Neutral Game Mixups

[Simmons]

Hey everyone, my neutral game is looking really stale, and I know there's gotta be something I could do to electrify it.

Seriously though, I feel like all I know is just dash-dancing -> SHFFL nairing, which I can do fairly well, but my opponants, especially ones that aren't mediocre wise up to it fairly quickly. If anyone can give me tips on how to practice faking my approaches, or anything of the like, I'd appreciate it.

As a side note, I've started to do some sh, full hop, and doublejump neutral B's from across the stage against characters like Marth; Is this any good?

Lastly, how do you deal with players who react to your approach by wavedash oos backwards -> shield grab? Is there a specific way to punish it?

 

[Plunder]

Some simple things I use to expand Pika's neutral -

D tilt
F tilt
well spaced F smashes (depending on character you are against)
FH Dairs
FH Jolt - in many different varieties, situational - straight up, approaching full speed, barely approaching or retreating. The pathway of the Jolt covers their approach, at higher percents a direct hit can lead to combos easily
JC grabs and Up-smash out of WD and DD

People also forget to use jabs/rapid jabs after landing from an aerial or when they are in front and you think they will attack before you (it has good range and better disjoint than the data implies). It can throw them off, get some good damage, AND reset the stale move queue (< very useful). But be alert it can be DI'ed or SDI'ed and punished, don't just go on auto-pilot rapid jabbing.

You need to also feign approaches with SH dash jump > FF > WL back or down
or
Dashing/DD > Spot dodge to bait something like a grab or other laggy punishable move. Shield stops when you are out of their grab range.

Even with only using DD'ing and the approaches you discussed you still should be able to get in as Pikachu. The problem I suspect is that your timing and spacing are too similar most of the time. I would recommend recording yourself and thinking about if you were the opponent playing your pikachu, look for patterns and easy to read bad habits you've picked up. See if you can predict your own next move as you watch.

 

[Kuralesache]

One really important thing that top players in my region continually remind me to do is to jump later and nair later if you notice that your opponent is dashdancing to grab you when you land. DD -> grab is the most common punish by far for predictable nair approaches, and the simplest fix by far is just to jump later so they can't dash-dance away in time. If you jump after they've reached their max dash distance, they have to do something else, and that's your chance to hit them with something. You can run people out of the middle of the stage this way, and then you don't even have to hit them right then and there, just abuse your stage control.

 

[N64]

as kura said, dashing more/less and jumping/nairing earlier/later are decent mixups. Pika's dash is really fast, so most characters can't keep up trying to reposition correctly to shieldgrab or wdback grab/option if you mix up when you commit to jump. Be careful though, the next adjustment from them is likely to be to start contesting your dash earlier (i.e. peach dash attack) if you consistently start jumping later, so try to keep them guessing.

Rest of the stuff in this thread is good. That covers about everything.

 

[Simmons]

Thanks for the replies guys, I really need to apply my potential for mindgames to my Pikachu, since I'm fairly good at that sort of thing when I play Marth/CSGO/League.