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

[AXE 09]

is pika like second strongest usmash in the game? or third? I forget. I remember that ganon's is #1 though.

Ganon's Usmash is more powerful in terms of damage, but Pikachu's is the most powerful Usmash in the game in terms of knockback, meaning Pikachu's Usmash kills the earliest.

 

[bertbusdriver]

IIRC a sweetspotted peach's usmash is actually stronger than fox's, but the sweetspot is tiny..

 

[DerfMidWest]

oh... yey for up-smashes ^^

 

[indigestible_wad]

I think that it's finally time that I put up something. I've been meaning to do this for a while but haven't had any livestream footage. I've only got one match, and it's against a rusty falcon. I don't think I realized how campy I am until I saw it with my own eyes. Whenever I get nervous I roll a lot and act like a campy falco, which is how I normally feel in tournaments, and I was hella nervous at the start of the match.

http://www.twitch.tv/bestbout/b/297557043 Starts at 1:48:00.

And just for comparison, I'll put up a year-old video. This one hurts my eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f_3KilpTnk

Critique would be nice, but I realize both of these are wins against opponents not at the top of their game.

 

[AXE 09]

BTW


I'm not sure how many of you guys knew this already, but I've never done it before until last night. I always had a strong feeling Pikachu could do this but I just never actually tried doing it until yesterday haha.

Pikachu can go all the way under battlefield by himself and make it to the other side without dying For some reason I feel like I should've already known that but I just never actually attempted it enough to be successful until now haha. You just stand on one of the side platforms, full jump and charge your forward B, release it at the right time, and you'll be able to up-b safely on the other side of the stage if you get enough distance Awesomeawesomeawesomeawesome

I just found out Pikachu can do this under Dreamland too, and it's even easier to do on Dreamland than it is on Battlefield lol

*Proceeds to watch indigestible_wad's vids*

EDIT:

Niiiiice you've gotten a LOT better within the past year! Good work man!!! You're good at sweetspotting

Just keep in mind that Pikachu can chaingrab Falcon 0 to death on FD =)

 

[Spyro]

How do you approach marth with pikachu?

 

[indigestible_wad]

You get just outside of his tipper range, wait for him to use a move, then immediately punish. It's going to be either a mindgame or reaction battle, because blindly approaching marth will almost always result in a tipper. I like a campy mindset, since he doesn't have a projectile. Attackwise, you approach marth just like any other character, it's just the timing that you have to pay extra special attention to. Marths attacks have more lag afterwards than before, so watching and waiting for him to go first is when you approach with a shffl'd nair, grab, etc. Also, approach marth horizontally when he's on the ground. Marth's aerials are too good, but he can get lag from his attacks when he's on the ground. Marth is also pretty weak from below, but I've never had much success from approaching him from below, generally because his fair and bair reach us in ways our miniscule range doesn't. And uair doesn't lead into as many things as I'd like, at least not from that angle. Still, upsmash is good. Marth is weak from below, as any fox main can tell you.

Marth is a character where you want to be right next to him, or as far away as possible. Abuse your jolts when you're away from him, it will cause him to mess up more, and percent is always a plus. Once you get in, you keep up the pressure or combo. I like to use running nairs to get in quickly for a punish, but other options are using your shield and dodge options to let him get close (which isn't technically approaching), wavedashing and triangle jumps are good options on the ground, and (a personal favorite, but people pick up on it quickly) if you see him about to use an fsmash and you're just out of his range, you can techncially outspace his fsmash with your fsmash because his arm sticks out when he swings his sword.

So that's the idea, wait for him to attack you and punish, and remember to spam jolts. He should be approaching you more than you him.

 

[oukd]

many of marth's moves have considerable lag after they come out. force him to approach first and make sure he doesn't hit you in the process, and then go in with combos and such. make sure you have enough time to get in with your own move, otherwise you'll just get hit by marth on his 2nd try anyways (especially vs aerials). it shouldn't be too hard to bait a marth into moving first since they're (generally) very trigger-happy, but definitely make sure you're out of marth's range at all times since his moves come out really fast.

ps - wavedashing out of shield is a really useful tool vs Marth('s fsmash)

 

[Zinoto]

I'm having trouble sweetspotting the ledge with up B. I always seem to go right through the edge of the stage and SD. When do you let it go if you're trying to angle right at it (i.e. you're holding down and towards the edge from above).

Also I can't seem to avoid fox's uair can you buffer a jump to avoid the uair or SDI out of it?

 

[DerfMidWest]

does pika's bair work like pichu's bair against marth?
Pichu's bair lets him clank with marth's fair so he gets inside that stupid range and can take a dump on him.

 

[indigestible_wad]

I'm having trouble sweetspotting the ledge with up B. I always seem to go right through the edge of the stage and SD. When do you let it go if you're trying to angle right at it (i.e. you're holding down and towards the edge from above).

Also I can't seem to avoid fox's uair can you buffer a jump to avoid the uair or SDI out of it?

I let go as soon as I start moving in the downwards direction. It takes practice to get the muscle memory odwn, but you should be letting go as or before you hear the zip sound. I also generally don't push the control stick all the way into the slot when I'm going for the down diagonal direction. It makes it easier to let go into neutral.

I've heard that what you do when fox upthrows you, you di behind him and as soon as he uses uair, you sdi forward. You can do other directions too. SDI is your best bet though.

 

[Signia]

yooo where can I find frame data on pikachu's ground attacks

Specifically I'm looking for the startup frames for all his ground attacks

Or at least a ranking for which is fastest

Like, which is faster, ftilt or dtilt? utilt? If I hit a dtilt and I want to as uninterruptible as possible... which move should I throw out (other than jab which just gets you into trouble).

 

[N64]

yooo where can I find frame data on pikachu's ground attacks

Specifically I'm looking for the startup frames for all his ground attacks

Or at least a ranking for which is fastest

Like, which is faster, ftilt or dtilt? utilt? If I hit a dtilt and I want to as uninterruptible as possible... which move should I throw out (other than jab which just gets you into trouble).

http://www.angelfire.com/games5/superdoodleman/Pikachu_frames_11.6.05.txt

 

[Captain Smuckers]

Hey guys, I'm a big time lurker and decided I should probably start posting more frequently. I was hoping you guys would be able to help my pika out a bit because it definitely needs it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBBwrZAX0sw&feature=related

This is actually a pretty old video and I'd like to think I've gotten a lot better by now, but any and all advice will be appreciated, hopefully I'll be able to get something more recent posted within the near future.

 

[Spyro]

I think you should work on mixing up your approaches instead of short hop -> nair every time. If you keep on approaching that way every time you will become predictable and you can get punished for that.

 

[Dre the Ace]

Does anyone notice that when you do Pika's up-b ledge stall (up, then sweet spotting back down) on Pokemon stadium that Pika sometimes fails to go up and instead sort of hits the stage then goes straight down for a suicide? I'm pretty sure its not me since I'm pretty competent at that ledge stall, and it only happens on that stage.

 

[oukd]

You might have ended up below the underbelly of PS. It's a little like BF in that you can get trapped underneath the ledge pretty easily, but I guess PS has a thinner ledge (or something like that, it's a pretty buggy stage in general) so it's easier to get caught. For that reason I don't really ledgestall on PS (or in general).

On a side note, I need to start trying Pika at tourneys again as opposed to going all Falco all the time T_T

 

[AXE 09]

Does anyone notice that when you do Pika's up-b ledge stall (up, then sweet spotting back down) on Pokemon stadium that Pika sometimes fails to go up and instead sort of hits the stage then goes straight down for a suicide? I'm pretty sure its not me since I'm pretty competent at that ledge stall, and it only happens on that stage.

Yes I've definitely noticed that and I hate so much when that happens. out of all the main stages, it seems to happen only on that stage. Not too sure why but it's really unfortunate I just avoid stalling like that on that stage all together because of that.

 

[Sapphire Dragon]

Hey Axe, I'm considering doing a rhetorical analysis paper on your combo vid. :D If you guys want me to post it if I do it, just let me know.

 

[indigestible_wad]

Hey guys, I'm a big time lurker and decided I should probably start posting more frequently. I was hoping you guys would be able to help my pika out a bit because it definitely needs it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBBwrZAX0sw&feature=related

This is actually a pretty old video and I'd like to think I've gotten a lot better by now, but any and all advice will be appreciated, hopefully I'll be able to get something more recent posted within the near future.

I would suggest not trading hits with ganon. Shielding in many cases is your friend, rather than trying to outtime him with your own hits. But I know that this particular mindset is a bit of a slippery slope. Your attack pattern is pretty straightforeward also. I noticed very few other attacks besides nair and uair. Try some more ground approaches.

You need to mix up your recovery. You went for the ledge nearly every time you came back onto the stage. Your opponent noticed this and punished you for it. Recovering to the stage is necessary to keep your recovery from getting stale and read. Your third and your last stocks could have been saved if you had recognised that your opponent had caught onto your recovery patterns. Specifically for your last stock, you could have quick attacked over him and onto one of the platforms. Learning how to sweetspot would be beneficial as well, but in your case since you know how to go for the edge one way, it would be more beneficial for you now to learn how to recover to the stage and work on sweetspotting in the meantime.

 

[sanchaz]

so like..................

I want to try out pikachu as a main. seriously. I don't think he's that bad of a character at all, the only match up that scares me is sheik.....but I can just use fox for that.

I'm going to try out all pikachu in a smashfest and see how that works out.

pika's up air ftw

 

[N64]

cool. Good to have a new pikachu with us. Good luck at your smashfest.

 

[AXE 09]

Hey Axe, I'm considering doing a rhetorical analysis paper on your combo vid. :D If you guys want me to post it if I do it, just let me know.

YES PLEASE post it post it post it! :D

Captain Smuckers: I saw your vid

Very nice so far, you just gotta be confident in crossing up Ganon. A Nair -> rising Uair approach is very effective on him. Cross ups in general are good against him just cuz you're a lot faster than him. Don't forget you can Uthrow -> Usmash him at low percents too. So far so good though, keep it up lovin the Pika.

And Sanchaz, excellent choice!!! Pikachu is the best

 

[N.A.G.A.C.E]

hey axe do u ever think about going to some big European pal tourneys? i mean it gets rid of sheik's d-throw on pika and also nerfs other top characters.

 

[AXE 09]

hey axe do u ever think about going to some big European pal tourneys? i mean it gets rid of sheik's d-throw on pika and also nerfs other top characters.

Yes! I would really love to go to a PAL tourney lol. But I would still get ***** by Peach and Jiggs so it doesn't help all that much

 

[N.A.G.A.C.E]

Yes! I would really love to go to a PAL tourney lol. But I would still get ***** by Peach and Jiggs so it doesn't help all that much

come on man i got faith in your pika. Also i remember hearing Europe is lacking great jiggs (could be wrong idk) which means u would only lose to armada, so 2nd place still pretty awesome.

edit: not saying there are no good jiggs in Europe, just saying i think u could take most jiggs down

 

[Spyro]

What do you guys think about Pikachu vs Jiggs anyway?

 

[N64]

it's a horrible matchup kill it with fire.

I avoid it like that plague. Ylink vs jiggs all day.

 

[Jolteon]

Yes! I would really love to go to a PAL tourney lol. But I would still get ***** by Peach and Jiggs so it doesn't help all that much

No you wouldn't, hungrybox doesn't exist in Europe. :D

Well... you'd still have armada to deal with I guess

:king:

 

[soju]

woah when did this get active again? @~@

 

[DerfMidWest]

hehehe, all you silly pikaboos sceered of the jiggz matchup.
So fun as Pichu though :3

just run around and they never catch you.

 

[Spyro]

LOL the smash wiki says the pikachu vs jiggs is 80:20 in pikachu's favor; what are they thinking?
Here's the link, it's in the little matchup thing is in the middle of the page. http://super-smash-bros.wikia.com/wiki/Pikachu_(SSBM)
I’m pretty sure that the MU section has most of the MUs wrong; dose it? (They need to update it lol)

 

[Jolteon]

It's a pretty old chart.

:king:

 

[indigestible_wad]

I don't trust smash wikia. There's too much casual influence. Smashwiki focuses more on the technical aspects and data of the game. It's still a wiki though.

 

[N64]

I think we decided a while back that Pika vs Jiggs was either 35:65 or 40:60. It's winnable, but rough. Also it's NO FUN AT ALL.

 

[Spyro]

I think we decided a while back that Pika vs Jiggs was either 35:65 or 40:60. It's winnable, but rough. Also it's NO FUN AT ALL.

I might want to decide on a secondary then .

 

[King5280]

for your secondary go jiggs dittos in the mu. especially if you have a crowd watching.

 

[soju]

be a pokemon master and secondary mewtwo jiggz and. . . wait no that character just sucks <3

 

[N.A.G.A.C.E]

I think its pretty clear that when ever someone wants a 2nd to fight jiggs, you must use young Link. I am pretty sure its going to be a official rule in 2013

 

[soju]

But Armada style y. link is the most unhype thing ever.