Taking my Sheik to a competitive level

[Zankoku]

Okay, I'm genuinely interested in getting good enough with Sheik to place better than something mediocre/bad/horrid in many tournaments. Anyway, they say it's easiest to give advice on matches someone loses, so here's a bunch of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbM7UB2kugM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQmNQoKo-3E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP8y3xuhjRQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLxlEP23vfE

And here's some vids of some scrub losing to me, if you're into that sort of thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOB3LVyFJoA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l81VaE_hUQ

Ready, go. Take apart my Sheik and tell me exactly why I am losing.

EDIT: And here's some vids of me not losing, you don't have to watch them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3S1cCTInN0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubFVWbFjxok
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxtgIX_nVuA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmbQW_YNdDs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6K3LlMkn4U

 

[ADHD]

With bowser, they are ALWAYS good at playing defensive, thats the mistake I made vs bowsers as sheik and always lost. You have to be very patient in this match, you can't use your speed to your advantage too much. Play it safe, let them come to you, they'll probably start infinite jumping with the side b which gets you very nervous, but a well spaced bair can take care of that. As crazy as it sounds, you should be the one playing defensive XD

The first falco match, you deserved to be chaingrab to spiked on every stock. You keep attacking his shield and he should've punished you, but its a friendly so maybe he didn't feel like it. Vs falco, you have to play strange. Get in their face and then play defensive with downsmashes and work to ftilt them. Once you're past 40 percent damage go crazy.

The second falco match, same as te first but NEVER approach falco with shields if you're under 40 percent damage.

Nothing new to say.

 

[East]

Picking Apart Like a Buzzard

I'm not really sure if I'm qualified to be giving you advice, considering you're probably much better than me. The two biggest things that stood out to me are your edge game and needle usage. Maybe it was because you generally played Falco in most of the matches [with the threat of being sent rocketing back down from a spike and all], but a majority of the time you would just roll on, and he definitely would take advantage [I believe he waited for you to do so while charging a forward smash in the 2nd or 3rd video]. Mix your game up on the edge. Becoming predictable, assuming your opponent catches on could be the greatest cause of a loss.

Your needles. In the beginning of your third match about 9 seconds in you forward smash him and he's just lying on the ground while you're charging needles. I know there were other extenuating circumstances, but this is usually a good time to have a set of needles charged up, so when he falls down, you can let them go [and maybe even a single needle after that] to tack on anywhere from 18-21 more damage to whatever you just dealt him.

From my perspective, your spacing didn't look too bad, but I haven't learned enough about spacing to accurately tell you if you're doing it well enough for a competitive level. Speaking of, I didn't see you necessarily over-abuse this, but you definitely did it quite a few times than needed. That is to say rolling. Maybe it's just me, but you roll a lot. Granted sometimes this may be beneficial, but a good many you could probably be doing other things.

Knowing your opponent. Judging by the amount of times the videos against Ace K1 or whatever his name was [the person who played falco] there were only about 3 instances where your opponent didn't recover using the side+B. If you know what your opponent is going to do, find a way to capitalize on it. I know it's a little hard to judge the distance, but at least try something to make sure he doesn't get back on the stage safe and sound with nothing to worry about. I'm not sure if this will work, but next time he tries to side+B back on the stage, at least set up near the edge, and Down Smash. Once again, I'm not sure if you have more priority to get such a thing off with no damage to you, but at least it's something. Try to find a way, whether it be retaliating or by judging distance or whatever else [depending on the opponent] to force your opponent to have trouble when playing you. As soon as you shut down one of their options, they have to think outside of the box in order to fight, which will at least for a short moment give you some time while they try to regroup and find another strategy. Taking advantage of these precious moments could spell victory for you.

Well that's just the big stuff that I saw. I'm sure someone better than me can give you some better advice though. I'm not a sheik connoisseur yet... Anyway, good luck.

-East

 

[RyokoYaksa]

You're not shield releasing into ftilts nearly enough.

Never fight Falco mid stage in conditions where he can CG you. Ever. You also easily allowed yourself to be CG'd by Falco with an obvious and unspaced Bair in at least one instance.

Tilt lock Falco. He doesn't fall quite as fast as Fox/Wolf so eventually you'll have to delay the ftilts slightly so he keeps falling into ftilt range. Then Usmash him out when he's at 85+. Don't use Usmash out of tilt lock for anything except for the guaranteed KO. If you have to end it with a non-ftilt move, use utilt or an aerial, or a grab/Dsmash/dtilt if he's too low % to ftilt lock.

If you're going to Transform into Zelda, only ever do it in situations where she can at least easily one-shot KO your opponent. If you're not 100% comfortable with how she handles, getting one good hit with her is going to be a difficult task, let alone needing multiple hits leading to the KO. Oh, and practice with Zelda solo. I don't care how much you may not like it, just do it. Learn the safe opportunities to Transform in addition to this. In Smashville for instance, you can often ride the platform while Transforming to create distance. When knocked high into the air without dying, you can jump and immediately Transform and be well out of reach of (almost) any attack.

Usmash is also not a good move to be throwing out at random. Unless you can do the DACUS, it's highly unsafe whenever it doesn't hit. Also, I find the fresh Usmash key in getting KOs on Falco, but that's just me. Against Bowser though, punishing him with a double hitting Usmash is most likely worth it for the fact that it's great damage and Sheik sucks at killing him regardless.

Follow up your low damage Fairs appropriately. It will be below the threshold where they can airdodge cancel or aerial attack cancel the knockback, making many follow ups guaranteed.

Sheik's pummel is not all that fast. Play it safe with only 1 if your opponent has at least 30-70 damage depending on how good they are at breaking. Recommended 0 if they are less than that. Throws with no pummels > a pummel but a lost throw opportunity.

Also, don't be afraid to use Chain. Against people that like to spot dodge aerials (or anything really, depending on how long their spotdodge animation is) the Chain is very useful.

You needed some more Vanishes on the stage, particularly against Falco's Over+B recovery and some of his Dair responses. Over+B also completely stoppable with some crafty Chain wielding.

 

[The Great Leon]

Vs Bowser
Zelda's D-Smash might have been a better alternative. Bowser is really heavy, but sending him horizontally sets him up for a Side-B, which screws with his recovery.

Vs Falco
You crouched/crawled under some lasers, but not enough. As gimmicky as it is, staying crouched puts you under all SHL's. Low stances are put into games for a reason. If you've got it, abuse it.

Falco is always going to Side-B. If they try to land on the stage with it, you have to punish it every time. Needles and B-Air go through it. You can also predict (not too hard, its his best recovery move) and Up-B them when they land. gogo invuln frames.

Up-B kills, and so does N-Air. Maybe not vs Falco, but Up-B on the stage away from them is scary enough that they tend not to chase if you show them that you're throwing Up-B's out there. I try not to stale my N-Air so I can have a kill move to rely upon around 115%. IDK if saving it is the best strategy, but I do know that I can kill when I want to (assuming they let me set up for it. usually when they jump).

 

[Zankoku]

I'm not particularly familiar with the Falco matchup, so thanks, I'll work on the edgeguarding thing more next time.

If I'm supposed to avoid the middle of the stage, can anyone tell me what to do when the Falco's camping the other side of the stage? Do I just crouch and wait until he decides to approach, or something?

 

[ADHD]

I'm not particularly familiar with the Falco matchup, so thanks, I'll work on the edgeguarding thing more next time.

If I'm supposed to avoid the middle of the stage, can anyone tell me what to do when the Falco's camping the other side of the stage? Do I just crouch and wait until he decides to approach, or something?

Run towards him, but watch for your spacing. He'll probably just start to try and do falco stuff. I found that its good if you're close to him and play defensive with downsmashes and ftilts. He'll be forced to use moves that rack up damage instead of the chaingrab. So once you're at 40 then you can do ankoku stuff. It's okay to be in the middle of the stage, but its how you approach with shields and offensively against falco. Falco's tend to be good at shielding then alot of other chars I've found for w/e reason. Maybe it's all the metaknights they have to face

 

[RyokoYaksa]

Unless Falco has the stock and/or % advantage, don't approach at all. Just keep that control stick held down, or ledge stall if he has a way to hit the floor lower than the crouch.

 

[choknater]

For Bowser, watch the Klaws.

Play him like one would play against DK, needle spam and stay out of range.

As the sheik metagame develops, needle/bair camping becomes more and more viable against each and every character. Tying in the aggression to a more solid strategy will help your game overall, and I think you are already pretty good, just step it up and think outside the box into deeper, more effective, and more precise strategies.

 

[Sand-Trap]

Your spacing is terrible, to be blunt. Sometimes you jump and fair right into a waiting shield. It was so obvious just by the way that you were jumping that anyone watching saw the shield grab coming before your jump even reached its peak. And where's the bair? I know it's weak, but I rather go for the bair and worst-case scenario hit the shield and not get hit back through proper spacing than just get shield grabbed with something with shorter range. With proper spacing, you can land a fair as well. What's beautiful is that the majority of the non-top players will instinctively try to grab and miss, leaving them open for a dash attack or grab.

Hmmm...I kinda disagree with the other players regarding the Falco match-up. To me, it's no different when use other characters against him: stay in the air. Falco can only grab you when you're on the ground. By properly spacing fairs and bairs and staying in the air, you shouldn't get grabbed. Watch for the roll --> grab, obv. I also noticed you like doing falling fairs, but not rising ones. I think that could greatly help your spacing game.

Examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLxlEP23vfE (You vs Falco 2)

-Around 0:11. You just get close and shield. That doesn't sound like the safest approach against a Falco with such low %.
-Around 0:22 and 0:44. You throw him...and like, run way farther than Falco's trajectory would allow him to go, and don't follow up.
-Around 1:02. You just toss him away with zero chance of a follow up or edge guard. Why?
-Around 1:11. Poorly spaced recovery.
-Around 1:18. Fsmash into shield at that %? Your lucky he didn't just Dsmash you away.
-Around 1:37. If you stayed on the ledge, his stock is done right then and there. Forcing Falco into a poor recovery with FireFox is definitely one of the things you need to go for via Needles and aggressive edge guarding.
-Around 2:00 and 2:43, for examples. Lotsa rolling from the edge cost you some extra % against Falco, as someone previously mentioned.
-Around 2:08. He air dodges _right_ in front of you, and you don't just grab him again?
-Around 2:10. Look at the spacing of the bair! C'mon, you know you can do better than that. That cost you 37% and it should have been around 60% against a good Falco.
-From 2:45 to 2:51. I have no clue what you are doing.
-Around 2:56. You did the jab furry against a Falco while at 0%. Why cement yourself to the ground like that?
-Around 3:14, most obvious example of this kind of situation. You can tell that, had the Falco shielded, you would have gotten grabbed.
-Around 3:40. If he's laser spamming, wait for him to be falling before throwing away your needles like that.

I think that's enough specific critiquing.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm always grabbing the opponent with Shiek. I <3 Jab --> Grab. Imo, Shiek's qualities are so crappy compared to my other characters (Metaknight, Falco, D3, Lucario) that the only way to get an advantage is to outplay the opponent and make full use of the grabs. Follow-up your grabs a lot more, and I'm not just talking about trying to chase after them in the air, or pecking them with a jab when they return. If you know that they are just going to air dodge after the grab...grab them again, or wait for the air dodge to end and hit them. Use mind games to mix it up.

 

[Zankoku]

People can most definitely grab people out of the air... just not way up in the air. I typically do follow up from my throws, but it's a different set of responses for each character, so that's going to be a matter of learning them all.

 

[Sand-Trap]

People can most definitely grab people out of the air... just not way up in the air. I typically do follow up from my throws, but it's a different set of responses for each character, so that's going to be a matter of learning them all.

Omg, you know what I mean, I can't believe you're actually nitpicking at that. Okay, let me reword. Don't be on the ground, OR LIKE REALLY CLOSE TO THE GROUND, huk.

It's not each character's responses that you need to get used to, it's responding and reacting to the player himself that you need to improve on. If a player using Falco air dodges right after you throw him, and then switches to Marth and does the same thing, is it really the character differences that you need to watch out for?

 

[Zankoku]

Omg, you know what I mean, I can't believe you're actually nitpicking at that. Okay, let me reword. Don't be on the ground, OR LIKE REALLY CLOSE TO THE GROUND, huk.

I'm nitpicking because I've gotten grabbed out of my shorthop many, many times.

It's not each character's responses that you need to get used to, it's responding and reacting to the player himself that you need to improve on. If a player using Falco air dodges right after you throw him, and then switches to Marth and does the same thing, is it really the character differences that you need to watch out for?

If all I do is learn a player's habits, I'm going to have a fun time every time I play someone new. If a Falco dairs right after I throw him, I most definitely have to do something different than if Marth fairs right after. If ANY character airdodges I have the best options possible, but MOST people with at least a functional brain realize that they shouldn't keep airdodging after the second or third punishment.

 

[Sand-Trap]

I'm nitpicking because I've gotten grabbed out of my shorthop many, many times.

You are nitpicking something irrelevant to the discussion because I am criticizing you and in turn you are getting defensive about it instead of realizing that it is constructive criticism.

If all I do is learn a player's habits, I'm going to have a fun time every time I play someone new. If a Falco dairs right after I throw him, I most definitely have to do something different than if Marth fairs right after. If ANY character airdodges I have the best options possible, but MOST people with at least a functional brain realize that they shouldn't keep airdodging after the second or third punishment.

I didn't say, "Omg ONLY learn a player's habits!", did I? The basics is knowing what the character is capable of and what will most likely be done. The more advanced stuff is reacting to your opponent and learning his play style during the actual game, so even if it's a new opponent, you figure out how he plays asap. Most people with at least a functional brain should realize, "Hey, this Falco keeps doing a dair after I throw him, maybe I'll take advantage of that by just waiting for him to land and grab him again!", yet you did not do that obviously, based on these videos.

Also, you just proved my point about mixing it up in your paragraph. If the player learns to not air dodge after the throw, then guess what? You get a free fair or uair after the throw. So now he dodges again, and you wait. So he stops dodging, and you attack. Mix. It. Up.

 

[Zankoku]

You are nitpicking something irrelevant to the discussion because I am criticizing you and in turn you are getting defensive about it instead of realizing that it is constructive criticism.

Then ignore it. >_> It's irrelevant to the discussion.

I didn't say, "Omg ONLY learn a player's habits!", did I? The basics is knowing what the character is capable of and what will most likely be done. The more advanced stuff is reacting to your opponent and learning his play style during the actual game, so even if it's a new opponent, you figure out how he plays asap. Most people with at least a functional brain should realize, "Hey, this Falco keeps doing a dair after I throw him, maybe I'll take advantage of that by just waiting for him to land and grab him again!", yet you did not do that obviously, based on these videos.

I spent a good portion of that match trying to figure out what to do about Falco's dair. Usmash either didn't work or my timing outright sucked, shieldgrabbing didn't work because he'd autocancel into his retardedly good spotdodge or whatever and then punish ME, and my aerials didn't outprioritize it. If you saw that as me getting railed by Falco's dair multiple times, it's completely understandable.

Again, you're noting my lack of experience against Falco, and this is definitely something I'd like to remedy when I get the chance. However, telling me to do things I've been trying to do and then saying I'm not will get me a bit irked.

Also, you just proved my point about mixing it up in your paragraph. If the player learns to not air dodge after the throw, then guess what? You get a free fair or uair after the throw. So now he dodges again, and you wait. So he stops dodging, and you attack. Mix. It. Up.

I do NOT get a free fair or uair from the throw. Are YOU playing against Falcos with Sheik? Or do you instead use your usual characters that are clearly better, most notably META KNIGHT?

 

[Sand-Trap]

I spent a good portion of that match trying to figure out what to do about Falco's dair. Usmash either didn't work or my timing outright sucked, shieldgrabbing didn't work because he'd autocancel into his retardedly good spotdodge or whatever and then punish ME, and my aerials didn't outprioritize it. If you saw that as me getting railed by Falco's dair multiple times, it's completely understandable.

If you know he's going to spot dodge, then why don't you just wait for the spot dodge and then grab him? Also, from what I saw, there's definitely a window of opportunity to hit Falco if he dairs right after the throw. Obv there's a hole that you can exploit, such as timing the Up Smash better, or spacing a fair or bair at his side while avoiding the dair's hit box. Or again, just waiting.

Again, you're noting my lack of experience against Falco, and this is definitely something I'd like to remedy when I get the chance. However, telling me to do things I've been trying to do and then saying I'm not will get me a bit irked.

I don't remember saying that you're not trying to do something, I thought I just said that you're not doing something. I'm not in your head while you are playing, so I can't really tell if you are trying to do something or not, I can only go off of the videos.

I do NOT get a free fair or uair from the throw. Are YOU playing against Falcos with Sheik? Or do you instead use your usual characters that are clearly better, most notably META KNIGHT?

I don't understand, it seems free to me. You see where they are going, follow and ... fair them. Obv I'm not doing to go for the fair with Marth, but I'll fair the Falco, and uair the Marth. In my experience, if they're not dodging, they are getting hit.

And I sure hope that you're not going to look down on my advice, simply because I play Metaknight, right? That'd be silly and ignorant. I think I made a mistake trying to help you if that's the kind of mentality you have. I'll try to get some videos of my Shiek this weekend so you can see if I can back up what I'm saying. But who knows, I might use Metaknight, so that might make everything I said irrelevant! Hahaha.

Oh my, look! I used Metaknight vs Sethlon's Falco in tournament! Why am I here in the Shiek forum, I don't belong here! http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sand-trap+sethlon&search_type=&aq=f

/sarcasm

 

[Zankoku]

I'm saying that Meta Knight doesn't have to worry nearly as much about getting his **** automatically beaten out by Falco hitboxes. Marth is WAY easier to punish off of, well, anything he does out of my throw, seeing has how his aerials don't have lasting hitboxes, than Falco is. In my experience, if I'm doing an aerial, and Falco is doing an aerial, one of them loses, and it's not Falco. This doesn't sound like "free uair or fair" to me. Unless you've got a SWORD.

I vented my frustrations about Falco's spotdodge properties in a chat with someone else, but I guess that's, again, just something I'll have to learn to deal with.

 

[Charoo]

I can see right away that u are inexperience against these chars. =/

I don't fight bowser much so I dunno what to do either haha. For falco though, I really love this battle. Crouch like a mofo because he's going to laser spam you. If you don't like to crouch then do the walking shield where you walk forward and put the shield up. Either that or do the short hop air dodge towards him. You want to be right next to falco as much has possible. Being away from him will only make him camp you more.

When you're next to him, you don't need to be aggressive, you need to be reactive. Falco is not that beast in close combat (except the chaingrab but I'll get to that later). He's going to try to grab you, jab, or run away from you. So you just need to jab him or forward tilt his shield or some thing. Pressure him into staying in one spot and eventually you will get that forward tilt in. Melee players will also side step a lot against u because they think it's the old sheik still so use that to ur advantage (I' m serious about melee players doing this)

Remember that falco loves to grab and forward smash (for the kill or spacing) so he's actually expecting you to side step. I do that too when I play falco because people r scare of his grab. So keep ur shield up or just roll away but DONT spot dodge!!! You r going to get own by falco if you spot dodge alot (if they know what they r doing).

Chain grab by falco is very gay. He can spike you afterward too so be careful. Stay in the middle of the stage against falcos that know how to chain grab properly. Some might think being on the other side helps but it doesn't. He just reverse boost grab you and you're under pressure again. Another thing that I did before is use zelda for the first 40% or so and then switch back to sheik afterward. Zelda can handle the chain grab much better than sheik. I would only recommend this if you r fighting some1 who really want the chain grab. If you do get chain grab though, use neutral air because it's the fastest move you have. I'm not sure if needle is faster so try that too I guess (if it's fully charge since it comes out faster).

Lastly, edgeguarding falco is super simple. You just need to learn it the champ way haha. When you knock him out, just:

1.stand between the middle of the stage and near the edge
2. charge your needle
3. when falco is falling down and into your needle range, you react base on his action:
a. if he tries to side b, just needle him and he will fall down. He will then force to up b or side b again which you just immediately run in and grab the ledge. Bam he's dead.
b. if he tries to use the reflector, cancel ur needle and automatically run off the edge and smack him with a weak nair or weak bair (i guess fair if u have no choice). The goal is to get him low as possible. Then proceed to grab the ledge. Forward air sometime isn't the best way to edge guard because it sends people up at high percentage.
4. ???
5. PROFIT

It's actually not that hard to tell too. Just watch falco instead of your own char. If you see him pausing in the air then it's forward b. If he use the shine then u can see him spinning around. Of course, there's are other ways to get back but this is the 2 most common way I see people comeback.

counter pick a stage that have small sides. Stages with platform also help a lot too.

 

[Gimpyfish62]

vs bowser?

i **** bowser's for free with sheik - i'll check out these matches soon hahaha

 

[clowsui]

Champ - needles travel straight horizontal...Falco just has to wait for like a tenth of a second or maybe even half a second to OverB and sweetspot.

Smarter tactic is just to chain hog the ledge whenever possible. He can't SS the ledge because you can just chain back; but if he gets on the stage then you can use the lag remaining from phantasm to punish. If he shoots past the edge to land then you're free to get up - you'll eat a laser or two but crawling solves that. I can see that AceK would go for the grab when you crawled, just dtilt him because Falco's grab range is like...balls.

But anyways vs. Falco's Drephen is more viable simply because Falco's laser game is still ridiculous and his CG is just >_>; (yeah, as a Falco main I'm ssaying this but still...) The important part about Sheik vs. Falco is that if you get Falco away from you, he'll just send a barrage of lasers your way (or phantasm towards you, give him a dsmash if he does it) but since you're able to read while playing it'll be easier for you to deal with lasers; Falcos often repeat the same firing pattern so you'll be okay if you get the read

 

[Charoo]

that just mean u just have to wait as long as he does to shoot it then. It's not that hard to shoot people with needles. You can jump and shoot needles if u don't know the timing yet.

As long as it hits, it's good enough. If it doesn't then prepare for him to short hop forward b u.

 

[clowsui]

That phantasm travels so ****ed fast though...you have to be really good with the timing, I think...plus a lot of high level Falcos can shorten their Phantasm on the descent so that they glide forward, changing the timing of the ledge grab. There's a lot of trixies you can do w/ Phantasm...I mean the timing for the needles has to be pretty precise too because the hitbox is small, if you screw it up by like 5 frames or so it's kind of over. Also do needles outprioritize Falco's body? They might clank with the illusion but his body has a decent amount of priority...but then again needles can break tornado

 

[Villi]

Needles, short hopped chain, nair, and vanish all beat over b. The more needles you have, the less risk of screwing up. The distance of his over b from the ledge isn't hard to learn from the other side of the move.

 

[Zankoku]

However, waiting from that distance will give Falco safe space at the ledge. I'm wondering if holding out a chain by the ledge is a good idea, though...

Funny how this is all about Falco. I'll have to get more vids of me later...

 

[The Great Leon]

needles don't clank. they have no hurtbox.

you can crouch and crawl backwards under falco lasers. if you crawl forwards you can get hit on some frames.

 

[RyokoYaksa]

needles don't clank. they have no hurtbox.

you can crouch and crawl backwards under falco lasers. if you crawl forwards you can get hit on some frames.

It's possible to get hit crawling backwards, too. The animations for crawling forwards and backwards aren't different except for the obvious inversion, and being possible to crawl forward faster than backward.

 

[Charoo]

the falco edge guarding method i put is the simple version. You can't expect to follow it exact cause no 2 brawl matches r the same. You just have to change ur spacing depend on what falco do. Yes he can trick you, but you can trick him also.

I actually just play some bowser matches and pressuring is too good on him. At first, I was getting punish for dumb reason cause I didn't know the spacing yet. Afterward though, it was kinda simple. He just have a different kind of trick than other big chars. but u can work it out. Needle to send him under mess up his recovery big time. Of course, zelda hurts pretty bad too since he can't shield all of the up smash.

 

[The Great Leon]

hmmm. must've been the direction they were shooting. thanks for correction.

 

[demodemo]

well i'm glad i watched these videos

i can't say much but basically, you are too perdictable

you have this concept stuck in your head that says "no hitstun in brawl, no hitstun in brawl" so after everything you seem to just stop, and wait for your opponent to react, which they often don't, then they space into lazers, etc.

You have to mix it up. (maybe not against falco, i'll mention him later) sometimes follow up after grabs, sometimes don't. may sound silly but it works. continually follow up from grabs on characters that have slow aerials, such as bowser, and if they begin to spam airdodge, next time jump but wait for the airdodge, then punish. you keep doing the second option, when your opponent has no reason to do the first.

don't follow up on ftilts with a usmash unless it will be a two hit. utilt is always better because you can pseudo combo. (two option thingy i mentioned earlier)

as for dair's stopping power, i can't really say what to do since i have never played a decent falco, but i do play against a toon link all the time. if his dair is similar to his in anyway (in case of speed, trajectory, hitbox, priority) the best move to do is a rar bair. with this in mind, you can do pseudo combo thingy again, always using the tip of your bair, then baiting an airdodge, etc.

evne though there is so little hitstun in brawl, mayn character's attacks do not come out fast enough to break out, and they must airdodge. but airdodging against a character like sheik is very bad since she is so fast.

you have trouble getting on from the ledge too. stall with ledge drop>dj>tether for an opening, and you should always ledgehop/ledge drop dj. rolling is situational

sheik's fsmash is bad.

be more gutsy ankoku. that, and stop making silly mistakes. (you keep doing things like rolling onto the stage at 100%+ into a fsmash)

 

[Zankoku]

Thanks, I will keep this in mind. Most of what you're telling me sounds to me like I'm really hurting from not playing this game more than once a month >.<

 

[rathy Aro]

Thanks, I will keep this in mind. Most of what you're telling me sounds to me like I'm really hurting from not playing this game more than once a month >.<

That and you need to change your avatar more. The latter is for more important to becoming competitive.

 

[demodemo]

eek, i forgot, after zelda's usmash is stale, for the star ko use utilt. okay, okay, i'm done now

 

[Zankoku]

Eh, some more vids... I don't really like any of them, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3S1cCTInN0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubFVWbFjxok
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxtgIX_nVuA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmbQW_YNdDs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6K3LlMkn4U

 

[-Mars-]

When will everyone learn? When Sheik dies and they immediately transform into Zelda, they still have invincibility frames, a couple times in your matches your opponent walked right into you thinking they were gonna land a free smash........this seriously annoys me. Maybe it's just people's lack of experience vs. Sheik and Zelda because you don't see many out there. Also Ankoku you seem to be getting discouraged by Sheiks lack of priority and approaches and such...........keep the faith. Us Sheik mains just have to work a little harder than everyone else.

 

[Zankoku]

It might actually be due to Sheik/Zelda losing her invulnerability frames IMMEDIATELY when she transforms in Melee. But eh, people are learning.

Yeah, I suppose I wasn't playing very confidently at that tournament.

 

[Popertop]

Close matches.

Alright. In the vids of you vs Ace or wahteve rt hat falco was named:
I saw something potentially very delicious. You did Needle against his illusion, and then Fair his Firebird, and then you hogged the edge with a chain. Every time you did it was very close to killing him, it was just a little bit off. Maybe the percents weren't right or something, but that's a tasty edge game right there.
If you did it every time he tried to phantasm back on the stage, he would learn to use his second jump and phantasm again. When you see him do that you could Fair, or just stay on the ledge and hit him with some more needles.

Your major problem though is spacing, like Sand-Trap said.