Smashboards

agree, most people don't even DI correctly yet

Or they buffer an airdodge/aerial in hopes it will save them, but it kills them instead.

They just don't know how to survive. Also, recovering on stage is so underrated.

just reset to ledge every time, no reason to recover on stage imo.
always jump -> airdodge

basic things. I'm pretty confident in my own play, but I've dropped Pikachu for the most part, just not a top tier character imo

Depends on the character. Ledge traps are where one can get a lot of kills, and recovering high with good/decent landing options is what most top tiers can do.

Kill troubles? I'm on one hand surprised, but on the other hand, I see it. On the other, Pika's disadvantage and disjoints are really really good.

I have Pika as #1 in customs still. Although I'm super impressed by Mr. R's Sheik tech. ESAM dropped a lot of 50-50's with HSB and made Pika seem a lot more tame than his kit suggests.

Pikachu can certainly recover high/onto the stage, but in general the ledge is safe enough, getup options are hard to punish consistently since trumping doesn't work. People are too tame in advantage, though; you can end stocks off of a single hit in some cases.

in customs Pika is pretty good, but in default I don't think he's so hot. ESAM does not represent the best of what Pikachu is capable of, but there are major weaknesses to the character that you don't see until you play him a lot.

it's matchups that are the problem for Pikachu. Mario and Luigi in particular. Pikachu doesn't have a way to force KOs against these characters because of the airdodges in this game, unless he has HSB that is, and they have easy KOs on Pikachu in exchange (Mario's up-smash is dumb, Luigi's b-air/up-smash/d-throw Cyclone will kill easily). Ness, Olimar, Sheik are hard.

Then I think he has a lot of even matchups across the cast that other top tiers don't have. e.g., ZSS isn't afraid of Ike or Marth. Pikachu is.

He may be mid tier in default, really. Through some talk, the high-level Pikas outside of ESAM are thinking about him as a counterpick character (he beats Rosalina/ZSS) rather than a main.

Don't get me wrong. I have (and could still) beat top players with Pikachu on a good day (if not consistently). But I think there are many better choices for that.

Yeah, it makes sense. But he's a lot of work for a counterpick character.

Yeah, it would be like using Pacman as a counterpick to Luigi. (or Megaman)

I do wonder if I'm going to switch off him competitively. I know I have a long ways to go with this character and I'm gonna see it through mostly because I'm more interested in the research than tourney results (hopefully they coincide). But Fox.

What about Fox?

Fox would likely be who I'd switch to. Either that or Ryu, but Ryu's too underdeveloped at the moment. Honestly, I don't know a whole lot about Fox's MU spread other than it's full of a lot of evens and he loses to Luigi. But his movement is beautiful. Kind of loses to shields, but you just learn to punish the OoS option which he has the tools to do. I think moreso than ZSS.

Yeah I am maining Fox at this time.

Larry thinks he likely goes even with Luigi, might even win, due to mobility alone.

Fox only loses to shields if you don't abuse well spaced n-airs and frame 2 jab.

I've put my Fox aside, because of top tier secondary vs mid-tier main syndrome. Was going to pull him out vs custom DK, but decided to git gud with Mega. Paid off too. But yeah, Fox is great. Used to go back and forth between him and Sheik for #1. Don't anymore, but I still think he's great and is more rewarding to play than Sheik's death by 200 needles + ftilt. /hyperbole

lol, Sheik's 50:50s off of throws are dumb. "Sheik can't kill" is such nonsense