I would love critique from people that have actually been playing competitively for over 2 years, but hey. Beggers can't be choosers. So give me your worst.
alright alright jeeze
Mostly on the second game. The first game is me playing against Sheik for the first time in a very long time. So I already know that I needed to downsmash less in the first game, and grapple more.
noooooo
the key to these matchups is never 'do x move more'. Samus doesn't have any truly all-purpose moves like the top tiers, instead her moves function in very situational and specific ways. The way you should be thinking is more along the lines of 'use x move
properly'.
Regardless if you're throwing out grabs or not, you're not going to benefit from them without hitting them, and that seems to be the problem you're having. I know I'm being captain obvious here but hear me out.
A big thing with sheik v samus is that Samus has okaaaay tools to help her out, but these tools are only effective within a very short time frame at any given time, the trick is that you have to know how to create these openings. Playing completely reactive isn't going to get you very far, especially when sheik can manhandle you like out of some sort of prison **** scene. Probably the biggest and most important step towards being able to open up and bait these opportunities is proper zoning and stage awareness. At all times you should be very aware of what places on the stage offer you an advantage,
relative to the position of your opponent. Continuously jumping up to the second platform and wavelanding over and over might seem like a cool thing when sheik is overtop of you trying to figure out how to land when you keep popping in and out from cover, but it's not cool at all when there's a sheik literally standing in front of you salivating from the thought of giving you a big ol' Fair.
Be a bit more patient and practice your timings from OoS, WDs and CCs. Stay mostly grounded and poke more with tilts and jabs and generally just with more moves that finish faster than Dsmash. Poking won't win you the match, but it'll give you adequate openings for better things. That's why it's so important to be more situationally aware - ironically the only times you grabbed were when the sheik wasn't shielding and the only times you dsmashed were when the sheik was shielding.
You did all this way better in the second game, granted, but there was still the problem of situational awareness and bad choices. In the end, you really just have to optimize everything you do. Instead of fully charging fsmash when you broke sheik's shield (which was sweet) you could have got utilt > charge beam or something. Sheik was at low percentage so charging a move up wouldn't have really done anything but slightly increase the damage of a regular fsmash.
To list a few things you might want to try out
- grapple is generally a safer recovery than screw attack, especially if you sweet spot
- utilt is safer than it looks, and it covers itself with itself. It also sets up better than dsmash and dtilt and has an awesome range
- when throwing out an attack, judge beforehand where you'll land, and cover your bases in case you whiff or it gets shielded. Samus is way too floaty to just throw something out.
- uair pokes great against shields if they're overtop of you on a plat. it also works great as a momentum breaker and can lead into some cool things if you get the whole thing
- don't try falling down with a dair unless you put them there to be dair'd
- be quicker to the ledge against sheik. it'll look nice and all if you can do fancy aerial gimps and all that but it's generally safer if you hit her and scram. She still has to land on the stage, so it's up to you; go for her off the stage for the extra hit and probably not get it, or wait until she's on the stage and get the hit anyways.
- it's not something you can just 'try out' but focus on getting more decisive with your reactions. It's something that only comes out of playing more, but things tend to become way more clear if you're playing with an intent to get better at something.
)![[FBC] ESAM](/data/avatars/l/92/92614.jpg?1365783210){kind=avatar}
won't happen again. Although the situation hasn't arisen yet, walk off the ledge dair on a low recovering Falco seems pretty legit to me.