Specific Characters Match-up: Pikachu vs Sheik

[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 Sheik MU. 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).

Sheik:

• 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:
​

• 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.

 

[AcePikachu]

In this MU, how well you can defend yourself and how well you can punish sheiks mistakes is key.

Sheik has the better approach game than you, with fairs ridiculous priority, needles, and crazy fast attacks overall, (ftilt, down tilt, jab, etc.) Pikachu has to be on gaurd most of the time. It doesn't help that Pikachu is a light character amd she racks up damage amazingly fast, so her killing issue isn't as prevalent here.

Sheik can only get work done effectively against Pikachu specifically by gettimg a combo going. (Thanks to quick attack and thunder jolt, needle camping Pikachu isn't very effective... pun intended. )

Be prepared to sheild any fairs. Because Sheik is a fast faller, the punish should be big, as Pikachu's combo game in general is excellent. Up tilt at low percents is a guaranteed 20-30%. Follow up with up air or nair, reset the combo with a FF fair and get as much damage as possible.

Because Sheik can react to almost everything Pikachu does, defensive play is a must. Look out for Usmash, Bouncing Fish, Down throw to up air combo/read and at higher percentages, ftilt. All of these I feel are Sheiks best kil options.

Summary: You may be better off punishing than making your own move.

 

[Gibbs]

The Zero v ESAM sets at SSC are a masterclass in this matchup. They're up now the the VGbootcamp youtube channel. While there is enough material here to write a Phd. dissertation on there are a couple of things I noticed that I think are super important as the meta goes forward.

Zero's spacing versus ESAM was immaculate. Stage control in the Pika match up is hard because QA has so much utility. On smashville and FD Zero stayed either dead center, or towards the ledge. If you look closely, you can see that the spacing and zoning that Zero does is designed specifically to limit Pika's ability to mix up QA2 angle selection options. This is super smart and is something I haven't seen any other top player do effectively.

On the other hand ESAM's Ground Movement and Dynamic Neutral was absolutely unreal. The pressure that ESAM was able to put out was amazing. He was always closing the gap, not letting Zero's safe and smart play dictate the pace of the match. It's easy to get distracted by the flashy strings and regrab combos that ESAM pulled off, but those plays were not the reason why many people are already hailing this set as the best sm4sh set yet. ESAM's is the only player who effectively uses all of Pika's kit and is able to mix it up effectively. He's almost unreadable.

One interesting thing I saw ESAM doing pretty consistently was going for hard reads and hard that only cover say 1 of Zero's options, but don't allow for a possible counter punch. I wonder if this is a deliberate strategy, or if ESAM just thought he had the read?

 

[Cylent]

Punishing mistakes is key.

 

[Felth]

What if Sheik if attacking with perfect spaced fairs to Pikachu's shield? What are the options that Pikachu has? Obviously a bad spaced fair can be punished with shield grab but if not I don't know what to do exactly. Most of the time I try to shield grab the perfect spaced fair and I got punished. Maybe there are some good options to keep in mind (like escaping with a backward of inward roll or maybe a jump followed by a QA or an aerial).
What do you guys think?

 

[MVboy39]

What if Sheik if attacking with perfect spaced fairs to Pikachu's shield? What are the options that Pikachu has? Obviously a bad spaced fair can be punished with shield grab but if not I don't know what to do exactly. Most of the time I try to shield grab the perfect spaced fair and I got punished. Maybe there are some good options to keep in mind (like escaping with a backward of inward roll or maybe a jump followed by a QA or an aerial).
What do you guys think?

Well, this will probably only work if the Sheik you're battling has bad spacing, but I find that short-hop neutral air is a relatively good out-of-shield offense, as it comes out quickly and autocancels if you don't fastfall it.

EDIT: Also, I usually find that just dashing away works better than rolling, since dashing doesn't have a fixed distance. Just make sure you have enough time to lower your shield.