New mario here

[HRS]

hey fellow marios, relatively new mario here ( I'm a scrub ) needing some advice. here's a recent set of me vs a pikachu at the foundry - https://youtu.be/S4fYPiNrLPw

any advice on my bad habits or even how I should approach this match up? minus the missed inputs I think I did alright, but had no game plan. so far I've noticed I double jumped too often in unsafe situations and should have been utilting a lot more to stuff pika's approach. I dropped more than a few follow ups but that was mostly spaghetti so I'm not trippin. maybe dthrow more to open up combo opportunities?

any input appreciated!

 

[1000g2g3g4g800999]

Lots of moves being thrown out in weird areas, not as close to the opponent as they could be or say, caping almost directly over the ledge when Pika's in range to nair you for it. I'd say clean that up and some movement. Shield more, Pika's grab range is bad. Utilt is disjointed and Pika's range on approaches isn't that great so you could try to catch some approaches with that or wall with sh bair and waveland away or towards based on if you hit or not. Oh yeah, dthrow the rat into oblivion.
Pikas love running around so you can jump forward with a fair to catch dash back. Fastfall fadeback if it seems unlikely you'll hit, you still gained ground. Pikas really like nair, dtilt and usmash. If you see the first, running up really far and caping could send Pika offstage.
Game 2: Pika's dashdancing a lot, you get scared and try dsmashing in place. Good place to approach with fair or a jab. Judging from Pika not opting to punish the first dsmash, you might have been able to get away with a WD forward jab or dsmash, but I'd suggest just walking forward against that kind of behavior. Try not to cape offstage unless the opponent can't hit you out of it. Save DJ uair, or have room for falling uair to deal with people going out to gimp you, then Super Jump Punch. Be more patient. The Pika was just waiting for you to throw stuff out or do an unsafe approach, largely in place.
Try to cover yourself if you're ever in the air, or reach a surface quickly. Dair has a good hitbox, but you really don't want to trade with Pika's uair.
Cape thunder if you can. Otherwise, avoid being above Pika if you can.
Jab can catch Pika out of movement and isn't a huge commitment, helps with dealing with DD game, and the jab can in fact beat aerial approaches.
Watch for dtilt.
Crouch cancel is dumb.

 

[HRS]

Lots of moves being thrown out in weird areas, not as close to the opponent as they could be or say, caping almost directly over the ledge when Pika's in range to nair you for it. I'd say clean that up and some movement. Shield more, Pika's grab range is bad. Utilt is disjointed and Pika's range on approaches isn't that great so you could try to catch some approaches with that or wall with sh bair and waveland away or towards based on if you hit or not. Oh yeah, dthrow the rat into oblivion.
Pikas love running around so you can jump forward with a fair to catch dash back. Fastfall fadeback if it seems unlikely you'll hit, you still gained ground. Pikas really like nair, dtilt and usmash. If you see the first, running up really far and caping could send Pika offstage.
Game 2: Pika's dashdancing a lot, you get scared and try dsmashing in place. Good place to approach with fair or a jab. Judging from Pika not opting to punish the first dsmash, you might have been able to get away with a WD forward jab or dsmash, but I'd suggest just walking forward against that kind of behavior. Try not to cape offstage unless the opponent can't hit you out of it. Save DJ uair, or have room for falling uair to deal with people going out to gimp you, then Super Jump Punch. Be more patient. The Pika was just waiting for you to throw stuff out or do an unsafe approach, largely in place.
Try to cover yourself if you're ever in the air, or reach a surface quickly. Dair has a good hitbox, but you really don't want to trade with Pika's uair.
Cape thunder if you can. Otherwise, avoid being above Pika if you can.
Jab can catch Pika out of movement and isn't a huge commitment, helps with dealing with DD game, and the jab can in fact beat aerial approaches.
Watch for dtilt.
Crouch cancel is dumb.

thanks for the response. I'll try to implement some of that next time, especially utilts and dthrows. what would you suggest I use to protect myself while falling from above? nair/bair? I'm working on my shield dropping right now for a safer/quicker option from platforms

I think that dthrow I got at the end could have been a stock if I had just fsmashed but I wanted a weird bair hit and flubbed out a dair instead. lol

 

[1000g2g3g4g800999]

Bair's best when Pika's coming from/at a similar vertical level. Nair's quick, but if you have the time and space, an auto-cancel dair is generally good. Really it's hard, but if you beat Pika out with those two, or at least trade favorably, they'll likely start to try to punish the landing instead. Changing drift and whether you land with a hitbox or autocancel via fastfall makes dair the stronger option once this starts happening. If Pika's genuinely no where near, don't bother with an aerial and just watch what they do as you actually land.
Upair can also be good, but timing it's hard (comparatively speaking).