Pikachu Stage Discussion Thread

[Sapphire Dragon]

The thread to discuss Pikachu's best and worst stages. I haven't gotten a lot of detailed info on this so anyone who knows the official allowed competitive stages and Pikachu's best stages, please post! I will make a list of best/cp/worst (ban) stages for ease of use. Thanks in advance!


Best: Final Destination, Battlefield, WarioWare, Dreamland

Counterpick: Rumble Falls, Yoshi's Island, Yoshi's Story, Smashville

Worst (Always ban): Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Stadium 2, Fountain of Dreams

Unknown: Skyloft, Lylat Cruise, Green Hill Zone, Pictochat, WarioWare, Halberd, Rainbow Cruise, Dracula's Castle, Kongo64, Delfino Plaza, Metal Cavern, Skyland, SSE: Jungle, Brinstar, Port Town Aerodrive

 

[Hakkat]

I've always liked playing on Smashville. I like to take advantage of the floating platform, and you can almost always recover. Battlefield is good too, but idk about Final Destination. Some stages that go really far down are good because Pika excels at edgeguarding and recovering, and you can recover a great distance if you can use Quick Attack properly, just look at Axe! He is amazing!

 

[Paradoxium]

Final destination is pika favored, you can chain grab your opponents into oblivion. And once you reach the edge of the stage, ya let'um drop and land a well earned tail spike. Battlefield is my personal favorite, you can land U-airs like crazy, it's just too easy. And shockwave hugs the platforms a bit which is useful ( it would be a nice buff if the shockwave went aroun the entire battlefield platform. Rmble falls is pretty sick, you can side b under the stage, use your second jump, and up-b like anywhere on the stage. I like yoshis island as well, except against marth. I think dreamland greatly hinders vertical killing, upsmash kills at a higher percent while thunder doesn't even reach all the way up to the ceiling. Yoshis story rocks, that platform carries shock wave and that platform makes a great set up for up air, And with QaC, wave landing, and auto canceling approaches aren't too difficult.

 

[Paradoxium]

K to continue, I dislike Pokemon stadium for pikachu, mainly because the low ceiling and lack of a center platform. I also dislike Pokemon stadium 2, although I'm not sure if it has a low ceiling as well, if so then this is the worst stage for pika.
I'm gonna say that I also find fountain of dreams to be bad for pika, the platforms vanish removing up air opportunities and the side walls are closer in, resulting in faster horizontal deaths, and it also does not allow pika to use his horizontal recovery to its fullest.
As for SSE jungle, I feel like pika does good work their. A lot of room to show off that mobility along with a lot of platforms. I don't play on the stage often, but it does seem pika favored.
And lastly I'm gonna say wario ware is pika favored, the platforms allow you to juggle and chase your opponents everywhere . Only downside is that the level is kinda small, but that could also be a buff for pikas up smash.

EDIT* levels with low ceilings are a double edge sword, pika's up smash + thunder will kill very fast, on the flip side pika will die much faster to verticle kill moves.

 

[Hakkat]

Those were really good analysis', Paradoxium! That will really help me choose stages! ^_^

So basically if you choose low-ceiling stages, you have to have really good stage control and you have to do lots of offensive combos and make sure your opponents don't get too many hits, which isn't the hardest thing for Pika due to high mobility and QaC's, etc.

 

[Paradoxium]

Well, a low ceiling stage is a high risk high reward kinda thing. Pikachu has a very powerful and fast up smash as it is, but you can also use his down special after you up-smash them, resulting in kills at a very low percent. But, pikachu is a very light character, he naturally dies faster than most of the cast, not only that but his fall speed is at the point where he can be combo'ed by almost every character in the cast. The best thing you can do on low stages ( this applies to EVERY character) is not get hit. But I put that as my main priority when playing as pika, I dance just out reach of my opponent, and either wait until they over extend or rush in with cannon ball. Although lately I've been auto-canceling into grab, some guy named Shenanagins told me about it.

 

[Hakkat]

OH YEAH! I forgot to ask, how do you auto-cancel Pika's Fair?

 

[SpiderMad]

OH YEAH! I forgot to ask, how do you auto-cancel Pika's Fair?

Fair or Dair? If you mean SH Fair you probably just have to get the aerial out sooner.
Like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkpWhb1nW7g
Auto-cancelling is just landing when the move is almost over (when it has auto-cancel frames), making you land in standard 4 frames like if you did just landed from a jump (and you then don't have to L-cancel either).
I got a thread on it http://smashboards.com/threads/understanding-auto-cancels-and-iasa-concerning-up-air-bair.332160/


Here's for Pikachu

Total: 39
Hit: 10-12, 14-16, 18-20, 22-24
Auto cancel: <9 34>
http://smashboards.com/threads/pikachu-hitboxes-and-frame-data.320088/

The auto cancel is 5 frames before the very end of that animation, so basically try to land before he flips around but after the hitboxes are gone

 

[ShuFFroom]

Bump* Lol boy was I wrong

 

[SuperNova!]

First of all, stages with lots of platforms overhead, like Battlefield and Dracula's Castle are terrible for Pikachu, because they prevent him from using his down-B. Sure, you can hit opponents if they're above the platforms. But in one-on-ones, your opponent is mostly below those platforms. Although if you like to take advantage of Pikachu's air game, then those stages are fine.

Flat stages are probably the best, because they allow you to easily use Pikachu's side and neutral B. Also, they are the safest stages for using up-B to dart back and forth to psych out your opponent. This is difficult on stages that move or have obstacles.

 

[deadjames]

First of all, stages with lots of platforms overhead, like Battlefield and Dracula's Castle are terrible for Pikachu, because they prevent him from using his down-B. Sure, you can hit opponents if they're above the platforms. But in one-on-ones, your opponent is mostly below those platforms. Although if you like to take advantage of Pikachu's air game, then those stages are fine.

Flat stages are probably the best, because they allow you to easily use Pikachu's side and neutral B. Also, they are the safest stages for using up-B to dart back and forth to psych out your opponent. This is difficult on stages that move or have obstacles.

I completely disagree with most of this post, Pika does amazingly well with platforms because he can use them for QaCs and harassing opponents with his u-air, also side-b should never be used offensively unless you break a shield, and down-b is only good for a wall of thunder edge-guard or getting a kill with a hard read or possibly even killing off a jab reset; because of P:M's physics, it is very hard to kill off the top with it like you could in Brawl.

 

[deadjames]

Won't let me edit, so sorry about the double post. I do think that Pika does well on flat stages too, but not for the reasons you mentioned.

 

[SuperNova!]

Won't let me edit, so sorry about the double post. I do think that Pika does well on flat stages too, but not for the reasons you mentioned.

Well, everyone's play style is different. I haven't learned how to QaC, yet, but maybe when I do, I'll find platform stages much better.

 

[Jiggle4Life]

i think pikas pretty good on dreamland, with using the side-b to recover vast distances you will live longer than your opponent in most situations and you can use platforms for QAC
only downside is upsmash doesn't kill as easy

 

[Cubelarooso]

The slopes on Yoshi's Island and Skyloft are pretty cool. They protect from enemies' projectiles while jolts are unaffected, they allow extra tricky QAC's, and they can be used for anti-air and below-the-edge fsmashes. It's matchup dependent, but the large size, walls (for YI) and high platforms (for Skyloft) make them generally good stages IMO, and their pros and cons complement each other well.

 

[Jiggle4Life]

why is pokemon stadium in pikas worst always ban?
it low ceiling makes pikas up-smash kill lower than usual
and at the transformations you can camp well with the thunderjolt
its good except or when you are playing a fox or someone that kill good with star ko as well

 

[Boondocker]

why is pokemon stadium in pikas worst always ban?
it low ceiling makes pikas up-smash kill lower than usual
and at the transformations you can camp well with the thunderjolt
its good except or when you are playing a fox or someone that kill good with star ko as well

Dont forget rapid jabbing against the walls. Not many other stages you can do that on.

 

[Jiggle4Life]

Dont forget rapid jabbing against the walls. Not many other stages you can do that on.

Rafter 5 months REVIVAL you are correct, tho I have never pulled it off in a match I'm like 95% sure it works