Q&A Ask about Pikachu! Hosted by Axe and N64! feat. dkuo!

[Zig-Zag!]

Still love the IC matchup. The contention is that pika has a 80/20 disadvantage because he can get chaingrabbed to death.

...unlike...other...characters...?

 

[AXE 09]

snaps, i kinda forgot about IC's lol. wobbles showed me how horrible it can be for pikachu to fight them...

pika can get chaingrabbed by just popo alone, no matter where you DI ='(

 

[Mogwai]

how does everyone feel about ganon?

not as cool as Falcon, but still pretty cool.

I dunno, maybe I'm crazy and just don't play good Ganons with my Pikachu, but I like the matchup a lot. I mean, you're still playing Pikachu vs. a debatably good character, so it's probably a slight disadvantage, but it's at least mad fun.

Still love the IC matchup. The contention is that pika has a 80/20 disadvantage because he can get chaingrabbed to death.

...unlike...other...characters...?

agree 100%

Pikachu's dsmash and uair are MAD CUTE in the matchup, and while so-po isn't a slam dunk for Pikachu the way he is for other characters good at gimping nana, I think so long as you stay on point with abusing uair to separate them, the matchup is manageable.

 

[N64]

Yeah, i'm not so scared of the ICs matchup anymore. Their ground movement is intimidating, and don't get grabbed, but pika can seperate pretty easily and gimp nana, which then makes the matchup about even once she's gone. Other chars are worse for pika.

I still think Ganon v. Pika is even. Second best matchup above him on the tierlist, next to falcon. Ganon just can't get away once you're in.

Axe: I dunno, your falco would probably do marginally better against dmac, but I don't super know how well he does against falcos except for random friendles i've watched vs. darkrain's falco. I'd say play whichever is feeling more on that day.

 

[INSANE CARZY GUY]

Can pikachu juggle the crap out of fox/falco? Because as Pichu I think I figured out a really great way to get a chain of upairs I ended up getting a chain of like 6 of them in a match. I set it up by dding around and I wded back to them and did a backwards rising up-air that lead into other one and I would FH into the next one and finish with a different air attack.

Also I am uncomfortable with Just dding without wding every now and then is it important or not that I wd every now and then.

 

[tdk_Samurai]

Still love the IC matchup. The contention is that pika has a 80/20 disadvantage because he can get chaingrabbed to death.

...unlike...other...characters...?

you would love the ICs matchup, seeing as how you play lixi alot I'm guessing

 

[Zig-Zag!]

you would love the ICs matchup, seeing as how you play lixi alot I'm guessing

Getting grabbed sucks, yes. Especially since little pika cant take that much hits.

However...down tilt seperates, upair seperates, downsmash seperates, dashgrab backthrow seperates....Pika is an ice climber seperating MACHINE. Its a lot of fun playing ic's cause its sort of like 2v1 practice.

 

[tdk_Samurai]

Pika questions incoming

1: how do you feel about ftilt to edgegaurd spacies, then immediately dropzoning a tailspike, like is there enough time?

2: does pika have descent horizontal damage on his uair (like I've been pondering ways to deal with peach, and I was fiddling around in training, and noticed rising uair > nair/bair/dair combos all the way till 80, now I'm thinking if it can out range her dsmash or atleast reach far enough where you can wavedash into the combo the matchup would become much easier for me)

3: ever get the 4th hit of the uair to combo into an upsmash on peach/any other char?

chad: do you remember your doubles pools from jab 2 by any chance?

EDIT 4: if I wanted to punish 2 of 3 techs( one roll and tech in place/no tech), what are my options, like I assume down smash doesn't have enough horizontal range to cover both options, like should I stand in the middle of the two positions and forward smash a roll and rising uair a tech in place?

 

[N64]

1. Yes.

2. uair has decent range behind pika, so you can probably catch a dsmashing peach with a rising uair and combo from it.

3. Very rarely. It can work, but i've always found it too awkward to set up.

4. It depends on your opponent's techroll range. Dsmash can cover standing tech and one roll option of some characters. Fsmash can also work for this, with different positioning. Otherwise, you'll probably want to try to just watch and react. Pika's dash is pretty quick, so if your reaction speed is good you can often chase their tech and grab or dsmash or usmash or dtilt or etc.

 

[AXE 09]

1) DEFINATELY! you should have plenty of time, it's just right after you hit them with the forward tilt, drop immediately. against fox though, whenever i try to drop below him to tailspike, i'll get burned by his fire a lot of times. so against most fox players, i usually just fall off the stage and Dair instead. it's so awesome when you can double jump -> tailspike after you fall and dair. **** haha

2) horizontal damage? maybe you meant to say distance lol. but a rising Uair has pretty decent horizontal distance. if she's behind you, rising uair is definately the best option IMO. it combos most of the time, whether into another ariel or into a thunder. if she's in front of you... i'm actually not too sure if the 4th hitbox of the Uair outranges her downsmash or not. i actually think it does, but.... just be careful with it, because if a peach crouch cancels it, it'll just have her slide toward you and she can immediately downsmash. it's horrible haha. but if she doesn't crouch cancel, it's good =)

3) heck yeah! i dunno why, but i almost always try to do this on ligh/mid weight characters when they're at a very low percent. i kinda just think it looks cool haha. definately one of my favorite combos


BTW if you're looking for peach advice... here's 1 thing i had to learn the hard way against peach players that love to crouch cancel.

i always have a habbit of doing a falling Nair on my opponent if i'm above them. whenever i fight a peach, they ALWAYS crouch cancel downsmash, and the Nair doesn't do anything, even if i hit them with the strong hit of the Nair (this is if they're at a decently low damage). anyways, if they're at a low damage and you know she's gonna CC dsmash, do a falling Uair instead and hit them with the 1st hitbox of the Uair. you cannot CC this. it'll always send peach up into the air, so use it wisely my friend i know it does very little damage, but you can follow up the Uair most of the time and it's definately a lot better than hitting her with a Nair, and getting punished by a CC downsmash

 

[Rappster]

what does effect does peaches cc have on dair?

 

[DtJ Jungle]

wait

i did notknow that.

good ****.

so does that apply to all floaty cc'ers?

like samus (cc downsmash)

 

[AXE 09]

you know? to be honest, i'm not too sure if it works on everyone, i just know peach exclusively because i have to fight a bunchload of peach players here in AZ. wow... this would be a good thing to test out haha

 

[AXE 09]

sry for the double post, but just wanted to say...

after some testing, i came to the conclusion...

pika's Uair CAN be CC'd by any character, but NO character can CC pika's Uair while they are in the middle of doing a move. pikachu's Nair, however, CAN be CC'd, even while your opponent is doing a move

so, in the example of peach, if peach is in her animation of downsmashing, and you hit her with a falling Uair, she will always be sent up in the air. but if you fall with a Nair, she can CC and still downsmash again.

the same goes for every character. if someone is in the middle of an attack when you hit them with your Uair, they cannot CC it, but if they're doing nothing but crouching, then they will CC it

sorry for the misleading assumption

 

[toasty]

Axe...I never got around to doing shoutouts for Pound so before I forget:

it was sooo great finally meeting you =D

mad positive kid haha, awesome...watching your Falco 0-death M2K's sheik made me @_@

...watching you switch to Pika at the risk of going Falco Vs. Marth but ending up with Pika vs. Sheik in round 3 made me ;__;

sorry for dittoing you, btw haha...I haven't used Pika in forEVER so I shouldn't have even bothered..

Ness Vs. Pika, on the other hand, was MAAAD fun!

I'll see if I can get some time to play Pika before Apex [I really have NO time to play, sadly >_<]

you should go to that, btw...can't be missin **** when it's my birthdayyy =D [you'll probably see me post that everywhere...just trying to guilt trip friends into going ^_^]

also @ your post...beast info, good to know

 

[AXE 09]

Toasty! i'm not sure if you saw it already, but i made a little shoutout for you in the pound 4 results thread a while ago haha

http://www.smashboards.com/showpost.php?p=9367149&postcount=334

but aside from that, you were one of the most awesome people i met dude. your nachos were BEAST!! and dude, your ness is really freakin good. those were some hecka fun matches haha

don't be sorry for dittoing me, i was happy that you did! anyone who plays pika immediately earns +10 awesome points in my book

i'll try to look into Apex =) i really wanna meet you again lol. you're way too awesome

and it sux that my matches vs m2k weren't recorded

 

[toasty]

well I know one guy who was filming it [I tried and so did one other person but Jash or someone else who knows M2K was like "he said not to record it"...so I shrugged and kept on going but this kid was pretty young and gave me a really sad look like "people really just don't care? ;__;" so I turned the camera off...but Eclipsing Binary sure did keep his on...at least that's who I think it was XD]

@ your shoutout:

d'awwwww =D

Apex is going to be AMAZING!

I'm working on getting sponsors for it right now, actually ^_^

also, if N64 is going, we're teaming again, so that's going to be amazing of course...

double pika if we feel like it...though I'll probably mostly go Fox hah

 

[AXE 09]

omg seriously??? i REALLY hope that someone recorded it... i didn't think anyone did. someone asked if they could record it, and i was like "heck yeah! of course you can" shoot, getting recorded playing m2k?? hecks yes!! but then m2k was like "no, don't record it. i don't wanna be recorded". then i got sad =( but dude... if someone recorded it, i NEED to find out who lol

i'll try extra hard to go to Apex just for your bday

 

[tdk_Samurai]

why would m2k not want someone to record?

 

[I.B]

Oh snap this thread is the spot!

Shoutouts to toasty all ****in dayyy

Axe, i better see you at Apex!!

 

[toasty]

Oh snap this thread is the spot!

Shoutouts to toasty all ****in dayyy

LOL <3!!!

Canada-room training was actually one of my favorite moments of the whole weekend! Mad fun and hilarious teams matches XD

****in love Canada!

Apexxxxxx ^_^

[also...teach me Marth, k? XD]

 

[AXE 09]

please vote ^^

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=263519

 

[INSANE CARZY GUY]

voted darkrain sorry but i've seen a match were he got a 6 hit death combo on puff.

Hey do people ever tell you pikachu is annoying as H*** to fight? I get that as pichu partly to the fact his size really cuts down what you can do I mean even when i've messing around vs a cpu only the pichu one ever is to small. that and his chain throws, smashes,thunder, and how his speed makes him even smaller like if your in the running state you can rin under 70% of the missles from samus.

But yeah I just want to know more. the only thing annoying about fighting pikachu for me(only fought bad pikachu's keep in mind) is how they range **** pichu.you and your f-tilt with 3x the range lol.

 

[Faithkeeper]

Can pika ledgecancel his up b? (I thought I saw it in axe's vid, but I'm not sure...)

I voted for you axe, even though I'm a falcon main... just don't tell anyone.... :D

Edit:

I saw some mad crazy quick attack stuff in Axe's combo video. Assuming you can do it(I tried.. it didn't work out so well :D ), is that something that is a normal, safe, option or just really flashy? (not that there's anything wrong with flashy, I taught my pikachu flash in my gold version, and that was very handy in caves.)

 

[tdk_Samurai]

@ faith - you are prolly holding down when you do it, you have to do your first input left or right to the edge, and then diagonaly down and toward the stage, but let go before you reach the ledge, same concept as fox's up b I believe, cause if you hold it too long, you'll just keep going past the ledge and die.

As far as uses go, any top pika(so like the whole 4 or 5 right now?) will definitely use this, its kinda vital to pika winning IMHO. And its safe if your consistent at it, zig zag does that **** with his eyes closed. And it has its good uses for edgegaurds, and if your anther, all you do is ledge cancled up bs, and trick your opponents into killing themselves(....oh anther, come back to melee)

@ICG - my friends are all convinced that pikachu is broken. I gimp them with random moves (up b, dsmash, fairs, you name it) so they are convinced that pikachu can just get low percentage gimps on all characters and win games. Noone understands its not easy being yellow and cute.

 

[AXE 09]

lol well... yes, you can definitely edge cancel his up-b =) i love doing that =D but as far as it being practical... it can be semi-practical, but it's mostly just for flashyness. i have gotten some good results from edge canceling his up b. for instance...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1fo19lmlwk <--- 0:35

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ2pk-JEs-c <--- 1:55

but i mean, for the most part, it's not all that practical =( and as far as the super wave dash goes, that's not very practical either. even if you do get the chance to pull it off, you might not be able to follow it up. but it's so amazing when you do get it =D

but as far as all the edge tricks go with the up-b, those are actually very useful =D i definitely recommend to practice a lot of the sweetspot angles and everything

and btw, thank you so much for voting for me and it's awesome to see a proud Christian smasher around here. i'm Christian myself =)

 

[DtJ Jungle]

Voted for you as well.

Go get em!

 

[AXE 09]

Voted for you as well.

Go get em!

you're the man! XD

*on a quest to catch 'em all*

 

[Faithkeeper]

@ faith - you are prolly holding down when you do it, you have to do your first input left or right to the edge, and then diagonaly down and toward the stage, but let go before you reach the ledge, same concept as fox's up b I believe, cause if you hold it too long, you'll just keep going past the ledge and die.

As far as uses go, any top pika(so like the whole 4 or 5 right now?) will definitely use this, its kinda vital to pika winning IMHO. And its safe if your consistent at it, zig zag does that **** with his eyes closed. And it has its good uses for edgegaurds, and if your anther, all you do is ledge cancled up bs, and trick your opponents into killing themselves(....oh anther, come back to melee)

Thanks a lot for the advice, I was pressing down, just because that's how I ledge hop.

and btw, thank you so much for voting for me and it's awesome to see a proud Christian smasher around here. i'm Christian myself =)

Np for the voting, that movie was awesome and earned it. (It was winning when I voted btw)

Great to hear you are saved. I was talking with a good friend of mine, and proverbs 3:5 is so legit. It's short but says so much and applies to so much, it's crazy. It's hard to do, because knowledge is power... But then again I think God has more knowledge than me, being omniscient and all. :D Best wishes for you in your faith... and with pikachu.

 

[Faithkeeper]

Double post to make sure people know I've added something.

In what areas do you think pika's game can expand? Is pika's current game the top of his potential or does have room to improve through unknown or underused techniques?

 

[INSANE CARZY GUY]

Really it's hard to say how much you don't know so yeah I wouldn't think there is a whole lot as pikachu maybe Up-B stuff like pichu but I doubt it because pikachu's has to much lag. Really there could end up being some crazy tricks with dair or something it's hard to say what we don't know.

oh yeah if pikachu had like 4 more frames of stun on fair he could pillar people. But yeah get F***ed upyou don't have 4 more frames of stun

 

[N64]

I think there'll pretty much always be room for pika's game to improve. I think axe has taken it a good distance further from where the rest of us have, and his style of play is the peak of pika (heh, peak of pika...peakapika....pikapikaaaaaa) 's metagame atm.

As far as where there is to improve still, i think his combo game can be taken a liiittle further (mostly slightly different uses of aerials, both spacingwise and timingwise), such as the uair starter stuff axe was talking about in the other thread, more common use of fair, using late-hit nairs to combo, maybe some utilt stuff, or even intentional weak-hit usmashes.

There might be more to his mobility as well, Again, axe has shown ledgecanceling upB and super wavedashing (i don't remember what we came up with as a name for it, clanking upB with something) can be useful-if-situational, but being consistent with those could help. Imagine ledge canceling on stage ledges and not just platform ledges consistently, it opens up a world of aerial chase posibilities (like strong shffl nairing them at mid-high percent and then upBing to the edge and immediately chasing them off with an aerial. Or dtilting someone then upBing through them and ledgecanceling it on the other side into a turn around fsmash.

His off-stage game could use improving too. He can make it back from almost everything, just is limited by aerials with his relatively small hitbox of a body, so we often have to choose a small area and hope we hit, or else we're the on getting edgeguarded. With correct reads though, he can get key gimps with this though.

 

[yummynbeefy]

heres one

what characters can pika chaingrab and which ones can chaingrab him? i know he can chaingrab spacies and gets chaingrabbed by sheik

 

[Mogwai]

chaingrabs:
fox
falco
falcon

chaingrabbed by:
Ganon
Sheik
Doc
Mario

I think that's it... I mean, Marth has fthrow chain at 0, but that's on pretty much everyone and CF has some DI depending CGs, but that's it iirc.

 

[Tee ay eye]

axe

what is the alpha formation

 

[AXE 09]

I think there'll pretty much always be room for pika's game to improve. I think axe has taken it a good distance further from where the rest of us have, and his style of play is the peak of pika (heh, peak of pika...peakapika....pikapikaaaaaa) 's metagame atm.

As far as where there is to improve still, i think his combo game can be taken a liiittle further (mostly slightly different uses of aerials, both spacingwise and timingwise), such as the uair starter stuff axe was talking about in the other thread, more common use of fair, using late-hit nairs to combo, maybe some utilt stuff, or even intentional weak-hit usmashes.

There might be more to his mobility as well, Again, axe has shown ledgecanceling upB and super wavedashing (i don't remember what we came up with as a name for it, clanking upB with something) can be useful-if-situational, but being consistent with those could help. Imagine ledge canceling on stage ledges and not just platform ledges consistently, it opens up a world of aerial chase posibilities (like strong shffl nairing them at mid-high percent and then upBing to the edge and immediately chasing them off with an aerial. Or dtilting someone then upBing through them and ledgecanceling it on the other side into a turn around fsmash.

His off-stage game could use improving too. He can make it back from almost everything, just is limited by aerials with his relatively small hitbox of a body, so we often have to choose a small area and hope we hit, or else we're the on getting edgeguarded. With correct reads though, he can get key gimps with this though.

dang man... this post is full of lots of wisdom... and that peak of pika had me rofling lol

chaingrabs:
fox
falco
falcon

chaingrabbed by:
Ganon
Sheik
Doc
Mario

I think that's it... I mean, Marth has fthrow chain at 0, but that's on pretty much everyone and CF has some DI depending CGs, but that's it iirc.

don't forget about IC's =) lol. but seriously, popo can chaingrab pika. wobbles taught me that the hard way =(

axe

what is the alpha formation

the alpha formation cannot be discussed in public... for now

 

[Tee ay eye]

the alpha formation cannot be discussed in public... for now

yeah...

too bad MJ2 was postponed

maybe we can do it at whatever the next tourney we're both at is...

 

[Faithkeeper]

the alpha formation cannot be discussed in public... for now

johnz. He doesn't know what it is.

 

[INSANE CARZY GUY]

Pikachu should be able to down-throw tech chase a few people like sheik,roy and bowser But I don't know pikachu's down-throw has more knockback.

 

[N64]

chaingrabs:
fox
falco
falcon

chaingrabbed by:
Ganon
Sheik
Doc
Mario

I think that's it... I mean, Marth has fthrow chain at 0, but that's on pretty much everyone and CF has some DI depending CGs, but that's it iirc.

Also chaingrabbed by:
ICs

Pika also has a fthrow chaingrab on peach (and maybe others) from like 0-10% and roy has a di-dependant chaingrab (mixup fthrow and bthrow).

and also probably others