After playing several rounds as both characters, my biggest takeaway from this is that Cloud has a much easier time killing Pikachu than Pikachu does Cloud. In about an hour and a half, I won a single game as Pikachu and none as Cloud. However, I got 3-stocked several times as Pikachu, but only 2 or 3 times as Cloud, and those almost all involved SDs. Some other notes:
- I got 2 fair spikes, but Pikabunz got multiple offstage limit cross-slashes. Neither of us really landed any dair spikes that killed. So being careful offstage as Pikachu is important – Cloud hits hard if he reads what you are doing.
- Both of us whiffing easy OoS punishes [many Cloud dtilts had the punish powershielded, and sometimes Cloud’s fsmash had the dash grab punish whiffed] was a reminder that lag was making both of us worse [although the input delay was not awful, it was there]. I also got hit by several blade beams in part due to this [and it likely was why some of the SDs occurred].
- I got one shield break via Cloud’s cross-slash, but it’s likely not reliable. It seems to do about half a shield’s worth of shield damage, but can be punished on block [the super one is hard to punish on block].
- I did not land any FH AC dair -> finishing touch, but punishing it didn’t seem too easy for Pikabunz [lag, actual safety, or something else?]. Pikabunz hit me with a few non-lethal finishing touches, but neither of us got killed by the move once.
- Pikabunz gimped me only a few times, and I didn’t gimp him at all really, but that suggests that as MU knowledge increases, Cloud will become more and more gimpable. One effective setup was jabbing ledge -> runoff bair that he did – Cloud fell out of the bair and died, but Pikachu can make it back easily.
- Climhazzard is a somewhat risky but effective combo-breaker, especially if Cloud loses his jump [you can reset the situation with it at least].
- Our Clouds were definitely a little different – I went for more cross-slash, but Pikabunz was a lot better with nair.
- I need to use fair more as Pikachu… I could tell playing as Cloud that I wasn’t using fair correctly on the other side of the MU [it was extremely useful for Pikabunz, netting several grabs and extending combos more than I was as Pikachu]. I also need to get better at intercepting Pikachu’s Quick Attack - mine was intercepted several times, but outside of the one fair on startup, I rarely intercepted the move.
If I had to guess, I'd say Pikachu wins the MU, mainly because he can gimp Cloud, but at this point in time, the MU doesn't seem horribly lop-sided [although Pikabunz may think otherwise].
Pikabunz
I had a lot of fun and if you wouldn't mind playing more in the future, it's great practice for me at least. I definitely have some bad habits to kick [fsmash is almost safe as Pikachu, but definitely not Cloud], but I enjoyed our games [and I'll play either side of the MU or just general friendlies]. I understand if you'd rather not though...
P.S: Although we each had several cool moments [including Pikabunz getting a zero-to-death where he combo'd me offstage and finished with offstage thunder], I didn't save as replays any of our games.