Approaches with Pikachu?

[NachoThePikachu]

Hi hi! I am a proud Pika main who holds a pretty good stance around my friends for being a real good Pika main. I play hyper-offensive and pressurized, and I couldn't feel better doing it.

However, lately it seems i've become a little stale with my tactics. I always use the same three approaches yet can't figure out new ones.
1. Jump > B > Run > Grab
2. Jump > Fast-Fall Fair > Grab/Usmash
3. Quick-Attack > Grab/Usmash

Anyone else have any ideas? These tactics always work on players who don't know my play-style, but against people who I play frequently with or people who I play at least 4 times, they figure me out and I get shut down.
There are lots of things i've been trying but I always get into the same habits of these approaches for some odd reason. ono

Any suggestions and tips are appreciated, thanks much~ <3

 

[SafCar]

Try adding some wavebouncing to fake out your opponent. Thunder, while hard to wavebounce, makes an amazing anti-approach against non-Villager players. Weird as it sounds, FF Dair also trips some players up since it has two hit boxes: The move itseldf, and the landing lag.

 

[DeathlyFerret]

Short hop down air is surprisingly safe as an approach... It's difficult to grab if you shield it, you can land behind them, and it can be used for combos. Also, if you don't fast fall it, it's basically lagless.

 

[Emuchu]

I found that the biggest improvements to my Pika game came from diversifying my approaches. My biggest problem is that I play Pika as hyper-aggressive, so I have a bad habit of being predictable in the sense that my opponent can usually expect me to go in with an attack, especially if I'm in the air. So, here are the things I'm trying to integrate into my neutral game so I don't get shield-grabbed quite so often:

• Pikachu actually has a surprisingly good ground game. You can mix up your SH FF Fair and SH Dair(1) AC approaches with dash-grab and dash-shielddrop-Ftilt/Dtilt. Dash-shielddrop is a generally safe way to approach opponents, and people don't expect Pikachu players to enforce their poking range properly.
• I always get bonked by more patient players, so I've been practicing being patient, myself. Sometimes, it's better to hang back and let your opponent make the approach on Pikachu. OoS Nair is a great option on block, Pikachu generally gets a lot of reward out of Shield-grabbing, and Pikachu's Pivot-Ftilt and Pivot-Fsmash are great moves to use as your opponent attacks into Pika's space (something I miss greatly from Brawl Pika: Dtilt into backwards-sliding Fsmash).
• Purposefully whiff your moves: if you try and hit with every Quick Attack and every Fair, then your opponent will have an easier time reacting to you. Sometimes you have to Quick Attack back-and-forth or away, and sometimes you should just jump around throwing out Fairs without any intention of hitting anything. Something I notice from good swordies is that they do a lot of whiffed aerials to make it difficult to approach them or know when they're planning to actually move in. In other words, you can hide your SH Fair approaches by doing a lot of empty short hops or retreating SH Fairs, and you can mix up your TJolt dash-grabs with TJolt dash-shielddrops to see if they're reacting to every TJolt dash by jumping or whatever. Just generally make it a pain in the rear to know when you're thinking about attacking.

 

[HudnofskiBlue]

This information has helped me. I'm usually pretty predictable with my approaches, but this has helped mix it up.

 

[RunawayPanda]

T jolt is good in neutral, you can also use to hit confirm into moves like up smash or if you think they will shield it, you can run with it and get a grab. Super scary

Obviously quick attack will allow you to approach quickly and also help you land with a lot of pressure

 

[NachoThePikachu]

Thanks for all the advice! Yeah, this really helps me alot. Like Emuchu, I play super aggressively and tend to always make the approaches. I'll definitely try out everything suggested and see what works out for me! I hope this really helps mix up my game and makes me less predictable.

I'm actually really interested in seeing how faking out my opponents will work out. I've never thought of that before and I'm real hyped to see how much I can implement it into my gameplay. Again, thanks a ton everyone~

If anyone still has more ideas I'll be more than happy to hear them out ^u^

 

[phili]

My main approaches with Pikachu are:

1. QA: use many different angles so your opponent cant read this and punish. Also, use this sparingly. Although QA is one of Pikachu's best attacks, you shouldn't use it a ton because it can become easy to read and punish.

2. SH Dair: Dair's animation finishes before you land if you immediately use dair after you SH. This makes it pretty safe as you can throw out another move as soon as you land, or you can pick a defensive option such as shield, roll, or spot dodge. Dair can also easily cross up a hit on shield, making it even harder to punish. Finally, landing a dair at mid percent leads to a tech chase. You can land right next to the fallen opponent, and if they tech, follow them and grab. If they miss the tech (happens most of the time even with high level opponents) you can jab reset > charged fsmash or HSB (in customs).

3. SH Fair: Not fast falled. Like dair, fair finishes its animation before you hit the ground if you don't fast fall and use it right after you jump. This makes it relatively safe as you can again throw out a move or pick a defensive option as soon as you land. If it connects, you can string more fairs together at low percents, sometimes carrying opponents across the entire stage. Practice your spacing on this to make it as safe on shield as possible.

4. FF Fair: This is a good mixup with SH fair. FF fair is punishable on shield though, so I suggest using this one less often. However, hitting with this move has a ton of followups including grab, utilt, ftilt, dtilt, dsmash, and usmash.

5. T-jolt: Because you can run behind this move, using FH t-jolt and sometimes SH t-jolt can be very useful to set up for grabs or kill moves. Make sure you mix it up by not always going for grab. Sometimes stop just short of the opponent, wait for how they react to the jolt, and punish that action.

6. Tomahawk Grabs: This is when you jump, do not use an attack while in the air, then fast fall and grab your opponent. These work great for pikachu as many of our main approaches involve SH attacks. Therefore, you can condition your opponent into shielding when you jump, then tomahawk grab them.

7. Run up shield: I use this a lot, probably too much actually. But it can be a very good option. Run in, shield, and punish whatever your opponent does with a shield grab or nair/dair out of shield. This works better at high percents against opponents who can't kill you from a throw. You can also mix this up with run up spot dodge if the opponent catches on and grabs you a few times.

It is also worth noting that dtilt, fsmash, and t-jolt can be used in neutral as spacing options. Sometimes it is better to just space around and not approach the opponent

tl;dr : QA, SH dair, SH fair, FF fair, t-jolt, tomahawks, run up shield

 

[Emuchu]

6. Tomahawk Grabs: This is when you jump, do not use an attack while in the air, then fast fall and grab your opponent. These work great for pikachu as many of our main approaches involve SH attacks. Therefore, you can condition your opponent into shielding when you jump, then tomahawk grab them.

Dude... is this a T.Hawk reference!? If it is, mad props!

 

[phili]

Dude... is this a T.Hawk reference!? If it is, mad props!

Nah it's just what empty hops > grab have been called ever since melee. They're really useful in this game since shield is such a strong option. You bait the shield with a jump, then get a free grab

 

[Emuchu]

Nah it's just what empty hops > grab have been called ever since melee. They're really useful in this game since shield is such a strong option. You bait the shield with a jump, then get a free grab

Either way, I'm glad you brought these to my attention. I'm admittedly a little free to players who use their shields properly.