Bad or Predictable Habits as Fox

[DavemanCozy]

Hey Fox boards, I've been thinking about habits we have as Fox players. It's something that has been on my mind since this past weekend, when I came back from a Smash4 Arcadian tournament in Ontario. I placed 13th, but I felt I could've done much better overall if I would've caught on to my predictable habits and adjusted them.

For example, I got punished a lot by a Yoshi for side-b'ing onstage all the time, and I would shoot lasers everytime I reset the situation to neutral which a Ness player greatly abused against me. I did not realize in the heat of battle that I was being predictable.

I thought it would be a good idea to make a thread where we can all analyse our playstyle and other Foxes playstyles among us, and put here what predictable or bad choices are commonly made. This way, we can pin-point the bad and predictable stuff and provide the different options Fox has in those situations to mix it up and make better choices.

I've already covered a few above, but overall, this is what I've noticed in me and other young Foxes:

• Only using Side-B to recover onstage
  
  
• Fishing for U-smash KO
  
  
• Using Side-B only to sweetspot the ledge
  
  
• Fire Foxing only when you're below the stage
  
  
• Not considering Fire Fox distance between Fox offstage and opponent (ie, Fire Foxing in a spot where startup is punished easily)
  
  
• Shooting a laser every time the match reset to neutral (not waiting or being patient)
  
  
• Getting grabbed by ICs :

Spoiler

vs

Let's also discuss the other options Fox has: for example, our recovery travels in a linear path and can be intercepted by a knowledge-able opponent, but it's not like Fox doesn't have options with it. We have Shine-stalling, Side-B, Fire Fox angles (including curving it to the stage or using Fire Fox angled to land onstage), and our Fox-copter double jump.

Let's discuss what we could be doing better or how we could advance our game and mix it up.

 

[Jaimy]

I have one bad habit, and that is overrelying on dash attack as an approach too often. It's way too predictable and easily punished. However, since it is such a good combo starter my mind tells me I should use it at often as possible. >_<

 

[BradLeeTee]

Haha I'm guilty of doing all of those bad habits at one point. Another one u might wanna add is using an up tilt whenever ur in a position where the opponent is behind u, not saying it's a bad option but up tilt does have a punishable window so if u get predicted ur getting punished for it, a good mixup can be doing a turn around grab since they'll shield expecting an up tilt. As for his crappy recovery the flying fox custom helps a lot for safely getting back to the stage but if we're not talking about customs then we've really only got a small limited number of options. A few things that have helped me get back on stage are going for a fire fox when I'm above the ledge off stage, then from that point I can either angle myself downwards to sweetspot the ledge or if I know my opponent is going to intercept me with a spike or aerial I'll just go straight back on to the stage or angle it upwards then fast fall and grab the ledge but just be careful when doing this becuz I have been read before and taken a near fully charged FSmash while free falling to the ledge. Also if ur opponent is chasing u off stage in an attempt to spike u and ur below the ledge it can help to fast fall almost all the way to the blast zone, since Fox's recovery height is probably one of the 5 best most of the cast won't be able to chase u down there without dying so u shud be able to safely charge ur fire fox and get back while ur opponent has to take the time to grab the ledge again. Most of this applies to omega stages, if we're playing on stages like battlefield then our recovery isn't really a problem anymore since our recovery options practically double with all the platforms to land on.

 

[Commander Keen]

Watch out with the greedy Up air, if you manage to get your opponent above you, wait for the air dodge to punish.
Also some really bad habit that common foxes has is falling Nair, or a bad spaced Nair, that's a free punish to Shield grab

 

[-Cheeto]

i have a habit where i tend to use b-air when i should be using n-air..

 

[ZeroJanitor]

I generally try to incorporate mix-ups whenever I can, particularly when recovering, so I'm not as worried about being predictable as I am about other bad habits. For instace, in percents after up-tilt can combo into itself, I sometimes follow up an up-tilt with full hop nair. It's not guaranteed whatsoever and I often get punished for it, but it still works enough that I go for it quite often.

I've also recently developed a habit of using down airs to land. It generally doesn't go well for me if I miss.

 

[Hom3fly]

Yeah, a big one I do and a lot of other Foxs do is spamming nair or hitting shields with nair. Sometimes there's not much else to do and you want to stay agressive. But honestly I've had much more success lately just hanging back and keeping an eye on my opponent, even if they're across the stage. I'll run back and forth and empty short hop a little bit to try to bait them to do something. There are matchups (Villager, Yoshi) where your best bet is to try to stay close but for the most part it's better than hitting a shield and getting rekt for it. Side b is another terrible one. Shine stalling when recovering can be helpful to make sure you sweetspot rather than accidentally landing on stage or going under the stage like on Smashville. Also, dashing every time you move. If I could just walk I'd have so much more success >.>

 

[Objekshin]

I have a bad habit of using U-Air way too much, even though its really easy to doge and no combos really chain into it.

I tried switching into using D-air more, but I'm usually greeted with some sort of downwards hitting move, since fox's D-air does not hit above him.

 

[Tino]

I recently picked him up as one of my mains and I noticed one bad habit I tend to do most of the time and that's losing track of him. I don't know where he was to the point where I realized I was off stage and got myself KOed.

 

[Top Boss]

tunnel vision in general is a really bad habit for fox, since you're passing up too many options

 

[M@v]

Please stop spotdodging immediately after sidebing on stage every single time. Mix it up with other moves. Except when you're playing me in a ditto. I enjoy the free punishes.

 

[Bloodcross]

burning your double jump when getting juggled too hastily.

 

[Dekillsage]

Autopiloting Jab[2] into d-tilt or usmash instead of hit confirming it and choosing the right follow up.

Need to stop doing dash -> usmash with cstick all together I feel, and would be better to get into the habit of doing dash-> jump cancel usmash.

I dash attack way too much. Whether its at neutral or to try and whiff punish something it needs to be toned down.

I run at the opponent a bit too much sometimes... Need to check people with f-tilt a lot more.

I need Usmash the opponent for normal get ups from the ledge when I make the read instead of grabbing ughhh!!!!