Meta Pikachu Metagame Discussion

[Plasmaexe]

Shrieks been the most difficult match up for me (at least against good ones). I have no idea how to deal with that neutral air (forward tilt doesn't seem to work that well stopping it and doing any of Pikachu's aerials ends up in a bad trade), plus I can't seem to ever punish it with a grab. Getting a little better with avoiding Bouncing fish (punishing it is another thing though and dodging it altogether is tough without anticipating it), but it does get me still sometimes and makes using thunder jolt very unsafe at mid-range. Sheik can usually follow up with all his tilt moves, but Pikachu can't unless it's an aerial.

 

[Volt@ge]

Found a neat tidbit that I've not really tested extensively enough, but just throwing it out for the sake of it.

Noticed that in the Bowser matchup, you can pretty easily tack on at least 20% before about the 50% range by doing Down-throw > U-air > B-air. Can usually be repeated up to about 50% as said, where D-throw begins sending him too high to properly follow up.

I've fought several Bowser's online, as well as tested against the CPU who are notoriously quick air dodge spammers, and have noticed that it always seems to work, assuming you don't completely miss the B-air. I don't know if it's a true combo, not familiar enough with hitstun and all that jazz, but maybe something to test for somebody who is.

If it is, it's pretty nice considering what a big and easy grab target Bowser is. Then again he is the heaviest (base) character in the game as far as I'm aware, so whether it'd extend to the likes of DK and D3 I don't know.

 

[dettadeus]

dthrow > uair > bair works on basically every character lol

 

[Volt@ge]

O I c, ignore me then, I'm a pleb. =p

 

[hell-dew]

can someone test out somethings in the sheik MU a lot of the shieks ive fought in person and online love spaming Ftilt which kinda bodied me last time i fought the main shiek in my region. im curious if we can thunder"counter" out of it. if we could turn her Ftilt into a less safe tool that would make her ground game a lot less annoying.

i found shiek really trouble some in the air to. Fair outspacing our fair is annoying as heck but my knowledge on that MU is super limited.

Bowser

Bowser is far and away the hardest heavy we fight. his jab is fast his damage output is insane and his hits hurt. and just putting this out there Do NOT shield the bowser bomb the shield break allows him to murder us piss early with Fsmash (like 40%) also know that his Dair Spikes he can kill you near the ledge with it so be aware. in terms of his moves QAing into him can be risky he can UpB on reaction so try and bait stuff out if your QA into him or hit him out of greedy/stupid moves. Upair destorys him like all heavies hes still combo food he just has landing options that are pretty easy to react to so punish accordingly. be aware of his Fair which while slow is pretty disjointed and beats out our fair. dont even bother messing with his Bair its not worth trading with. he has to be feeling pretty ballsy to Dair or Down B us cause thunder stops both in their tracks and Upair gives him nightmares from below so exploit these weaknesses. his Upair can hurt off the top to so be wary on Dair landings.

Bowser also falls victim to our insane mobility and huge juggle game grab lots SH Dair him if he spot dodges. also watch out of his platform pressure to he can upsmash through BF platforms on the side Bowser bomb also sets up into it self which kills mad early. you can also resist the bowserside which is % dependent (IIRC its the lower % has more control someone correct me on this if im wrong). also with customs on he can recover after bowserciding. bowser dosent like our shield very much if he fire breaths im pretty sure you can quick attack around it and pop him up to. in general i think this MU is definintly in our favor while we have to do a lot more work to win in terms of hitting him and playing careful if were playing smart he realy has no business winning this. also you can thunder spike his recovery...

for customs Meteor QA decimates him stun jolts make killing him easy and Thunder 1 is most practical and of course skull bash 3 goes with out saying.

 

[PedroSmashFan2014]

As a Pikachu main, there are some hard matchups for Pika there, notably Greninja and sheik, but, on an online match for glory, I´ve played against a Lucina and a Greninja and won!

 

[Nocally]

seems to me that online greninjas are becoming really predictable, and you can easily punish his shadow sneak just by attacking or grabbing him since he is vulnerable just before he attacks.

 

[infomon]

What do you pikas do against Villager?

Villager fires a Lloyd Rocket. He wants you to jump over it so he can Fair you. What other option do we have? Fresh thunderjolts can only kill stale rockets I think. Dash attack and Fair are much too laggy. Ftilt probably works but with a pretty small margin of error. Shield means we get grabbed, and it eats our shield.

 

[SyncNatsyu]

What do you pikas do against Villager?

Villager fires a Lloyd Rocket. He wants you to jump over it so he can Fair you. What other option do we have? Fresh thunderjolts can only kill stale rockets I think. Dash attack and Fair are much too laggy. Ftilt probably works but with a pretty small margin of error. Shield means we get grabbed, and it eats our shield.

Lloyd rocket doesnt detonate immediately, I usually just dash attack during Lloyd's start up or jump/shield if they are abit away, I find their Fair is easily dodged and honestly easy to see coming. Perfect shielding it is easy so no worries on it breaking shield.

Tjolt beats Lloyd if fresher than it(or hops over it forcing you to shield or get hit.)
If everything fails we have QA.

 

[Soul.]

What do you pikas do against Villager?

Villager fires a Lloyd Rocket. He wants you to jump over it so he can Fair you. What other option do we have? Fresh thunderjolts can only kill stale rockets I think. Dash attack and Fair are much too laggy. Ftilt probably works but with a pretty small margin of error. Shield means we get grabbed, and it eats our shield.

Whenever I fight against Villager, the first thing I do is not use Thunder Jolt as Villager is most likely to Pocket the move. I tend to play in an offensive way against Villager since as I said before, Pocket gets Thunder Jolt (and Thunder). Pretty much all you do vs. Villager is FF FAir → Up tilt → Up air to rack up damage.
If he's using Balloon Trip, Pikachu can just FAir the balloons so that Villager gets KO'd, or you can use BAir since it's a multi hit move. If he tries to use Lloid Rocket → Grab, I just QA or jump. His Timber is easy to dodge as Pikachu has the speed to get away from that. Pika's dash attack is laggy, yes, I agree. You can autocancel FAir, though.
Once you find an opportunity you just FF FAir to Up smash. Then again, there are other ways to beat Villager.

 

[PedroSmashFan2014]

I think that, to beat lucario, attack like crazy to make him die early, and, from then on, control the match as you wish, because u don´t want Lucario to get max power...

 

[SyncNatsyu]

Whenever I fight against Villager, the first thing I do is not use Thunder Jolt as Villager is most likely to Pocket the move. I tend to play in an offensive way against Villager since as I said before, Pocket gets Thunder Jolt (and Thunder). Pretty much all you do vs. Villager is FF FAir → Up tilt → Up air to rack up damage.
If he's using Balloon Trip, Pikachu can just FAir the balloons so that Villager gets KO'd, or you can use BAir since it's a multi hit move. If he tries to use Lloid Rocket → Grab, I just QA or jump. His Timber is easy to dodge as Pikachu has the speed to get away from that. Pika's dash attack is laggy, yes, I agree. You can autocancel FAir, though.
Once you find an opportunity you just FF FAir to Up smash. Then again, there are other ways to beat Villager.

you worry 'bout pocketed Tjolt? seems like it isn't much for vil since we can spam it and hit him/her if he/she tries to pocket it. Granted it has less recovery compared to grounded tjolt.

 

[infomon]

Thanks for the tips. Honestly I'd rather the Villager have a Jolt than be able to pocket a Thunder....

Edit: On second thought, this might be a rare matchup where that thunderless-thunder custom special is actually useful! I'm going to have to try that out. Same might go for Rosalina+Luma. Maybe that move isn't completely useless after all...

 

[SyncNatsyu]

@ infomon
well vil can pocket a section of thunder not the entire thing. as in he doesn't release an entire thunder just one of its hitboxes.(he does take the entire thing in the animation since they are part of a family of hitboxes but only uses one of them)

 

[infomon]

Oh that's totes weird. I'll need to practice using Villager vs. pika to get a feel for that I think...

I'm really liking Pika as an all-around strong character so I'm hopeful that even our toughest matchups (I'm still not sure which ones they are) are viable.

 

[Nocally]

Villager pocketing T-bolt is not a great issue since you can punish him if he just stands on the ground waiting. Overall it's a lame matchup that takes patience and good dodging/punishment skills, at least against the campy/spammy villagers.

From my experience, it seems to be that characters that can keep Pikachu out by using good zoning tools, is our hardest matchups.

 

[BellaLunaWolf]

So today I had some difficulty against a Fox and Captain Falcon. I lost close matches several time before I learned the opponent's attack pattern and finally bested them.

Anyone got any tips for Pikachu against Fox and Captain Falcon? I would like to learn more about the matchup.

 

[hell-dew]

For Fox I could tell you stuff but its proably easier to find nakat vs Esam.

with falcon that's an interesting MU. Falcon can be tough you have to respect his kill options Knee and Upair are both really really good DO NOT challenge Knee. it trades with Fair which is awful. that said Falcon gets juggled like an idiot to Chu so yeah abuse that. like wise Be wary of his options His running speed is nutty meaning his ability to grab you is pretty good aside from that though his actual approach options are surprisingly limited a lot of anti approach works pretty well on him IE Pivot grabs pivot Ftilt Dtilt. be aware of stuff like falcon kick and Raptor boost killing. Also I love the basic footsy games against him IE SH dair Running shield grab Fair ETC. and for the love of god be wary on ledge if you Regrab it expect to get uptilt spiked. Aside from that Gimping is godlike his recovery is pretty easy to gimp so capitalize on those. also be aware his kill moves hurt like a @#@# air dodging into ground and getting predicted gets you falcon punched... I think he has Dthrow knee Setup based on DI I havent been able to test to heavily though so be wary of that.

I stay Close to the ground or grounded in this MU aside for juggles or of stage opportunity and i try holding centre stage until hes at kill % so even he he does hit us were not dying easily. outside of gimping him Upsmash OOS works wonders cause his game is tends to be ver CQC based.

 

[Dark 3nergy]

Robin mu

Also chiming in about robin being a pretty easy mu. Basically started the match by tjolting to start my pressure game to which my opponent charges his thunder move. Which makes him react to my projectile by stopping his charge to deal with my tjolt. The point of the match is to never let Robin fully charge his full screen thunder projectile. To do this pikachu needs to be in his face.

When pikachu gets inside thats where he needs to stay. Robin does not seem like hes got any reliable way to pikachu off him without taking damage himself.

Mid range is where pikachu shouldnt be, if you find yourself in a situation where the distance is reset and you are mid range just remember that pikachus tjolt can cancel robins mid range projectile game. And from my experience i have cancelled all of them.

So something folks might have known this but if robin gets cheeky and upbs over us its a free thunder spike ko for us. His upb positions himself right ontop of the sweetspot.


Shulk mu

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=npogx6uRWyU

I feel its even. He out ranges us with nair, bair. You have to learn to deal with his nair to beat shulk. The hitbox has a lot of range and is pretty safe. This move needs to be respected. Hes got some monster hitboxes on dsmash and deceptive hitboxes on fsmash. You can definitely see those hitboxes and how he punished me in the video. Also counter is something else pikachu needs to respect. He can use it to mix up his attacks and its effective in the air and on the ground. Dont think he won't use it if you go to uair him. He can and will and itll hit you. The counters hit box is the blue aura effect that triggers when you attack his body when he down bs. It is a area of effect type of move that effects multiple fighters if more then two people get caught in it. This makes shulks counter dangerous in teams where if your partner screws up you can both pay the price.


Tbh, im pretty worried about the yoshi mu. He was annoying in brawl, but he's gotten A LOT better with 4.

 

[Nocally]

Robin mu

Also chiming in about robin being a pretty easy mu. Basically started the match by tjolting to start my pressure game to which my opponent charges his thunder move. Which makes him react to my projectile by stopping his charge to deal with my tjolt. The point of the match is to never let Robin fully charge his full screen thunder projectile. To do this pikachu needs to be in his face.



.

All of robins Thunder moves goes over Pikachu when he crouches, it's hilarious. Just be vary of when Robin uses his specials and you should be good.

 

[Dark 3nergy]

I never can seem to find myself in a situation where i can possibly crouch to avoid his mid range game, but yes i have avoided his mid range projectiles a few times by crouching. Apparently lil mac cant hit us very well if we crouch versus him. I havent fought any good lil macs so its something i need to still toy with. I feel like hes going to be interesting to fight due to his copious amounts of super armor. I feel like i cant just throw out any old move i want and expect it to work.

 

[Psyant]

Pikachu bodies Mac imo. Felt that way since launch and everyone agrees with me after we play the MU in friendlies. The thing is that Pikachu is a character that chooses his moments to get in; you don't have to constantly try and duke it out with Mac. You just punish him whenever he whiffs anything and force him to approach with tjolt if he's stubborn.

Mac can destroy Pikachu really quickly if he lands hits but he shouldn't be able to land them if you're evasive. Pikachu is legit the hardest character to actually pin down, trap and hit in the game. In everything else, Pikachu counters Mac. He has a projectile to force Mac to approach. Pikachu is amazing at juggles, Mac is basically helpless in air. Mac is weak to edgeguarding and Pikachu is one of the best edgeguarders in the game. Honestly, Pikachu is pretty much Mac's worst nightmare; a small evasive target half his moveset doesn't even hit that can abuse all his weaknesses. Just take care not to get hit.

 

[infomon]

I wish I had your Mac experience. I find it suuuper tough with pika for some reason. Maybe I'm just bad though

A good Mac is more evasive than my pika unfortunately....

 

[Nocally]

I wish I had your Mac experience. I find it suuuper tough with pika for some reason. Maybe I'm just bad though

A good Mac is more evasive than my pika unfortunately....

A really lame (good) strategy against Mac Is just shielding everything he does, grab him and toss him off the edge and edge guard, or toss him up in the air and expect an air dodge or counter. The worst thing he can do when you are shielding is to grab and toss you or shield stab you. since Little Mac hits so hard, he can not follow up on anything.

The worst thing you can do against little Mac is to challenge him on the ground directly, unless you know what you are doing. When Mac has a KO punch, camp like crazy and fake him out by jumping all over the place.

 

[Psyant]

You just gotta play near perfect is all, at least in regards to not leaving yourself exposed often. That goes for Pikachu in general in this game but against Mac especially. Don't use smash attacks unless they are guaranteed or you really need the kill; they're basically the only thing Pikachu has, besides specials, that he's in considerable danger of being punished during the end lag of. Just poke and combo with quick, weak attacks that are hard to punish. That's Pikachu's greatest strength in this game; he's so damn hard to hit or beat in neutral if he only uses his fastest moves.

If you run into Mac's attacks or try to trade with his armored moves you'll get destroyed for sure. I can totally see how it's easy to lose to Mac as Pikachu, don't get me wrong. But theoretically if both characters are played to an equal level I think Pikachu wins solidly. Mac's moveset is pretty fast but he still has much more risk to all his attacks than Pikachu and no way to force Pikachu to stop just doing safer pokes and combos.

 

[Dark 3nergy]

Psyant, in regards to lil mac, are there certain moves i need to be using against lil mac? For example, in the mu do i need to use bair more or fair moreso then normal? Your feedback on the mu is great general consensus of it. But i usually like to know what tool i need to use more of or less of. I understand i cant have any landing lag since that is something a mac player will jump on.

 

[Psyant]

Grabs are super good against him because you get a massive reward. Off a down throw you can get him up in the air and then he's just a target dummy for up air juggles. All he can do is try to airdodge or counter. Once he's up in the air don't let him down for as long as you can. Up air, up air, land on the floor quickly then jump back up and try to do it again. Sometimes you can keep him in the air for absurd amounts of time. Fair can often combo into fair at low-mid%s (they have a chance to escape but it's hard to dodge), you can carry him off stage with that. Sometimes you can even land a third fair offstage which will end him. Down tilt and up tilt are REALLY good against him. Up tilt can juggle him for ages and then leads into up air juggles, down tilt is a good move in general and is even safer against Mac because a lot of his moves simply can't hit you while you crouch, and you can often rush forward and grab after landing down tilt.

If he refuses to approach or do anything with any risk just start jolt spamming him. He has no option but to come at you. The best thing Mac can do vs Pikachu is pretty much run up, stop and jab or forward tilt at his max range. His other "approach options" like dash attack and Side B are awful, and he doesn't get much off grabs.

Back throwing Mac at the ledge is basically a free kill for Pikachu if you don't screw up the edgeguard and is one of the best things to try and get against him. You can stand at the ledge and thunder-jolt him to get him to come over there, but be wary of putting yourself in a bad position (no stage to move around). Once he's offstage basically anything will kill him. If he recovers low run off the stage and double jump nair. You could also bair or dair, or heck even a thunder jolt will kill him easily if you can connect it. If he Side Bs to recover it's more difficult, but if he goes for the ledge with Side B you can forward smash him a lot of the time.

Things not to do: Throwing out laggy moves like forward smash and down smash. It's just asking to be punched in the face. If you're trying to kill stick to up smash. Mac has a good roll but it's still possible to chase it and punish it's endlag with an up smash if you predict it. Generally though you should just be killing him via edgeguards. Save forward smash for jab resets or edgeguards.

 

[NairWizard]

I'm having some difficulty finding a winning strategy against sword characters, such as Shulk, Pit, and to a lesser extent Link and Toon Link (the projectiles make these annoying, otherwise they would be easier than Shulk and Pit). What do you guys suggest? How do I deal with huge disjoints? They're not as big as Dedede and Ganon so I can't combo them for days and then get an easy Thunder.

 

[dettadeus]

pikachu vastly outspeeds most of the characters you mentioned, so if you're having trouble getting in you should try baiting them to throw out a move and then punishing it during the ending lag. this probably works best against shulk and link out of the four you mentioned since they have quite a few laggy attacks, but it should work on pit and tink as well.

 

[NairWizard]

Thanks for the reply.

Usually it goes like this on flat stages (on Battlefield and Yoshi's there's less of a problem, well actually Yoshi's can be bad too):

Link throws projectiles. I aim one FH t-jolt to force him to shield and give me some time to get in. He still fires another arrow, which I powershield as I walk forward (or dash forward). I wait for him to let go of the bomb that's in his hand before going in. Once he does, I either Z-catch it or block it, and then go in (we're probably at center stage now assuming that he's been trying to take some stage control as well).

If I stay more than sword range away from him, he can continue throwing projectiles, and they're not quite laggy enough to punish in my experience (especially bombs, though I can sometimes get in during the pluck animation). If I get in close, his default response is jab, and I don't think that his jab has enough endlag (on just the first hit) to punish.

Against Shulk I usually find that he's spacing enormous aerials all over the place. Pikachu's grab range is kind of poor so I can't shieldgrab these, and usually I have to sacrifice stage control and run away. His n-air also has very low landing lag, and rising f-air autocancels. Once I get him in the air or offstage he's toast, so usually I try to go for a hard read to get him up there, but obviously this isn't very consistent for tournaments (especially since Shulk kills back at 50 often). I'm wondering what my solid options here are.

Pit is probably my fault for playing it a bit too safe in my shield and getting grabbed a lot, but his f-tilt has a lot of range and kind of like Link's jab seems hard to punish. His run speed seems pretty fast, too.

In general, I find myself losing trades when I try to play footsies with d-tilt/up-tilt. My best approach has been to Quick Attack behind these characters while they're using a move, and then punish with f-tilt or d-smash, or turn-around grab. Maybe I should run in and out of sword range as you suggest. Pikachu's dash in shield and dash in grab might be good enough as mixups to deal with their endlag. I'll give it a shot.

 

[Pika_Legend]

From my experience, it seems to be that characters that can keep Pikachu out by using good zoning tools, is our hardest matchups.

I agree with this. Megaman is probably the matchup they seems to always give me the most problems. It seems like he is built to keep you away. It's hard to say any character has more then a 6-4 advantage over pika though. Seems like at the very least all matchups are close. I haven't fought any character that I feel like I had no shot at. And on top of all else I think pikachu has an advantage over Diddy who everyone seems to hate atm

 

[Hoe4u]

Hi there I'm a Pika main for brawl, Pm and Sm4sh. I have quite a few matchups I'd like to add my input in. Those being, Fox, Sonic, bowser. I also have loads of experience against Mac, Lucario, Greninja and Marth but I'll save that post for later today!

Fox - Pikachu will struggle in this matchup for reasons like foxes Nair is safe even on shield, his speed is faster on the ground, his gravity gives him really good auto cancelled Uair juggles and followups to force pika to airdodge and punish, his Utilt (faced backwards) is still too fast to punish unless if spacing is bad & foxes ledge trumping methods can shut down pikas recovery methods if you consider foxes Utilt/AC Uair) covers desperate recoveries and Dsmash to reset the ledge trumping scenario.

Pika will excel in this matchup as he juggles fox at low percent with autocancelled Uairs to aerial combos at max range finishers, pika destroys foxes offstage game and can ledge trump fox really well due to Bair or wall jump fair and gimps fox decently as his recovery is better but still linear! He's still light so dies really early to pika.


Sonic - FH Tjolts are only viable if you have room to move off stage, every other scenario sonic will be able to punish upon or before landing, pika can't jab sonic at all, sonic's jab is fast enough to punish if the sonic is mashing jab at close quarters and jab will be used as a common punish as it will beat most of pikas recovery methods on the ground or in the air. Fast enough to make QA'in back to stage punishable even with shield stun, kills earlier than pika with moves like Bthrow, Fsmash, Usmash, Uair, Dsmash and Fthrow. His ledge trumping methods work very similar to fox! Hit and runs give sonic good baiting tools & his recovery makes landing thunder on a patient sonic offstage really hard to land. Sonics Fsmash at max range can't be punished.

Jab beats spin dash, AC Uair force sonic to want to UpB meaning thunder predictions are easier to follow through with, sonics rolls are easy to punish, Sonic can be tech chased easier than most characters, his get up options from the ledge put sonic in a worst position, thunder jolt stops spin dash ground cover at reasonable distances, AC Fair and Dtilt uses keep sonic out in closed spaces. Pikas SH Bair is a good punish for sonics jabs, tilts and Fsmashes on approach and good punishes for shielded jabs & Sonics smash attacks are easily punished (Fsmash only if spaced badly).


Bowser - Bowsers fair covers further range (good offstage spacing tool), UpB can't be punished on soft hit anymore, jab stops Tjlots, flame breath has use is pika recovers from below ledge, kill potential is greater at lower percents with whiffed moves, harder recovery as UpB grabs ledge from ridiculously low!

Bowser still suffers exactly from all of his brawl problems like bad frame data allowing easy punish game on all smashes and tilts, juggle capabilities higher as he can't DI out of Fair or Bair & QA can prevent bowser landing. thunder is easier to land due to character model size, mobility makes approaching easier.

 

[Rayman!]

Mr. Lonk
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Link has been heavily buffed in Smash 4 and what used to be a simple matchup for Pikachu, has turned into a complex game of spacing and punishing.
Let's start with the obvious here.
Link has a sword. This automatically gives him the upper hand against Pikachu as the disjointed, extended range can beat out some of Pikachu's options. For example, Link's Ftilt vs Pikachu's Ftilt is not favorable at all.
Link has three projectiles and a Hylian Shield that blocks projectiles by just standing there. While Pikachu does possess Thunder Jolt, Link has a much superior camp game and his passive range through projectiles can easily give Pikachu problems. It's unfortunate but Link's neutral game is just really good. Layman's terms : we gotta do the dirty work and approach the elf.
Link's vastly improved aerial moveset is enough to challenge Pikachu in the air. Fair, Nair and Bair have little to non-existant lag while possessing the ability to 'box out' Pikachu in the air, making head to head aerial combat a difficult task. Zair should also be remembered as it can be used to space out Pikachu and quite effectively at that.
Link's KO capabilities are ridiculous and he lives longer than Pikachu too. Usmash, Fsmash, Dair spike, Dsmash, Up-B, Dash Attack, you name it. He's got the tools to finish a Pikachu off really quick, once damage has been racked and quite frankly, that isn't a ridiculous task at all for Link.

BUT. All is not lost for our adorable, yellow, electrokinetic mouse.

Pikachu is much more mobile. With a naturally faster running speed and access to Quick Attack, Link players may find themselves getting crossed up by Pikachu. Projectiles can only do so much against a character that cover nearly entire stages with one move.
Pikachu has the ability to juggle Link quite effectively. Unless Link has a bomb in hand, Pikachu can string moves together on Link and ruthlessly keep him in the air. Link has very few solid options to escape juggle situations and the lack of a bomb will only exacerbate the situation.
Pikachu's gimp game can work on Link. Pikachu's superior recovery and better aerial mobility really provides Pikachu the freedom to take the fight to Link way off stage. Link players don't have the same liberty and will always find themselves in the disadvantageous situation.
Pikachu is too cute. The amount of cuteness that Pikachu exudes is ridiculously unfair. Having your butt handed to you by a mouse wearing a blue party hat or a white bandana will certainly distract Link players to the point of frustration.

By no means am I a super strong Pikachu player and I haven't played too many strong Links but this is what I thought of the matchup so feel free to agree, disagree or ... pikagree

My personal verdict : (5/5) or (6/5) with a slight lead to the green Hylian freak, I mean warrior.

The last one I disagree, the blue party hat Pikachu is cute, but the white bandana/green sweatband on his head is too god damn ugly.

 

[hell-dew]

annnnd not getting any updates on smashboards i really need to post some findings on this

 

[JayWon]

I have a hard time with puff and samus. Any advice?

 

[Hoe4u]

Legit I've found having tap jump on move in on jiggs with a full shield. The moment she hits your shield, QA OOS (Out of shield), into her and follow up with a combo. I've found with decent DI due to jiggums weight and gravity, after a First QA hit you can thunder at around 77-95% depending on the DI and securely walk thunder hitting the thunder cloud (occasionally positioning yourself correctly from the intial QA), or with the second QA (cause it does more knockback), you can use the same concept but at 65-80%.

Apart from that don't trade with anything but Nair if you can help it. And abusethe fact that auto-cancelling uair and fair plays a huge role in your mixups cause with uair if you see your opponent approaching you to grab, you can still nair before you land.

If you catch jiggs on the ground, mix up your auto-cancels with dtilt for less predictable baits.

 

[phili]

Found something while playing online the other day that could be helpful in the Pit matchup.

The Pit I was playing was recovering low so I ran off and used bair to drag him towards the bottom blast zone. As soon as the bair animation finished I was able to footstool him. I pulled this off 3 times in 2 matches againt that Pit.

I was wondering if this is an actual thing, or the Pit I played against was just reacting really slowly. Also, if this does work consistently, I'm not sure if it only applies to Pit, or other characters as well.

I plan on trying to test this with a buddy of mine shortly after New Year's, but if anyone has any information on this, it would be great if they could let me know.

 

[ZTD | TECHnology]

I'd like to talk about Mario. Right now there's a Mario in my scene who's skilled and knows the MU better than i do. The matches are close but I can't seem to close it out. In particular, Mario's moves are SO FREAKING FAST. He's so good at bullying Pikachu in the air. He's also good at pressuring us off stage. Not an easy MU at all.

 

[Soul.]

I honestly thought Pika was even vs. Mario. Might be in his favor since Cape and F.L.U.D.D. ruin Pika's recovery and like Tech said, his moves are fast. Probably has a chance of KOing early as well with up smash (lel that super armor above his head), down smash or forward smash if he gets a read. Not to mention the down throw -> up tilt -> up air -> Up B combo.
Perhaps PP FSmash helps? Jolts could zone him out since Mario can't use Cape repeatedly (correct me if I'm wrong). If that doesn't work, then...down tilt? Or mix them both. What do I know, though.

 

[FirewaterDM]

Recovery against Mario isn't too bad as long as you sweetspot most of the time, but I think that tjolt camping is useable in this matchup because it's still better than fireballs, and if Mario is just going to cape them, then that is a free punish for you because of the cape's lag. Recovery at least isn't that hard to deal with as long as you can sweetspot the ledge, though I think the safest spot is to recover low against Mario.