Syde7
The Sultan of Smut
We play with customs on here as well in NC, though that might be changing in the short term. Regarding BF on custom up+B, we've got a few Sheiks here ... (our #2 PR player, who took a game off ZeRo when he visited NC, our #3 has a Sheik as well, and so does our #6. I'm #7 and have a Sheik secondary for the bad MUs but am probably going to switch to something else... so, the skill gaps are there, but they aren't as large as if I was RandomROB420 vs a PR'd player) ... and they all run the penetrating needles + grenade custom (forgot the name of it, its #2; that being said.. I still struggle and sometimes lose to like... one Sheik outside the PR whom the opponents he loses to I regularly beat... just bc of the MU).
Anyway... regarding BF vs. up+B, tbh... the custom up+B makes it easier to avoid offstage kills like you said. But, I find that its something whose utility decreases after the Sheik has seen the trajectory/burst speed a handful of times, as we're still pinned to the non-action frames of up+B, plus... our options are limited while using the up+B. One super effective thing Sheik can do is BF kick off the edge of the stage, and rebound. The rebound gives Sheik a ton of options. She can rebound off of the stage, and literally coast downward (almost to the diagonal blast zone) and use the 2nd kick, and still make it back if she has her 2nd jump; she can cover the straight vertical the same way, as well as a huge arc above & parallel to the stage. Considering that most of the time your aerials will lose or trade with the kick, its a good exchange for Sheik. People might think the rebound is just for flash, but it significantly improves the range & utility of BF as an edgeguarding tool.
Also, outside of the airdodge->Vanish read, Vanish has some solid KO stuffs. She can run->up+B near the edge of the stage->results in gliding off with the explosion happening offstage at various distances depending on where she started the up+B on stage. This covers a good deal of the horizontal area parallel to the stage. She can just go for a raw Vanish off-stage to intercept up+B, or use it to "finish" her edgeguard. Finally, she can just ledge-hop/ledge-drop, drift to where she wants & Vanish as we try to recover to the stage (kind of like a Shino stall in Melee... but, not instant/quickly). This covers virtually every angle we can approach the ledge from (aside from descending toward the stage... which is a bad look for ROB vs her due to U-air and Vanish).
But, to cover your question about grabbing the gyro. Its rough when anyone gets our gyro, but Sheik seems super tough. I've had the gyro taken a handful of times, and its a pain, for the exact reasons you mentioned. We lose a zoning & set-up tool, and are relegated to lasers, fade-back N-airs, and fade-back F-airs, and probably some pivot grab stuff. Plus, if she throws the gyro or z-drops it and hits you... it leads to all kinds of stuff.
To avoid the needle shield pressure... try to keep out of range/at the edge of the range of needles (hard to do depending on stage) and pepper with SH lasers. SH will keep you above the needles if you space wrong or she advances, and you can probably hit her in her cooldown. Its not guaranteed, and it can be a bad option if she is in range to needle cancel -> Bouncing fish (over the laser, and still have the gyro) if she reads it.
I try to stay as mobile as possible while remaining as safe as I can. Like I said, landing chip-damage lasers in different ways (b-reverses, wavebounces, SHs, FJs) on a needle camping Sheik is key. Most will see it as a negative trade in some ways, or get frustrated. That can cause them to to just dump the gyro and come in. For the patient ones... I find it super difficult to do anything unless I can bait her somehow into getting rid of the gyro. This can be done by doing something that will get you punished, but where the proper punish is an aerial or tilt. Granted they can z-drop-->Aerial regrab the gyro, but the timing is a bit strict and may not be possible due to the spacing you vs. the chosen punish. Also, an aerial or tilt punish at mid-percents is gonna net you a ton of damage... so you have to make the call of "is it worth it to get my gyro back? Is it worth it to get my gyro back... only to have them take it again about 30 seconds later?"
Best advice is not to leave it on the ground at a point you can't reach (outside of a ledge trap or platform landing trap) and use it as something to force them into an action (jumping/shielding), either as a gyro-shot, or item-in-hand-throw.
All of this is much harder to accomplish in practice vs. paper, and is really dynamic and changing based on what's going on in the match.
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