Hey TC I meant to ask you: xsoul and I were planing on sitting down and talking about stages, we were looking to get input from other active pikas on stage opinions if you'd like to be in our Skype group to discuss with us.
I agree too, the boards could use a spark. I've let out a few threads but have been mulling some ideas around for new topics to write on. Thinking we could use a good compendium to reference every good thread that hasn't been stickied yet.
Also xsoul you are amazing for calling me latias lol <3
I've been meaning to get involved with the Skype group, so sure.
And yeah it's time we get organized: An index, weekly MU discussions, video analysis, a dedicated text based guide etc. We're never gonna prove our potential in the state the Pika boards are in now. Now that I KNOW Pikachu is for me, it's time to accelerate things a bit.
It's literally every matchup. I cannot find a matchup where I'm not dying 30-100% earlier than my opponent. And I don't get it. I can't punish with Usmash, because it's got ****ty range and people don't just throw out really laggy bull**** at random at kill%. I look for it, but it never comes. I try for landing punishes but I don't get them unless I'm playing against someone like Luigi - somehow I'm always facing the wrong direction, and against, say, Ness? I'm dead at 100% off of one ****up like that, lower if he's got rage.
Killing is the 2nd most troublesome part of metagame, next to the upkeep of our technical ability. I find most of my legitimate, well timed kills come from hard reads > F or U Smash. Which means you need to be top notch and reads and conditioning if you want respectable kills. YOLO Smashes (especially Down Smash) are almost never worth it.
Next most common kills I score come from edge guards that result in gimps or Nair/Bair/Dair kills off stage.
Next is Dash Attack. It seemed risky at first but I rarely use it outside of the moments its guaranteed. So if someone sees me dash toward them, they're more likely to roll or spotdodge instead of shield. I've been finding this move increasingly useful when used sparingly/selectively. (For kills).
After that is Thunder kills. I get more from Up Throw > read DI > Thunderspike into Pikachu than I do from Thunder kill off the top.
At 140% ish +, FF Fair to Up Smash has been working very well for me.
Lastly, if I'm just having a lot of issues killing and I'm fearing Rage, then I end up just playing very very defensively until U Throw or Nair kills. That's if all other methods appear to be failing. I had to time out multiple people this weekend. It's not my preferred style but Rage is a game changer.
We don't get the luxury of kill setups or brainless Back Throws. We gotta work for it. It's just how we do.
but I'm done doing constant uphill matches.
