Bowser vs. Sheik Super Smash Bros. Brawl tiers, match-up votes and discussion

This MU is much better than in Melee for Bowser but Sheik still wins against Bowser in Brawl.

With Hitstun canceling in Brawl Sheik's down throw can no longer chain grab Bowser and is harder to combo him and with Sheik being lighter Bowser has a easier time Killing and Bowser is much faster in the air than in Melee. With L canceling removed Bowser's aerials can be punished more easily while the rest of Bowser's moves are unsafe on shield or laggy and Sheik has faster mobility and frame data than Bowser and needles to pressure him and in neutral and outranges fire breath, Bowser's frame 8 jumpsquat doesn't help either. However Bowser is powerful and heavy so Sheik will have a difficult time Koing Bowser without edge guarding him so Sheik has to play very carefully.

Bowser 4 / Sheik 6

Needles and ftilt are 2 very important moves for Sheik to have here. Up close, her poor anti-shield game leaves her at the mercy of Bowser's jab, grab, and Whirling Fortress.

Aside from Bowser's slow movement meaning Sheik gets lots of time to charge those, there are just a lot of situations she can throw them out. Is he trying to rush her down? Is he about to land to try resetting the neutral? Is he offstage? Sheik will be throwing out Needles if she is able to affirm any of these questions. That versatility means Bowser has to be fairly cautious himself when approaching.

Ftilt is bigger; in fact, it's debatably the biggest reason why Sheik still wins this matchup. Bowser being a big boy with slow aerials means he will eat a lot of damage from getting locked in a string of ftilts. And to ice that cake, Sheik can combo so many moves out of that (utilt, usmash, nair, fair, uair) that she tends to bring Bowser to die-from-a-gimp percent very early.

The ledge game is a no-brainer aside from Fire Breath being a surprisingly effective response to Chain. Since Sheik's Needles only cause stun, they reset the momentum on WF, which leaves Bowser wide open for a fair, bair, nair, Vanish, or down smash if he's level with or above the stage. Air dodging them isn't an option because Sheik can trade at worst with WF when she leaves the stage; at that point, Bowser getting edgehogged is an inevitability.

Generally, the risks Sheik takes by being up close to Bowser outside of neutral advantage are outweighed by her generally stronger footsies, combo potential, and effective edgeguarding. 4/6 is therefore a fair rating.