AzNfinesse
Smash Journeyman
ok. so there's this pikachu in vegas named Z. He did insane at BIO 2 a few weeks ago. And I always end up facing him at some point during weeklies. Now, i went to the matchup thread, and there's some things that just don't work. Here's the match up summary on pikachu.
Pikachu: (65/35)
General Matchup:
* Pikachu's strengths are found in a variety of places. Fast at times, strong at times, and really annoying at other times. Underestimating pikachu in any of these fields could prove to be deadly for gw.
* Pika's priority is sparce, if that. Most of his range/disjointed properties are probably only found on his forward smash and his down b. Most of pika's attacks can be outranged by gw pretty easily
* His kill potential is pretty specific, but not to be taken lightly. Forward smash is very strong when he hits close with it, so this will only be used if you put yourself in a laggy position. If he hits with the tip of it, it does little knockback so not to worry there. Other kill moves are his upsmash (very strong/fast, probably most used kill move), down b (used well out of uptilts/upsmashes for low percent kills), and nair (only if fresh and the first few frames of the attack).
* Pika has a pretty darn good recovery, with the use of forward b and up b together. Forward b has more vertical lift it seems than the last game and can grab the edge out of it. Up b seems to stun a bit more than it used to and can still get him back from very silly situations. Overall, pika is pretty hard to edgeguard because his quick attack is so versatile.
* The only viable methods for pika to edgeguard are to pester you with jolts, toss out a down b near the stage, or try for a risky aerial like a nair or something. All of these are either easy to avoid or can be neutralized by a nair, not too much to worry about here.
* Combos from pika are interesting to say the least. Quick attacks into your shield and be canceled by a jump to nair for some quick damage. Mainly combos will be probably set up by landing a jolt and then probably a running grab. Overall pika's approach becomes limited w/o any priority/range or a projectile that isn't canceled easily.
* Combo's on your side are pretty run of the mill. Pika has a pretty bad buffered roll and tech roll out of a dthrow, so tech chasing will be pretty easy. Up airs work well to keep him in the air just watch for sporatic thunders (they probably woudn't want to do this, it'll leave them open). Everything else is really stylistic based as far as what moves you use when.
General Strategies:
* Pika likes to use a lot of shield pressure techniques, so watch out for them. If he quick attacks your sheild a lot just hold out or up b to get him off of you. He shouldn't be able to do them in so much succession that your sheild will wear out, up b is a real savior in this department.
* Against his recovery, its possible to dtilt him out of his forward be assuming he doesn't space it pixel perfect. Other than that my general preference is throwing out a nair, covers a lot of ground and will assuredly hit him out of it. Another option would be to try and bait him to land above the stage with his up b and try to up air punish his freefall.
* Personally i feel as though the bucket should only be used to catch down b's from a distance, jolts from a distance, or mid ranged jolts if you have low percents. Otherwise, you'll find yourself dead from an upsmash. I think it is worth it to take two upsmashes at low damage, when the bucket is full, thats always a free stock.
* Overall, there isn't a whole lot to this matchup. You'll find that you'll win in almost all of your approaches, as you'll either have way more range than him, or he just doesn't have the ooshield options to punish you. Grabs will destroy him, and he's pretty light so he's very susceptible to early deaths.
Stages:
* Rainbow cruise would hurt pika a lot, but could also backfire because of the high reach of thunder. Of course if you can nab jungle japes, you'd be golden.
* Avoid low ceilings, and opens spaces like corneria/fd.
now, there are a few crucial moves that pika uses that aren't considered:
- Dsmash
- Pika's biggest shield pressure/damage dealing skill. It's very possible to DI out of it, but pika doesn't have very much lag after using this skill so it's tricky to punish it if it is shielded.
- Nair
- this has almost no start up time and no lag. Very fast attack and i've seen this move kill some of the lighter characters. And considering G&W is the 3rd lightest character in the game, that's not too good.
- Fair
- relatively high priority. and although there is lag if the pika lands on the ground mid-animation, a skilled pika won't fall for that. quick to start and quick to end as well. Also deals a fair amount of damage.
- Bair
- slightly the same as Fair, except the lag when pika lands is longer and the startup is faster. i've noticed that this is a typical approach, much like our bair.
- Dair
- this is a potential aerial kill move for pika. there is lag if pika lands on the ground mid animation. it does leave pika open because the damage is one hit and a lot of lag before and after. also pretty low priority. not a major problem for G&W, but is still a potential threat.
Now what the guide doesn't point out is some of pika's strategies.
- one main approach pika uses - a Thunder Jolt approach. Jumping in the air and throwing out a jolt then chasing the jolt. Simple, yet effective if used wisely.
- quick attack skip (i don't know what it's officially called). using quick attack and landing on the ground just right so that pika hops in the air and has no lag afterwards. usually follows up with a high priority aerial attack or a thunder jolt.
- thunder edgeguarding. hopping slightly off the stage and using thunder to prevent opponent from getting near the stage. depending on the situation, pika can follow up with an aerial or smash attack.
reason i'm doing this is because i've asked around, and not many G&W players have actual experience against a skilled pika. this is the visual observations i've made of a pikachu that places very well in tournaments.
so what do you think is the best way to approach?
Pikachu: (65/35)
General Matchup:
* Pikachu's strengths are found in a variety of places. Fast at times, strong at times, and really annoying at other times. Underestimating pikachu in any of these fields could prove to be deadly for gw.
* Pika's priority is sparce, if that. Most of his range/disjointed properties are probably only found on his forward smash and his down b. Most of pika's attacks can be outranged by gw pretty easily
* His kill potential is pretty specific, but not to be taken lightly. Forward smash is very strong when he hits close with it, so this will only be used if you put yourself in a laggy position. If he hits with the tip of it, it does little knockback so not to worry there. Other kill moves are his upsmash (very strong/fast, probably most used kill move), down b (used well out of uptilts/upsmashes for low percent kills), and nair (only if fresh and the first few frames of the attack).
* Pika has a pretty darn good recovery, with the use of forward b and up b together. Forward b has more vertical lift it seems than the last game and can grab the edge out of it. Up b seems to stun a bit more than it used to and can still get him back from very silly situations. Overall, pika is pretty hard to edgeguard because his quick attack is so versatile.
* The only viable methods for pika to edgeguard are to pester you with jolts, toss out a down b near the stage, or try for a risky aerial like a nair or something. All of these are either easy to avoid or can be neutralized by a nair, not too much to worry about here.
* Combos from pika are interesting to say the least. Quick attacks into your shield and be canceled by a jump to nair for some quick damage. Mainly combos will be probably set up by landing a jolt and then probably a running grab. Overall pika's approach becomes limited w/o any priority/range or a projectile that isn't canceled easily.
* Combo's on your side are pretty run of the mill. Pika has a pretty bad buffered roll and tech roll out of a dthrow, so tech chasing will be pretty easy. Up airs work well to keep him in the air just watch for sporatic thunders (they probably woudn't want to do this, it'll leave them open). Everything else is really stylistic based as far as what moves you use when.
General Strategies:
* Pika likes to use a lot of shield pressure techniques, so watch out for them. If he quick attacks your sheild a lot just hold out or up b to get him off of you. He shouldn't be able to do them in so much succession that your sheild will wear out, up b is a real savior in this department.
* Against his recovery, its possible to dtilt him out of his forward be assuming he doesn't space it pixel perfect. Other than that my general preference is throwing out a nair, covers a lot of ground and will assuredly hit him out of it. Another option would be to try and bait him to land above the stage with his up b and try to up air punish his freefall.
* Personally i feel as though the bucket should only be used to catch down b's from a distance, jolts from a distance, or mid ranged jolts if you have low percents. Otherwise, you'll find yourself dead from an upsmash. I think it is worth it to take two upsmashes at low damage, when the bucket is full, thats always a free stock.
* Overall, there isn't a whole lot to this matchup. You'll find that you'll win in almost all of your approaches, as you'll either have way more range than him, or he just doesn't have the ooshield options to punish you. Grabs will destroy him, and he's pretty light so he's very susceptible to early deaths.
Stages:
* Rainbow cruise would hurt pika a lot, but could also backfire because of the high reach of thunder. Of course if you can nab jungle japes, you'd be golden.
* Avoid low ceilings, and opens spaces like corneria/fd.
now, there are a few crucial moves that pika uses that aren't considered:
- Dsmash
- Pika's biggest shield pressure/damage dealing skill. It's very possible to DI out of it, but pika doesn't have very much lag after using this skill so it's tricky to punish it if it is shielded.
- Nair
- this has almost no start up time and no lag. Very fast attack and i've seen this move kill some of the lighter characters. And considering G&W is the 3rd lightest character in the game, that's not too good.
- Fair
- relatively high priority. and although there is lag if the pika lands on the ground mid-animation, a skilled pika won't fall for that. quick to start and quick to end as well. Also deals a fair amount of damage.
- Bair
- slightly the same as Fair, except the lag when pika lands is longer and the startup is faster. i've noticed that this is a typical approach, much like our bair.
- Dair
- this is a potential aerial kill move for pika. there is lag if pika lands on the ground mid animation. it does leave pika open because the damage is one hit and a lot of lag before and after. also pretty low priority. not a major problem for G&W, but is still a potential threat.
Now what the guide doesn't point out is some of pika's strategies.
- one main approach pika uses - a Thunder Jolt approach. Jumping in the air and throwing out a jolt then chasing the jolt. Simple, yet effective if used wisely.
- quick attack skip (i don't know what it's officially called). using quick attack and landing on the ground just right so that pika hops in the air and has no lag afterwards. usually follows up with a high priority aerial attack or a thunder jolt.
- thunder edgeguarding. hopping slightly off the stage and using thunder to prevent opponent from getting near the stage. depending on the situation, pika can follow up with an aerial or smash attack.
reason i'm doing this is because i've asked around, and not many G&W players have actual experience against a skilled pika. this is the visual observations i've made of a pikachu that places very well in tournaments.
so what do you think is the best way to approach?
