The Super Smash Bros. games have always gone above and beyond with each release. The ambition of Masahiro Sakurai and the rest of the team behind the games made for Smash titles that were all amazing in their own right. However, with Smash 4 initially being on the Nintendo 3DS, it would be the development team’s first real test with hardware limitations. A lot of things that could work on the Wii from Super Smash Bros. Brawl would either have to be altered or taken out completely to accommodate for the handheld console. One of those things was the ability for Zelda and Sheik to swap between each other.
This turned out to be a great change, especially for Sheik. Having a fully fleshed-out moveset that didn’t have to be balanced by a fighter he was attached to, Sheik could do more than what he was normally capable of. While he’s not as good in Smash Ultimate, he’s still a very viable fighter that can give many a hard time. Here’s all you need to know, as well as how you can come out on top against him more often.
Sheik’s Strengths
Sheik’s strengths include his great neutral game. His moveset has great versatility and solid attributes all around. He can play at a distance, thanks to the projectiles in his Neutral-B and Side-B, the latter of which offers decent stage control. However, these projectiles can also help him close the distance if used properly. Once he’s inside, he can apply pressure very well with amazing frame data. This is mostly present in his aerial attacks, all of which have a very quick startup, allowing him to force openings and abuse them.
Sheik possesses excellent mobility. He’s among the fastest characters in the game in terms of both grounded and aerial mobility. His gravity being very high as well helps him move around very freely and dodge incoming attacks with ease. Sheik’s mobility aids in what’s arguably his greatest strength: his combo game. Because of that previously mentioned frame data, he can string many attacks together and easily rack up damage, usually with a string of aerial attacks carrying the opponent offstage or in the air. He can also combo out of his grab very well at low percentages, meaning shielded opponents aren’t safe against him, either.
Sheik can both edgeguard and recover to the stage very well. Edgeguard attempts are made easier by his projectiles, as well as his Down-B going far and having high knockback. Of course, the mobility he sports helps in this as well, allowing him to find various positions and opportunities to secure kills offstage. These same moves also help him recover to the stage by covering his approaches. The Down-B, as well as his Up-B, are especially useful for both reserving his jump and deterring edgeguards due to their high power and knockback.
Sheik’s Weaknesses
Sheik’s most notorious weakness is his lack of power. While he can string many attacks together, they deal a very small amount of damage and knockback, even with combos considered. These attacks are also very minimal in range, with even his disjoints being negligible. This makes Sheik arguably one of the weakest characters in the game in terms of strength. He also struggles to kill, with all of his kill moves either having similar problems (like Up-Air needing to be close to the top blastzone) or being hard to hit reliably outside specific situations (like Up-Smash needing a setup or hard read). This means that Sheik’s opponents often live past unreasonably high percents. Speaking of, Sheik is also badly burdened by the rage mechanic, which increases your knockback as your percentage increases. If Sheik is at high percents, his combos become less consistent.
Sheik also lacks any survivability. His mobility makes him hard to get hit, but once a combo is started on him, it’s not easy for him to escape. This is due to Sheik being quite a tall character, on top of his high gravity. Sheik is also a lightweight character, more specifically, the sixth lightest in the game. He’s susceptible to both combos and kills because of this. This is an even bigger problem, thanks to the rage mechanic mentioned earlier. Because Sheik’s opponents will live past a very high percents, it becomes increasingly easier for them to take him out at early percents.
Strategy & Counterplay
Sheik’s neutral allows him to play at whatever range he wants. You can’t give him space to do this, but it’s also very risky to run in on him as that minimizes the risks he needs to take. You need to pressure him smartly. This means staying mobile and spacing out your attacks against him, especially on his shield. This allows you to take advantage of Sheik’s poor range, assuming your character has superior reach over him and decent movement to avoid his retaliations.
Building upon utilizing mobility, you should bait out his poorly spaced or laggy options. Sheik needs to take risks to get kills, and as your percentage increases, he’ll most likely take more risks. You should use this to your advantage by staying just outside his kill or setup range, which is pretty much anywhere in front of or directly above him. Once he goes for a kill and whiffs, use the opportunity to get an attack off on him. This can be either a combo starter or a kill option; both work well against Sheik since he’s tall and lightweight.
Sheik’s great at coming back to the stage, so most edgeguarding attempts to kill him will be futile. Instead, you should focus on ledgetrapping rather than edgeguarding. An unsafe edgeguard attempt can reverse the situation in Sheik’s favor, sometimes ending up with you getting killed instead. However, ledgetrapping him can benefit you by allowing you to safely go for a kill move or reset the situation, possibly with him using his jump and being easier to edgeguard. Even if you end up failing, you’ll most likely retain stage control if he knocks you away.
Good/Bad Matchups
Sheik performs best against characters that have exploitable recoveries. These will generally be characters that lack decent recovery moves or have poor aerial mobility. This includes Little Mac, Captain Falcon, Simon, Bowser Jr., and Robin. He also does well against characters that he can combo easily due to them either being large or lacking good or fast options for escaping disadvantage against him. It’ll be a bonus if Sheik generally out-speeds the character as well, making himself hard to hit on top of that. Byleth, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Sephiroth, and Pyra aren’t good picks against him.
Sheik is bad against characters that, put bluntly, play his game better than he does. This includes characters that can get more mileage out of their combos and attacks, on top of being harder to hit and combo themselves. Joker, Pikachu, Olimar, Inkling, and Squirtle are prime examples of this. Sheik is also bad against those that can take great advantage of his inability to kill. This can vary between fighters, but it usually comes down to them benefiting from rage. Lucario, Ivysaur, Charizard, Ice Climbers, and Ness will give him a hard time.
