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

[PKMTrainerRed]

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.

so i should use jolts for force marth to approach

 

[oukd]

Sure, but only if you know he can't punish the considerable lag after jolts. Sometimes simply not approaching at all is the best way to force an approach.

 

[soju]

jolting against marth's arent advised anywhere except for long distances, marth can close most distances surprisingly fast with that sword of his.
but hey i go against a marth who knows how pikachu plays, most marths wont know what to do against barrages of thunder jolts

*Ok have enough time to post some lovely Marth advice <3
Marth might be intimidating and all with that big *** sword of his with the godlike tip, but he is even more intimidating then that. :D
Luckily your a nimble little pikachu, two main options can be applied; camping until he approaches you, or playing an aggressive bait style. All your trying to do is as this lovely gentleman above me said is to bait any attack waiting for the lag, dtilts not included those things are fast. If you are in a position where your vulnerable get your tail either as far away as possible, or get as close as possible where your tiny arms can reach and beat his smexy out of him. Pikachu is combo fodder for marth for the first 70%, then after that you mess up marths game. When you get to high percents, then more options arise; you could still play defensive and wait for Marth to attack first, but now you can also run in on marth without fear of being combo practice, just watch out for the tip of his prince sword. Wave dashing out of shield is also a nice thing to know because if you block marths fsmash, just wavedash then usmash.
Marth is only as complicated as you make him, there aren't many super amazing Marth's your probably gonna face or out there in general(except if you live next to M2K). I feel that Marth players are all the same nowadays, and many make the same mistakes. Just play smart and things will most likely work out in the end.

 

[AXE 09]

Against Marth, I love approaching with shield =) Just run at him and shield, then when he hits your shield, just waveshield -> Dtilt/Ftilt/Usmash/Uair depending on which attack he does. Waveshielding is very powerful in this matchup.

When Marth is dash dancing, I like doing running Dtilt -> running Nair. Usually throws them off and lets you get a little combo starter.

Ummmmm yeah

 

[PKMTrainerRed]

just play smart and force marth's approach, got it thx u axe, soju and dkuo i really needed that. feels different when facing characters that aren't falcon or spacies lol. gotta work on waveshielding.


and whats a good stage for pikachu and lyk bad stages. i know battlefield and yoshis (small) stages r gud 4 pika. and tailspiking when the opponant is above and behind you

 

[soju]

my god, axe uses yellow font now too? TTwTT

and stages: hmmm, I've never really thought about it, my favorite stages are dreamland since its easier to survive and FoD because of the platforms moving. But personally I think that Pikachu's best stage is his own Pokemon Stadium; it has platforms, enough room to CG, easier to do running thunder out of usmash without falling off the stage, you can survive a bit longer then most other stages, most of the changes are in your favor, meh but this is all opinion, anyone else care to share?

 

[DerfMidWest]

I always thought it was FoD... But i'm not really a pika player so I cant rly give an opinion...

 

[Zwarm]

Pokemon Stadium has been the best stage for me so far, for most of the reasons soju gave.

 

[AXE 09]

Lol sorry Soju. I just recently started trying out yellow =P

On paper, I think that Stadium might be Pikachu's best stage. Lower ceiling than FD for Usmash/Thunder KO's, lotsa room for running around, stage changes seem to be pretty good for Pika... yeah lol.

But my favorite stage is Battlefield =) I just love the way the platforms are positioned, and I love the edges. You can sweetspot them in different ways than normal while it disadvantages most other characters' recoveries. I just personally feel really comfortable on that map. The ceiling is slightly higher than FD, but it's usually not enough to make a difference.

 

[soju]

@axe
its ok TTwTT well at least there are more pikas donning the yellow font haha, when i first saw it i was like. . . wait did i double post? XD then i saw that my name is not AXE 09
@AesirGod
everyone and anyone can post their opinion here man, the pika boards is open to all

What's everyones thoughts on brinstar and kongo jungle, i always liked brinstar as a cp against spaceys because of lava juggles that brings spaceys to usmash % and even though there is really no sweet spotting on Kongo, the recovery is really flexible for pikachu.

 

[AXE 09]

I'm gonna be honest, I don't like KJ64 with Pika at all. Those edges are so hard to sweetspot and I constantly kill myself trying to sweespot. I've tried practicing it for a long time, but no matter how hard I try I just still mess up a lot. So I always go for on stage recoveries and just get punished with sux lol.

Also the celing is SUPER high, so Usmash -> Thunder isn't as good. And I'm always paranoid about that barrel when trying to gimp spacies. I can either get caught in the barrel and accidentally shoot myself out trying to tailspike and die, or it might just save them by them just aiming at it lol. Idk, I just don't like that stage at all as Pikachu. I pretty much always choose Falco on that stage

Brinstar isn't as bad, but I just personally don't like it lol. The sweespotting is pretty much the same as KJ64, but the lava is there to save you a lot of times luckily if you mess up, so I'm more willing to go for it. And the ceiling isn't as high. I still don't like that stage though haha. The lava saves my opponents when I tailspike them! I would probably choose Peach on this stage or something lol.

What about Rainbow Cruise?

 

[oukd]

On paper, it seems that Pikachu has a lot of mobility and random gimping opportunities on Cruise, and the size makes it harder to KO or even hit Pikachu. The ship + the large open region at the top is a possible CG-ing area. I think people need to play with counterpicks in friendlies so that things like this aren't as questionable. KJ64 and Brinstar seem painful to play on based on what Axe just posted but I have very little experience there >_<

@Red: For stage selection, there are a few guidelines you should follow but you should really mostly go off of your own preferences/playstyle. For example, small stages are nice to cramp your opponent for easier gimp setups (Yoshi's/FoD), stages with low ceilings are good for when you know you need to rely on usmash > thunder KOs (Yoshi's/Stadium), CG-ing fastfallers works best on stages with more open space where platforms won't interrupt you (FD/Dreamland/Stadium), and if you want to camp under your opponent for uair > combo opportunities then you want a stage with good platform heights and easy maneuverability (more based on preference, for me it's Battlefield/Dreamland).

Luckily, Pikachu is a flexible character that can perform decently on many stages so he doesn't suffer too much when it comes to neutrals. Remember to counterpick/strike based on your playstyle, the opponent's playstyle, the matchup being presented, and how you won/lost previous matches. Personally I like Battlefield and Yoshi's Dreamland the most.

 

[soju]

I think rainbow is pretty decent due to the various ways you can get the advantage over the opponent. It's really easy to get the opponent on a platform they can't fall through so I want to say uair juggles is your best friend here. You can usually get a free bthrow kill at the top if you play smart and I think it's fun if you decide to fall down back to the ship first and try to get a thunder in. Gimping here has always felt a little awkward due to the shape of the ship for some reason. If your faster than your opponent(ex:Ganon) I would say that this is one of the funnest stages to play and mess around with them XDDD

 

[ChivalRuse]

You like Yoshi's, David? Isn't that considered Pikachu's worst neutral?

 

[oukd]

Yeah...it generally is accepted as his worst stage because of the lack of off-stage options, but I have pretty good luck with that stage because of how I play. Unless I'm fighting Marth x(

EDIT: Hm...I thought about it for a while and I think I might like Dreamland a little better than Yoshi's.

 

[ChivalRuse]

By the way, David, I'm thinking of playing Ness more now instead of Zelda (I'm still keeping my YL too, of course). Ness is faster and suits my style better. Also, I rewatched Mofo vs Hax, and I'm inspired.

 

[oukd]

Ha nice. Ness is fun, I played him a lot yesterday. He's pretty good with moving around in the air until he's off the stage

 

[ChivalRuse]

Yes, but most characters are in bad shape once offstage. Plus, Ness' double jump angles tend to be all he needs to get back onstage usually.

 

[oukd]

Hm...I suppose. It still feels very easy to punish.

I guess I'm just spoiled by Pika's recovery xD

 

[AXE 09]

I don't think Yoshi's is a bad stage for Pikachu. He can't go as low for gimping, but the very low ceiling makes up for it for some nasty early Usmash/thunder KO's. It's a stage that I personally don't like just cuz I love doing dropzone Dairs off stage, and I kill myself every time I try on Yoshi's lol. But I don't think it's bad for Pika.

I actually don't think Pikachu has a worst neutral stage. They all have their ups and downs. It all just seems like a preference thing to me, and it also depends what character you're fighting.

 

[Mogwai]

Yoshi's sucks for Pikachu.

 

[AXE 09]

I don't think so =/ Maybe against spacies and Falcon, but no one else imo.

EDIT:

Actually it might not even be bad against Falcon either. I'm just traumatized by GG7 lol. He's really good on that stage.

 

[Palpi]

I am on board with axe. I like pikachu on yoshi's, but I can see why one wouldn't like it.

 

[soju]

I agree with Axe, Pikachu has enough flexibility to not do terrible on most stages, it all depends on the person that is using him and their playstyle.

 

[ChivalRuse]

I just don't like Yoshi's with Pikachu because I'm very dash dance heavy, so I like having a bit more room. But I agree, Axe. It definitely does come down to preference!

 

[Mogwai]

I hate being above people with Pikachu and I feel like it's impossible to get back down once you end up on a platform on Yoshi's

 

[ChivalRuse]

Quick attack sweetspot the edges to get out of air trapping? Much easier said than done. Haha. But I've seen Axe do it sometimes.

 

[AXE 09]

Yeah that works haha. Well only if you're close enough to an edge.

Usually I just fall with a FF Dair or Bair if I think they will try to hit me as I fall. Normally I trade with them, and the trade will usually be in my favor. Well that's what I do on FD anyways lol.

On any stages with platforms (including YS), I just land on a platform and shield. Then once they hit my shield, I just waveshield off the platform and waveland on another platform, and normally from there I can maneuver my way to the bottom of the stage. Sounds complicated but it's really not. I never even thought about it that much before lol.

 

[DerfMidWest]

Could u use pika's upB like pichu to escape that situation? Or does pika have too much lag?

 

[soju]

depends how you land, in most cases its not a good option. I am also so envious of pichu's up-b, almost no lag at all TT.TT

 

[PKMTrainerRed]

pichu should have the best upsmash lol

 

[Rappster]

hey, axe are you going to genesis?

 

[DerfMidWest]

Pichu usually has like no lag at all
But he does have less range and hurts himself and such

 

[ChivalRuse]

If Pichu's fair had the range of Ness' fair, had reasonable knockback, and didn't deal damage to him, he'd be, like, at least as good as GaW.

 

[DerfMidWest]

Pichu's fair is actually really good, it will combo into smashes quite a bit and will always combo into a grab. If it had more knockback, it would be allot worse. The only things that I would really like to change about him are his range and his killing moves should kill faster. Hurting myself has never rly bothered me as its so miniscule, its usually about 20-40% a stock.

 

[soju]

yeah, pichu's nair is no joke XDD Pichu is actually pretty good in some areas, he has a strong fsmash, can juggle most characters, has a solid air game, walljump<3, super nimble, but he can't take a hit and has basically the worse range in the game which is a combination for disaster, now forget the lil bugger, back to Pikachu talk ^-^

 

[DerfMidWest]

Yea sorry i didnt mean to take it off topic lol

 

[soju]

It's alright ^-^ Pichu is the lil baby cousin of Pikachu so we can talk about him from time to time. But the main man/rodent/pokemon in this thread is Pikachu.

So anyways, something fun, side-b shenanigans, whats the funniest/most awesome thing you've done with pikachus side-b. I.E. Axe's side-b on me while I was attempting to recover resulting in me dying and painful agonizing death.

 

[DerfMidWest]

at lowish percent: f-smash off stage -> neutral-b -> side-b -> uair
I forget the percent (i think it was somewhere between 30% and 50% but i forget... I think it only worked because of his atrocious DI), but it was on a marth.

 

[Sapphire Dragon]

You all need to change your postbits to Melee version Pika.
Well, except for Aesir. XD











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