i did not manage to make it out of pools yesterday at flatiron 3, but i managed to defeat vinodh who was a fantastic puff in a grueling 20+ minute best of 3 set. in addition to this, i have yet to lose a set to any CO puffs and i am even in sets vs the top puff in north texas. i believe that the sheik-puff matchup is not only winnable but probably around even – i cannot say whether or not it swings 45-55 in either character’s favor. but this is a bit controversial to say so i will go into more detail:

in my vinodh set, i gained some quick percent early on with some spaced bairs, needles, maybe a nair here or there, before i went for an ambitious grab and got rested for it. i did manage to live the rest however, and quickly realized that this was not really going to be an option for the rest of the set. i think doing some preliminary checks – especially before you’ve taken more than 10% – is great to “test” the puff you’re playing against and how ambitious they are with their punishes. more examples are things like dsmash on shield or dsmash on crouch. everyone should be aware by now that these are unsafe options – and my opponent was excellent at punishing them accordingly – but sheik has so many punishable moves with tight timings in order to punish them that it’s important to know how many your opponents are prepared for them individually. i briefly talked about this in my sheik-fox post, where you can test some cc-able moves before 40 to see if the fox is able to deal with them, and the same logic sort of applies here.

if the puff IS good at punishing missed grabs, bad dash attacks, dsmashes on shield, etc. then it’s still very doable for you. something a lot of the good puffs i’ve played against excel at are being able to space outside of triangle needles – one of your best tools. this means that you will have to spend less time throwing out a couple of needles here and there and more time charging needles and throwing full stacks when you get the chance. 5 full needles puts puff at death percent, after all, and a well-spaced stack along with charging forcing them to approach is going to do more for you in the long run.

platform camping is essential in this matchup – it allows you to stay non-committed to any rash approach options, charge needles, and set up for dropping through plat –> bairs or fairs or nairs in order to contest puff’s bair. your ground game is pretty non-existent here since they’re able to punish pretty much all of your ground moves, so it’s sort of like playing against an icies when you have a three plat stage.

also like icies, you have the possibility of a timeout which you are the one who can enforce more than they can. in icies, you can do this by shinostalling and top plat camping, with the fear being more that they can wd back to ledge if you’re unprepared, or they can read your plat movement once and kill you. against puff, wd to ledge isn’t really an option you have to prepare for, but they do have multiple jumps to intercept any ledgestalling you try. as far as the platforms go, puff is pretty good at pressuring you even if her neutral wins aren’t as devastating as icies. in my set yesterday, if i was on one plat and he was on the other, i could only charge one or two needles before i was in a really bad position, so you will have to constantly be moving, inching forward towards sufficient positional advantage in order to deal like 9% and then be ready to do it all over again. but back on timestalling: none of our 3 matches went to time although they all went to the 7 minute mark – i wasn’t comfortable enough in my timestalling to really attempt it in any of the three games, but if you’re up on percent it means the puff has to play more aggressive of course which means their retreating bairs will not truly go all the way back as they still want to maintain more offensive pressure than usual against you.

ledgedashing is extremely important here – getting a perfect ledgedash is more critical in this matchup than in like any other. the reason for this is because it allows you to get out of corner pressure from bair – and you will be pressured by puff in the corner a lot in this MU. getting hit with a bair at the edge of the stage oftentimes means you die, so being able to ledgedash ftilt and content with it, ledgedash buffer roll and dodge an obvious bair, ledgedash shield as a mixup of both options, or ledgedash fullhop to escape specific pressure scenarios are all massive tools in making sure this never happens. in our set, occasionally i would lededash on, shield, realize i was still in a poor position and a bad roll or jump might get me baired, wavedash back to ledge, and ledgedash on again. this is a very undervalued tool in general and it’s great in matchups like this.

for some other assorted tips:

-though the threat of uair exists from puff, a lot of the times if they’re not already in the air it’s not a huge threat. for example: if you’re on top plat of battlefield, and they’re directly below you shielding, you can fall through the plat with a fastfall nair and hit the back of their shield in most cases. they can sometimes sh uair to prevent this but many puffs aren’t really comfortable with this option.

-if a puff has their back turned towards you and they aren’t crouching or shielding, they want the utilt. you can contest this by charging and/or throwing needles, but you can also just straight up fair them. puff’s utilt is kind of like a spacie utilt – she has a bigger punish but it also trades far more, and getting a trade in that scenario is usually good for you as it pushes her in the corner or offstage, and you’re just put up a little bit. if they’re shielding, hit their shield with a fair and do a short hop after – this covers spotdodge (fair), roll behind (bair), and pressures them if they stay in shield. if they roll forward then they’ve lost positional advantage. they can bair oos but most puffs aren’t ballsy enough to go for that option when sheik is fairing their shield. if the puff is crouching, an option i really like is fairing them –> shielding. a lot of the time they will go for a utilt or fsmash if they’re at low, and this allows you to easily get a free grab which is huge in this matchup. sometimes puffs will cc fair –> grab, so be careful if you keep doing this over and over as they do have a response to it.

-sheik is one of, if not the best, characters at dealing with puff when she’s offstage. at the very least when she’s planking or recovering, you can charge needles and pressure her to stop taking so long. if puff recovers low, you can shinostall or samistall until she gets near you, protect the ledge from her, and throw out a bair or a nair to hit her away. oftentimes she will get sent back towards the stage – but hey, a neutral win is a neutral win. if she recovers really low, the option of needles is available. if she recovers high, an immediate fullhop double jump bair gives you one opportunity to hit her back offstage. if she’s planking you, sheik has the best projectile in the game at dealing with it – fast needles that, if they hit her, put her in a terrible spot offstage where you can go for more needles or wd to ledge –> nair/samistall/shinostall. puff can NOT timestall sheik in this way like she can with a lot of other characters.

-this matchup is extremely cerebral. there were stretches in my set yesterday where a minute would pass and nobody would hit each other with anything, characters would just inch towards each other with a tiny positional advantage or an extra needle charge, only to have the positional advantage be nullified by a good defensive option or a full stack of needles totally dodged. it’s extremely tiring and, like icies, requires a bunch of patience and fortitude. but friends, it will all pay off.