Sapphire Dragon
Smash Master
- Joined
- May 17, 2009
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- 4,789
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- Let go of the scars that define you.
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- SapphireRyu
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- 3351-4374-1516
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- SW-2172-6976-4896
Formerly a thread from B.W. on Smashmods.
All discussions of Pikachu's matchups in detail will be here. I am merging any discussions already existing from Smashmods into this thread. This will take some time, though. Feel free to start new ones and I will add them to this first post!
As discussions continue, a color will be applied to each character giving a sense of how hard they are for Pika:
Red for difficult;
Yellow for slightly either way;
Green for easy.
Enjoy!
Mewtwo:
Marth:
I guess I'll start by saying Marth is still a terrible match-up for Pikachu. It got slightly easier but the girly man still dominates Chu in almost every area.
MachGO!:
Marth's range would certainly give him the upperhand in terms of approach vs. Pikachu. However, if you keep pressuring the ears of the Marth player with the annoying SFX of Pikachu's nair, you will certainly wear down his focus and desire to play; ultimately causing him to rage quit.
But in all seriousness, I feel like Marth would be a difficult MU. I imagine Pikachu really has to capitalize off of Marth's lack of projectile/massive endlag on his moves
B.W.:
That's about all he could do in Melee as well. You can use the QAC to make yourself confusing and try force an opening, but Marth's sword just gets in the way constantly. It's quite difficult for Pikachu to get in.
drpepper111:
Yep. Still a bad match up. Pikachu has no new tricks to get around Marth.
PM Pika is essentially a Melee Pika with less endlag on a lot of moves.
The lack of new tricks doesn't help Pikachu at all. The only way I think Pikachu can beat Marth here is if his running speed were to be increased.
In need of color category:
Mario:
My friend plays a good Mario and has a pretty easy job playing around my usual tricks. I'd say avoid QAC most of the time since a cape easily causes suicides as well as performs its usual shenanigans. On the bright side, he isn't insanely heavy and isn't too nimble in the air mobility. This makes him easy to uSmash to oblivion. Keep in mind that thunder can be reflected back at you... His recovery is also easy to intercept. Use thunder jolt on a Mario recovering low to force the cape and punish the lag. Any hit will practically guarantee the kill.
Donkey Kong:
Zelda:
Link:
Sonic:
Kirby:
Yoshi:
In need of any strategy:
Sheik:
Olimar:
Ice Climbers:
DeDeDe:
Wario:
Luigi:
Bowser:
Lucario:
Wolf:
Falco:
Toon Link:
Ganondorf:
Peach:
Pikachu:
Game and Watch:
R.O.B.:
Fox:
Pit:
Ike:
Ness:
Captain Falcon:
Bowser:
Snake:
Lucas:
Jigglypuff:
Squirtle:
Ivysaur:
Diddy Kong:
Zero Suit Samus:
Roy:
Samus:
More soon!
All discussions of Pikachu's matchups in detail will be here. I am merging any discussions already existing from Smashmods into this thread. This will take some time, though. Feel free to start new ones and I will add them to this first post!
As discussions continue, a color will be applied to each character giving a sense of how hard they are for Pika:
Red for difficult;
Yellow for slightly either way;
Green for easy.
Enjoy!
Mewtwo:
I do agree that the match-up is difficult, but I think it's important to note the tools that Pikachu has to help him out in the match-up as well as his weaknesses in it. Pikachu's vertical kill ability with upsmash, upsmash -> Thunder, and uptilt -> Thunder allow Pikachu to score much earlier kills on Mewtwo than many other characters who have to deal with killing him off the side because of his very good recovery and buffed weight. Pikachu also has an easier time dealing with Mewtwo's teleport antics and hover antics better than some other characters. Granted, this is probably because I main Ganon and have only started picking up Pikachu as a serious secondary several weeks ago, but dealing with what I guess could be called hover shield pressure is much easier as Pikachu. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Basically the Mewtwo is hovering behind your shield, usually out of a teleport, to avoid getting grabbed, but during his hover he can also harass your shield with aerials. Ganon doesn't really have any answers to this besides rolling because of his poor OoS options, but Pikachu can use his upair OoS to get a combo started. Pikachu also has an easier time getting back to stage against Mewtwo than most other characters because of his godlike recovery. Edgeguarding is a strong point of Mewtwo's game and having the ability to get around that helps a ton.
TL;DR
Still a hard match-up because of Mewtwo's tail, but Pikachu has a lot of things that can help him out in this match-up
Disjoints that keep opponents out have always been a big weakness for pikachu, and m2 in particular has a very good anti air game. Against characters like that you gotta really work on your dash dances and weaves, and always mix it up. If you try to just rush them down you will get shut down pretty easily, Pikachus moves get beat outright against characters with huge disjoints. There are ways to get in on mew2, you just have to be patient enough to find them.
I don't think the match-up is unwinnable, but i think it is very difficult. Like its very hard to get in on m2 and m2 has a really good combo game on Pikachu.
when you QaC at m2 he has enough time to react with an utilt.
mewtwo:
you cant really camp him because of his deflector and pika short range air attacks do even come close to the range of his.
ill start iwith edgguarding. most mewtwos teleport onto the stage, if you predict it meet it with an up-smash
when he is on ground QAC's up air juggles are your frineds for racking in % and for the kill fair up-smash is guaranteed on mewtwo unlike ther characters who can shield it
other than that I haven't really played too many mewtwos but I hope this little info helps
Marth:
When grabbed by Marth hold your control stick down and away and you should be fine. Also cross up his shield to avoid getting shield grabbed.
B.W.:I think Axe is just good vs Marth, not really Pikachu. Axe is also just good, period.
Marth has a lot of stuff that Pikachu has trouble with. Marth's disjointed range vs Pikachu's non-disjointed range causes a lot of problems for Pikachu.
That said if Pikachu can get in, I think he can combo Marth fairly easy.
I guess I'll start by saying Marth is still a terrible match-up for Pikachu. It got slightly easier but the girly man still dominates Chu in almost every area.
MachGO!:
Marth's range would certainly give him the upperhand in terms of approach vs. Pikachu. However, if you keep pressuring the ears of the Marth player with the annoying SFX of Pikachu's nair, you will certainly wear down his focus and desire to play; ultimately causing him to rage quit.
But in all seriousness, I feel like Marth would be a difficult MU. I imagine Pikachu really has to capitalize off of Marth's lack of projectile/massive endlag on his moves
B.W.:
That's about all he could do in Melee as well. You can use the QAC to make yourself confusing and try force an opening, but Marth's sword just gets in the way constantly. It's quite difficult for Pikachu to get in.
drpepper111:
Yep. Still a bad match up. Pikachu has no new tricks to get around Marth.
PM Pika is essentially a Melee Pika with less endlag on a lot of moves.
The lack of new tricks doesn't help Pikachu at all. The only way I think Pikachu can beat Marth here is if his running speed were to be increased.
In need of color category:
Mario:
TheDevicer:Mario: his fireballs are annoying Mario likes to rush you down with them and then d-smash or something, you may be able to crouch cancel them but I'm not sure so don't take my word:
Qac are one of the best ways to catch him while he is camping since you can't really camp Mario
For edge guarding Mario is VERY tricky at the ledge with his wall bounce up b but I think a well timed f smash can take care of it not to much information but I hope this helps
My friend plays a good Mario and has a pretty easy job playing around my usual tricks. I'd say avoid QAC most of the time since a cape easily causes suicides as well as performs its usual shenanigans. On the bright side, he isn't insanely heavy and isn't too nimble in the air mobility. This makes him easy to uSmash to oblivion. Keep in mind that thunder can be reflected back at you... His recovery is also easy to intercept. Use thunder jolt on a Mario recovering low to force the cape and punish the lag. Any hit will practically guarantee the kill.
Donkey Kong:
i think dk beats pikachu but not by much
sorry if that's vague or something, idk, that's just how i feel (from playing both characters a lot)
Zelda practically has to spam out moves with large cooldowns in order to deal with pika's pressure, so once you establish that you can go in really quickly before she can properly react she'll play a zoning game against you. Since she's a little slower than some other characters you can start mixing up your approaches. Instead of dash->nair, you can dash->rar->double jump->bair.. which in theory will catch out any of her responses to a dash nair that isn't a jab. She seems like she's the type of character that you have to punish while she's doing a move as opposed to taking a hit and punishing her afterwards, which is about the same as how she played in brawl also.
Link:
When links camping ive found that dash dancing just outside of his Zair and fair range is pretty effective, I think the best critical points occur during the endlag of his moves. I dont use QaC too much into link because it can be shut down with nair, I usually just shffl nair or fair And Pikachus projectile is suprisingly good against link.
and when recovering I suggest always sweetspotting the ledge, because of nair, upsmash, up b, and projectiles.
Oh and regarding the f throw, I dont think it is a chaingrab I think it is a regrab. Im fairly certain that Link can spot dodge before you can regrab him. Of course, if you trick him into spot dodging its an easy punish. And dthrow upsmash is pretty good.
Sonic:
I find when I'm playing Sonic (and by god, with the unleashing of Wizz, new players are Sonic-ing everywhere) is that prediction and timing are the most crucial things ever. The spin is annoying as all hell, but a well-timed D-smash has the range to stop him, and leave him with a quick stun, which I almost always u-air on. Sonic is light, and quickly dies in lower ceiling stages. Wave dash and spot dodge help a lot too, but if you don't have a planned follow-up (which is difficult against the fastest creature in PM) then that damned hedgehog just turns around and unleashes more. Quick Attacking away to prep is alright, and Thunder-jolting to rack up percent and keeping him at bay is amazing. Remember that Sonic has next to no range, so keep that to your advantage until he's close to kill percentage. Both characters have great recovery, so playing way off stage may not be the best option either. Hold the center stage, and get ready for the fastest predictions your brain can make!
Following up on Norde's Sonic tips, I've learned that a d-smash does stop sonic's spin. BUT if you charge it early, waiting for him to reach you, sonic will simply jump over it and most likely dair you. One thing I found that works well is when he's charging a spin dash, run towards him and he'll probably approach towards you. If you wavedash backwards you'll usually have enough room to throw that d-smash, and he won't have the reaction time to jump or anything. Being very patient against a sonic will make you observe and predict their moves. Use sonic's wild speed to your advantage.
Also, don't forget that thunder jolt spam. If you throw one out as soon as his spin starts, it'll throw him off as he'll have to quickly stop the dash, attempt to jump over it, or just run into it. Use it as a mindgame.
Kirby:
For Kirby it depends on whether he's being aggressive. I think pika outranges him in general, so if you think kirby's going in you can almost always counteract him with an in place bair or a retraiing bair. But if you mention what he does that gives you trouble maybe we can throw some suggestions at you =P.
Yoshi:
Yoshi is a annoying matchup
If you dont combo quick enough he can nair and just escape
Also watch out for his side b if you get hit by it you gonna take allot of %
And be carefull putting shield pressing yoshi has insane oos options
As for edge guarding goes if you hit him with your up-air tail spike out of his double jump it cancels his upward momentum and just sends him downward and if he tries to side b onto the stage the just down -b allot hope this helps
i played a Yoshi who went back and fourth with his side-b this is what i found out
thudershock/neutral-b will perry it and put Yoshi in little lag this is when you rush him reall fast wth the attack of your choice,
a well timed f-smash can work to its just hard
I think neutral air can also perry with it
In need of any strategy:
Sheik:
Olimar:
Ice Climbers:
DeDeDe:
Wario:
Luigi:
Bowser:
Lucario:
Wolf:
Falco:
Toon Link:
Ganondorf:
Peach:
Pikachu:
Game and Watch:
R.O.B.:
Fox:
Pit:
Ike:
Ness:
Captain Falcon:
Bowser:
Snake:
Lucas:
Jigglypuff:
Squirtle:
Ivysaur:
Diddy Kong:
Zero Suit Samus:
Roy:
Samus:
More soon!
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