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

[soju]

meh, then i might or might not go on due to laziness XD idk well see

 

[Sainomi]

What are ways to practice my pikachau?

 

[soju]

What are ways to practice my pikachau?

depends, there are tons of ways to practice pikachu, overall i just think that playing with people better then you is the best way, but ways include practicing tech skills , watching pika vidyas and trying to recreate the cool stuff you see, playing with anyone in general, and much more, also think of ideas of what you can do with pikachu in your head then try them when you play XD

 

[Dimitris]

One for the Pikachu fans:

 

[-Chad-]

that comic reminds me of living with IHSB

 

[soju]

isnt the pikachat happening right now? is it worth getting on AIM for?

 

[Zwarm]

So I've decided to pick up Pikachu as my main now that I'm taking Melee more seriously, but I need some help. I've pretty much been working on my general tech skill with him, but now I think I'm ready to work on some specifics. Any tips on QA trixies and other Pikachu specific tech stuff I should work on? I've starting working on using QA to grab the ledge faster, but I still mess it up a lot. :/

 

[soju]

Practice makes perfect, but overall don't worry about QA shenanigans with him, his edge guarding game is awesome even without it, I would rather try working on SHFFLing and uair stuff :3 since pikas Uair is godlike

 

[Zwarm]

I think I have his SHFFL Nair down, but yeah, I should probably learn the angles of his uair so I can tailspike on command.

 

[soju]

I think I have his SHFFL Nair down, but yeah, I should probably learn the angles of his uair so I can tailspike on command.

Yeah that tailspike is mad broken, but also sh uair to pop up fast fallers is wonderful and another thing is to work on Dash Dancing, a non-moving pikachu is unhype and gets whooped on easier

 

[Sapphire Dragon]

And of course, anyone is welcome. We have it over AIM, so let me know your AIM screenname and I'll invite you at pikaconference time.

Aww, sad I missed this. When's the next pikaconference? I probably still couldn't join in because I sleep during the evening and stay up all night/morning, but I'd want to at least log it and read through it when I wake up.

Yeah that tailspike is mad broken, but also sh uair to pop up fast fallers is wonderful and another thing is to work on Dash Dancing, a non-moving pikachu is unhype and gets whooped on easier

So true, so true. Also Zwarm, learn Pika's Usmash hitbox, it extends pretty far and people don't see it coming. XD Glad you came over to the Pika side~ ;D

 

[Zwarm]

Alright I think I have all of that stuff down now. I played with my friend for 5 hours today. He was playing Mewtwo/Falcon/Ganon/Falco. I was pretty much all Pikachu except for a few games where I went Peach. We were going pretty even unless he was being Ganon. I don't think I beat his Ganon once. It's such a tough MU. Any tips for it? His CG on us is pretty brutal.

Also, how do I get around Falco nonsense? So many lasers and shines, and not being able to CC his dair is annoying. I mean, I was still beating his Falco pretty consistently, the CG and Pikachu's awesome edgeguarding definitely helped me win, but I had a hard time getting out of his combos once he started them up.

 

[ChivalRuse]

Pikachu is so fun in teams.

 

[Sapphire Dragon]

Alright I think I have all of that stuff down now. I played with my friend for 5 hours today. He was playing Mewtwo/Falcon/Ganon/Falco. I was pretty much all Pikachu except for a few games where I went Peach. We were going pretty even unless he was being Ganon. I don't think I beat his Ganon once. It's such a tough MU. Any tips for it? His CG on us is pretty brutal.

Also, how do I get around Falco nonsense? So many lasers and shines, and not being able to CC his dair is annoying. I mean, I was still beating his Falco pretty consistently, the CG and Pikachu's awesome edgeguarding definitely helped me win, but I had a hard time getting out of his combos once he started them up.

XD Dang, Ganon CG's on Pika I can only imagine lmfao. Axe should give you tips on that, I'm inexperienced. :/

As for Falco, try learning how to time & spotdodge his lasers if possible, or just jump over them. You could try sh jolting him to get him to reflect and then nairing him maybe. Also, moar wavedashing. Watch him closely- if you see him start a dair, try to thunder punish him (not sure if thunder can come out in time or if reflector overrides dair, though).

Ugh, I need to play Melee/P:M more.

 

[Zwarm]

XD Dang, Ganon CG's on Pika I can only imagine lmfao. Axe should give you tips on that, I'm inexperienced. :/

As for Falco, try learning how to time & spotdodge his lasers if possible, or just jump over them. You could try sh jolting him to get him to reflect and then nairing him maybe. Also, moar wavedashing. Watch him closely- if you see him start a dair, try to thunder punish him (not sure if thunder can come out in time or if reflector overrides dair, though).

Ugh, I need to play Melee/P:M more.

Jumping over them works, but if they read me jumping over them, I pretty much just jump into the ****. :/ Thunder is definitely too slow to avoid a SH dair from Falco. My best bet would probably be to wavedash or run out of the way. Maybe a rising uair, I'm not sure it that beats Falco's dair though.

 

[Sapphire Dragon]

Yeah, jump over the lasers and try jolting to get a reflector then nairing or fairing depending on your distance. It could work.

As for dair, try a nicely timed usmash. Dat hitbox. XD

 

[soju]

For Ganon, simply just be a quick lil B@stard, run around doing SHFFLs, landing behind the said triforce of power user of course, and try not to get hit or grabbed, 1 ganon hit = 5 pika hits :'( oh you can also pretty much intercept any ganon air attacks with your godlike uair. And ganon = combo fodder for pika :D

As for Falco's shines and lasers, falcos best place to shine is right behind him since it extends farther, making shffls somewhat risky, but it's rather essential to give a falco no place to work because of his lasers, which makes it a tricky matchup.
The lasers should be Power Shielded if possible since a spot dodge leaves you vulnerable to an approaching falco's fsmash or shine, jumping works but it puts you at pika's worst position which is above the opponent and the jolt shouldn't be spammed since a good opponent will realize how easy they are to get around aka they can do any attack to cancel the jolt.
The dair can be traded/beat with the uair while in the air, or in rare occasions be beat with utilt or usmash, timing is crucial. A falco may seem a lot faster then you also, but thats because of the lasers which interrupts everything you do. Your faster then falco, and thats key to this matchup, and learn how to whoop on falco's as soon as you pop them in the air. Do that and you should be fine with all regular failcos.

@ChivalRuse- Definitely. . . until you start tailgimping and thunder comboing your own teammates :'] then hilarity ensues


YO PIKACHU PLAYERS

its friday

 

[N64]

Forums are now pikachu colored.

Discuss

 

[Mogwai]

that's pretty **** .

 

[Sapphire Dragon]

Pikachu was always the best. 64 = original = default best game = Pika top tier.

 

[4BDN]

Wut are ways to practice with Pikachau?
Wut videos will help me learn how to practice with pikachau?
What should I learn First?

 

[soju]

Wut are ways to practice with Pikachau?
Wut videos will help me learn how to practice with pikachau?
What should I learn First?

Ok, I will assume you are new, so . . .

First, watch all these videos first if you haven't already,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n4s5yB7ZkE
pikachu-only advanced techniques is only the awesome looking frosting and decorations while the general techniques is the actual form of the cake itself

You don't want a cake like this

But a Cake more like this

(got lazy after finding pika cakes so heres a list of what you should learn from highest priority -> lowest, this is all my opinion XD)
0. Pikachu Moonwalk(LOL)
1. SHFFL/Approach
2. Dash Dancing
3. Up-Air aka god-tail
4. Matchup Information(what to do to certain character in certain situations, Pikachu is the a situational character so this is crucial)
5. Edgeguard Techniques(IMO pikachu's best area; basically every attack he has can be used to edgeguard, primarily uair and ftilt, q-attack if your cool like that)
6. Setting Up(basically putting characters in position where you can combo and do other jazz, most used moves for setting up with pika is uair, usmash, uthrow, and bthrow)
7. Pikachu Awesomeness
8. Everything Else

 

[Zwarm]

For Ganon, simply just be a quick lil B@stard, run around doing SHFFLs, landing behind the said triforce of power user of course, and try not to get hit or grabbed, 1 ganon hit = 5 pika hits :'( oh you can also pretty much intercept any ganon air attacks with your godlike uair. And ganon = combo fodder for pika :D

As for Falco's shines and lasers, falcos best place to shine is right behind him since it extends farther, making shffls somewhat risky, but it's rather essential to give a falco no place to work because of his lasers, which makes it a tricky matchup.
The lasers should be Power Shielded if possible since a spot dodge leaves you vulnerable to an approaching falco's fsmash or shine, jumping works but it puts you at pika's worst position which is above the opponent and the jolt shouldn't be spammed since a good opponent will realize how easy they are to get around aka they can do any attack to cancel the jolt.
The dair can be traded/beat with the uair while in the air, or in rare occasions be beat with utilt or usmash, timing is crucial. A falco may seem a lot faster then you also, but thats because of the lasers which interrupts everything you do. Your faster then falco, and thats key to this matchup, and learn how to whoop on falco's as soon as you pop them in the air. Do that and you should be fine with all regular failcos.

@ChivalRuse- Definitely. . . until you start tailgimping and thunder comboing your own teammates :'] then hilarity ensues


YO PIKACHU PLAYERS

its friday

Thanks for all your help soju.

I'll have to put this stuff to the test at the tournament I'm going to tomorrow. I'm going all Pikachu. I'm excited.

 

[soju]

Thanks for all your help soju.

I'll have to put this stuff to the test at the tournament I'm going to tomorrow. I'm going all Pikachu. I'm excited.

just here to help when axe isnt around >.>' where dat foo be at?

and awesomeness~ good luck with that ^.^ and sorry ahead of time if my advice doesnt help, hopefully you do awesome and give me motivation to do awesome for an upcoming tourny im going to ^^

 

[Zwarm]

It's my first Melee tournament where I'm actually taking the game seriously, usually I just entered the side events at Brawl tournaments I went to because Melee was a nice change of pace. So yeah, I'm not expecting to do amazing, but I'll be happy if I make it out of pools, I live in a pretty tough region for Melee. >.>

 

[soju]

It's my first Melee tournament where I'm actually taking the game seriously, usually I just entered the side events at Brawl tournaments I went to because Melee was a nice change of pace. So yeah, I'm not expecting to do amazing, but I'll be happy if I make it out of pools, I live in a pretty tough region for Melee. >.>

lol your telling me, I live in California, and I've been unlucky enough to have almost all pros in all the brackets I'm in at tournaments. Haha, but someday I shall get vengeance >:] I even got a hit-list of everyone I want to beat, and I study their playstyles XDDD

And don't worry, you'll do fine, and even if not, this is still your first "official" pika tournament, go out have fun and learn as much as you can

 

[Zwarm]

I didn't make it out of pools. I definitely could've gotten out, but I ****ed up so bad against 2 of the guys I faced. The first one was Falco, last stock on Pokemon Stadium, I got a grab right near the edge, I was high percent, he was mid percent, but I accidentally up threw instead of back threw, so he lived and killed me. Second one was against my friend's Ganon, the one I was having trouble with before, I suicided like, 5-6 times the whole set. I was just so off. Pretty annoying... but I learned what I need to work on. More uair out of shield, more uair offstage, and better edgeguarding. Oh, and actually learn how to wavedash out of shield... I still can't do that. :/

I also learned that Marth is fun, and I'm probably gonna second him with Pikachu as my main.

But yeah, I had a lot of fun, learned stuff. I watched Kel s play Pikachu, so I learned some stuff from watching him. So yeah, just gonna keep practicing and do better next time.

lol your telling me, I live in California, and I've been unlucky enough to have almost all pros in all the brackets I'm in at tournaments. Haha, but someday I shall get vengeance >:] I even got a hit-list of everyone I want to beat, and I study their playstyles XDDD

And don't worry, you'll do fine, and even if not, this is still your first "official" pika tournament, go out have fun and learn as much as you can

Yeah, California must be pretty hard to deal with too. At least you get a lot of pro experience.

 

[soju]

I didn't make it out of pools. I definitely could've gotten out, but I ****ed up so bad against 2 of the guys I faced. The first one was Falco, last stock on Pokemon Stadium, I got a grab right near the edge, I was high percent, he was mid percent, but I accidentally up threw instead of back threw, so he lived and killed me

I would have said to try Usmashing the Falco if you ever uthrow it, im sure mid percent is around 50-80 and thats still uthrow combo range XD
But yeah, everyone has there off days, don't worry about it :3 and it's really good that you learned a lot from this, hope to see you whoopin on people in the future ^^

 

[Zwarm]

It was the tree transformation of PS (fire?), and I was on the lower ground, right side of the stage, so I had no guaranteed follow up.

Thanks though, I hope to start whoopin on people soon too. XD

 

[soju]

It was the tree transformation of PS (fire?), and I was on the lower ground, right side of the stage, so I had no guaranteed follow up.

Thanks though, I hope to start whoopin on people soon too. XD

haha, I'm sure you would, and with pikachu if there's a will there's a way, if i was in that position, I'd even try q-attacking my opponent just to try and eff that man up Haha, but its alright, just go and beat some top tier butt in the future >:3

And there are 2 trees in PS; Fire: dead burning tree, Grass: jungle tree :D

 

[oukd]

@Zwarm: I'm not too sure, but I think pika is fast enough to follow up with an aerial from a uthrow if you can't usmash. If you were under the ceiling and did a uthrow you could have followed up with a techchase aerial/smash/etc since uthrowing spacies to platforms typically leads into a lot of things. Maybe I'm picturing the scene in my head wrong...

As for wavedashing out of shield, do you shield/wavedash with the same L/R trigger buttons or do you alternate them? If you wavedash/shield with the same button, you can wavedash out of shield by doing a semi-lightshield (don't hold the trigger all the way down) and then doing a wavedash by pressing the trigger all the way down (this is what I do, and the slightly larger shield is a bonus ) If you alternate L/R for the two actions, just do a wavedash with one trigger while holding the shield button with the other trigger. I find that the first option is a lot more comfortable if you only use one trigger button.

 

[Zwarm]

I use L for everything. I want to learn to use R for wavedash out of shield, but the R button on my controller is balls. I might just take the spring out of my R button only and see how that works for me. If it's still bad, I'll try to learn do do the light shield thing you do. Thanks!

 

[DerfMidWest]

I need to kill teh peaches.

 

[oukd]

Stay beneath peach as much as possible, rack up damage with aerials, finish with usmash. Usually what I do in this matchup for approach is the usual - lots of nairs through shield to rising uair (to etc. if the uair hits) and spaced dtilts/ftilts.

Staying under peach: throwing out jolts can usually keep peaches floating, or at least shielding. On stages with platforms, rising uair leads to a lot of things (smashes/grabs/etc) so be creative. A ballsy strategy to get peach in the air is to bait her to approach you on platforms, but at the same time a smart peach can lay on an absurd amount of pressure by doing aerials right under you/the platform, especially if you mess up or aren't fast enough. Even with peach hovering above you, you have to be careful with approaching peach since her aerials mostly outprioritize/outspace yours. Well-placed shffl'd uairs are usually reliable.

As for edgeguarding/gimping, tailspikes are pretty good against peach since she doesn't have much vertical recovery, but it's very tricky to tailspike peaches since they're so dynamic in their recovery. On a side note, you can occasionally set up an early spike at low percentage with a uthrow>shffl'd uair near the edge if the peach doesn't di the throw towards the stage. Using quick attack from the edge to take away their float is occasionally useful, but if they're expecting it they can just throw out an aerial and get an easy recovery. Throwing out a dair can also guard pretty well, but it's awkward to hit with for me haha. Jolts might work if they're floating back from below the ledge but I haven't gotten in these situations enough to be sure. It feels awkward to guard with jolts otherwise thanks to the jolt trajectory. In the end, edgeguarding peach is usually a lost cause just wait for an usmash opening.

Never trade aerials with peach, it's never worth it unless it's a tailspike/dair guard, and even then the peach can return from those a lot. On the other hand, try to trade your usmash with her aerials if you can bait an approach effectively. Also, don't ever crouch cancel against peach unless you're absolutely certain you won't crouch cancel her dsmash.

Chudat is known for picking up pikachu as a peach counter so you can look that up. Granted the matches are pretty old, but you can still learn a lot.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chudat+pikachu+peach&aq=f

He uses a lot of fairs to lead into other things...Axe has been using fair against peaches too if I remember correctly. I suppose throwing out a fair on a floating peach can disrupt her play pretty nicely.

Oh yeah, and the guy you were talking to on the Peach board is my roommate

 

[soju]

sadly the newer peach metagame makes it harder for pikachu to win :B freaking armada

 

[DerfMidWest]

lol ok then, thanks to both you and your roommate ^^
Sadly, one thing that messes me up when facing peaches is my weird habit to crouch cancel allot (this always F***s me up) And i have allot of trouble with their recovery (I usually just try to hit them with jolts or something, but it doesn't always work)

I'll try to uair and fair and upsmash more I guess.

 

[oukd]

Crouch-cancelling a lot isn't at all weird. It makes sense to do at low percentages until you fight peach

Peach has a very safe recovery. Your best bet is to look for patterns in her recovery/reactions to your edgeguarding.

 

[ChivalRuse]

Peach has always been a tough cookie for Pikachu. Chu was just always better than his opponents, but usually it's in Peach's favor I think.

Not that I can't overcome it.

 

[PKMTrainerRed]

i'm pretty new at this but how do you faceoff against marth? He seems to block my approaches

 

[oukd]

Don't approach marth unless you see an opening since he'll always outspace you. You want to make marth approach you and punish the lag after his moves.