Specific Characters Match-up: Pikachu vs Little Mac

[Felth]

I know that there's a Matchup Thread. But I don't like that the information is spread among different pages because the discussion can be changed to different characters and that could be a little messy. To avoid this, I suggest the following idea: one post for each character. Following some general points I'll organize all the post in a very simple way.

I propose to study in this post the Little Mac. If you want to discuss other Matchup and you liked my idea just write a post following this idea. Suggestions of any type are welcome (I'm not an expert of Smash so it's probably that you know more than me about this).

Little Mac:


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• Neutral Game:

• Stage selection and Ban:

• Specific Situations:
  • Ground - Ground:
  • Ground - Air:
  • Air - Air:
  • Off Stage:
  • Some situation to punish or to look (Situations that are advantageous to pikachu vs this character)
  • Situations to avoid?

Extra information:
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• I don't want to lose all the information that the community has discovered at this point. Most of this theory it's in the MU Thread.

• You can read the document made by the User Umbreoff which summarizes the previous post. Click here to see the document. I'm transcribing this document into a pdf version with access to new options. If you want to check the progress of this document I'll invite you to see the PDF Online Version.

• With respect to the Killing Section: add Good Set-ups to perform the killing (not just the final attack). Set-ups performed in specific Stages are also welcome.

• With respect to the Stage Selection Section: we should discuss what stages to avoid and what stages are good for Pikachu. The Smash Player Esam made a Depth Analysis on each Stage. Recall that some stages could be good for Pikachu but are even better for other character that's the reason for why we should discuss this kind of things here (one example is Halberd: IMO is good for Pikachu but not against Meta Knight).

• With respect to the Difficulty Section we should discuss how difficult is this MU for Pikachu. If it's possible it would be good to associate a measure to this difficulty. I think that this section should be completed once we developed a lot of theory in the corresponding MU, otherwise is just speculation.

• With respect to the Specific Situations Section we should discuss what to do in both scenarios.

 

[Underhill]

I'll be the first then.
I don't like fighting Little Mac honestly, but I'll share my insight.
While Little Mac can surpasses in the ground, Pikachu does well in the air while Mac's air game is garbage. You want to keep your space and mindgame him while reading his approaches by using fox-dance trots, d-tile, and jolts, but don't be too predictable or else you're eat a f-tile or anything else that he throws out. Pikachu's juggling game, abuse it because the only landing option is counter which is something to watch out for, but that's it. up-tile juggling him, and keep him in the air as much as you need; even QA or use any mix up like grabs to add in there. Little Mac's smashes, do not challenge them or punish them; I had to find out the hard way when trying to punish them, forward smash especially because they have less lag on them. Its alittle tough to punish him and his tiles so I would try to bait and mindgame him since his approaches are alittle to average along with no projectile, but still fast though on the ground. If you're juggled and trying to land, do not, I repeat do not land on him; Especially against good Little Mac because he's fast enough to catch your landings like you can and his up smash is not something that you want to challenge so just worry about landing to the ground safely and use QA to do so away from him and only attack for spacing if you have to. Little Mac's ko potential, especially with rage and the ko punch can be a threat because of Pikachu's inability to kill and he's light. Edgeguarding, Mac can call it quits because Pikachu can destroy him in that area. Seriously though, since Mac is terrible in the air with low air speed and low jump height, you can make it hard for him to come back. If you see and read the up-b, no mercy with a forward smash. Jolts are there to waste his jumps if needed. As long as you've keep him off with mix ups while reading his recovery options, then you're good with his stock taken. Ko punch, don't let him smell fear in you because you'll be helping him more with reading you so instead, play offensive and put pressure on him while being unpredictable and avoid being reckless. If you get hit and you're above 30%, then it lights out for you.

Pikachu wins in the mu, but Mac can still go toe to toe with him, though. Now make Pikachu Muhammad Ali's pet and beat the s*** out of Little Mac with him.

 

[Coro_]

I've played as Mac quite a bit, so here's my thoughts on the matchup.

- If you can get Mac to about 90% or above and throw him offstage, that's usually the stock, so actually Pika's killconfirm problem isn't much of an issue in this matchup.
Mainly, it's all about the spacing in this matchup:
- If he's too far away to punch you, jolts will tack on damage, and Mac doesn't have many options to deal with jolts. He can counter them, but that leaves him wide open to dashgrab; He can jump, which leaves him vulnerable to aerials; He can Jolt Haymaker, which is probably the most dangerous option to Pika if spaced properly (watch your distance, or he'll clock you while you're launching a jolt), but if he whiffs, he's also very open; and lastly he can super armor through the jolts with smashes or Straight Lunge, which is my personal favourite option and catches a lot of players off-guard since they don't expect you to just power through the jolt. This will be very dangerous as he can hit you if you run in after the jolt, and his smashes recover fast enough that it's very difficult to punish. Still, if you see him going for smashes, just keep your distance and don't go in, that way it's free damage.
- If he's close enough, this is where spacing comes in. Mac hits hard and steps forward with a few moves, like ftilt and fsmash. Keep that in mind so that you don't whiff a move in front of him (such as fadeaway fair) thinking it's safe and then get clocked in the face. Mac is also extremely fast, so be careful how you land if assaulting him from the air, as you should, lest you catch a dash-sweetspot usmash.
- Mac likes spacing with dtilt, ftilt and fsmash, so those are the moves you have to keep in mind. Anti-air moves for him are utilt, usmash and up-angled fsmash. The smashes have infinite super armor the moment he releases it, so keep in mind you'll come off the worse for it if you clash. His dash attack is not safe on shield, so a Mac tries to dash attack you in neutral and you shield it, that's a free grab.
- KO Punch, whoo boy. If he has this, wait out a few seconds, then look for a punish. It's easy to get rid of it if you can just hit him once, and with Pika that shouldn't be too hard, but don't do anything unsafe. He can link into it from dtilt around 30-90%, so be careful for that as well. Counter dtilt attempts with your own dtilt or any aerial. Do not stand in shield for an extended period of time, KO Punch is unblockable.
- Mac has no options against QA, feel free to go ham on him with it to a reasonable extent.
- If you find a grab, prioritize throwing him offstage rather than juggling him. Making Mac struggle to return to the stage does wonders for stage control, which I think is more important than tacking on a nice uair combo on him in this case.

Basically, respect his ground game. As long as you aren't facing one of those Macs who do nothing but dash madly around the stage and haymaker off the side, he's quite a terror... so long as his feet are touching the ground. Wall him out with jolts and spaced aerials, utilt and dtilt, juggle him if you can, throw him off the stage as much as possible. Don't let him gain stage control, and it's pretty easy to win.