Opinions on two techniques...

[Synnett]

Alright, after getting bashed after a question about Jiggly's rollout on edgegarding...* (because no one is willing to try something new) I wanna ask your opinions on this. After practicing with Pikachu for a while (I'm not perfect lol) I've found two techniques that works really well on my (really good) friend.

The first one is thunder while running away. Alright, you need to get some distance, so you run away on a direction, jump and use thunder. Pikachu will keep its momentum from the jump and land farther away, while the other guy hit the thunder. Of course, only use this on occasions. It REALLY helps with the Ice Climbers, it's worth a try.

Second one: I found that, with most characters, when you grab them and throw them on the ground when they have low percentages, they land just in front of you, so you can use fsmash and rack up good damage straight at the beggining.

Well, I'm still a noob, but it's fun to have tons of different options, it makes you more unpredictable.

*For those curious, if Fox/Falco comes back on the stage using its recovery, charge a rollout, and as soon as he lands, release it, it's an instant KO.

So I'm still trying to get better, I should get more available people to play with me tho. :/

 

[Comet7]

first for jiggly's rollout i'll say that he can just use f smash or rest to do the same thing with less commitment (commitment is bad) and leave it at that.

thunder while running away is pretty meh. it can be okay sometimes, but it's mostly gimmicky and doesn't work against a lot of characters with good mobility because of the huge cooldown. it's an option for juggling if you're sure you can land at least one hit or thunderflipping (using thunder when they're near the ceiling).

okay, when you do that, you're assuming that theyre going to miss the tech, which delves into tech chasing. f smash after down throw will only cover a missed tech, which won't happen against people who know pikachu well or have decent reaction time. overall, this is a bad idea since they can also neutral tech, tech behind you, and tech away from the front of you. when you f smash, you are committing yourself to a semi-laggy move with decent cooldown time. this means that if somebody does a neutral tech, they will have plenty of time to punish you. if they roll away, they avoided the punish, even though they can't punish you back. as for what would be better, rapid jab covers the missed tech. this will force a jab reset (you can do multiple rapid jabs into the reset, btw) which allows you to f smash them, guaranteed.

^if you're using forward throw for this, don't. it's bad and they can hit you before the f smash comes out. i wasn't sure what you're asking, but i was assuming you were implying that the opponent would be knocked down.

it's okay to have different options, and unpredictability is definitely useful when needed, but you also need to recognize the point where unexpected options simply become bad.

 

[Jim Jam Flim Flam]

If you wanna do damage after a down throw, do a tech chase up smash. If you're playing against someone who can tech the downthrow you'll have to chase them afterwards. You can of course tech chase them with a shffled aerial, but an upsmash will do 17 guaranteed damage, although you do have to know how to jump cancel your upsmashes.

 

[Synnett]

Oh yea sorry, I forgot to tell, for the second one, it's the downthrow. I've read that it is useless, but if you downthrow at low percentages, the other character will land in front of you, stunned for a moment on the ground. You can then use fsmash, or even charge it a little. I don't know for the upsmash, as you need to move next to him and he is lying on the floor... it won't hit with the peak of the tail and they can just breakdance on the ground to push you away. But Pikachu's grab is so bad ermagherd.

As for the thunder... it's pretty difficult to land, but it can save you. Lets say you jump from a platform: use thunder, the other guy will jump in it. For me it's mostly a time saver or pressure. I found it useful against the ice climbers, since they can get separated. Probably the only useful tool against them... -_-

And for the Jiggly, you really have to try. It sounds like a bad idea, but it's actually very good. 100% KO.

PS. Thanks for the replies!

 

[Kuralesache]

Melee has a technique known as "teching", where if you are about to hit the ground but you press L or R slightly before you hit the ground, you will become invulnerable for a short amount of time and never go into a prone position. This is what makes downthrow bad in competitive play - you cannot be sure if your opponent will tech the throw, so you can't necessarily follow up with a move. You can guess, but you don't have enough time to react to what they do and time/position your attack accordingly.

 

[soju]

Putting some one in a tech roll situation is actually advantageous in high level play. Just food for thought.
Run away thunder has too much lag will be punished if the opponent doesn't get hit

 

[Kuralesache]

Tech chasing is good, but there is guaranteed stuff on almost every character if you upthrow instead.

 

[N64]

Run away thunder is medium risk low reward. I think it has decent merit, but it's just so lackluster in most matchups. You're pikachu, most characters have better projectiles than you anyways so getting the space this gives you doesn't mean much, and hitting with thunder doesn't lead to any followups (or even really give you much time to capitalize on them being out of position after the thunder hit), so in the best case of scenario of them actually getting hit, you don't get much. In the worst case scenario of them being able to get past you, they get a good punish setup on you. Against ICs it is the most risky and probably the most rewarding, as you said. If they get hit you can potentially apply pressure before they group up again, but if they get past it then you're grabbed and probably dead.

Dthrow -> jab reset -> fsmash is legit, but as others mentioned any tech avoids the fsmash and they just hit you while you're lagging, fsmash is laggy. Even a delayed getup roll can probably avoid it. If you call the missed tech, then jab to reset them into fsmash is doable and actually pretty decent. But as Kuralesache also mentioned, uthrow is much more consistent, as it leads to guaranteed combos on many characters.

Also, welcome to the pika boards!

 

[Synnett]

Hey, thanks! ^_^

For upthrow, how do you consistently combo? I always end up using upAir and the other guy is flying in a awkward direction. I can't seem to rack up a good amount of damage with it. Maybe it's a better option with higher percentages? Because with the downthrow I can deal up to 38% in one shot... but yea, it's unsafe. Fox will just don't get it by the smash at all, unless at higher percentages when he is in mid-air.

I've been playing Pikachu casually for 10 years now, I guess it's time to try to be competitive, even if competition is not in my nature! xD

 

[Kuralesache]

You can combo upthrow into upsmash on a few characters, especially fox/falco/falcon, but on characters that take too long to fall for that, you can just combo into a nair or bair if you jump up to get them. same idea as your upair, but just use a stronger move! it's not a really strong combo, but it's guaranteed and it's pretty good damage, and can knock characters off the stage

 

[N64]

Depends on how fast characters fall. Using Fox as an example (falls very fast), at low to mid percents uthrow leads to another grab at or usmash (into potentially more stuff) or rising uair -> aerial of choice or forces him to tech on a platform above you and you can hit (if he misses the tech) or techase him. At higher percents he starts to be able to jump/shine out of regrab or usmash followup, but aerials will still connect.

Against floatier characters (say Luigi), you won't often get very much outside of a quick aerial or uair -> aerial. You do stay below them, though, which is often very good for Pikachu. Also of note, dthrow won't guaranteed lead to anything on these characters (if they DI properly) and can sometimes even put you on the defense. For example, if Luigi DIs properly and nairs as soon as he's out of hitstun from dthrow, it will beat anything you try to do except shield (which isn't advantageous for you).