VS. Sheik?

[RoxburyGuy58]

I don't even know how to approach this guy (girl?). It's hard to combo, or even grab Sheik , because of that speed and the fact that I can die here at about 70%.

Truth be told, I'm not very well versed in this matchup. I tend to play rather passively, waiting for the opponent to whiff and then just jump in with a bair or other move. I can wavedash to get away, and that's it for evasive maneuvers. I also do a lot of crouch cancelling.

So how do I play this? Any ways to pull of an easy rest? Any certain flaw in the character that I can exploit?

 

[Massive]

Traditional counter-sheik maneuver follows:
1. Duck
2. Wait for wiffed grab/Dash Attack
3. Rest

Sheik's basic combos are usually effective against puff (especially anything > uair). Try to DI in a way that will get her to fair you instead of uair, you will live slightly longer.

When sheik is off the stage recovering, take the ledge. Do not give her the option to get on the ledge at all. Force her to use her up-b to land on the stage.
She will do one of three things from here:

1. Try to hit you in some way (usually the explosion) and regrab the ledge.

If you are in invincibility frames (just regrabbed the ledge) she will not succeed.​

2. Try to make you get back onto the stage by faking out out. She will teleport straight up and hope you pop back up and realize too late she's getting the ledge.

Don't leave the ledge until you're sure she's either falling to her death or landing on the stage.​

3. Land on the stage.

She will be stuck in lag frames and you can rest/fsmash/grab/whatever is possible at the moment.​

The better the sheik is, the more mobility she will have out of her up-b (there's some weird ways it can move). Very good shieks will end up further on the stage, but they are still punishable.

One final word and small caveat: Sheiks very experienced with the puff matchup know not to wiff grabs or dash attacks. They will always go for vertical KOs and will basically make your life hell. There really isn't anything to do there except outspace them and play better. Pressure them hard and eventually something will give.

Good luck!

 

[Krynxe]

-If you're dying at 70%, improve your DI
-She only really gets guaranteed damage off of grabs. If you stop getting grabbed, she'll have to work much harder to hurt/kill you.
-You can condition a sheik player to rarely grab by crouching a lot on the floor. Crouching on the floor also puts your hitbox really low and heavily limits her aeriel attack options. (Can't do rising aerials, can't do falling uair, bair can't be sweetspotted, nair can be crouch-canceled)
-After applying the two above things, a good sheik player will avoid putting themselves at high risk by using aerial needles (if you're crouching and get hit by needles, the hitstun will often push you high up enough to be grabbed/ftilted/etc). Avoid this by understanding how aerial needles have only one angle and avoiding that angle. Staying above sheik = safe from needles. (but they'll often try to catch you landing with them.)
-If you're ducking and a sheik gets near you after they clearly know you're ducking, they aren't simply going to do something unsafe. They will often get near you and use certain moves such as dsmash to get free damage. Avoid this by wavedashing away while continuing to crouch, since their only good chase options are dash attack and dash->grab which can be punished.
-on a similar note, sheiks aren't going to just whiff grabs and dash attacks when they see you're crouching. If you want rests, you have to bait them out. You also don't need to have too much discretion since she can't really punish your rest well.

sorry if I wrote this poorly, I'm in class right now so only paying half attention lol. But I hope this helps feel free to ask questions, etc