here (having seen no or limited discussion on the subject) and see what everybody thinks.
The first I started playing with after hearing that the side-b has invincibility frames, and I certainly wasn't the only one doing this. Basically, you run in, and when you're just out of your opponent's range (varies from character to character), do a side-b. This gives you a) a pause in your movement, b) a slight backwards pull, c) invincibility frames, and d) a nice method of approach/punishment if your opponent botches an attack at your feint.
This of course can also be done with a down b, which is a slightly more offensively-oriented variant. Basically, you lose the pullback and invincibility frames, but you approach faster because you don't have the hop at the beginning.
But that approach is relatively well-known. What I haven't seen anybody talk about or use is the next technique I tried out. In playing a good Sonic, you need to throw as much variety into your style as possible. So, as an alternative to the above approach, I tried out a short hop before the charge. Against some characters (Ike comes to mind), this is worthless due to the arcing nature of their smashes. However, against a more jab-oriented character like Luigi, putting yourself above their attack is quite advantageous. Also, because in this method you can jump just before you hit their max range and then charge while being carried forward by your momentum, you can connect very quickly, probably more quickly than your opponent can react.
Of course, your opponent may also become accustomed to this approach. If they do, one of two things can happen: they shield your attack (in which case you can jump cancel) or they call the move and hit you out of your spin. If they shield, it's cool, just keep the pressure up on them. The last strategy I've been using can be used if they start trying to attack you out of the approach. You do the jump-charge-cancel technique, but from the second jump (the one that cancels your charge attack), you launch another attack. Two attacks work well for this: dair and homing attack. Both stall you above your opponent, making their counter-attack miss, and both launch you downwards very quickly after the stall. It takes a lot of button-mashing and a bit of practice, but I've found it to be quite effective.
The best part is that once they start adapting to these approaches, you can dash attack them just to piss 'em off.
Like I've said, I'm sure there are people out there who are already doing exactly this, but I haven't seen these posted so I figured I'd throw them up here so that other folks can learn to incorporate them and so that we can talk about them and hammer them out a bit.
Then, we started discovering a few new methods like the reverse bair, hyphen smashing, and dashing shield-grab. They helped.
I've been looking at a few slightly trickier options for approaching the opponent, a few of which are working really, really well. I figured I'd put them up here (having seen no or limited discussion on the subject) and see what everybody thinks.
The first I started playing with after hearing that the side-b has invincibility frames, and I certainly wasn't the only one doing this. Basically, you run in, and when you're just out of your opponent's range (varies from character to character), do a side-b. This gives you a) a pause in your movement, b) a slight backwards pull, c) invincibility frames, and d) a nice method of approach/punishment if your opponent botches an attack at your feint.
This of course can also be done with a down b, which is a slightly more offensively-oriented variant. Basically, you lose the pullback and invincibility frames, but you approach faster because you don't have the hop at the beginning.
But that approach is relatively well-known. What I haven't seen anybody talk about or use is the next technique I tried out. In playing a good Sonic, you need to throw as much variety into your style as possible. So, as an alternative to the above approach, I tried out a short hop before the charge. Against some characters (Ike comes to mind), this is worthless due to the arcing nature of their smashes. However, against a more jab-oriented character like Luigi, putting yourself above their attack is quite advantageous. Also, because in this method you can jump just before you hit their max range and then charge while being carried forward by your momentum, you can connect very quickly, probably more quickly than your opponent can react.
Of course, your opponent may also become accustomed to this approach. If they do, one of two things can happen: they shield your attack (in which case you can jump cancel) or they call the move and hit you out of your spin. If they shield, it's cool, just keep the pressure up on them. The last strategy I've been using can be used if they start trying to attack you out of the approach. You do the jump-charge-cancel technique, but from the second jump (the one that cancels your charge attack), you launch another attack. Two attacks work well for this: dair and homing attack. Both stall you above your opponent, making their counter-attack miss, and both launch you downwards very quickly after the stall. It takes a lot of button-mashing and a bit of practice, but I've found it to be quite effective.
The best part is that once they start adapting to these approaches, you can dash attack them just to piss 'em off.
Like I've said, I'm sure there are people out there who are already doing exactly this, but I haven't seen these posted so I figured I'd throw them up here so that other folks can learn to incorporate them and so that we can talk about them and hammer them out a bit.
