magicsixball
Smash Rookie
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2016
- Messages
- 24
Notes of mine from two years ago. Publishing them since I discuss them in a video on zoning: https://youtu.be/8JUL9s9-EB8
I've personally found success with methods 2 and 3, and implement them naturally. I'm trying to incorporate baits, CC, and platforms for the other methods of zoning. Anyway, thought I'd share. Hopefully it can spark some creativity in your neutral play.
Types of approaching/zoning methods
1. dash dance zoning
- horizontal control
- noncommittal
- slows down rhythm
- requires half of stage
- can be aggressive/passive
- aggressive: dashing at the front of your space to bait an approach. Vulnerable to surprise attacks.
- defensive: dashing at the back of your space to retreat and catch an approach. Loses ability to whiff punish effectively.
- must be close to a whiff in order to punish, otherwise can be easily baited by IASA moves
- techniques:
- short dash-long dash. Micro-space
- run crouch. extends defensive range
- wd down crouch. positioning to punish
- dash shield. throws off aerial spacing
- opponent often creates hitbox wall or approaches either front or back end of your dash dance
- vs hitbox wall, position and time a dash to be able to whiff punish their repeated action. If their hitbox can be beaten by one of yours, look out for that as well.
- vs front approach, time a shortdash dashback, dash in with a grab. Can stomp over grounded options like dash attack, grab, jab.If spaced precisely, can lord stomp. If too close to set up well, can dash away with bair. These are like aerial spacing methods.
- vs overshoot approach, if hard read, can dash forward past them and pressure them from there. Can enter run and crouch to beat dash attacks and whiff punish aerials if they land close enough. Can do a longer dashing lord stomp. Can do a dash away bair. Can nair in place to catch jumps and tall standing dash characters. These are aerial spacing methods.
- utilizes your stage control and ability to avoid hits to pressure opponents. Makes them want to hit you.
2. sharking with aerials
- vertical control
- noncommittal if you withhold aerials on reaction (don't throw it out if it isn't gonna hit, you can tell)
- Throws off fast, existing rhythm. Gives you control over rhythm
- Can be dangerous if caught out of your double jump
- Timing mixups from fastfalls and baits from first-second aerial catches opponents trying to punish
- Safe aerials and ability to dashback or gentleman upon hitting shield lets you throw out precise hitboxes
- opponent often tries to whiff punish landing, eventually trying to read your jump with a preemptive attack.
- Loses to jump reads and anti-airs like fox's upsmash
- While in the air, you are pretty safe. It's hard for opponents to challenge you unless they read you. You can cover your landing pretty well and can cover a good range
- utilizes superior vertical mobility and air drift to pressure opponents. Makes them want to throw out protective hitboxes preemptively.
- Techniques:
- rising aerial, falling aerial
- tomahawk
- waveland
- retreating to platforms
- mixing up jumps and fastfall timings
- analog jumps for tricky spacings and baits
- landing with aerial far away to bait opponent
- incorporate with horizontal zoning mixups to reap greatest rewards
3. forward/backward jump aerial spacing
- different jump and aerial combinations can beat certain options while repositioning yourself.
- Upairs: can poke and micro space with. covers good range in front of falcon, dash away. instant upair can anti air certain approaches or aerial walls.
- Bairs: can be used to wall out opponents. bair walls can be mobile and covers a good, high range. Mix up where to place the hitbox relative to your character by mixing up btwn dashing, forward, neutral, back and late/instant bair. low dashing characters can dash under instant bair.
- knees: knees can cover a good, high range at the cost of coming out slower and increased landing lag. The hitbox stays out and weak knee is enough to deter approaches or start combos/knockdowns at high percents. Initiating a knee distorts your hurtbox which can let you knee over jabs, grabs, and dash attacks. knee on shield gives lots of shield stun which can let you fadeaway safely if instant or dash away if late.
- Stomp: has a safe disjoint at the back. Hurtbox distortion lets you stomp over jabs, grabs, and dash attacks. Instant stomp can be fastfalled on reaction to hits to reduce landing lag. Not great in terms of zoning. Better for reads and baiting by varying your stomp positioning.
- nair: first hit of nair is designed to catch opponents in the air and stuff aerial approaches. Second hit of nair acts like a late upair. Overused in the current meta. Has a significant gap between hits. Won't protect you if an opponent reads your jump with an anti air like fox's upsmash. Nair extends your hurtbox and first hit misses short grounded characters. If you aren't trying to use first hit of nair to anti air, better to space an upair more precisely.
- Opponents can anti air your jumps and hit you before your hitboxes can come out. Many characters can cover large horizontal distances instantaneously.
- Techniques: mix up instant/late aerials, mix up aerial selection, mix up jumps & drifts. Mix up what you do out of landing lag (dash back, shield, dash forwards, full hop)
- requires ability to precisely space yourself around opponent's options. Encourages them to try throwing a bunch of stuff at you, skeptical of your ability.
- dependent on beats & an established rhythm. Not good if opponent is zoning with greater control of space
- good for stuffing rhythmic approaches and use in microsituations.
4. Aerial baits in place
- Stomp seems laggy so opponents feel like they need to try to punish it. At a certain distance it is unreactable. Opponents have to read it or preemptively position themselves to punish it. As a result, you can stomp their whiffed grab or dash attack.
- bair and upair autocancel if not fastfalled. these moves allow greater mobility while serving as a bait upon landing.
- doing a dashing pullback nair can bait opponents who know to punish dashing nair. Space yourself at a safe distance. Can also catch them approaching.
- good vs opponents who want to stay far enough away and react punish you.
5. wavedash spacing
- wavedashing gives you access to grounded moves per each beat.
- wavedashing covers significant space if done well.
- dash wavedashes puts you outside the range of most attacks and can put you in position to whiff punish.
- wavedash ftilts give you an instant hitbox, wavedash uptilts give you a late hitbox and can also distort your hurtbox. Both cover a good range in front of you. mix up between them. Expect trades.
- Good if you can stuff their movement. Forces them to play an honest ground game.
6. run cancel jabs/CC
- lets you assert your presence over the entire horizontal stage.
- with enough room to enter run, you can throw out a quick jab anywhere.
- can act decently fast out of jab. Dash back, grab, double jab, gentleman, aerials.
- With enough room to run, you can crouch anywhere and dashback, CC grab/gentleman/aerial
- Techniques:
- jab-crouch-grab for fastest jab-grab
- wavedashes for when you only have dash room.
- dashing shields
- cactuar dash
- crouch out of run, CC
- dashback out of crouch
- hold c-stick down while running
- good for introducing chaos, catching opponents offguard, aggression. Staying on ground lets you utilize your low percentage for better survivability.
- bad vs opponents with aggressive confident ground games. can hit you and start an immediate combo.
7. platform waveland aerials
- most technically difficult
- can waveland off platforms and mix up aerials/timings/fastfalls to cover different spaces.
- can approach from platforms, can mix in shield drop approaches, edgecancels, etc.
- good for catching opponents offguard for an opening. introduces overload, gives opponent a lot more to consider.
I've personally found success with methods 2 and 3, and implement them naturally. I'm trying to incorporate baits, CC, and platforms for the other methods of zoning. Anyway, thought I'd share. Hopefully it can spark some creativity in your neutral play.
Types of approaching/zoning methods
1. dash dance zoning
- horizontal control
- noncommittal
- slows down rhythm
- requires half of stage
- can be aggressive/passive
- aggressive: dashing at the front of your space to bait an approach. Vulnerable to surprise attacks.
- defensive: dashing at the back of your space to retreat and catch an approach. Loses ability to whiff punish effectively.
- must be close to a whiff in order to punish, otherwise can be easily baited by IASA moves
- techniques:
- short dash-long dash. Micro-space
- run crouch. extends defensive range
- wd down crouch. positioning to punish
- dash shield. throws off aerial spacing
- opponent often creates hitbox wall or approaches either front or back end of your dash dance
- vs hitbox wall, position and time a dash to be able to whiff punish their repeated action. If their hitbox can be beaten by one of yours, look out for that as well.
- vs front approach, time a shortdash dashback, dash in with a grab. Can stomp over grounded options like dash attack, grab, jab.If spaced precisely, can lord stomp. If too close to set up well, can dash away with bair. These are like aerial spacing methods.
- vs overshoot approach, if hard read, can dash forward past them and pressure them from there. Can enter run and crouch to beat dash attacks and whiff punish aerials if they land close enough. Can do a longer dashing lord stomp. Can do a dash away bair. Can nair in place to catch jumps and tall standing dash characters. These are aerial spacing methods.
- utilizes your stage control and ability to avoid hits to pressure opponents. Makes them want to hit you.
2. sharking with aerials
- vertical control
- noncommittal if you withhold aerials on reaction (don't throw it out if it isn't gonna hit, you can tell)
- Throws off fast, existing rhythm. Gives you control over rhythm
- Can be dangerous if caught out of your double jump
- Timing mixups from fastfalls and baits from first-second aerial catches opponents trying to punish
- Safe aerials and ability to dashback or gentleman upon hitting shield lets you throw out precise hitboxes
- opponent often tries to whiff punish landing, eventually trying to read your jump with a preemptive attack.
- Loses to jump reads and anti-airs like fox's upsmash
- While in the air, you are pretty safe. It's hard for opponents to challenge you unless they read you. You can cover your landing pretty well and can cover a good range
- utilizes superior vertical mobility and air drift to pressure opponents. Makes them want to throw out protective hitboxes preemptively.
- Techniques:
- rising aerial, falling aerial
- tomahawk
- waveland
- retreating to platforms
- mixing up jumps and fastfall timings
- analog jumps for tricky spacings and baits
- landing with aerial far away to bait opponent
- incorporate with horizontal zoning mixups to reap greatest rewards
3. forward/backward jump aerial spacing
- different jump and aerial combinations can beat certain options while repositioning yourself.
- Upairs: can poke and micro space with. covers good range in front of falcon, dash away. instant upair can anti air certain approaches or aerial walls.
- Bairs: can be used to wall out opponents. bair walls can be mobile and covers a good, high range. Mix up where to place the hitbox relative to your character by mixing up btwn dashing, forward, neutral, back and late/instant bair. low dashing characters can dash under instant bair.
- knees: knees can cover a good, high range at the cost of coming out slower and increased landing lag. The hitbox stays out and weak knee is enough to deter approaches or start combos/knockdowns at high percents. Initiating a knee distorts your hurtbox which can let you knee over jabs, grabs, and dash attacks. knee on shield gives lots of shield stun which can let you fadeaway safely if instant or dash away if late.
- Stomp: has a safe disjoint at the back. Hurtbox distortion lets you stomp over jabs, grabs, and dash attacks. Instant stomp can be fastfalled on reaction to hits to reduce landing lag. Not great in terms of zoning. Better for reads and baiting by varying your stomp positioning.
- nair: first hit of nair is designed to catch opponents in the air and stuff aerial approaches. Second hit of nair acts like a late upair. Overused in the current meta. Has a significant gap between hits. Won't protect you if an opponent reads your jump with an anti air like fox's upsmash. Nair extends your hurtbox and first hit misses short grounded characters. If you aren't trying to use first hit of nair to anti air, better to space an upair more precisely.
- Opponents can anti air your jumps and hit you before your hitboxes can come out. Many characters can cover large horizontal distances instantaneously.
- Techniques: mix up instant/late aerials, mix up aerial selection, mix up jumps & drifts. Mix up what you do out of landing lag (dash back, shield, dash forwards, full hop)
- requires ability to precisely space yourself around opponent's options. Encourages them to try throwing a bunch of stuff at you, skeptical of your ability.
- dependent on beats & an established rhythm. Not good if opponent is zoning with greater control of space
- good for stuffing rhythmic approaches and use in microsituations.
4. Aerial baits in place
- Stomp seems laggy so opponents feel like they need to try to punish it. At a certain distance it is unreactable. Opponents have to read it or preemptively position themselves to punish it. As a result, you can stomp their whiffed grab or dash attack.
- bair and upair autocancel if not fastfalled. these moves allow greater mobility while serving as a bait upon landing.
- doing a dashing pullback nair can bait opponents who know to punish dashing nair. Space yourself at a safe distance. Can also catch them approaching.
- good vs opponents who want to stay far enough away and react punish you.
5. wavedash spacing
- wavedashing gives you access to grounded moves per each beat.
- wavedashing covers significant space if done well.
- dash wavedashes puts you outside the range of most attacks and can put you in position to whiff punish.
- wavedash ftilts give you an instant hitbox, wavedash uptilts give you a late hitbox and can also distort your hurtbox. Both cover a good range in front of you. mix up between them. Expect trades.
- Good if you can stuff their movement. Forces them to play an honest ground game.
6. run cancel jabs/CC
- lets you assert your presence over the entire horizontal stage.
- with enough room to enter run, you can throw out a quick jab anywhere.
- can act decently fast out of jab. Dash back, grab, double jab, gentleman, aerials.
- With enough room to run, you can crouch anywhere and dashback, CC grab/gentleman/aerial
- Techniques:
- jab-crouch-grab for fastest jab-grab
- wavedashes for when you only have dash room.
- dashing shields
- cactuar dash
- crouch out of run, CC
- dashback out of crouch
- hold c-stick down while running
- good for introducing chaos, catching opponents offguard, aggression. Staying on ground lets you utilize your low percentage for better survivability.
- bad vs opponents with aggressive confident ground games. can hit you and start an immediate combo.
7. platform waveland aerials
- most technically difficult
- can waveland off platforms and mix up aerials/timings/fastfalls to cover different spaces.
- can approach from platforms, can mix in shield drop approaches, edgecancels, etc.
- good for catching opponents offguard for an opening. introduces overload, gives opponent a lot more to consider.
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