How do you punish Pac-Man's dash attack?

[Soulstice Music]

Hey all,

I played a really good Pac-Man player yesterday by the name of John (if you're around PM me because I would love to play again!). He destroyed me in most of the games, but I slowly got the hang of his strategy by playing tons of matches with him.

But I couldn't figure out how to punish his dash attack. I often saw it coming and shielded. But he would pass through me so I couldn't shield grab successfully. After that, I tried to switch directions for the grab, but it appeared that he had absolutely no lag after coming out of the dash, which I have no clue how to deal with.

The only two options I found that were *sometimes* successful for countering were:
1. doing a short hop and attacking downward (risky and I often wiffed and got punished, or jumped late and got hit)
2. attempting to grab before his hitbox hit my character (which also had a fairly low success rate)

Are there other options? If not, maybe I just need to work on my timing for the options I found.

P.S. I play Villager mostly, so my grounded range was very poor for this matchup.

Thanks for the help! :D

 

[Selodin]

Hey Soulstice, you will probably have noticed by now that a large amount of dash attacks are safe from conventional shield grabbing when they start up late enough to pass through you. Try doing a turn around jab to catch people who try to jump or attack after the dash attack.

In the event of an early dash attack, I'm fairly certain you can grab pac man in between chomps if he is still in front of you (I can't comment on villager's grab range/speed so just try it out).

If pac mans dash attack has ended without being punished on shield I usually either jab my opponent or get away. You noted the lack of lag after using it, if you want to punish it directly it has to be before this point.

If pac mans dash attack connects it will pop you up so watch out for them trying to read a jump into an aerial or depending on % just go for a normal follow up.

I like pac mans dash attack as a mix-up but it isn't very safe to spam. Remember with all dash attacks if you read it you can just run away ---> pivot grab.

 

[Soulstice Music]

Thank you for the thorough response, Selodin.

Yes, you're right that the dash attacks in this game are same from shield grabbing for the most part.

I remember trying to grab between chomps. It does work with the villager, but it's a risk because it is easy to mistime.

Other than that, it looks like I'm mostly out of luck due to the villager's range. His jab has very poor range. I tried jabbing the Pac-Man more than I tried any other option, and I just couldn't land a hit. Also, the villager's run speed is so slow that the dash attack catches up to him before he can get away lol.

I will certainly keep what you said in mind though, in case more practice allows me to land a jab or something like that.

Thanks a lot!

EDIT: I just had an idea that I need to test. I wonder if jabbing while pac-man dashes toward the villager would stop him.

 

[dirtytacos89]

I think if you short hopped and dair then fast fall quickly you'd be able to knock him out of his dash attack and maybe even dash attack him back if he was still in his hit stun from your dair. That turnip is actually pretty powerful from what I've seen.

 

[OnFullTilt]

Have you tried a pivot for tilt after he passes through you? It may have a better success rate then the jab since it probably goes further and may be easier to perform.

 

[KenMeister]

Or if you're playing Marth/Lucina, you could just, ya know.....ftilt it.