Vs Samus

[ThreeSided]

I've always heard about how much this one is in Sheik's favor but I'm having some trouble. Sheik's needles no longer go through missiles like they did in melee so Samus has the superior projectile game, which forces me to approach. Once I'm in I can get a grab or tilt pretty easily but I can't combo her well at all because she's so damned floaty, and even often get punished for trying to follow some things up. Juggling is a pain because she has so much control with the bomb jump coming down, so landing the Uair kill to take advantage of her floatiness isn't nearly as easy as it look. Gimping wasn't too hard at first, but once my opponent caught on he was able to recover in such a way that I couldn't safely reach him with Bair coming from the ledge, and using needles was not quite so simple. On top of it all, she's such a weird combination of heavy and floaty that even once I get her to kill percents, she goes too high off of my hits for me to actually combo into a kill move, so I'm forced to read and suddenly I'm doing a heck of a lot worse.

Any tips? This one has really been getting on my nerves.

 

[Avro-Arrow]

Just how is she recovering?

 

[ThreeSided]

Just how is she recovering?

Recovering low, too low for needles to reach, and bomb stalling until she has an opening to airdodge/tether.

 

[cisyphus]

Problem 1 is that you're trying to combo Samus: it just doesn't work. She's the third floatiest character in the game and has a fantastic nair and uair to stuff most of your follow-ups, so don't try that too much. Keep her in the air. Samus hates being up there. Be more patient: she's the third floatiest character in the game, she'll be up there a while. Bait out those bomb jumps and then punish them.

Problem 2 is that you're not being conscious of Samus's options while recovering: the lower she goes, the less choices she has to get back on stage. Tethers are really easy to counter now, so just grab ledge if the Samus is going that low. In fact, force her to go that low. It's all the better because a strong reverse fair or u air punish against the tether getup is outstanding.

I'm also fairly certain Sheik can duck Samus's missiles, which means Sheik can crawl under them, too. So that oughta be your answer to her missiles instead, I think. It also makes powershielding them easier since you have the entire back portion of your shield to work with as well.

As for kill moves, try experimenting with your throws some more. I'm pretty sure you can DACUS as a follow-up to certain DIs of back throw and down throw.

 

[Kaeldiar]

Throw aerial needles if she goes low (which she has to, because she's Samus). It goes down at a 45˚ angle, and really makes it hard for her to recover safely.

If she has to use tether, just grab the edge and wait for the pop-up. Hop back on stage, then hit her with your smash of choice, probably d-smash or up-smash