Meta Pikachu Metagame Discussion

[Kenrawr]

I don't think there are many match-ups we lose in. I'd say the hardest ones are Ness, Sonic, Olimar, Mario, and maybe Metaknight.

Why MK?

I have trouble with Luigis. I saw Dojo also lost to a Luigi a while ago while I was looking for vids on the match up.

 

[Hoenn]

Why MK?

I have trouble with Luigis. I saw Dojo also lost to a Luigi a while ago while I was looking for vids on the match up.

MK has an easy time zoning us out and can get easy kills on us with UpB
I did some testing with @ Pikabunz and he was not able to connect the UpB at all, so that may be why he has a "maybe" next to meta knight

I might have some videos of pikachu vs luigi from my chicago weekly
Youtube.com/events2compete
fsmash is very good against luigi since he cannot punish it if it is spaced properly and it beats through his fireballs
Against luigi it is extremely important to reset to neutral if there is any doubt that you are over extending. Just throw out some jolts, space fair, forward smash a lot. Also if luigi tries punishing things out of sheild or dashes at you, it is normally not a good idea to pick defensive options like shielding/rolling/spot dodging. Just down tilt, he may try to roll behind you and grab you, but that will not secure a punish for you, he then has to read you again. So dtilt gives him a hard time and it gives us a good opening if it hits. It is a very good zone breaker in this mu
When edge guarding luigi, just react to what he does and stay on the ledge. If you try to Bair luigi's up B, it is very smart to not throw it out right away. Fall towards him a little bit before he Up Bs because most luigi mains like to recover super low and will wait out your bair if you throw it out too early.

I am no pro at the matchup, but I do know a luigi main that plays a bit of pikachu that has been trying to coach me in the matchup and he says that the more patient you play, the more luigi struggles.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Rosalina is currently analyzing Pikachu at her match-up analysis thread. Got anything to contribute for the Rosalina vs. Pikachu match-up, we'll be analyzing Pikachu until the end of 4/5.

 

[infomon]

Rosalina's annoying for Pika. One of our main tools in that matchup is to stay away, and use quick attack to punish Rosie if she presses any buttons. But if the QA trades it is nothing short of horrible, and we can't let it land near her. So it's tough.

 

[hell-dew]

i feel rosa is rather +1 for us or even. she has the kill power we beat her in neutral she can stall our hitboxes with luma and neuter our mutihit moves pretty hard we can kill luma half decently (not insanely well but not to badly either) TBH i 2 stocked Xatis game1 at apex and found out the hard way what not to do against her and he got me back pretty nicely. her worst stage funnily enough is Omega lylat while lylat is really bad for her on recovery the platform layout plays in her favor and ability to quick attack cancel on them doesnt matter in the slightest learn what moves kill her luma (dash attack is godly for it) Nair cannot kill luma but will send it away in tumble while Upair nair will kill luma. Note luma has all knock back not rosa so yeah fear luma lol.

also luigi IMO is our worse matchup his defensive options are insane mixed with his grab punishes and fire ball approches you have a super tough character. also Dtilt isnt safe on powersheild and if the luigi can powersheild well this is becomes a miserable MU. he murders us in the CQC hes a bit tough to combo (space your up airs really nicely for him or else you get Naired) his recovery is really the only reason why we can do a damn thing to him in that MU otherwise i would say it would be a easy -2 for us but because his recovery is gimpable (although super freaking risky/hard at times) i would say its a -1.

Off stage do not thunder him by thundering in front of him he can misfire you for free and if he luiginados you you get spiked with an insane amount of hitstun which can very easily gimp us (it sounds stupid to even type this with how dumb that move is). his recovery works in 3 ways:

he has Side B which has a TON of lag at the end and only really covers horizontal. Up B which is straight upwards. and DownB which if the luigi can mash he can go anywhere.

Up B you can trade with Fair or Bair it kills him with the spike.

Side B you can do whatever you want to him its easy to punish down B is hard as hell to deal with. if you dive him hes gonna nado you i havent been able to test the spacing out on this moves but it doesnt seam like Bair wins at all and i think Fair can trade while i dunno about Nair Note this move does spike if i didnt make this clear so be aware of when you chose to trade with it.


do not quick attack against luigi and do not Bair his shield either. the low hurtbox of Bair is an easy punish for him and QA is a free upsmash for him if the luigi is remotely good i also think his Nair just beats it QA hard to. He will punish everything hard with grabs dont let him grab you he can grab Dtilts (i was messing with the spacing on this im pretty sure its not safe) Ftilt Fsmash Dsmash uptilt Jab and dair. even fair he can grab for for so yeah just understand his grab combo does an insane amount of damage so be wary of going in and trying to fight him in CQC also his jabs frame data is dumb he can jab to grab and use jab to break our CQC game/jab us on reaction if we attempt to grab him.


Nair for your life out of his grab and camp the crap out of him try to push him off stage and gimp him and abuse his meh platform game. and yeah he if grabs you DO NOT AIRDODGE (you die if you do) and be very careful rolling/spotdodging in general cause Up B is something you should be aware of and if you get the lead camp if your down never force the kill on him you will get bodied. outside of that space your self insanely well and mix up your approaches like crazy and understand his grab = death at high %s.

 

[Kenrawr]

I always double post. My b Prime.

MK has an easy time zoning us out and can get easy kills on us with UpB
I did some testing with @ Pikabunz and he was not able to connect the UpB at all, so that may be why he has a "maybe" next to meta knight

The MK's I have played against almost never get their combo->upb off. When they do I'm pretty sure it's because I miss-DI.

How exactly do they have an easy time zoning? I feel like run up shield beats him for the most part. afaik Pikachu bair also beats everything MK has off-stage.

I might have some videos of pikachu vs luigi from my chicago weekly
Youtube.com/events2compete

Thanks! I'll check these out.

fsmash is very good against luigi since he cannot punish it if it is spaced properly

I keep hearing this but I'm not exactly convinced! It's safe but have you guys tested it to be absolutely sure? Do you have to be perfect with it? Also what if the other guy has the reaction time to powershield? It's not especially hard to. It's not that great against Luigi imo.

Against luigi it is extremely important to reset to neutral if there is any doubt that you are over extending. Just throw out some jolts, space fair, forward smash a lot.

You already know how I feel about fsmash. Spacing fairs often leads me to taking 10%+ to their 1%. When I do get a fair on 'em it usually doesn't lead into anything because goddamnihateluigisomuch.

Also if luigi tries punishing things out of sheild or dashes at you, it is normally not a good idea to pick defensive options like shielding/rolling/spot dodging. Just down tilt, he may try to roll behind you and grab you, but that will not secure a punish for you, he then has to read you again. So dtilt gives him a hard time and it gives us a good opening if it hits. It is a very good zone breaker in this mu

Agreed

When edge guarding luigi, just react to what he does and stay on the ledge. If you try to Bair luigi's up B, it is very smart to not throw it out right away. Fall towards him a little bit before he Up Bs because most luigi mains like to recover super low and will wait out your bair if you throw it out too early.

I do this against Luigis that aren't Boss. Boss's down b mashing is crazy so it gives him a little bit of a mix-up option in that he can save his jump.

the more patient you play, the more luigi struggles.

Oh, definitely. I'm just never sure what to do in the neutral game. His options out of shield are devastating.

========================
Now responding to hell-dew :3
========================

also luigi IMO is our worse matchup his defensive options are insane mixed with his grab punishes and fire ball approches you have a super tough character. also Dtilt isnt safe on powersheild and if the luigi can powersheild well this is becomes a miserable MU.

I don't want to call it our worst match-up yet since we haven't had any real top level Pikachus fight any top level Luigis. But it's def my toughest MU.

Up B you can trade with Fair or Bair it kills him with the spike.

God Bless~

do not quick attack against luigi and do not Bair his shield either. the low hurtbox of Bair is an easy punish for him and QA is a free upsmash for him if the luigi is remotely good i also think his Nair just beats it QA hard to. He will punish everything hard with grabs dont let him grab you he can grab Dtilts (i was messing with the spacing on this im pretty sure its not safe) Ftilt Fsmash Dsmash uptilt Jab and dair. even fair he can grab for for so yeah just understand his grab combo does an insane amount of damage so be wary of going in and trying to fight him in CQC also his jabs frame data is dumb he can jab to grab and use jab to break our CQC game/jab us on reaction if we attempt to grab him.

Eh I wouldn't say DON'T QA against him. It's a good mix-up every now and then against anyone. It's what you do after the QA that you need to look out for. If you pop him up with the second part don't go in too eager to get a follow-up. You'll probably get hit. Bait etc. I agree w/ most of the other stuff. I think Dtilt is a decent option if you don't overuse it. It can lead into stuff and it's one of the tougher moves for Luigi to get past.

Nair for your life out of his grab

I prefer thunders. Faster, more unpredictable, safer. Only thing that's annoying is if he's combo'ing you horizontally and outruns the thunders while moving you along with him. Just make sure to stop spamming the input as soon as you feel a bait coming.

and camp the crap out of him try to push him off stage and gimp him and abuse his meh platform game. and yeah he if grabs you DO NOT AIRDODGE (you die if you do) and be very careful rolling/spotdodging in general cause Up B is something you should be aware of and if you get the lead camp if your down never force the kill on him you will get bodied. outside of that space your self insanely well and mix up your approaches like crazy and understand his grab = death at high %s.

Haha, yup. Pretty much.

 

[Hoenn]

I have a feeling that must have been kinda troublesome to write up lmao

Do you think it is possible for luigi to react to fsmash while being prepared for the other options in neutral?
I would think that you would only be able to react to fsmash with a power shield if the fsmash was anticipated
As an example of how hard it is for luigi to punish fsmash without powershield, In my set vs Greenbeast, we played on Omega windy hill zone, where the grass improves his traction... he still had issues punishing it
I do see what you are saying though

I am no expert on neutral vs characters like luigi, but whatever we come up with, it should be something manipulating the traction problems luigi has.

 

[Kenrawr]

I have a feeling that must have been kinda troublesome to write up lmao

Eh, it wasn't as bad as you'd think.

Do you think it is possible for luigi to react to fsmash while being prepared for the other options in neutral?

I think Luigi is going to be shielding regardless. He wants them grabs. If it's a power shield - you're boned. If it's not...he slides off into neutral again. I guess it's kind of a win for Pikachu if he slides near the edge of the stage.

I would think that you would only be able to react to fsmash with a power shield if the fsmash was anticipated

Well if you use it as one of your main tools in this match-up then I don't see why they wouldn't be anticipating it.

As an example of how hard it is for luigi to punish fsmash without powershield, In my set vs Greenbeast, we played on Omega windy hill zone, where the grass improves his traction... he still had issues punishing it
I do see what you are saying though

Can you link me to the video please? I'm having trouble finding it.

I am no expert on neutral vs characters like luigi, but whatever we come up with, it should be something manipulating the traction problems luigi has.

I guess the lack of traction kind of does help the cat and mouse game that Pikachu has to play.

 

[Hoenn]

Eh, it wasn't as bad as you'd think.



I think Luigi is going to be shielding regardless. He wants them grabs. If it's a power shield - you're boned. If it's not...he slides off into neutral again. I guess it's kind of a win for Pikachu if he slides near the edge of the stage.



Well if you use it as one of your main tools in this match-up then I don't see why they wouldn't be anticipating it.



Can you link me to the video please? I'm having trouble finding it.



I guess the lack of traction kind of does help the cat and mouse game that Pikachu has to play.

Yeah I don't know if it got uploaded... Every other set from that tourney is on the page though... sorry

But I see what you are saying, maybe if we use Fsmash at all, we need to find a lot of other reliable options first to make it harder to anticipate. Or We could just use those options instead.

Luigi also does not have nearly as strong of aerial punishes Oos due to lack of range and air speed, so do you think that using full hop aerials like FH Uair would be good for zoning him out? He has a lot of trouble punishing that, but it kinda puts us in an awkward situation. I do not know if luigi has the ability to capitalize on us being in the air though.
Maybe even using SH Uair would be better, since we can always just jump away or quick attack if he tries to run at us to punish the Uair... that might be better
Also I do not believe that pikachu can play the cat and mouse game against luigi as well as other characters. Once we are in the corner, he can just run under our jolts. So when we are cornered he can just fireball freely. Do we have any easy ways of dealing with fireballs?

(I probably will be able to play like 4 tournament sets with very high level luigi mains before the next xanadu, so I can probably test out anything discussed here)

 

[Kenrawr]

I'm not too sure about that Uair idea. That just kind of seems desperate at that point

I wish I had an answer myself but I'm garbage at theory-crafting haha. I was kind of hoping ya'll would already have an answer.

Make sure you get some juicey info at that tournament and good luck!

 

[Hoenn]

Yeah theory crafting is something I am good at, but it is not for everyone
I hope to help out with this matchup since most luigi players that I have played with say I play it really well and since i have a ton of luigi mains to play with.
I feel like if we have an easy answer to fireballs and just a few more safe options in neutral vs luigi, then this matchup will swing in our favor IMO
I will try to lab out with matchup and I will talk with the luigi mains about it

I do feel your struggle though. It is kinda hard to deal with characters with deadly punishes from grab in this game, the neutral game is super complex in those matchups, but when you ask for advice people tell you "Don't get grabbed".... obviously!!! But they don't understand the options to avoid grabs.

Anyways, thank you, I will do my best

 

[Soul.]

Can someone tell me what is the general consensus in the Link MU? I haven't heard of it lately. His projectiles seem like a mess for us to approach, especially his Boomerang.

 

[Kenrawr]

100:0 pikachu

jk

sort of

Just work on powershielding and don't let him land. Off stage you can do w/e.

 

[Kaladin]

I haven't played any non FG links, but can't you just QA in right through his projectile wall?

 

[Hoenn]

I haven't played any non FG links, but can't you just QA in right through his projectile wall?

No, but once you get in, Link just dies. I have killed the best link in chicago at 0% from Fair stringing him off the stage into an edge guard. Link does have trouble punishing quick attack but that is only if he is not patient. Quick attacking should only be used to hard read projectile throws. You are better off just walking and power shielding everything link throws at you

 

[~Radiance~]

hey FZ/My Jeans here. I wanted an opinion. who do you feel are our top 5 worst mus? I know in the brawl thread days we had a good discussion on our worst mus so we could formulate opinions on who would be our best alt to cover bad MU's. ATM i feel like i struggle with ROB and i guess Diddy because we die so early. who do you feel is our top 5 worst MU's?

 

[Kenrawr]

I don't think pikachu really has any bad matchups. Most of them are even at worst.

"Tough" match-ups imo: luigi, ness

"Annoying": GaW, sonic, villager

 

[~Radiance~]

i feel like pika has the same issues he did in brawl tho tbh in terms of being outranged and his weight meaning jank throw combos kill really early, such as rob uthrow/dthrow uair (which is guranteed at certain percents to kill).

That aside i feel like he has more good MUs now than in brawl, but I think he def has some MUs that are way worse than even. thats like comparing him to MK which is totally untrue. Game is young tho, cant say yet who would be a good CP for his bad MU's but i really want to have shulk as an alt, though i am unsure if that covers any of our bad MUs

 

[infomon]

I think Lucario is our worst matchup, but I confess I also just don't know it. What do y'all think?

 

[Kaladin]

I heard Olimar covers all or most of our bad MUs, but I don't know how much truth there is to that.

 

[Kenrawr]

i feel like pika has the same issues he did in brawl tho tbh in terms of being outranged and his weight meaning jank throw combos kill really early, such as rob uthrow/dthrow uair (which is guranteed at certain percents to kill).

ROB is kind of easy for Pikachu imo. Get inside, keep the pressure up, jolts automatically make gyros disappear, do your usual offstage game. Just watch the throw %'s and be careful not to get airdodge baited/upair'd

That aside i feel like he has more good MUs now than in brawl, but I think he def has some MUs that are way worse than even. thats like comparing him to MK which is totally untrue.

Pikachu didn't have many counters in brawl, either. Our biggest one (IC's) are out of the game now. I'm not saying Pikachu is like MK. MK countered a ton of characters. I'm saying Pikachu has a ton of even match ups.

Edit: jw: What match ups would you consider "Way worse than even"?

Game is young tho, cant say yet who would be a good CP for his bad MU's but i really want to have shulk as an alt, though i am unsure if that covers any of our bad MUs

I don't think Pikachu really needs an alt.

I think Lucario is our worst matchup, but I confess I also just don't know it. What do y'all think?

Maybe! Lucario is kind of slow though and Pika is capable of finishing him early.

 

[~Radiance~]

i think its more of i see myself as a player struggling vs good ROBs and characters with grabs that kill early or braindead autocombo, then again the ROB i lose to is on PR and is just far better than me to begin with.

also this is FZ Kenny, im never taking your advice again since when i did at Apex 2010 i lost to a bowser on lylat thanks to you lol

 

[Kenrawr]

I can't tell if you're being serious.

And yeah, I know who you are bby

Edit: Don't dodge btw. I asked you a question! <3

 

[Hoenn]

@ infomon I think we beat lucario like 65:35

If we rush him down, he does not have the options to get out. Lucario thrives off of force palm and aura sphere mixups. Pikachu has the ability to rush him down and keep him pressured and never obtain the ability to gain those mixups. Lucario's boxing options are absolutely terrible. He lost like all of his range and his frame data sucks.
If pikachu gets lucario offstage, lucario is dead. Like, actually dead, he can only survive if you screw up. Just sit on the ledge and punish everything on reaction with rising aerials, personally I like Nair for this the best.

We also normally have the potential to kill characters at 0%, and and characters that rely on something like rage, should not do well against characters like that.

@ Kenrawr I ended up not having a ride to those events but I played against the best luigi mains in my state online with a smooth connection. I figured that you should Jolt at long range and read the way luigi fireballs. If luigi dashes at you with the fireballs, just fair him. Fair will beat through the fireball and luigi will not be able to shield due to being stuck in his initial dash. Do not do this at kill % though, that gives luigi a free Usmash if he reads it, and obviously holding onto your stock is extremely important in any matchup were you get punished super hard.
I tried zoning with Utilt and it worked for the most part against the least skilled luigi that I played, but I have no idea if it would work well against boss. (Front hit Utilt btw)
Fair through fireballs is almost always our best option since we do not have any options fast enough to punish out of perfect shield. While I did say that Fair was amazing for dealing with fireballs but is risky at kill percent, I did not get punished for it at all when I retreated it. Luigi has to read what you are doing out of your retreating fair and because fair has a hitbox, fair does not allow luigi to create the same super safe pressure that he creates when you perfect shield it. After retreating fair you might be able to dtilt before he can get the grab. (I did not think of this though, I literally just walked away and made luigi wiff the dash grab, but then he started reading that, but we need mixups)
When I say retreating fair, I am not meaning that you have to retreat right away. I found it a lot easier to start retreating after I beat the fireball. Anyway, sorry if this was not super helpful and I wish I could have gone to the offline event, but the connection was good and I at least figured something out

Also btw I think olimar vs pikachu is 50:50, I greenbeast gave me a few tips with the matchup
I also don't think we beat Doc, because he has of the same tools mario has, but I feel like doc vs pika is close to even, if not slight favor to doc (I only got 1 hour of games with a good doc though and it was online)

 

[~Radiance~]

lol fineeeeeeee i guess ill answer.

I dont really have any MU's atm that i think are WAY worse than even, mostly because the game is still really new. I know that i notice myself dying way earlier than i want to to things like diddy and anyone with a grab, but that doesnt make the MU bad. I think olimar is still hard and diddy as well, but again the game is young and im still getting back into it so i just see myself having issues with diddy and rob

 

[Kenrawr]

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

have been drinking. I'm gonna read these posts in the morning once I can figure em out! I didn't get a chance to play Boss tonight haha

I was really hoping to!

 

[redfeatherraven]

I heard the signal.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

have been drinking.

Alright let me ask some real questions while I'm here.

I play in a group with a Dedede and a Sheik, respectively.

I feel like this one's been asked before, but how do we handle 'em?

 

[hell-dew]

With shiek i just go look at what Nakat did to Mr R

Oilmar isnt that bad ive fought rich brown at Apex just focus on your ground game and focus on killing off the yellow pikmin his ground options are far less rewarding then they were in brawl and hes honestly just not as good dont use lots of jolt and QA in this MU and be aware that mutihits have to deal with extended hit boxes while pikmin are latched. in brawl the problem was he could keep us out very easily in this game he cant and his options are far less punishing also oilmars recovery while good is very easy to hit him out of.

D3 is another story this character is a bit annoying he can camp in the air with his jumps and FFNair (up air pressure helps here) on teh ground he can try and keep you out with Gordos (which jolt reflects back at him) his Jab (go above it) and a lot of his options are anti approach TBH. when you hit him feel free to combo him for free cause hes a large target that gets eaten up by our combo game. also i use QA to punish his stuff if he ever commits to stuff. I feel like we body him though

Rob is Combo food hes a big target that is very easy to combo hes not that hard to bully off stage and you just have to apporch him the hardest thing about rob is he can kill you early with a read and has a kill throw combo so you really have to minimize how many hits you take. His nair is kinda annoying but TBH just keep wasting his gas when edge guarding him he will die. just light hits you dont need to actually hit him with anything to fancy just keep up the pressure. also hes forced to ban Lylat and Castle lol. so have fun with CPs

 

[Kenrawr]

I play in a group with a Dedede and a Sheik, respectively.

With D3 you just stay below him and juggle. Be careful with your fairs because he can bair 'em if he reads them. Don't roll too much.

I know nothing about the Sheik MU

 

[Hoenn]

You can watch my sets vs Akiro if you want pikachu vs sheik vids
I lab that matchup super super super hard because I want to beat him
I will link them all here once I find them all
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5wmdybv3jY (laggy stream but a few good games of footage plus me both taking a game and playing terrible in game 5)

Akiro took a game off 6wx and m2k, so this is a very high level sheik, but I keep the games pretty close. It is a very hard matchup though

 

[isaiah :)]

can someone give me a quick run down of a match up against wario, id appreciate it.

 

[phili]

can someone give me a quick run down of a match up against wario, id appreciate it.

I would also like a run down of this matchup, as in my experience, his aerials beat all of our aerials.

Also, how should pikachu deal with sonic? its a matchup I struggle with no matter which character i'm using, but since pikachu is my main, I think character specific advice should be the most helpful.

Thanks in advance

 

[Pikabunz]

How do I beat Diddy?

 

[isaiah :)]

How do I beat Diddy?

space him out with tjolt and dont run head first in to him. use QA to avoid his grabs and keep him under pressure. best way to do that is tjolt gimps and using thunder to edge guard his side B. honestly you cant get too close to him considering pikas easily dies. you can also use down tilt to space him and then go for grabs to keep on ledge pressure. around 108 you wanna go for safe combos AS CLOSE TO THE EDGE AS POSSIBLE. Id recommend (UPthrow->thunder) or (Dthrow ->thunder) depending on how well you know how to use thunder.

 

[Pikabunz]

I never really liked using thunder as an edge guard, it's too slow. I've had lots of success using nair as an edge guard though. My biggest problem in the match up is I get grabbed a lot and I don't know what to do when he has a banana.

 

[isaiah :)]

you should practice QA canceling then if you time it right, your opponent will have the most difficult time attempting to grab you.

 

[jda7]

can someone give me a quick run down of a match up against wario, id appreciate it.

Well, I'm glad I just had a refresher on the wario match up just yesterday. Since you were so vague about exactly what you wanted, i'll break it down best I can.

Things Wario wants from Pikachu.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-Wario wants to take stage control from pikachu.
-He wants pikachu to commit to an approach that he can punish.
-He wants pikachu on the ledge so he can cover as many options as possible for damage and kills.
-He wants pikachu to challenge his air game.

How Wario achieves what he wants and how to stop it.
----------------------------------------------------------------
-The bike is his best way to gain stage control. The way to beat bike is to SH AC Dair. It will always beat bike. There are of course many ways to gain stage control (walk up, shield, then shield grab the opponent), but this is one of the main things you'll see from a wario (until he learns we beat that with just one move). Against the bike, however, we should not use tjolt. Tjolt against wario's bike basically gives him stage for free as his bike just eats it majority of the time.
-Another usage of the bike for stage control, instead of riding it to victory, is for him to just throw it while it's laying on the ground. It's a really intimidating hitbox that does over 10% a hit and can rack up massive damage when used correctly. Of course, you can just run up and punish him for throwing it, but when too far away it's a good way for him to push forward.
-Beyond his approaching and taking stage control, wario truly wants pikachu to approach him. His air game is better than pika's. Put simply, his fair>all our aerials horizontally. This allows him to freely counter any aerial approach we may try from directly in front. This means he'll want to bait you into the air, so he'll be jumping around and waiting for your next move
-Another reason he wants pikachu to approach him is due to his command grab, bite. His bite is able to clean beat many of our hitboxes (he grabbed my fair without fair breaking me out). Any strong rush down commitments aren't well advised (dash grabs, run up nairs, falling fairs, etc.), they'll work if he doesn't bite, but if he does it's his advantage. Instead, it's better to keep grounded and use dtilts for most spacing. Also, baiting the bite is also useful.
-Wario's bike, for edge guarding, is one of the most dangerous on stage edge guard set ups in smash 4. He is able to cover all but one or two options every time. When thrown upward, the bike covers standard get up and a jump off the ledge while wario gets to guess whether you will be staying on the ledge, rolling onto the stage, etc. When he lets it sit on the ground, he is able to
use the bike to extend any deadly hitboxes (the waft, an fsmash) to net an early kill off of a read or simply the coverage of multiple options. The way around this is to just guess right. Wait when he doesn't expect it, roll when he isn't covering it, etc.
-Wario's bite is also a great on stage edge guarding tool. It's just a long lasting grab. It will generally be used to catch normal get up and get up attack.

Things Pikachu wants from Wario
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-Put him in the air for juggles
-Put him offstage

What to do when Pikachu has what he wants
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- When coming down from the air with no double jump to respace himself, all of wario's aerials lose to shield. Be careful of a falling bite mix up though. Also utilt and uair will beat out anything he has coming down as well.
-Like any character, put them offstage and go for maximum reward. Even with wario's amazing recovery, at the point he commits to his bike he becomes vulnerable to attack. If he's too low, it is possible to hit him with any light hit off his bike and gimp him that way. If he recovers high (much too high for use to jump up to), it is possible to read the point at which he will start his bike recovery (and where he will end up) and thunder spike him. Other than that, just general edge guarding techniques will be effective.

Other general things to be aware of
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-Wario's dash attack hits when pikachu sits on the ledge too long, the end part of it trips and is a free bike follow up.
-Wario gets combo'd easily by pikachu
-Wario's spaced SH fair on block when retreated and auto canceled is safe pressure.
-If a waft hits pikachu's shield, thunder after it as a punish.
-Wario's down air kills... (i didn't know).


I think that covers all I wanted to say. I hope this helps. I've never broken down a match up before, so I'm not even sure if this is good or not. Maybe I get too specific at times, but it's whatever.

 

[Cocoa Brova]

not sure if it's been covered already, but can i get a rundown on strategies against Sonic? Thinking of entering my first tournament and don't think I have enough time to learn another character.

 

[Soul.]

Beating Diddy is a question everyone is asking. We work harder to KO. I think we all know by now what Diddy does.
You DI his throws and you still get rekt. Jolts beat bananas, but he has FAir (which I believe destroys Jolts).
Perhaps the best way to beat him is to find an opening. Every character loses to him so idk really

 

[isaiah :)]

i like to follow his attacks and keep him under pressure but i always have to watch for that Fair . but a good diddy could do anyone in