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How to counter Pichu?

D

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Pichu feels way too strong and untouchable here. 3 stock matches usually end with me losing 2-0, no matter what I do.

Before I get suspended for ragequitting again, has anyone developed any useful strategies?
 

nessokman

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Stay off the ledge, its Pichu's playground. You can KO Pichu at ~60-80% because of how extremely light it is. (Lightest character in the game). Watch out for its up tilt and downthrow combos, avoid thunder.
 

Grump

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Any character with disjoints can theoretically outrange Pichu. The sword users have tools to keep him out, it’s just managing to keep up with Pichu and predicting where he’ll be. I’d be interested in seeing what Olimar can do with a bunch of yellow pikmen as well, given they have longer range and electrical immunity
 

VanitasLD

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Depends on what character you're using against Pichu but since you didn't give us that detail, I'll say this: Try to zone Pichu out, she has a small hit box yes but you can take a stock at about 30-40% depending on who you're using. Don't play their game. If Pichu users want to zone, by all means, let them because they self inflict damage. Will help a little if you told us what character you play with too
 
D

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Depends on what character you're using against Pichu but since you didn't give us that detail, I'll say this: Try to zone Pichu out, she has a small hit box yes but you can take a stock at about 30-40% depending on who you're using. Don't play their game. If Pichu users want to zone, by all means, let them because they self inflict damage. Will help a little if you told us what character you play with too
Let's say Pokemon Trainer and non-projectile characters.
 
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VanitasLD

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Let's say Pokemon Trainer and non-projectile characters.
Squirtle is your point, you can start with him to damage Pichu a little or Ivysaur to play the zone game.
You can visit the Pokémon trainer threads to learn some BnB combos with the 3. Knowing when and how to switch according to situations is essential with Pokémon Trainer, they can handle pretty much anyone on the roster.

I'll recommend using Charizard when Pichu is at high percentage and when you know you can quickly take a stock then switch back to Squirtle to match Pichu in speed or Ivysaur to zone with razor leaf and b-airs.
 

JackyT

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Hello Pichu mains, i came here to ask the exact same question! I'm exactly like TC, i usually get destroyed by Pichus. I can't find an opening!

My question is, as a Pichu main, what would you say is your worst match-up? Who do you struggle against the most?

I'm not sure who to main atm, any help appreciated...
 

Toast Kirby

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Pichu has poor range except for his Neutral Special, so out-ranging him is a good idea
 

Xquirtle

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Just understand that he is going to smother you at times and don't get tilted over it. He has poor range and dies early so most characters can afford to trade with him. It may feel like you're getting your ass kicked but he can die to random stuff if you just find the hits and stay focused.
 
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MERPIS

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If you don't feel like learning too much counterplay for your current mains, try picking up a new character, In my honest opinion both Pichu and Pikachu lose to Olimar and Inkling as well as Ness and possibly Mewtwo, but with Pichu you also have to worry about the super heavies. Since one frig up and he's dead at like, 50%. DK seems amazing in this game so your best bet if you don't wanna learn a new guy, use DK. If you don't mind learning a new guy, try out Olimar, Ness, G&W, and Mewtwo. Chrom, Roy, Marth and Lucina can also give them one hell of a time by walling them out, Shulk would be good for this if he wasn't so slow.
 

Call_Me_Red

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Pichu's counter is being spaced out and being killed early. Swordies are lethal for Pichu, particularly fast and powerful boys, like Cloud or Chrom. Pichu's main kill options are all gimps, so good recoveries are also a bane for Pichu.
 
D

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If you don't feel like learning too much counterplay for your current mains, try picking up a new character, In my honest opinion both Pichu and Pikachu lose to Olimar and Inkling as well as Ness and possibly Mewtwo, but with Pichu you also have to worry about the super heavies. Since one frig up and he's dead at like, 50%. DK seems amazing in this game so your best bet if you don't wanna learn a new guy, use DK. If you don't mind learning a new guy, try out Olimar, Ness, G&W, and Mewtwo. Chrom, Roy, Marth and Lucina can also give them one hell of a time by walling them out, Shulk would be good for this if he wasn't so slow.
I lost to a Pichu with Ness, so I rule him out.
 

Monollock

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What, if anything, can be punished in Pichu's moveset? Cause all of his ****ing aerials seem to be entirely safe. Whenever I fight a Pichu they seem to just press buttons and win. as Falcon I can't even punish it with jabs cause he just beats my buttons.
 

T-Donor66

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God, I hate Pichu so ****ing much. No character in this game gets me so tilted. Mewtwo can’t do ANYTHING about him. I’m just so tilted rn. Ruined my whole night.
 

MG_3989

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Be evasive and make every hit count. Everytime Pichu is trying to hit you and doesn’t succeed he’s racking himself faster and faster to kill percent. Most characters have at least one move that can kill him at 60-70% and once a Phichu gets to those percentages they have to start thinking about preserving their stock. He’s not an easy character to beat and he can take a stock out of you at anytime so you really just have to play patiently and slowly build percent (with some characters you can do it fast). My mains are Ness and Lucina which and the matchup against Pichu is probably in Ness’s and Lucina’s favor so idk if my tips will work for everyone
 

MERPIS

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Trade with him a lot, this is why he doesnt body half the heavies in this game, if they keep trading with him they’ll eventually win cause of pichu’s rather lackluster killpower outside of ftilt bair and down b, none of which really kill heavies that early
 

MG_3989

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I honestly think he's top of high tier bottom top tier, he's so stupid and wack
Right at this moment I think that’s a good analysis, but we still have to see how the meta shakes out. I really don’t want him to drop off the face of the Earth like he usually does after 6 months. I think he has a ton of potential in Ultimate
 

MERPIS

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Right at this moment I think that’s a good analysis, but we still have to see how the meta shakes out. I really don’t want him to drop off the face of the Earth like he usually does after 6 months. I think he has a ton of potential in Ultimate
Well we don't really have a rosalina or a sheik in smash ultimate. And Ness plows through Inkling, the rats, Snake, Palutena and goes even with Olimar, he probably has really bads against swords but when was that not the case
 

MG_3989

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Well we don't really have a rosalina or a sheik in smash ultimate. And Ness plows through Inkling, the rats, Snake, Palutena and goes even with Olimar, he probably has really bads against swords but when was that not the case
As a Ness main he’s not awful against swords but he definitely doesn’t have an advantage but they’re very doable matchups. Snake and Olimar both get severely hampered by PSI Magnet because it eats almost all their options. The rats have always had a bad matchup against Ness. Inkling might actually be in Inkling’s favor due to his edgeguarding prowess but it’s a close matchup. He definitely doesn’t have any bad polarizing matchups with any top or high tier character and he has some good ones too.

It’s really all gonna depend on how many people pick up and stick with Ness and how the meta develops. His recovery weaknesses are overblown and he has all the tools in the book. He can combo, kill in a ton of different ways, rack damage, and PKT is one of the best moves in the game. I’d love to call him top tier being a Ness main and his results so far show that he is but that’s because of a couple of dominant Ness players that we knew would dominate their region anyway. I don’t think we’re going to see him drop out of high tier unless DLC messes him up but there’s still a lot left to be seen with this game
 

MG_3989

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I can get behind this but can you please explain to me why
It’s so versatile once you get complete control of it and learn how to use it right. You can use the head to juggle people in the air easily especially if you’re unpredictable with it. The tail gimps incredibly early against certain recoveries. You can PKT2 into yourself for early surprise kills. You can use it in neutral, advantage, and disadvantage and it has uses in all three phases. It’s extremely versatile and I don’t think any other projectile in the game has as many uses as PKT. You can use it at the ledge to protect your get up. You can move it in so many different ways it easily works around air dodges. It’s just such a powerful and versatile move and makes Ness who he is as a character
 

MERPIS

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It’s so versatile once you get complete control of it and learn how to use it right. You can use the head to juggle people in the air easily especially if you’re unpredictable with it. The tail gimps incredibly early against certain recoveries. You can PKT2 into yourself for early surprise kills. You can use it in neutral, advantage, and disadvantage and it has uses in all three phases. It’s extremely versatile and I don’t think any other projectile in the game has as many uses as PKT. You can use it at the ledge to protect your get up. You can move it in so many different ways it easily works around air dodges. It’s just such a powerful and versatile move and makes Ness who he is as a character
Holy crap this thing is good against the new airdodges especially since you can chase them down and hit them anyways, just up throw or up air and watch as they get juggled to death by PKT, the only thing I don't really agree with is PKT2 that should be saves solely for hard HARD reads and shield breaks, what's its use in neutral and disadvantage though?
 

MG_3989

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Holy crap this thing is good against the new airdodges especially since you can chase them down and hit them anyways, just up throw or up air and watch as they get juggled to death by PKT, the only thing I don't really agree with is PKT2 that should be saves solely for hard HARD reads and shield breaks, what's its use in neutral and disadvantage though?
I’m not saying you should just throw out PKT2 and it should usually be used for hard reads but there are sometimes you’ll get really tiny windows with it in neutral and advantage and if you can hit it that’s a stock right there. In neutral it’s pretty safe to camp with against a lot of characters and can force approaches that can lead into grabs, traps, and aerial strings. In disadvantage it’s rare but PKT2 can sometimes hit and swing the state of the match and it’s still a recovery tool that threatens edgeguarders (even though it’s not the best way for Ness to recover). You have to play with it a lot and get used to it especiallly to juggle effectively with it and know when to pull out a surprise PKT2 but once you’ve mastered it it’s such a phenomenal projectile and Ness would honestly suck without it

I’ve caught more players sleeping with a super quick PKT2 then you can imagine and while it’s not particularly safe for what it’s capable of it’s not necessarily an unsafe move. People rarely watch for it because they don’t think you’ll have the balls to do it

Ness is basically an aggressive rushdown character at his best and PKT really helps him pull that style off. To have a zoning option that good on a character who isn’t a zoner is ridiculous. A good Ness is really scary to fight just because of how fast he can rack up damage and kill. And he can kill in a ton of different ways
 
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MERPIS

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I’m not saying you should just throw out PKT2 and it should usually be used for hard reads but there are sometimes you’ll get really tiny windows with it in neutral and advantage and if you can hit it that’s a stock right there. In neutral it’s pretty safe to camp with against a lot of characters and can force approaches that can lead into grabs, traps, and aerial strings. In disadvantage it’s rare but PKT2 can sometimes hit and swing the state of the match and it’s still a recovery tool that threatens edgeguarders (even though it’s not the best way for Ness to recover). You have to play with it a lot and get used to it especiallly to juggle effectively with it and know when to pull out a surprise PKT2 but once you’ve mastered it it’s such a phenomenal projectile and Ness would honestly suck without it

I’ve caught more players sleeping with a super quick PKT2 then you can imagine and while it’s not particularly safe for what it’s capable of it’s not necessarily an unsafe move

Ness is basically an aggressive rushdown character at his best and PKT really helps him pull that style off. To have a zoning option that good on a character who isn’t a zoner is ridiculous. A good Ness is really scary to fight just because of how fast he can rack up damage and kill. And he can kill in a ton of different ways
Hoo good god he has so many things that kill at like 110% or lower, up air is phenomenal possibly better than his old one, nair is SO STUPID, bair is an actual move now, free 2 frames with dsmash bullarky at like, 70%, up smash is broken as heck, and to top it all off he still has that wicked back throw. Nair alone is enough to make his air game worth it but everything else is just so good, the confirm and combo potential with up air at various percents is broken and his range is actually decent now. Dair is surprisingly good now with combos and kill confirms up the wazoo and its decently safe on shield due to having like 12 frames of landing lag or autocanceling. PK Fire is flat out unDIable
 
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MG_3989

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Hoo good god he has so many things that kill at like 110% or lower, up air is phenomenal possibly better than his old one, nair is SO STUPID, bair is an actual move now, free 2 frames with dsmash bullarky at like, 70%, up smash is broken as heck, and to top it all off he still has that wicked back throw. Nair alone is enough to make his air game worth it but everything else is just so good, the confirm and combo potential with up air at various percents is broken and his range is actually decent now. Dair is surprisingly good now with combos and kill confirms up the wazoo and its decently safe on shield due to having like 12 frames of landing lag or autocanceling. PK Fire is flat out unDIable
Nah you can still DI out of PK Fire and it’s still super situational used mostly for landing or hard reads.

Don’t forget about his Fair and Uair strings either. Nor Dthrow. You can rack up damage so fast with them at low percentages. Ultimate has been kind to him though and Rosa and Sheik dropping out of top/high tier is a really big plus too. I still think we have to wait and see to see where he ends up long term but I don’t think what’s happens the past few games is gonna happen where he plummets. I think he’ll stay high tier for the entire meta as long as DLC and balance changes don’t hurt him. People still look at him as a character who just PK Fire’s to grab when in reality he’s a very versatile character.

Now I’m a Ness main so I’m a little biased but right now he’s really good but I expect the demon child to stick around this time

He still has some pretty big weaknesses like he hates being off stage in disadvantage and he doesn’t like when other characters disjoint outrange his disjoints. He lacks range on his tilts and his air game is pretty much his entire close combat (I don’t really consider this a weakness though). He’s not a broken character or a character you can pick up and jut get results with at a high level without putting work in by any means and while he’s well rounded he does have quite a few weaknesses. That said his positives outweigh his negatives and I believe he’s solidly top tier. Now we just need more pros playing him
 
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MERPIS

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Nah you can still DI out of PK Fire and it’s still super situational used mostly for landing or hard reads.

Don’t forget about his Fair and Uair strings either. Nor Dthrow. You can rack up damage so fast with them at low percentages. Ultimate has been kind to him though and Rosa and Sheik dropping out of top/high tier is a really big plus too. I still think we have to wait and see to see where he ends up long term but I don’t think what’s happens the past few games is gonna happen where he plummets. I think he’ll stay high tier for the entire meta as long as DLC and balance changes don’t hurt him. People still look at him as a character who just PK Fire’s to grab when in reality he’s a very versatile character.

Now I’m a Ness main so I’m a little biased but right now he’s really good but I expect the demon child to stick around this time
fair is super stupid now I love it, also I think nintendo has learned their lesson with the DLC, for now at least.
 

MG_3989

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Well you see, I also use Wario with Ness so if one gets screwed over by DLC chances are the other will too
Nah they play differently enough and have different enough matchups. Yeah they’re both big on their air game but I don’t think a bad matchup for Ness is a bad matchup for Wario and vice versa
 

MERPIS

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Nah they play differently enough and have different enough matchups. Yeah they’re both big on their air game but I don’t think a bad matchup for Ness is a bad matchup for Wario and vice versa
Swords.
SWORDS.
The pokey sticks reign supreme
 

Xquirtle

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G O O D
Who beats Lucina? Since most if not all my guys lose to Lucina I need some one to circumvent that, I've been trying Bowser
She gets camped by projectiles pretty hard and can get smothered by fast characters that break her defense into big combo strings. Like she can space Pichu out, but if he gets in and gets momentum... swordies in general can just get run over since they usually have big long hit boxes, in comparison to say squirtle or pichu aerials that can be overwhelming.
 

edde

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I'll keep it simple. As a pichu main, my toughest opponents are the ones that force me to do thunder moves without getting hit themselves

makes me feel kinda like im drowning, considering pichus super light weight

I also find obnoxious nairs to do really good against pichu (its pretty much this game's meta), although pichu definitely has the tools to play around it
 
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