No. We are (electric) mice.
How reliable is down-throw vs. floaty characters. At high percents I notice it sets up CPU's for upsmash, but I'm assuming they just suck. But still, can you follow it with an aerial, lets say vs Jiggs at 100?
It can work vs. some. I don't think anything's guaranteed on most floatys, except at specific small damage ranges I haven't bothered to figure out (i'd guess around 60% for most). However, you can use it to force them to react. They either have to tech it (which sets up techchases), or aerial (you can often shieldgrab), or jump. If they jump, you can follow with an aerial immediately, or rush below them and start upairing and trying to juggle them.
Q: which pikas are going to genisis?
Not me : /
*nods* I honestly never use that move.
Some other things:
1. Pika has really good followups out of grabs, right? (either that or my crew doesn't know how to DI) But I'm having trouble getting the grabs in the first place. Any good setups for that? Or should I just be approaching with grabs?
2. What's your opinion of downsmash?
3. Any tips on using thunder to edgeguard?
4. How is pika vs falco? I'm considering using him for that matchup, but that's just because he seems to be able to get past the lasers easily.
I'll save my 'bair is awesome, if situational' speech for if anyone wants it, but on to the actual questions.
1. I explained dthrow on floaties earlier, and that same thing can be used for heavier chars at higher percents, or force these heavier characters to tech at lower percents. Neat trick, you can dthrow fastfallers and they often won't tech, expecting to have to DI the uthrow. Once they hit the ground, jab to reset them, and either regrab or usmash/fsmash/whatever. Other throws are useful as well of course. Uthrow chains on fastfallers, and can set up simple aerial combos (usually just uair or double jump nair) on others, but most notably is they can bait jumps, so you can steal their jump with a uair and attempt to chase. Fthrow chains on almost everyone at really low percents (like <10%) so you can use that to get a few percents in, and then later fthrow->dtilt or dash dance and try to bait a punish attempt. Bthrow is super good for setting up edgeguards. Yeah.
2. Downsmash is useful but not spamable. I know I use it too much. It sets up stuff pretty well, has decent priority, can catch people that don't expect it to last as long, and can be used as a relatively safe techchase option. But, it's punishable. It has decent lag after it, is shieldgrabbable as long as the opponent is patient enough to wait through its entirety, doesn't have much shieldstun, and easy for a lot of characters to outrange and punish. It's useful if used when you're right behind someone, as they can't shieldgrab you and don't often have enough time to do much else out of shield to you (again, this doesn't apply to all characters) and if you catch them then the reward is pretty worthwhile. If you rely on it though, it becomes very predictable and easily punishable.
3. It looks really awesome. I guess i'm not sure on what your question is exactly. Is it viable? Yes, though I think usually you're safer doing something else. It's very laggy and takes a decent amount of time to set up, which you can usually spend chasing the opponent or limiting their return options with jolts and then punishing their remaining options. Its knockback, unless you hit with the hitbox around yourself, is also not very stellar and usually only helps the opponent recover (although admittantly racking on a bit of damage). How should one do it most effectively? Get the timing down. If you want to do it off the stage and not have it hit you (creating a wall in front of the edge effectively), then just practice practice. Jump out, jump back and immediately down b as you start your second jump. Notice how far you need to jump out to both get back with the second jump and also ensure thunder doesn't hit the stage. You are however allowed to publicly show great excitement when you successfully edgeguard someone with thunder.
4. Pika does alright against falco, considering his position relative to falco on the tier list, but he is by no means a counter. Pika can get around lasers to an extent, you're really mobile, but you don't often have a good approach option from it. Usually you end up finally getting through the lasers and are now in an awkward position from which you can't do as much as you'd like to falco. His lasers can still pick away at your poor shield and help him approach you. And once you get in close, he can still combo you pretty well. This match you'll mostly be focused on gimping and juggling. The problem though, is setting these up as pikas. Lasers still are really annoying for pika.
lol.