Fox

Gameplan

New

Getting Fox from 0% to 24%

• Stay grounded
• Run in crouch is a very good option to get a grab and start a tech chase
• Needles and spaced bair are the only options other than grab
• Crouch cancelling any weak hit should almost always lead into a reversal situation where you can gain damage

Killing Fox starting at 24%

• Assume you can react and kill when Fox is in a punish at 24%
• The goal is to force Fox off stage and edge guard since it is more consistent that killing Fox outright from stage
  • If you can kill Fox outright from stage, then do it
  • If you do not feel confident, then go to edge guard city
• Get into the range at which Fox can dash sh nair and only get weak hit
• Start looking and analyzing how the Fox dash dances and times their options out of dash back
• When Fox does something on the off-beat of their dash dance, prepare your defense and ready a reversal
• If you are confident of Fox's option on the on-beat of their dash dance, you can be aggresive and interrupt it with a boost grab or prep your defense and ready a reversal
• You can match Fox's dash dance beat or use run in crouch as a way to respond to Fox's options
• Watch for running shine
  • It is a pain
  • You have to dash back away from it and whiff punish the option after it
  • You aren't Marth - don't try to pivot grab it
  • Try and cross Fox up before the running shine comes out to take center stage control

Old

• Use needles, well-spaced bair, and grab to get Fox above 28%
• Once Fox is above 28% you unlock the following moves (just don't hit them when they are crouching):
  • Ftilt
  • Dtilt
  • Utilt
  • Fair
  • Nair
• Crouching Fox = grabbed Fox
• Needles can help bring Fox to a more manageable edge guard
• Once you up-air Fox, keep doing it until you need to shark him
  • Sharking is tough but you can always nair
• When Fox is setting up short hop or full hop drill, you have to jump into it to SDI it better
• You need to learn to setup yourself to have your defensive play readily available out of any situation
• ASDI down utilt is good and fast

Edge Guarding

Here is the high level gameplan:

• Get Fox at stage level to below stage level
• Grab ledge
• You must make a reaction-based decision: do I let go of ledge to back air immediately/near immediately to get the strong hitbox or do I have a read or very good angle coverage to time my back air from ledge to hit Fox with the strong hitbox?
  • If you decided to drop from ledge, trust yourself.
  • If you decided to wait and react to the angle, trust yourself.
  • If you are on-stage waiting for a needle angle, prepare to grab ledge quickly and make a decision.

Similar to the Falco edgeguard (but Fox is just better so get ready for more mixups and harder angles).

TODO: develop this more.

Reaction Tech Chasing

We are going to separate reaction tech chasing into a couple of stages:

• Stage 1: covering the dthrow DI
• Stage 2: reacting to a tech in-place
• Stage 3: reacting to a tech roll
• Stage 4: reacting to a missed tech
• Stage 5: reacting to a missed tech to tech roll

Stage 1: Covering the DThrow DI

The first reaction is for your wavedash direction and length. When you are down throwing, take a second to blink during the throw animation. When you open your eyes, react immediately to the direction Fox will be from his no-DI trajectory. Then, you can change the length of your wavedash to match Fox's distance. Make sure you are spaced to where you are within your grab distance.

Stage 2: Reacting to a Tech In-Place

This is the second main reaction. You can assume you have positioned yourself properly based off of the DI off of down throw. Now, Fox is going to tech and you need to react to tech in-place. Stare at this GIF and notice Fox's feet.

Fox's feet are go straight up in the air instead of to a side. Compared to Fox's tech roll animations, Fox keeps his feet straight up. This is your indication for tech in place. It is tiny, but it is quite reactable.

Stage 3: Reacting to a Tech Roll

If the next stage is to react to Fox's tech rolls. After he techs from dthrow, he can decide to roll forward (into you) or backwards (away from you). First let's look at tech roll forward:

Compare roll forward to roll backwards below:

Looking at Fox's feet, there is a difference in which way they go depending on if he rolls forward or backwards. When he tech rolls backwards, his feet go more away while his tech roll forward has his feet move more in. Use this to your advantage when reacting to the both of these.

Stage 4: Reacting to a Missed Tech

When Fox misses tech, you have the ability to react with upsmash, jab, and other reset options. First let's look at missed tech neutral getup:

When he misses tech, there is a green flash on impact on the ground. React to it and punish accordingly.

Stage 5: Reacting to a Missed Tech to Tech Roll

When Fox misses a tech, he can roll forwards or backwards. Let's take a look at both of them:

Compare this to his missed tech roll backwards:

You can react and grab at the end of the roll animation, or cover with dash attack or ftilt.