gallax
Smash Hero
Mr. Game and Watch
General Discussion
This matchup is crazy. GaW has been given divine powers compared to his melee form. His shield poking, aggravating, bair combined with powerful smashes and a tech chase that can fool many and the ability to kill pika at 0% makes this matchup crazy. Pika has finess and the ability to combo thoug. Think of it as the patriots vs. the colts during the 2006 playoffs in the NFL.
Pika's Advantages
1.) Speed
2.) The ability to combo
3.) A projectile
4.) Thunder
Pika's Disadvantages
1.) Gaw can absorb the tjolt and thunder
2.) Can get tech chased out of the grab
3.) Less Priority
4.) Spacing issues
Strategy for Winning
Your Tjolt and the Bucket
To start off this guide I would like to talk about the projectile aspect of this match. No matter what stage you start off on you are not going to want to use your tjolt. GaW can use his bucket to absorb you tjolt and thunder. If he absorbs any of them in any order in any way 3 times and hits you with the oil that comes out are dead instantly. No matter what percentage you are at. Some people will argue that 3 tjolts won't kill you, but they are mistaken. It can. When Gaw uses his bucket the tjolt will diasappear, but the thunder will continue to fall. Once the bucket is full. all GaW has to do is hit down+b and it sends out a wave of oil that has the range of about marths ftilt. The startup time for this oil bucket is very little and hard to see coming. Also, when they pull out their bucket, it has significant lag time. This means you can try to bait them to using the bucket to get the occasional usmash in or any attack you feel like doing since their bucket is out and they are vulnerable.
If you do fill up the bucket then here are some things to watch out for. They are going to try and set you up for a for sure kill. This means either dthrow you to a tech chase oil bucket, or wait till you land a move that has horrible lag and then use it. But, they will probably not use it if you have over 90% damge. They will try and save it till your next life. But if you are on your next life then its game time. What you can do now, since their bucket is full, is keep using tjolts and stay away as best you can. They aren't going to absorb your tjolts becasue the bucket is already full!!! Punish that. You can also try and mindgames them into using the bucket. You can dodge or shield it.
So basically what I am trying to say is that when you are using your tjolt to spam moves or the thunder to tech chase or even just to thunder, don't. The only time you use them is when you know that the bucket is not going to be used or when you want them to pull out the bucket so you can punish them.
Thunder
As mentioned before the bucket can absorb your thunder. BUt there are still plenty of mindgames and uses for thunder to win the match. Whenever you hit a gaw into the air you can always go underneath them and make it look like you are going to use your thunder. They will pull out a bucket. Then you can just laugh at them. No but seriously. I can't tell you how many times i've done this and then when they bring the bucket back into hiding I thunder then get a free hit.
Also, just because gaw can absorb any electric attack it doesn't mean you don't use them anymore. It means you now have to learn how to time it properly. Thunder is a powerful killer...especially if you get it to hit near the cloud or near the chu.
GaW's Airiels
Any good gaw will use every airiel efficiently. The uair can keep an enemy in the air and make it harder to land and start an offensive. The fair can kill. Has good priority and good range. The bair shield pokes and has next to 0 ending lag. The dair can poke through platforms and makes it near impossible to juggle in the air sometimes. But lets go into more detail.
The uair. This move, if used directly under an opponent, will push that opponent way back up into the air. GaW can jusggle you this way. It does not cause any damage, but it gets very annoying. My advice against this is to skullbash away and then use your qac to get out of it. The point of it is to get you to land near or off the edge.
The next thing is the fair. Do not challenge this move in the air. It has priority over you. It can kill, and is very effective. When the gaw is using this just back away or airdodge though it. Or, you can get behind them or above them and attack them that way. The landing lag from this move can be devasting for any gaw player so be sure to take advantage in any way of this move's lag.
The bair is by far his best airiel and one of his best approaches. Landing lag is nill. Startup time is great. Priority is very good. And it shield pokes. If a gaw is coming at you with this there is nothing really you can do but to learn how to roll away or shield it. If you decide to shield then you better powershield it. Otherwise you will get hit even though you are shielding. IF can learn how to time it well with the shield then you should be able to grab out of it at times. You could also try to tjolt it but i think the bair cancels the tjolt so sorry. GaW's bair *****.
As for the dair. There's nothing that the thunder can't fix. If thundering doesn't work and he is still landing dair's on you then here are a few tips. One, roll away. Two, spotdodge. If you are getting hit when spotdodging then you need to time it better. Trust me, you can spotdodge this move. In fact I mostly spotdodge it to try and get a free hit on gaw when they miss you and get stuck in the ground. Other than that do not try to fight it with an utilt or usmash or uair. It will wreck you.
Your Airiels
The Pika's airiels are of most importance here in this matchup since this mathchup will more than likely take place mostly in the air. Pika's bread and butter in this one are his fair and uair. Combo with uair>nair. Fair>ground attacks. Use your fair to poke at him to. Fair is your best friend. As for the bair, it is also good to use, but not that much. I personally love the bair. When its working im usually winning. But it has landing lag sometimes and I would rather not take that chance at getting hit by any type of smash or bair. I rarely use dair here. I use it whenever I have jumped out of the way and gaw has used a diar himself and is vulnerable from atop.
Any tips I can give you wouldn't help. As a pika user you must have a basic knowledge of pika's airiels and what you can/can't do with them. I am just telling you which ones are the better in this matchup.
GaW's Smashes
Now in this section I will talk about the smashes. Duh. Not going to go real in depth but you will see.
The usmash. It can kill pika at 80% easy. Usually used as a hyphen smash or a tech chase out of a dthrow by gaw. (will get to that in the next section). Not too much to say about this other than its easy to see coming. When countering this, you can't. Try and space with your fsmash or shield it. Trying to spotdodge will usually result in a miss by you and a hit with the usmash by gaw causing you a lot of unnecessary damage. The timing on the usmash can be changed by the user.
The fsmash. Whenever I try to spotdodge this move it usually results in an epic fail. The hitboxes on this move remain longer than any move I have ever encountered. Not only that it is vey freaking powerful. Not too much range . About as much as our dtilt. So learn how to space against this move. Always shield or roll away. Never spotdodge.
The dsmash. It can kill vertically AND horizontally. Cazy huh. Usually used out of a dthrow by gaw or whenever they want to just use a good move against you. Try not to roll around gaw too much or they will start using their dsmash. Then you will be in trouble. you can spotdodge this move though. But, it has minmal lag so trying to punish will be dificult. I recommend going airiel with a ff fair on this one or a bair. Heck even a dair would work. Just get into the air and you will have the advantage.
Grabbing
When gaw grabs you they will try and tech chase you afterwards. You must learn how to tech the throw. If you hit the R/L trigger before you hit the ground you will be able to tech the throw and roll away. Depending on you gaw will do one of a few things. The first is, if you are bad at teching, he will simply dsmash after dthrowing you. The second is he will try and teech chase you with an usmash and try to kill you. Very effective. This means be unpredictable when rolling away from him. Third is try to jab you and then grab you again. I once saw a gaw chaingrab a snake using this dthrow>jab>grab>dthrow>etc... to about 85% from 30ish%. it was crazy. Thats what happens when you do not tech the throw. Basically what it comes down to is learning how to tech and be unpredictable when rolling. Lots of practice.
Important Note: DI towards gaw's back when he dthrows you
When you grab gaw always try to dthrow>utilt/usmash. You cannot cg gaw . If you do fthrow gaw then chase after him then do a sh nair. It sometimes works. But I mostly try to usmash the gaw. Everyone has their own methods though.
Tilts
Nothing much to say here about hiis tilts. They aren't really anything speacial. They can kill of course. The only really special tilt is his dtilt. Good startup and descent range. The ftilt has terrible ending lag and the ultilt has terrible range. There really isn't any strategy surrounding the tilts. Just try not to get hit by them.
Edgeguarding
When gaw is going to try and edgeguard you he can do a few things. most of the time he will jump out after you and try to use his fair since it has good knockback/priority. He will never use any other airiel. Maybe nair. But no. Never. As for his specials, if he has the bucket then he can use it. If not he can use his hammer to try and get a 9. It has happened before. With these edgeguarding moves you have to space yourself in air air by trying to predict where he is going to be. This shouldn't be a problem since the qa is so versatile and hard to edgeguard.
When he is ledgehogging you he can use his double jump to trick you into hitting a/r/b and making you roll under him. Do not. He will use his dair on you. The best thing for you do do when stalling is to dtop straight down and qac once back onto the ledge. When getting back on, use your qac to go up and/or around gaw and avoid his ledgehogging.
As for you trying to edgeguard, thunder is not an option or tjolt unfortunately. The can be absorbed and his recovery is very good. For those who do not know about his recovery, he can be near the bottom of FD and still use his upb to grab the ledge. Plus it turns into an umbrella afterwards so it has good horizontal range too. So, thais being said, it is nearly impossible to edgeguard gaw. If you get close to him he can hit you with a fair or just go by you and grab the ledge and start edgehogging.
Also, when he is on the ledge and you are sending tjolts at him or trying to hog him, often you will see gaw drop fom the ladge and use their nair. Do not get to close or you will get hit by it. When trying to get back on they will either jump off>sh>bair onto the stage. You can just shield or fsmash him. Or they can hit the jump button and go into the air above you. Let them try and get away or use their dair on you. If they use their dair then perfect. Spotdodge and punish.
A good tip when edgeguarding is try to save your second jump and just go after him with a nair and if it does not work then use your second jump to a qa recovery.
Killing
The best killing move by pika is the thunder. The only way you can use your thunder without it getting absorbed is by tech chasing an usmash/utilt. Those are prbably your best bets at killing too. Gaw is a really light character so killing is not going to be that painstaking. Save your fsamsh since it isn't really needed for spacing. Save it for killing gaw.
When gaw is at high percents, let him come to you. Or wait to use your hyphen smash. Either way, be patient. If he gets to high percentage don't fret. Wait to use your utilt or usmash or fsmash. Preferrably, the fsmash. Most of his ground moves hve lag. Wait till he uses a smash or his utilt/ftilt then attack. Spotdode everything except the fsmash, usmash.
Now as for gaw killing you...its easier for him. He can kill you at 85% no problem with his usmash and fsmash(charged). His 9 hammer and oil bucket kills at 0%. The lesson that one learns is to stay away from gaw when you hit 80%. Time to start spacing him better than you have been. He can tech chase his dthrow into an usmash. His fsmash is so disjointed that you really have to learn how to spotdodge it or shield or you will ge hit by it and die. The good thing about his smashes though are that they are punishable if missed. Also, his kills can easily be spotted. Meaning you know when he is going to use them. They are a little situational. Except for the usmash. Watch out for the hyphen smash.
Helpful Video's
Soon to Come
Overall Matchup
Pika:Gaw
45:55
General Discussion
This matchup is crazy. GaW has been given divine powers compared to his melee form. His shield poking, aggravating, bair combined with powerful smashes and a tech chase that can fool many and the ability to kill pika at 0% makes this matchup crazy. Pika has finess and the ability to combo thoug. Think of it as the patriots vs. the colts during the 2006 playoffs in the NFL.
Pika's Advantages
1.) Speed
2.) The ability to combo
3.) A projectile
4.) Thunder
Pika's Disadvantages
1.) Gaw can absorb the tjolt and thunder
2.) Can get tech chased out of the grab
3.) Less Priority
4.) Spacing issues
Strategy for Winning
Your Tjolt and the Bucket
To start off this guide I would like to talk about the projectile aspect of this match. No matter what stage you start off on you are not going to want to use your tjolt. GaW can use his bucket to absorb you tjolt and thunder. If he absorbs any of them in any order in any way 3 times and hits you with the oil that comes out are dead instantly. No matter what percentage you are at. Some people will argue that 3 tjolts won't kill you, but they are mistaken. It can. When Gaw uses his bucket the tjolt will diasappear, but the thunder will continue to fall. Once the bucket is full. all GaW has to do is hit down+b and it sends out a wave of oil that has the range of about marths ftilt. The startup time for this oil bucket is very little and hard to see coming. Also, when they pull out their bucket, it has significant lag time. This means you can try to bait them to using the bucket to get the occasional usmash in or any attack you feel like doing since their bucket is out and they are vulnerable.
If you do fill up the bucket then here are some things to watch out for. They are going to try and set you up for a for sure kill. This means either dthrow you to a tech chase oil bucket, or wait till you land a move that has horrible lag and then use it. But, they will probably not use it if you have over 90% damge. They will try and save it till your next life. But if you are on your next life then its game time. What you can do now, since their bucket is full, is keep using tjolts and stay away as best you can. They aren't going to absorb your tjolts becasue the bucket is already full!!! Punish that. You can also try and mindgames them into using the bucket. You can dodge or shield it.
So basically what I am trying to say is that when you are using your tjolt to spam moves or the thunder to tech chase or even just to thunder, don't. The only time you use them is when you know that the bucket is not going to be used or when you want them to pull out the bucket so you can punish them.
Thunder
As mentioned before the bucket can absorb your thunder. BUt there are still plenty of mindgames and uses for thunder to win the match. Whenever you hit a gaw into the air you can always go underneath them and make it look like you are going to use your thunder. They will pull out a bucket. Then you can just laugh at them. No but seriously. I can't tell you how many times i've done this and then when they bring the bucket back into hiding I thunder then get a free hit.
Also, just because gaw can absorb any electric attack it doesn't mean you don't use them anymore. It means you now have to learn how to time it properly. Thunder is a powerful killer...especially if you get it to hit near the cloud or near the chu.
GaW's Airiels
Any good gaw will use every airiel efficiently. The uair can keep an enemy in the air and make it harder to land and start an offensive. The fair can kill. Has good priority and good range. The bair shield pokes and has next to 0 ending lag. The dair can poke through platforms and makes it near impossible to juggle in the air sometimes. But lets go into more detail.
The uair. This move, if used directly under an opponent, will push that opponent way back up into the air. GaW can jusggle you this way. It does not cause any damage, but it gets very annoying. My advice against this is to skullbash away and then use your qac to get out of it. The point of it is to get you to land near or off the edge.
The next thing is the fair. Do not challenge this move in the air. It has priority over you. It can kill, and is very effective. When the gaw is using this just back away or airdodge though it. Or, you can get behind them or above them and attack them that way. The landing lag from this move can be devasting for any gaw player so be sure to take advantage in any way of this move's lag.
The bair is by far his best airiel and one of his best approaches. Landing lag is nill. Startup time is great. Priority is very good. And it shield pokes. If a gaw is coming at you with this there is nothing really you can do but to learn how to roll away or shield it. If you decide to shield then you better powershield it. Otherwise you will get hit even though you are shielding. IF can learn how to time it well with the shield then you should be able to grab out of it at times. You could also try to tjolt it but i think the bair cancels the tjolt so sorry. GaW's bair *****.
As for the dair. There's nothing that the thunder can't fix. If thundering doesn't work and he is still landing dair's on you then here are a few tips. One, roll away. Two, spotdodge. If you are getting hit when spotdodging then you need to time it better. Trust me, you can spotdodge this move. In fact I mostly spotdodge it to try and get a free hit on gaw when they miss you and get stuck in the ground. Other than that do not try to fight it with an utilt or usmash or uair. It will wreck you.
Your Airiels
The Pika's airiels are of most importance here in this matchup since this mathchup will more than likely take place mostly in the air. Pika's bread and butter in this one are his fair and uair. Combo with uair>nair. Fair>ground attacks. Use your fair to poke at him to. Fair is your best friend. As for the bair, it is also good to use, but not that much. I personally love the bair. When its working im usually winning. But it has landing lag sometimes and I would rather not take that chance at getting hit by any type of smash or bair. I rarely use dair here. I use it whenever I have jumped out of the way and gaw has used a diar himself and is vulnerable from atop.
Any tips I can give you wouldn't help. As a pika user you must have a basic knowledge of pika's airiels and what you can/can't do with them. I am just telling you which ones are the better in this matchup.
GaW's Smashes
Now in this section I will talk about the smashes. Duh. Not going to go real in depth but you will see.
The usmash. It can kill pika at 80% easy. Usually used as a hyphen smash or a tech chase out of a dthrow by gaw. (will get to that in the next section). Not too much to say about this other than its easy to see coming. When countering this, you can't. Try and space with your fsmash or shield it. Trying to spotdodge will usually result in a miss by you and a hit with the usmash by gaw causing you a lot of unnecessary damage. The timing on the usmash can be changed by the user.
The fsmash. Whenever I try to spotdodge this move it usually results in an epic fail. The hitboxes on this move remain longer than any move I have ever encountered. Not only that it is vey freaking powerful. Not too much range . About as much as our dtilt. So learn how to space against this move. Always shield or roll away. Never spotdodge.
The dsmash. It can kill vertically AND horizontally. Cazy huh. Usually used out of a dthrow by gaw or whenever they want to just use a good move against you. Try not to roll around gaw too much or they will start using their dsmash. Then you will be in trouble. you can spotdodge this move though. But, it has minmal lag so trying to punish will be dificult. I recommend going airiel with a ff fair on this one or a bair. Heck even a dair would work. Just get into the air and you will have the advantage.
Grabbing
When gaw grabs you they will try and tech chase you afterwards. You must learn how to tech the throw. If you hit the R/L trigger before you hit the ground you will be able to tech the throw and roll away. Depending on you gaw will do one of a few things. The first is, if you are bad at teching, he will simply dsmash after dthrowing you. The second is he will try and teech chase you with an usmash and try to kill you. Very effective. This means be unpredictable when rolling away from him. Third is try to jab you and then grab you again. I once saw a gaw chaingrab a snake using this dthrow>jab>grab>dthrow>etc... to about 85% from 30ish%. it was crazy. Thats what happens when you do not tech the throw. Basically what it comes down to is learning how to tech and be unpredictable when rolling. Lots of practice.
Important Note: DI towards gaw's back when he dthrows you
When you grab gaw always try to dthrow>utilt/usmash. You cannot cg gaw . If you do fthrow gaw then chase after him then do a sh nair. It sometimes works. But I mostly try to usmash the gaw. Everyone has their own methods though.
Tilts
Nothing much to say here about hiis tilts. They aren't really anything speacial. They can kill of course. The only really special tilt is his dtilt. Good startup and descent range. The ftilt has terrible ending lag and the ultilt has terrible range. There really isn't any strategy surrounding the tilts. Just try not to get hit by them.
Edgeguarding
When gaw is going to try and edgeguard you he can do a few things. most of the time he will jump out after you and try to use his fair since it has good knockback/priority. He will never use any other airiel. Maybe nair. But no. Never. As for his specials, if he has the bucket then he can use it. If not he can use his hammer to try and get a 9. It has happened before. With these edgeguarding moves you have to space yourself in air air by trying to predict where he is going to be. This shouldn't be a problem since the qa is so versatile and hard to edgeguard.
When he is ledgehogging you he can use his double jump to trick you into hitting a/r/b and making you roll under him. Do not. He will use his dair on you. The best thing for you do do when stalling is to dtop straight down and qac once back onto the ledge. When getting back on, use your qac to go up and/or around gaw and avoid his ledgehogging.
As for you trying to edgeguard, thunder is not an option or tjolt unfortunately. The can be absorbed and his recovery is very good. For those who do not know about his recovery, he can be near the bottom of FD and still use his upb to grab the ledge. Plus it turns into an umbrella afterwards so it has good horizontal range too. So, thais being said, it is nearly impossible to edgeguard gaw. If you get close to him he can hit you with a fair or just go by you and grab the ledge and start edgehogging.
Also, when he is on the ledge and you are sending tjolts at him or trying to hog him, often you will see gaw drop fom the ladge and use their nair. Do not get to close or you will get hit by it. When trying to get back on they will either jump off>sh>bair onto the stage. You can just shield or fsmash him. Or they can hit the jump button and go into the air above you. Let them try and get away or use their dair on you. If they use their dair then perfect. Spotdodge and punish.
A good tip when edgeguarding is try to save your second jump and just go after him with a nair and if it does not work then use your second jump to a qa recovery.
Killing
The best killing move by pika is the thunder. The only way you can use your thunder without it getting absorbed is by tech chasing an usmash/utilt. Those are prbably your best bets at killing too. Gaw is a really light character so killing is not going to be that painstaking. Save your fsamsh since it isn't really needed for spacing. Save it for killing gaw.
When gaw is at high percents, let him come to you. Or wait to use your hyphen smash. Either way, be patient. If he gets to high percentage don't fret. Wait to use your utilt or usmash or fsmash. Preferrably, the fsmash. Most of his ground moves hve lag. Wait till he uses a smash or his utilt/ftilt then attack. Spotdode everything except the fsmash, usmash.
Now as for gaw killing you...its easier for him. He can kill you at 85% no problem with his usmash and fsmash(charged). His 9 hammer and oil bucket kills at 0%. The lesson that one learns is to stay away from gaw when you hit 80%. Time to start spacing him better than you have been. He can tech chase his dthrow into an usmash. His fsmash is so disjointed that you really have to learn how to spotdodge it or shield or you will ge hit by it and die. The good thing about his smashes though are that they are punishable if missed. Also, his kills can easily be spotted. Meaning you know when he is going to use them. They are a little situational. Except for the usmash. Watch out for the hyphen smash.
Helpful Video's
Soon to Come
Overall Matchup
Pika:Gaw
45:55