Help Vs Ike

[Jeffisc001]

Hey I'm new here. HI
I like playing online and will usually do really well. The only time I don't is playing Ike. I main Pikachu now and for some reason cannot take on Ike. Any advice?

 

[mmmCJ]

keep your distance, spam some jolts to make it hard for him to maneuver, and learn how to "quack" so you can out speed him cancel his attacks

 

[JoeTang]

lol@quack
Out camp him. He can't do anything against you spamming Thunder Jolts properly. Completely nulls Quickdraw. His Aerials won't be fast enough to take you from the air anyways.

 

[jmoney316]

run circles around him. use pika's speed to your advantage. rack up damage with t-jolt and various dash attacks. get ike around 100% then go for an up smash.

 

[Nodrak]

Don't get hit! You're Pikachu, you're like a soccer ball to Ike. Once you get hit, you'll go flying; use Pikachu's speed to your advantage and learn to time spot dodges or rolls effectively for the times you cant get away fast enough.

 

[Jun.]

you're faster. get in and get out with grabs and take advantage of ike's lagtime. dmash out of shield if he attacks your shield. thunder to edgeguard, grab combos, so many possibilities.... I actually love playing ikes since you can outcamp and outspeed them.

 

[Spyckie]

agreed, pikachu can outrun Ike and make it hell for Ike to approach (full hop thunderjolt has no landing lag). Make sure you approach safely by thunderjolting him constantly, because Ikes online love spamming their killer moves and lag makes them actually hit. Don't really go after him... make him come to you, and punish anything that he does - with pikachu that is really easy to do.

QAC if you can online... good luck. Mostly QAC to retreat if he can apply good pressure.

 

[aznzc]

well everyone here address the spam thunderjolting, i recomend just let him come to u since he can't do much far from u and there is no way in hell can u win a head on battle against ike. u already provke him enough with ur thunderjolting. wait for him to come to u. when he come to u, just shield grab and hit A couple of time and throw him back, and spam thunderjolting again.

 

[Tagxy]

So does anyone have a strategy for not camping an Ike and winning?

 

[Spyckie]

Well, Full hop thunderjolt is a great offensive strategy... so you don't exactly camp, you just spam them while being aggressive...

Other than that, nope. Pikachu is a thunderjolt spamming character. If you want someone who can be aggressive, play MK, luigi or marth - basically, those with priority and reach. Pikachu just doesn't have the moveset to take any of those characters in a fair fight.

A good analogy would be basketball... pikachu is like the 5'2 basketball player that can hit 3 pointers very well. It would be ridiculous to try to make pikachu play a different role, like center or baller. Ike, on the other hand, would be center or post.

 

[Tagxy]

I can be aggresive on other players with QAC. Even on MK, marths's, and Luigi. But Ike's range and attacks seem to cover all the areas for Pika's QA, and I dont enjoy camping.

 

[Ruuku]

Spam thunder jolts until you get to grab. Chain grab until you reach the edge the edge guard. Usually I do so using n.air and thunder jolt.

 

[leafgreen386]

Thundershock is really the way to go on this one, and I agree with spyckie in that it is an offensive tactic, not a defensive one. The point isn't to just hang back thundershocking - it's to open him up to a quick well... anything. Thundershocks are just so great because they can be used for either an approach or a retreat, against most of the cast. I often turn my retreats into approaches, and they're just in general really great for gaining the upperhand in this matchup.

CTs are gamebreaking, and typically you're going to want to work toward either a gimp offstage using thundershock/nair/fair (I call anything less than 100% nowadays a gimp lol), or setting up thunders using your smashes after whiffed attacks or just sneaking in using your speed.

The fsmash is actually a huge friend of mine in this matchup, in addition to the staple dsmash and running usmash. The fsmash's range is nice for punishing whiffed hits or just plain breaking off his approach, and often can help lead into the aforementioned edgeguard or thunder.

Also, work on smash DIing his AAA combo - that used to be one of the biggest killers for me when I played ike, due to its speed and raw power. Ike works a lot on punishing mistakes, but if you take away his quickest kill move, you force him to make some riskier moves, allowing you to turn his own game around on him.

 

[Tagxy]

Yeah, I think the AAA and his fsmash are what get to me most.

Good tip on AAA, Ill have to work on that.

But his fsmash is a killer because it covers him above and in front of him, has greater range then your fsmash (i believe) and it comes out a lot quicker then it looks like it would and lasts longer then you think it would as well. Granted, I know Ill have to work on the timing for that. I'd see him do an fsmash, and go in to attack thinking itll be done by the time I get in there since most fsmashes don't last that long, and end up getting knocked out of existance. But another thing, if he knows your coming in and it's anything other then a thunderjolt, because of the massive range of the fsmash nothing else will reach quick enough (not even QAC) him before the sword comes down. And even if you miss the sword and get him to whiff, usually you're too far away at that point to counter-attack with much that he wouldnt be able to get away from or counter in one way or another, there's nothing with the range and/or speed. Although as I'm typing this, I'm thinking that a forward b might actually work out perfectly in that situation since a non-charged smash forward b has massive range and executes quickly. Since the knockback is good he's generally slow I won't have to worry about punishment on the lag.

 

[leafgreen386]

If you pressure him with quick fairs and dsmash he won't have time to pull out an fsmash or usmash (or should I say forward-up-back smash?). Typically when I see his fsmash coming I just roll behind him, or if I'm in the air, double jump back and thundershock or air dodge. His fair kills me more often than his fsmash, tbh.

Hm, and I seem to have completely forgotten to address the "grand viper" in my previous post. The other part that makes ike tough to deal with, as it gives him a fast approach. Since he's generally trying to stop just in front of you with his sideB, I find timing a d/fsmash to meet him just as the attack ends works decently, and worst comes to worst... ftilt? It's pretty fast and has decent range, though I haven't gotten a failsafe way to deal with it yet, really, besides hoping your smash hits him before he hits you.

 

[Tagxy]

Awesome. I'll just have to play him more often or do break down practices with a friend of mine who's pretty good with him. I seemed to have the impression that fairs arent quick enough to get him and rolls don't have the range to get in back of him, but then I realized I don't really know or probably haven't tried enough. Double jumps and air dodges are fine, but I guess I'm trying to look for a way to approach him and attack. Going on defense isnt much of a problem for reasons you mentioned. And yes, fair (for ike) is also bad.

 

[D. Disciple]

Well since we covered the defensive strategy how about an actual offensive strategy?

I was thinking you could probably cg him with fthrows to get him off the stage so you can start to edgeguard him, or combine your cg with fthrows and to keep him on the stage still with a dthrow and catch him with a fair-usmash/dsmash/or another grab to dthrow and hit him off with a nair.

I dunno it's kinda hard for me to give advice on match ups atm since I still don't own the game.

 

[TechnoMonster]

You can also effectively juggle the hell out of Ike with most characters, Pika included. Mix in fakeouts often into thunder and smashes to keep him guessing and tame his airdodges.

 

[-: Trey :-]

and if you are on final destination, dont try to go on the platform instead of the ledge! The ledge is your best friend, preventing you from getting caught up in that nasty sword. <.< such a rigged character in my opinion

 

[Kai_]

Ike can't execute attacks fast enough to take you in close range. Thundershock spamming will probably suit your case best.