Pika Q&A/FAQ Thread: Ask a Quick Question, Get a Quick Answer!

[Angiance]

@Ramsaur: Well anything is readable Since landing SH D-Air gives us the probability to tack on 30+%, maybe we should advance it's usage, maybe? F-Air seems like such a great, general poking/shield-eating/zone-breaking tool, is it really?

 

[Zee725]

If anyone's going to Whobo, i'll be in houston on friday if any of you want MU practice. I've got a huge variety of characters and after playing tagxy/shimitake for hours on end i've got some good insight on ways to improve. Let me know.

 

[TxB | Ramsaur]

There's other Pikas in Texas besides Kprime?!!!! I though that state was nothing but Olimars lol. Did you go to Who's Tyler @Zee?

@Angiance Dude play another person that actually knows the metagame; it's not as safe as you think.

 

[Zee725]

Nah i'm from vegas

 

[TxB | Ramsaur]

Dude. You should be going to SoCal tournaments!

 

[Pikabunz]

I think he does. Z is a top pika.

 

[TxB | Ramsaur]

Oh shoot, I didn't know that was Z. Like THE Z.

@Z I can never find videos of you on youtube. I don't get good results when I type in Smash Z, Pika Z, and stuff like that lol.

 

[Zee725]

I go to just about every socal regional, and i've got a vid up vs kiraflax from Golden Coast.

 

[Angiance]

@Ramsaur: SH D-Air evades/breaks through alot of options, while netting a possible 30%+ damage, isn't that safe? F-Air drops Pikachu's hurtbox by a large margin, and reaches out horizontally, isn't that safe?

 

[TxB | Ramsaur]

Z: Alright cool, I'll check it out! Sorry for not recognizing you at first

Angiance: It is pretty safe but you have to make sure to mix it up. If you're playing someone who doesn't know the Pika MU then you can get away with falling into them with Fair and then Utilt; but Fair fall gets punished if they know what's up. Fair is more of a spacing tool; it's kind of like how the MKs space with their Fair. I get Fair a lot when my opponent is coming off of the ledge. But Dair isn't perfect; even if you're playing against Falco whom we have a +2 on could just laser us out of the SHDair. SHDair is good but you HAVE to know the right situations for it. CPUs will fall into it or be godlike and shieldgrab it.

 

[Angiance]

F-Air seems too dangerous to fast fall; F-Air seems great as a zone breaker, shield eater, and plaform pressuring/controlling weapon. SH D-Air's damage capability is what really makes me wanna see it's overall usage advanced, but that's just me.

Ok, so like, I was thinking: would it be a bad strategy to eat the opponent's shield with F-Air and B-Air (B-Air is for if they're on a platform of course), then finish their shield with F-Smash? I never see anyone trying to cause a shield break.

 

[hell-dew]

I dont usually assume my Opponent is stupid enough to sit there and eat a Fsmash considenrig how long it takes to come out they can easily react and punish it. I dont aim for Sheild breaks cause i find the the way our moves works its far more favorable to go for pokes. its not that hard to space a Nair into someones sheild and poke them same with Fair Bair Dair Jolts ETC plus if i were Fsmashing on Shield I would expect to get badly punished for it its easy to PS or just attack or even roll

 

[Angiance]

F-Smash > Weak shield = shield break; it's one of the rare occasions where intending to hit shield is positive, but F-Smash IS somewhat slow on start-up and PS is freaking scary (that cling sound makes jump sometimes). Thanks guys. :3

 

[UzakiuzuG]

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http://www.animeflavor.com/anime/pokemon-origins

 

[Angiance]

That's cool, but this thread is for questions bro. The PGD thread is what you're wanting : )

 

[HoldeN HoT FiyA]

How do we deal with d-air camping from MK? I have hardly any experience against MK so I'm not sure how I should be dealing with it

 

[Angiance]

MK's D-Air is one of his main spacing weapons. Our U-Air, the part where our tail is overhead, or rising F-Air can catch MK's D-Air camping from diagonal angles, but it takes precision; we have to understand the breaks in between each MK D-Air.

 

[[FBC] ESAM]

SH Dair isn't safe at all, it's just really good for picking out sidesteps (Which everybody likes to do against Pika becuase grabs are the best thing about our character)

 

[Angiance]

So it's a high damage stringer, best used for reads, got it. Um, would the front half of U-Tilt be an anti-air? Thanks.

 

[[FBC] ESAM]

No, it's too slow and unreliable. Better anti-airs would be up-angled f-tilt and u-smash (Or even D-smash since it is slightly disjointed)

 

[Angiance]

Alright, thanks bro. :3

 

[hell-dew]

Upwards angled Ftilt is stupidly good for AA I find it kinda a weird move to input but it feels satisfying to land it.

random question on Stale moves so my understanding for stale moves is that it will save up to 10 moves before stuff becomes "refreshed" so if u used something like Fthrow and how it does the mutiple shocks would that count as mutiple moves? same question with Dsmash would each hit of Dsmash take up a spot out of my stale move regstry? The other question i had about it was what about attacks that dont hit anything. If i use a Ftilt or a Thunder that didnt hit the enemy would the move still stale? and lastly if i hit a enemies shield from my understanding the move will NOT stale correct?

Im trying to figure out what i should be going for for kill moves. sometimes i find Nair for instance to be very useful at low % then i find it can also kill at high % thus i was wondering how i should be juggling my moves. I know grabbing and pummeling it really good for refreshing same with jab which i use sometimes but i was wondering other moves i should be using.

 

[Player -0]

Upwards angled Ftilt is stupidly good for AA I find it kinda a weird move to input but it feels satisfying to land it.

random question on Stale moves so my understanding for stale moves is that it will save up to 10 moves before stuff becomes "refreshed" so if u used something like Fthrow and how it does the mutiple shocks would that count as mutiple moves? same question with Dsmash would each hit of Dsmash take up a spot out of my stale move regstry? The other question i had about it was what about attacks that dont hit anything. If i use a Ftilt or a Thunder that didnt hit the enemy would the move still stale? and lastly if i hit a enemies shield from my understanding the move will NOT stale correct?

Im trying to figure out what i should be going for for kill moves. sometimes i find Nair for instance to be very useful at low % then i find it can also kill at high % thus i was wondering how i should be juggling my moves. I know grabbing and pummeling it really good for refreshing same with jab which i use sometimes but i was wondering other moves i should be using.

Thunder Jolts too? Quick Attack might be risky.
_______________________________
Edit: ESAM how was that NC tournament? Mwauhhaa, I had a Cross Country Meet in NC the same day....

 

[Angiance]

@Hell-Dew: Heck yeah, our F-Tilt has a pretty solid hitbox. Alot of Multi hit attacks only count as 1 hit towards stale moves: F-Throw, D-Smash, F-Air, B-Air; attacks only stale if they hit something, though I'm not too sure about hitting shields. For KO attacks, it seems like N-Air is the best thing, and then theres U-Tilt or F-Smash, F-Tilt should replace F-Smash as a KO attack after 150% however. U-Smash for KOing: it's fast (frame 9), but it's Ganondorf after lag and the fact that we've got to be at point-blank range to sweet spot it kinda makes it too risky (for me anyways); we mess up with U-Smash and it's pretty harsh punishment we have to endure. Move refreshing: Pummel, Rapid Jab, T-Jolts, and U-Air are our attack refreshers pretty much. On Smashville, busting the balloon will refresh attacks; hitting shyguy at YI refreshes attacks too (I think); against Dedede, rapid jabbing his Waddle-dee/doo can refresh attacks very quickly, etc.

 

[hell-dew]

Thanks that makes a lot of sense I figured mutihits wouldn't count each hit for it but just checking Also any Pika players here going to Apex this year. first time going this year Should be a lot of fun.

Yeah I toss out Jolts all the time I almost forget to mention it cause its just natural lol. such a stupidly good projectile IMO easily one of the best in the game. I never realize how insane of a projectile it was until fighting ZSS particularly. the level of mobility we have with jolts crazy good ironically Diddy kong/lucarios Love to punish anything that is even remotely misplaced with jolts speaking of lucario that dude has some wack as hell punishing windows his backroll is insane + that bloody Fsmash. I swear ive failed @ punishing that move to many times X.X. Which makes me wonder whats the fastest OOS option.

 

[Angiance]

About Apex: It's my freaking burning desire to brawl along side my fellow Pikachus...but I'm pretty poor xP About T-Jolt: it's a lovely projectile, I actually like it 100x more than Thunpoor, however it seems like a pretty terrible idea to T-Jolt if we have falling momentum, especially offstage unless we're extremely high up. Lucario is a very fun MU (to me). Lucario has the farthest roll in-game; Lucario's F-Smash has beautiful range on it, something scary is that the tip is of his F-Smash is the strongest part. About OoS: my personal favorite OoS choice is SH/FH U-Air (so swift and safe).

 

[Gunnermaniac]

Attacking a shield does not stale/unstale moves.
As for Lucario you may have trouble punishing his F-smashes (and his other ground spacing game moves) because you're attempting to punish the end lag. That's not going to work, you have to punish the start up instead. Obviously this is a bit trickier because instead of punishing on reaction you have to rely on reads and precision. But hey, it's a tough MU.

 

[TxB | Ramsaur]

Or just use another character like I do when I have to play against Lucario.

 

[Angiance]

Unless you're unusually dedicated to your character, like me~

I'm not sure who's good against Lucario...

 

[TxB | Ramsaur]

Against lucario I use MK, Falco, and Marth

 

[Reth92]

any possible advice on the PT matchup? I searched on the matchup chart and there was nothing

 

[Angiance]

any possible advice on the PT matchup? I searched on the matchup chart and there was nothing

It's not a very common MU, sorry.

Squirtle is as fast a Pikachu; he's hard to hit, has a solid F/B-Air, has a frame 1 jab, his side B makes him invulnerable (if he is footstooled as he's in his shell, he gets stuck on his back on the ground for a while). Also, I think he has a KO throw

Ivysaur outranges Pikachu and has power (strongest U-Smash in-game I believe), but we're faster/hard to hit and Ivysaur's recovery is harsh; her Up-B is canceled and she'll go into freefall if you're on the ledge

Charizard is the easiest to deal with since we can CG him; juggle him etc., still be careful; 2nd longest regular grab, frame 5 U-Smash

 

[TxB | Ramsaur]

Don't forget about rock smash. Ooooh PTs will look for it. Watch Reflex's PT.

 

[Angiance]

Oh yeah, Charizard's rock smash deals HEAVY damage if all it's hitboxes connect (30+% damage I believe)

 

[hell-dew]

I found mutihitting areials wreak the heck out of squirtle when i fight him but i cant tell if thats a squirtle problem of a player problem cause yeah no one uses the character. Charizard and Ivysaur Exploit the hell out of their weaknesses. Charizard abuse your speed projectiles and chip him with UpAir and Jolts/CG. Ivysaur more of the same really Ivysaur has some weird moves though like Bullet seed and Razor leaf so have your SDI skills ready on a whim. Abuse Ivesaurs crappy recovery we destroy him there. Be very careful of the spike that Charizard and Ivysaur have it will wreak you out of QA recovery.

Also Anyone got good Ness pointers? cause im gonna be getting bopped by my regions Ness at a tourney in a few days and figure may as well go down with a fight ive fought him a whole lot before and have a pretty good idea how screwed i am but gonna practice and learn what i can before it im looking to not get 3 stocked anymore and maybe make it at least look like a fight

 

[TxB | Ramsaur]

My dude, have you ever heard of commas? I usually just troll around when I spot people's grammar because it's not too bad, but that was very hard to read without even minimal punctuation. You had lists and run off sentences everywhere! Now that usually isn't a problem, but you were trying to explain something to us, and there were a LOT of times I had to sit there and think about what you wrote because of mis-punctuation.

 

[TxB | Ramsaur]

There

I found mutihitting areials wreak the heck out of squirtle when i fight him. But i cant tell if that's a character problem or player problem, cause yeah no one uses the character.
Charizard and Ivysaur: Exploit the hell out of their weaknesses. Charizard: abuse your speed, projectiles, and chip him with UpAir and Jolts/CG.
Ivysaur: more of the same really. Ivysaur has some weird moves though like Bullet seed and Razor leaf, so have your SDI skills ready on a whim. Abuse Ivysaur's crappy recovery; we destroy him there. Be very careful of the spike that Charizard and Ivysaur have, it will wreak you out of QA recovery.

Also, anyone got good Ness pointers? cause I'm gonna be getting bopped by my region's Ness at a tourney in a few days, and figure may as well go down with a fight. I've fought him a whole lot before and have a pretty good idea how screwed I am, but I'm gonna practice and learn what i can do before it. I'm looking to not get 3 stocked anymore and maybe make it at least, look like a fight

I'm pretty sure Shakey and ESAM have fought plenty of times since they live right next to each other. Just search Shakey vs ESAM on youtube and study those.

 

[hell-dew]

My bad, my grammar is terrible right now cause I was doing hours of programming earlier today. Mind my terrible grammar I literally spent hours memorizing syntax and structure and wasn't event aware I stopped writing half sensibly XD

 

[[FBC] ESAM]

In the ness MU you pretty much have to worry about 3 things: Fair, dash grab, and double jump fake-outs. Other than that the character is booty. Super easy to edgeguard with uair footstool, grab release chaingrab to guaranteed dash attack/u-smash. Um...idk what else to say really

 

[CourageHound]

In the case of the Spacies MUs, what would my main focus be during the match? I know the grab is a defining part of the matchup but I know that shouldn't be all should go for right?