How to Beat: Sonic

Sonic

Introduction:

Sonic is a lightweight fast-faller with varying playstyles. Sonic can be used as an aggressive rushdown, manipulating his speed to overwhelm opponents into risky defensive options that he can punish, or more commonly, utilizing his speed to avoid interactions and punish risky offensive options. 

Strengths:

1. Unreactable Burst:

Due to having the highest ground speed in the game, it can be impossible to react to his speed. The average human reaction speed is noted to be roughly 16 FPS in a 60 FPS game, meaning the first 16 frames of his dash is most likely unreactable. This allows him to play a strong midrange game, where players are unaware of his next pattern and have to guess or read him rather than be able to react. This can often force opponents into the corner, or be the approacher, which can be tricky due to...

2. Incredible Speed All Around:

Sonic not only sports the greatest running speed, he has the 7th highest walk speed, 12th fastest airspeed, the highest traction, giving him the ability to stop and switch direction the fastest, and the 29th fastest fall speed, allowing him to land quickly and avoid juggles. All around this gives him an insane set of mobility stats that makes it tricky to catch him unless you know his patterns which he can escape from quickly with d-air that causes him to descend, and up-b which shoots him into the air. 

Summary:

- A character who can either keep up with Sonic or keep him away with low committal options is best
- Sonic's airdrift is very good, so watch where he drifts after using an aerial and punish
- It's well-advised to pick someone with a good b-air OOS, as if they cross up, you can catch them

Weaknesses:

1. Range:

Sonic can have trouble with spacing aside from maybe b-air and f-smash. All of his other moves lose out hard to swords and projectiles. He can however fake an approach and cause you to use a laggier and high ranged move, so keep it quick and simple. Jabs and f-tilts are okay, but it's character dependent. 

2. Poor Unique Approach Options:

Sonic is wildly unsafe on shield. N-air at best is -5 and it's upclose, meaning you can't even space outside of OOS options, f-air is -14 and b-air is -10. This ends up forcing him to go for grabs, which aren't too bad, but can be read. He's got a strong mixup game, so catching a Sonic's players approaching patterns is incredibly useful. Because his aerials do so poorly on shield, go aggressive and then when you expect him to maybe n-air OOS or f-air in retaliation, shield and watch where they drift, punish if you can. Dashback or even crouch should be able to beat rising RAR b-air from the Sonic, depending on character. D-tilt is however a decent poking tool. While it isn't safe on shield, the pushback can bait players that spam OOS options without thinking. Against that, dash attack is a solid option OOS if your character has enough burst speed. Some good characters with strong OOS options, especially behind, are Roy/Chrom and Pikachu.

Summary:

- Outrange Sonic with a sword, and have patience
- Sonic's approach options aren't that great, so you could potentially approach with shield, and punish afterwards
- Watch his aerial drift when hitting your shield, and take note:
   Which aerial did he use? Did he crossup or no? Does he cross up with f-air/n-air/b-air? What moves beat out his f-air? Why did he n-air my shield? etc.

Playing Against Sonic in the Neutral

Sonic can struggle hard vs. characters with options that are fast and outrange him. Find what works best on your character, but some stuff he can struggle against are: Roy n-air, Mega Man pellets, and Young Link n-air/f-air. If you can force an approach via projectiles, he'll approach depending on your reaction to his approach, since all his aerials are unsafe on shield. If you dashback expecting an aerial, he may follow you for a dash attack or dash grab, so drifting back with a safe attack can wall him out long enough for you to react to his actual approach. Sonic is mainly a bait and punish character with few actual approach options, or arguably even none, so mix up your defensive options and most importantly, be patient. What you wanna do most of the time is forcing an approach and reading his option. Homing Attack is a good answer to this, especially if you mindlessly spam projectiles without purpose, and can catch a lot of players out without them realizing.

Summary:

- Force an approach and read his approaching habits
- A good Sonic won't battle you with aerials, due to low range and low safety, but instead read your fear/panic options and punish. Be patient
- The best characters to force an approach are: Wolf and Pikachu
- Sonic however can Homing Attack to get around this, so don't mindlessly spam. Zone with purpose

Punishing Sonic

Sonic can be punished hard on shield, depending on the moves. Oftentimes with aerials, he'll cross you up, so watch his drift, and even try to catch patterns based on what moves he likes to cross up with. A character with a good b-air OOS can catch this, and he may cross up more against characters who struggle OOS, especially behind. Sonic's f-smash has incredible range and windup, so punish with caution. He can even angle it up, meaning landing from above without a disjoint is tricky. If your character is fast enough and doesn't have access to a disjoint, try getting over and behind him a bit, and landing with b-air or n-air. He can be hard to juggle, especially since he can up-b out of disadvantage and then d-air, which ends up being lagless if far enough. His aerial drift is also above average, so it's mostly reading his d-air, up-b, and airdodge habits. Homing Attack is also a tricky way to punish in disadvantage, as it can stall him and make you whiff, letting him attack. 

Summary:

- Punish him OOS, expect crossups
- F-smash is moderately safe, but has huge range and it's charging/windup pulls him back hard. He can even angle it up as an anti-air
- Read up-b/d-air and airdodge habits, and he can Homing Attack and stall his momentum, causing you to whiff and letting him punish

Recommended Matchups:

1. Roy

Roy's range, speed, and OOS options encapsulate Sonic's weaknesses best. He outranges Sonic on nearly every front, with f-air, n-air, b-air, and his ground normals such as jab, f-tilt, and d-tilt. While they aren't strong all around his blade, they do stop Sonic in his tracks, and make up for it in speed. He can n-air spam to create a wall, cover his landings with jab, and keep up with Sonic to a good degree. He can also juggle well with his fastfall speed, as he can avoid Homing Attack. He can also hard punish moves like b-air and f-smash with his Counter. And very important, his OOS game is amazing. his n-air is frame 6, meaning it punishes all of his aerials except for landing n-air, which can be shielded. However, n-air OOS can be drifted back, so it ends up being spaced, making it -6 on shield and too far for a grab OOS. It can even be swapped with a straight up grab to read Sonic's shield. If Sonic tries to drift across the shield for a cross up, Roy can n-air as usual, but his b-air is insanely strong, and can punish Sonic for crossing up. Roy can't necessarily force approaches, but he sure can do it himself. If Sonic spindashes, it loses pretty hard to shield and is a pretty committal option, so it'll mostly be used to punish. If he uses it in neutral, he can either let it loose, or jump. Jumping allows him to waveland, d-air or reset neutral, so it's a 50/50 really. You can either hit him straight up, which may be jumped out of/jump + attack/airdodge, or you can bait the jump and hit him with an aerial. However if you're close enough, a f-air should cover both options

Roy's can pressure shields well, as when spaced and landing, it'll keep him away from Sonic's OOS options, and once he does get in, he can combo Sonic for major damage and kill him very early, especially due to Sonic's lightweight status. Roy can call out OOS options and punish them hard. For spotdodges, he has side-b, which when in the sweetspot, is infamous for being stronger than Limit Cross Slash. All of Sonic's OOS options in terms of aerials just get outranged/shielded -> punished, and his other ones such as f-tilt are pretty slow, as he has to drop shield -> frame 8 f-tilt. (As the first hit at frame 6 won't hit really anyone) Juggling Sonic consists of reading his options and u-air. If Sonic tries to get a whiff on you with Homing Attack, you can quickly land with your high fall speed and shield, especially on triplat stages. You can also bait airdodges hard near the ground. If they try to airdodge your jab -> b-air, you can jab-> f-smash depending on where they airdodged. The same goes for catching landings with fastfall u-air. If they airdodge, try to react and catch them. (Your u-air has 8 frames of landing lag). 

Summary:

- Roy outranges, can match Sonic's speed, and has great OOS range.
- He can b-air OOS for crossups, n-air OOS for Sonic's landing n-air and driftback, or even just grab if the Sonic does landing n-air -> shield
- He can also hard punish Sonic's better moves like f-smash and b-air with Counter
- Once Roy gets in, he gets it in. His combo game is nearly unmatched across swordies and even other brawlers, and can explode Sonic through hard reads while pressuring shield, such as side-b, f-smash, and jab -> b-air
- Juggle Sonic, react to Homing Attack by landing -> shielding (best on triplats)
- Punish airdodges after jabbing, as they expect b-air.

Best Roys: 

Kola: The WiFi twin-god of Georgia alongside Wrath, is the premier Roy main to watch and study. He has insane wins both offline and online, such as against Marss, Dabuz, and Wrath. (all offline)

Goblin: The OG Roy main since Smash 4, Goblin has arguably the best results as Roy, taking sets over Tweek, Samsora, and MuteAce.

2. Pikachu

Pikachu is again, a hyper mobile character that can not only keep up well with Sonic, catch him OOS, but can outcamp him. TJolt is able to catch him grounded and even on platforms, but especially on the ground, where Sonic moves the fastest. TJolt forces him into the air or into shield, which Pikachu punishes well with a shield of his own or with sharking u-air, as Sonic has no viable downward hitbox. Homing Attack can also be outmaneuvered, and Pika isn't really in danger of it while juggling due to Thunder. When poking his shield, Sonic loses hard to Pikachu's pancaking, making his moves pseudo-safe on shield. Against shield, b-air OOS and f-air/n-air OOS should catch him depending on drift.

A big part of this matchup is the edgeguarding. What you wanna look out for is his 2-framing downward angle f-smash, and ledgetrapping b-airs. Mix up your timing and use QA to get onto platforms, behind Sonic while he may be winding up f-smash or possibly this trick, which allows Pika to be un2frameable. If you recover from below and he already starts charging f-smash, you can Thunder from below and hit him, and then recover quickly. On the ledge, general stuff applies, just watch out for b-air. Edgeguarding Sonic can be done mainly with d-air, as it should beat out his Spring Jump. You can also catch Spring Jump with a Thunder. Challenge him offstage when you can, especially with f-air, as it will beat out moves of his moves aside from b-air.

Summary:

- Camp him and force approaches with TJolt, watch for Homing Attack
- Punish his shield and use pancaking to juke n-air, f-air, etc. on shield
- Shark him with u-air and watch for d-air
- You should be able to juke his edgeguarding with up-b, just don't get predictable
- Recovering from below should keep you safe from most options, and if he stays at the ledge to 2-frame, you can clip him with Thunder
- He mostly 2-frames with f-smash and then ledgetraps with b-air
- Utilize this to protect from 2-frames. Challenge him offstage when you can, catch his Spring Jump with Thunder.

Pikachu's to Watch

ESAM: The Pikachu, undoubtedly the best since Brawl, and his youtube channel has a ton of Pika-related information.

3. Mega Man

Mega Man is a huge wall for a lot of characters. While Roy was about hyper aggression and making them explode, Pikachu was a kind of middle ground between camping Sonic and baiting shields, Mega Man is 100% brick wall. He easily forces approaches with side-b, down-b, pellets, and neutral-b. On shield, he can punish all around with f-air and his strong b-air, and can wall out Sonic's dash and interrupt Spin Dash with pellets. When juggling Sonic, Mega Man stays entirely safe with u-air. Using his side-b will either guarantee an approach or a shield upon landing it, and if you use pellets to keep him out, he'll have to shield to prevent damage. Practice your DI/SDI, as Sonic will try to maximize his openings on you to prevent more neutral exchanges, and keep your defense mixup heavy, as Sonic will find openings and exploit them. Your biggest weaknesses are disadvantage and the offstage game. Your best get off me options will be Leaf Shield and Rush, however Rush will only limit your options later on, so consider it a last resort. Mixup your airdodges heavy, as Sonic can punish hard with f-smash. D-air can be used to stall and keep Sonic off of you, but if he shields it, there's not much else you can do.

Against Spring Jump, d-air should beat it solidly, so they may Spring Jump further away from the ledge and airdodge to it, so if you're near the ledge, try to read the airdodge or even intercept the Spring Jump with f-air and b-air. A lot of his moves can be beat out by your aerials, so challenge him offstage when you can.

Summary:

- Wall him out, force approaches, b-air/f-air OOS. Pellet vs. Spin Dash
- Juggle with u-air
- Make sure to practice SDI/DI'ing in general and vs. Sonic, he'll try to maximize dmg vs. you per opening
-  Leaf Shield/Rush can be used to get out of/reset disadvantage, but it's by far your biggest weakness. Fundamentals of airdodge mixups will get you out of it.
- D-air his Spring Jump, intercept and challenge him whenever you can, as your f-air and b-air will beat out most of his moves aside from maybe his own b-air.

Best MM players:

kameme: Previously known as kamemushi, kameme is a top tier Japanese player, and known as the best Mega Man in the world.

Stage Select

Sonic's best stages are Kalos and T&C for defensive play, while his weakest are largely matchup dependent. BF and Smashville aren't too great, as Roy does well on those stages, while Kalos and FD are better for Pika, as he can camp Sonic and has a ton of space for his combos such as n-air loops and u-air bridges, which won't be hampered by platforms. Kalos and T&C however are great stages for Mega Man, giving him a ton of room to camp and defend against Sonic.

Full Summary:

- Watch for his aerial drift on shield, punish with a good b-air or f-air

- Either camp him out hard like Mega Man or make him explode like Roy

- Intercept his recovery, challenge his aerials

- F-smash has insane range, 2-frames, and the windup protects him while he charges

- Above all else, outrange him

- Pick big stage to camp him, small stage to rush him down

---

Follow me on twitter! https://twitter.com/jkoga6

---

Changelog: 

June. 02/2020 - Updated Summary into Notes form