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Pichu Match-Up Discussion Thread

zipzo

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Dec 7, 2018
Messages
87
Hey everyone, thought I'd get this going so we can start adding our findings and posting our input on match-up potential and strategies for the long road we have ahead to removing the "joke character" title of our favorite little lightning suicide mouse. If you have a question about going up against a certain character, let's chat about it here and I will try to edit in some really good input in to a glossary of advice-quotes on a per-character basis, as time goes on depending on what match-ups get discussed.

I seem to be able to own the flow of the match when going against any character that's based on point-blank range attacks. Being short and fast helps a lot.

Projectile spam doesn't seem to be too big of an issue due to being able to duck under a lot of it and being pretty fearsome when airborne.

I'll start by saying I've definitely run in to some difficulties against Swordies, most Notably Marth and his echo (probably due to lots of people playing Marth). Anyone have any good basics for going up against Marth/Lucina or other mid-range spacing characters like that?
 

Grump

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Mar 15, 2008
Messages
131
Location
Florida
There are a good number of projectiles that can be crawled under but not crouched under. Robin has zero ranged game for this reason, as every stage of her neutral B can be crawled under (and the max charge dan actually be dashed under), and her side B can be dashed under from a good range.

Most of the swords, I bait for attacks and just punish the openings. Pichu is agile enough where you can stay just out of their offensive bubble enough to get them aggravated, and then they make mistakes. If you get into the kill zone, stop conserving health. Spam that neutral B since they have no real tools to deal with projectiles. I have good luck with full-hop B’ing. If it hits them, they’re stunned for longer than the grounded B, which covers a landing enough to line up a grab and get a dthrow, uair, uair, ff nair. I would only ever try that nair once or twice though, as they’ll catch on and try to counter it. I think that combo only works because of how new the game is and underplayed Pichu is. When they catch the combo, switch up to the usual uthrow downB.

Also I’m not sure if it’s a fluke, but I seem to remember some oddly spaced dairs triggering a counter but Pichu not getting hit? I was inebriated that night, I’ll need to test.
 

Call_Me_Red

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Nov 29, 2018
Messages
420
Location
Yeehaw, Texas
I'm also struggling against swordies. The best tactic I've found is to just spam neutral b. The damage output is worth the .4 percent you rack up with every use. Also, it creates an opening for a mix up with how they react to it.
 
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zipzo

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Dec 7, 2018
Messages
87
Spent a ton of time in Battle Arenas tonight purely playing Pichu.

Did pretty well actually until I got faced with a Lucario. I actually was ahead, but I absolutely choked the match due to not being able to kill Lucario and him being at high %...I'm sure being the lightest character didn't help...

Overall though still positive about the prospects.
 

Shuckle89

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Aug 10, 2014
Messages
158
Location
Netherlands
I'd say that pichu's small seize is mostly useful when opponents have attacks that don't have much vertical range. Sword users generally have hits covering big areas; horizontally and vertically. The heavier ones have the problem that they get interupted easily, so it makes sense marth is a problem. From the top of my head I can imagine bowser also being annoying without having experienced it, because of the low hitboxes and the super armor.

How to deal with marth, I'd say use pichus nimbleness (is that a word?) to stay out of sword range, especially tipper. I wouldn't spam neutral b because of the ending lag, but rather jump around to find an opening. Marth wants to space, so don't let him. Get in, hit, get out. Also above marth is somewhat open, so you can leap in with a dair or so.

Bowser is slow and probably walks through neutral B as well as most attacks since they are low damage but multihit. I'd try to grab him a lot.
 

Octorockandroll

Smash Journeyman
Writing Team
Joined
Feb 18, 2017
Messages
221
So Ive got a few matchups I feel ready to commentate on.

:ultwolf: Very good matchup for Pichu. Can crawl under projectiles and outspeed him not to mention killsr edgeguarding. If you hit wolf offstage with even just a thunder jolt during his side b he'll be dead.

:ultsheik:not as good a matchup but still definitely in Pichu's favor. Sheik can make some pretty good trades but its pretty easy for Pichu to get around her needles and he basically invalidates her edgeguarding game. Ive noticed Sheik's like to approach with nair too, which normally means trouble for Pichu because it outspeeds and outranges most of his stuff but if you can get under it and get a dsmash on you can punish it without even needing it to hit your shield.

:ulticeclimbers: These two are definitely not in Pichu's favor. The fact there's two of them makes them hard to juggle with Pichu's tiny hitboxes, their ice breath is good for stopping his grounded approaches and they can kill him really early thanks to their crazy grab game and strong knockback moves.

:ultmewtwo: This one seems about even to me, maybe slightly in Mewtwo's favor but Ive only played Mewtwo players who are better than me so eh. Mewtwo can put some good shield pressure against Pichu thanks to things like his tail disjoints and his teleporting makes him harder to gimp and he has some really good oos options to escape Pichu pressure. But on the other hand Pichu can crouch under a lot of his stuff like his uncharged projectiles and his infamous fair. He's also a floaty and dies early to thunder combos and offstage fairs if you can hit them.

That's it for now. Hope to hear you guys' opinions.
 

Call_Me_Red

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Nov 29, 2018
Messages
420
Location
Yeehaw, Texas
So Ive got a few matchups I feel ready to commentate on.

:ultwolf: Very good matchup for Pichu. Can crawl under projectiles and outspeed him not to mention killsr edgeguarding. If you hit wolf offstage with even just a thunder jolt during his side b he'll be dead.

:ultsheik:not as good a matchup but still definitely in Pichu's favor. Sheik can make some pretty good trades but its pretty easy for Pichu to get around her needles and he basically invalidates her edgeguarding game. Ive noticed Sheik's like to approach with nair too, which normally means trouble for Pichu because it outspeeds and outranges most of his stuff but if you can get under it and get a dsmash on you can punish it without even needing it to hit your shield.

:ulticeclimbers: These two are definitely not in Pichu's favor. The fact there's two of them makes them hard to juggle with Pichu's tiny hitboxes, their ice breath is good for stopping his grounded approaches and they can kill him really early thanks to their crazy grab game and strong knockback moves.

:ultmewtwo: This one seems about even to me, maybe slightly in Mewtwo's favor but Ive only played Mewtwo players who are better than me so eh. Mewtwo can put some good shield pressure against Pichu thanks to things like his tail disjoints and his teleporting makes him harder to gimp and he has some really good oos options to escape Pichu pressure. But on the other hand Pichu can crouch under a lot of his stuff like his uncharged projectiles and his infamous fair. He's also a floaty and dies early to thunder combos and offstage fairs if you can hit them.

That's it for now. Hope to hear you guys' opinions.
:ultyounglink: A surprisingly good matchup. Maybe it was just the Yoink that I played, but his projectiles aren't fast enough or cover enough options to stop Pichu. And his up-b is very easy to gimp with Dair or Nair.

:ultridley: I'd say a slight disadvantage. Ridley is slightly too fast and has slightly too much range for Pichu to get some solid combo's going. However, Ridley is easy to gimp and is a big enough target to make Pichu's job easier. This slight disadvantage may be my matchup knowledge, but I'd say its about 60/40 in Ridley's favor.

:ultshulk: Very bad match up for Pichu. After about 10 matches, I did not take a single game off of a random online Shulk. His reach is very large, does not have enough landing lag to punish, and is very hard to gimp with A) Jump Art and B) the large distance Up-B covers. My best strategy was to spam Neutral B and benefit off the mix ups. I'd say this is probably a 70/30 match up.

:ultsnake: I think this is an even match up. An immovable object versus an unstoppable force. Snake has kill power and set up, but Pichu has the speed and the combos to counter it. The main problem Pichu faces is the fact that Snake's Up-B is not cancelled by any of Pichu's aerials besides Dair. I think this match up comes down strictly to player skill. Needless to say, a very fun match up.
 
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Davybaby2.0

Smash Rookie
Joined
Dec 3, 2018
Messages
7
Location
Arkansas
In my personal experience playing pichu peach/daisy, yoshi, samus/edgy samus are most likely going to be our most frustrating matchups. For most of the same reasons being: they don’t combo very well, live forever, and can punish us extremely hard with little effort on their part. These matchups feel like an uphill battle the entire time. At least we can combo, and gimp the sword characters/heavys if we get a window of opportunity. I may be tripping and just looking at it from the wrong angle so I would love some constructive criticism on the matter.
 

Davybaby2.0

Smash Rookie
Joined
Dec 3, 2018
Messages
7
Location
Arkansas
Also can we just unanimously agree that little Mac and king k rools superarmor is stupid when playing against them as pichu. I mean they’re beatable sure but holy arsecus it’s dumb when I get hit, and die for trying to inturupt a random smash attack that I could have totally gotten away on any other characters.
 

Davybaby2.0

Smash Rookie
Joined
Dec 3, 2018
Messages
7
Location
Arkansas
I'd say that pichu's small seize is mostly useful when opponents have attacks that don't have much vertical range. Sword users generally have hits covering big areas; horizontally and vertically. The heavier ones have the problem that they get interupted easily, so it makes sense marth is a problem. From the top of my head I can imagine bowser also being annoying without having experienced it, because of the low hitboxes and the super armor.

How to deal with marth, I'd say use pichus nimbleness (is that a word?) to stay out of sword range, especially tipper. I wouldn't spam neutral b because of the ending lag, but rather jump around to find an opening. Marth wants to space, so don't let him. Get in, hit, get out. Also above marth is somewhat open, so you can leap in with a dair or so.

Bowser is slow and probably walks through neutral B as well as most attacks since they are low damage but multihit. I'd try to grab him a lot.
Yes nimbleness is a word, and you also used it perfectly considering the context. Good job A+
 

Scuzzy

Smash Rookie
Joined
Dec 10, 2018
Messages
10
Also can we just unanimously agree that little Mac and king k rools superarmor is stupid when playing against them as pichu. I mean they’re beatable sure but holy arsecus it’s dumb when I get hit, and die for trying to inturupt a random smash attack that I could have totally gotten away on any other characters.
I find any heavy kinda miserable to face because a stray hit can send Pichu to Agrabah and back at super low %. But specifically yeah Samus and Krool can be real annoying because they've got good projectiles to space you with, so that takes away from spacing with your neutral b to try and force an opening to run in on and not get wrecked. That being said I feel like I probably rely to heavily on thunder jolt in neutral so I'm sure there are ways around this which I haven't found yet.
 

yata9arasu

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jan 4, 2019
Messages
5
I wouldn't use TJolt at all in that matchup (vs Samus) except at the ledge. Just run in and destroy Samus. Her moves just miss or are too slow up close. The more you use TJolt the more time charge shot has to get ready. It all comes down to keeping charge shot down. Pichu is really really hard to hit as Samus. K rool though... UGH, that super armor.
 
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edde

Smash Ace
Joined
Nov 23, 2007
Messages
573
Location
Caracas, Venezuela
NNID
edmichu
Wario: Even, maybe a bit in Warios favour. Wario can KO super early and has better aerial mobility. Pichu on the other hand has stronger moves and better combos. A skill matchup, i feel wario has the edge with the waft, a good wario will setup for it and will get the punishes. He has a predictable recovery, He usually comes back deep down so try to dair him, which isnt easy but its doable.

Inkling: Skill matchup, the Inkling player i usually play is worse than I am, but he still has some annoying moves. Don't roll back on his sideb or you will die at 80% or so... The guy i play against doesnt use much his aerials or combos, but i believe pichu is better there.

Wolf: Pichu has the edge here, his movement and air speed can be obnoxious for wolf to handle. Wolf will win if he forces you to a camp fight. Get to him you have the tools to do it and wolf's combos arent consistent on pichu. Edge guarding him and baiting his side b makes him die super early.

Palutena: Even matchup, maybe a bit in Palutena's favour... dont get hit by nair or you'll be combo'd to 40% and will die soon due to her strong moves, great projectiles and strong juggling game.

Ike: Pichu should win. Bait out his moves (specially nair), and use your huge speed difference to your advantage. his upb can be spiked, you can force him to uncomfortable situations with his side b which are punishable

Bayo: In pichu's favour... she has a hard time hitting pichu and is super punishable... never underestimate her though, her combo game is probably the best in the game... all her kill moves are pretty punishable except for her bair

Pika: Pichu's mobility makes it an easy matchup IMO... Pika was my old main and swapped to pichu. Pika's floatiness and move speed make him feel clunky compared to pichu, he has more range, but pichu's superior mobility and power gives him the edge trading in the air. Avoid camp fights. Stick to him, combo him, pika doesnt have reliable combo moves and kill power is much inferior.

DK: In pichu's favour. Avoid trading aerials, specially his bair. He is super easy to combo, Dairing his upb from above is very easy to do and wins you this matchup, a good dk player will be hard to exploit here, but i strongly believe this is the key to beating dk consistently

All heavys in general: Pichu should win. Do not trade with them. Do not walk into their smashes. They're easy to combo/juggle. Most are easy to gimp, those with insane recoveries like d3 might have to be ledge trapped over and over and over from 70% all the way to 170% where they usually die by an on stage aerial.
 

DanSB

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jan 6, 2019
Messages
4
I've personally had some trouble against sword characters, but what I found helped is using my neutral b or foxtrotting around them waiting for them to whiff an attack. The only sword character that I truly can't do anything against would be a good Ike mainly due to the fact that I'll struggle to find an opening due to his Nair spam.

The only other characters that i really struggle with would be Samus/ Dark Samus. The projectile spam really makes me impatient and i get myself into very bad situations. I never tried ducking down through projectile though, I'll give that a try.
 
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