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pikachu vs link

Xanthyr

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jun 26, 2007
Messages
321
Location
Napa Valley, Ca
Once or twice I saw that you had missed an l-cancel. With Pikachu's fair, you shouldn't have any lag time when you l-cancel. What I usually do is a fair into Up/downsmash. It's what I like to do with the fair, anyway. I didn't see much Shffl'ing at all

Don't be afraid to use quick attack to get out of juggles, or just out of danger in general. If you're being combo'd it can help a lot.

I saw a bair in there where a nair would've just been fine. If you have the choice, I would go with nair.

You double-jumped out of stun too many times, as Link caught you every single time you did, and it usually was your demise.

You need to fast fall more. Pikachu capitalizes on speed, and if you don't wring him out for every drop, you're at a disadvantage. Faster you can touch the ground, the faster you can jump back up again to continue a juggle or launch a counter offensive.

I saw decent use of the u-tilt, which is a problem I'm having myself after being a Ganon user for so long, I always forget I can use it with the other characters.

Time specific situations:

:34

What was that? I understand it could've been simple error that you overshot your opponent. If it was a mistake, no worries. If it's a consistent problem, it's something to look into.

:46

You literally jumped into that attack. You might've thought that the spawn frames were on your side, which is cool, crap happens. In this situation though, something to keep in mind is to triangle jump to fake Link out and then lay down some serious punishment on his land-lag.

1:22

You jumped into his dair again! You're falling into his trap. Learn the stun time on the attacks so you don't blindly tackle his sword.

1:57

By this time, it looks like you go off of predetermined patterns in how you're acting, instead of reacting to the situation at hand. You tail-spiked him and double-jumped, which might've lost you a KO, because if you had landed after landing it, that f-smash would've launched him.

2:04

You double jump a lot around this time, making you miss your dair and it's getting you sworded directly in the face.

2:14

Another jump into his dair. if you didn't double-jump he would've missed.

2:40

Once again.

2:53

A perfect place for another jolt


There was a beautiful thunderjolt used at 1:42. I loved watching that happen. Speaking of which: you could have used more jolts in there. If you're being knocked up into the air, if you throw a jolt or two, you control where Link can go and use that to your evasive abilities. If they get hit, that's more damage for them, and an easier time for you. If they're rushing you, you can use jolt spam to force them into the air, where you get to start a juggle into a possible tail-spike. Something I like to do is shffl nairs across the stage, pushing them off the ledge, and use jolt harassment. Once I even timed a jolt to hit an approaching enemy in the air. Right before it hit them I quick attacked to the ground and was able to combo into a tail spike with the stun of the jolt hitting them.

Optional things:

You can try to throw in a few more jolts/learn how to utilize them. A good use is as a long range approach, you dash shorthop and jolt. You follow the jolt, either they shield, jump, get hit or clank it with an attack. In each of the results you can:

Try to land a grab on them or try to stab the shield. Of course you can just jump back and do a reversed jolt and retry the approach.

if they jump, you can shffl a nair or uair to land some pain. If they shffl an attack, land and get a shield grab.

Get hit? Hit them some more. Happy birthday.

If they cancel it out with an attack, it's character specific. If they're rather slow, then you can land a shffl. If it was a fast attack, like Marth/Roy's side-B, then try to avoid getting hit for massive pain.

If I'm not mistaken, the shtj (Short hop thunderjolt) is a good technique against Link, as it will clank with his boomerang, sending it back. If you're close enough, you can still hit Link when he's still in his throwing animation.

Jolt spam can get annoy any player if done correctly. Jumping around like a mouse on crack is a way to deliver jolt spam.

Try to pick up on their patterns and actively think how to counter them throughout the match. You knock Link up in the air and you're still on the ground. He usually uses his dair. You being the ferocious beast that you are, jump after him and swallow the sword to the point where his hilt touches your teeth. He uses nair for his edge-guard. Quick attack into the ledge and use your ledge attack to catch him in mid-air. These sorts of things you should be able to pick up and take advantage of. This will come with time, or you can learn to play each character and find out how Pikachu can exploit their weaknesses.

Sometimes, you can't always be hitting them into their death in one smooth motion. Sometimes you have to calm down for a second and bait them into letting you grab them. Land a grab, you get a free upsmash or edge guard, which are both very likely to end in losing a stock.

A simple way to accomplish this against a Link is to stick to the ground for a few seconds. Dash at them and then when you're about to get in range, wavedash backwards for a second. The common reaction is to attack, because you're close, and all their eyes register is that you make a sudden movement (Your wavedash) and they initiate their attack. Pikachu is quick enough to get in and get a grab if they whiff their attack. Use this method and be happy with all the grabs that you'll get in your career.


The main things you need to work on:

Fast falling

Throwing in more shffls, less full-hops, and even more of a cutback on double-jumps where they won't help you.

Learn your range and when stun-times end. If you were just a split second quicker to land the hit, or if you were to wait a split second, you would know not to jump into that cursed dair.

Over-all, I see potential as you have the ideas down. Look at each move individually and think what it can do to aid Pikachu in his conquest. Don't be discouraged by my lengthy and specific response. I hope you use this to learn some new cool things about this awesome little character. You have decent abilities, but they all can be refined, instead of being good at one thing, you're average at everything. Again, I stress that you're not bad at all, you just need to further yourself a little more. You'll find out that once you start to apply some of my suggestions, that you'll be much much harder to play against, exponentially even!

That is my humble word, and I hope you find it useful.

-Xanthyr
 

PsychopathicEmus

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Messages
316
Location
SF, CA / Atlanta, GA
hmm, from the looks of it, it doesnt look like you have advanced techs down very well(or maybe i'm just too tired to see them =X). getting those down would help a lot. also, you should be a bit less direct. by that i mean, you should wait for an opening before attacking. since pikachu has terrible range on most of his moves, a character like link who has a sword, and thus more range, will out-prioritize many of pikachu's attacks. uhm...yeah, that's all i have to say for now lol

edit: holy crap xanthyr, you wrote all that in the time it took me to write this
 

Xanthyr

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jun 26, 2007
Messages
321
Location
Napa Valley, Ca
I work quickly, and efficiently.

Is it me, or are 80% of all of my posts in history over four paragraphs long? I hope it was useful to someone. x.o
 

ALZAUARTIS

Smash Cadet
Joined
Sep 27, 2007
Messages
65
Location
cyprus
Once or twice I saw that you had missed an l-cancel. With Pikachu's fair, you shouldn't have any lag time when you l-cancel. What I usually do is a fair into Up/downsmash. It's what I like to do with the fair, anyway. I didn't see much Shffl'ing at all

Don't be afraid to use quick attack to get out of juggles, or just out of danger in general. If you're being combo'd it can help a lot.

I saw a bair in there where a nair would've just been fine. If you have the choice, I would go with nair.

You double-jumped out of stun too many times, as Link caught you every single time you did, and it usually was your demise.

You need to fast fall more. Pikachu capitalizes on speed, and if you don't wring him out for every drop, you're at a disadvantage. Faster you can touch the ground, the faster you can jump back up again to continue a juggle or launch a counter offensive.

I saw decent use of the u-tilt, which is a problem I'm having myself after being a Ganon user for so long, I always forget I can use it with the other characters.

Time specific situations:

:34

What was that? I understand it could've been simple error that you overshot your opponent. If it was a mistake, no worries. If it's a consistent problem, it's something to look into.

:46

You literally jumped into that attack. You might've thought that the spawn frames were on your side, which is cool, crap happens. In this situation though, something to keep in mind is to triangle jump to fake Link out and then lay down some serious punishment on his land-lag.

1:22

You jumped into his dair again! You're falling into his trap. Learn the stun time on the attacks so you don't blindly tackle his sword.

1:57

By this time, it looks like you go off of predetermined patterns in how you're acting, instead of reacting to the situation at hand. You tail-spiked him and double-jumped, which might've lost you a KO, because if you had landed after landing it, that f-smash would've launched him.

2:04

You double jump a lot around this time, making you miss your dair and it's getting you sworded directly in the face.

2:14

Another jump into his dair. if you didn't double-jump he would've missed.

2:40

Once again.

2:53

A perfect place for another jolt


There was a beautiful thunderjolt used at 1:42. I loved watching that happen. Speaking of which: you could have used more jolts in there. If you're being knocked up into the air, if you throw a jolt or two, you control where Link can go and use that to your evasive abilities. If they get hit, that's more damage for them, and an easier time for you. If they're rushing you, you can use jolt spam to force them into the air, where you get to start a juggle into a possible tail-spike. Something I like to do is shffl nairs across the stage, pushing them off the ledge, and use jolt harassment. Once I even timed a jolt to hit an approaching enemy in the air. Right before it hit them I quick attacked to the ground and was able to combo into a tail spike with the stun of the jolt hitting them.

Optional things:

You can try to throw in a few more jolts/learn how to utilize them. A good use is as a long range approach, you dash shorthop and jolt. You follow the jolt, either they shield, jump, get hit or clank it with an attack. In each of the results you can:

Try to land a grab on them or try to stab the shield. Of course you can just jump back and do a reversed jolt and retry the approach.

if they jump, you can shffl a nair or uair to land some pain. If they shffl an attack, land and get a shield grab.

Get hit? Hit them some more. Happy birthday.

If they cancel it out with an attack, it's character specific. If they're rather slow, then you can land a shffl. If it was a fast attack, like Marth/Roy's side-B, then try to avoid getting hit for massive pain.

If I'm not mistaken, the shtj (Short hop thunderjolt) is a good technique against Link, as it will clank with his boomerang, sending it back. If you're close enough, you can still hit Link when he's still in his throwing animation.

Jolt spam can get annoy any player if done correctly. Jumping around like a mouse on crack is a way to deliver jolt spam.

Try to pick up on their patterns and actively think how to counter them throughout the match. You knock Link up in the air and you're still on the ground. He usually uses his dair. You being the ferocious beast that you are, jump after him and swallow the sword to the point where his hilt touches your teeth. He uses nair for his edge-guard. Quick attack into the ledge and use your ledge attack to catch him in mid-air. These sorts of things you should be able to pick up and take advantage of. This will come with time, or you can learn to play each character and find out how Pikachu can exploit their weaknesses.

Sometimes, you can't always be hitting them into their death in one smooth motion. Sometimes you have to calm down for a second and bait them into letting you grab them. Land a grab, you get a free upsmash or edge guard, which are both very likely to end in losing a stock.

A simple way to accomplish this against a Link is to stick to the ground for a few seconds. Dash at them and then when you're about to get in range, wavedash backwards for a second. The common reaction is to attack, because you're close, and all their eyes register is that you make a sudden movement (Your wavedash) and they initiate their attack. Pikachu is quick enough to get in and get a grab if they whiff their attack. Use this method and be happy with all the grabs that you'll get in your career.


The main things you need to work on:

Fast falling

Throwing in more shffls, less full-hops, and even more of a cutback on double-jumps where they won't help you.

Learn your range and when stun-times end. If you were just a split second quicker to land the hit, or if you were to wait a split second, you would know not to jump into that cursed dair.

Over-all, I see potential as you have the ideas down. Look at each move individually and think what it can do to aid Pikachu in his conquest. Don't be discouraged by my lengthy and specific response. I hope you use this to learn some new cool things about this awesome little character. You have decent abilities, but they all can be refined, instead of being good at one thing, you're average at everything. Again, I stress that you're not bad at all, you just need to further yourself a little more. You'll find out that once you start to apply some of my suggestions, that you'll be much much harder to play against, exponentially even!

That is my humble word, and I hope you find it useful.

-Xanthyr
Thanx for answering it was usefull
 

N64

Smash Champion
Joined
Oct 18, 2004
Messages
2,158
Location
Stalking Skler
It's a good start.

Your pikachu seems very aggresive. This isn't a bad thing, my pika's pretty aggresive too, but you have to learn to fit in some defensiveness in there, or at least mix up your approaches, because pikachu doesn't have incredible priority on most attacks so your opponent usually will have something to stop you if he knows you're going to blindly rush at him. For instance, whenever you were somewhat close to him, you'd almost always full hop an aerial. This is bad, it's pretty slow and easy to see coming (especially after the 3-4th time you did it), it's fairly easily dodgeable (and then punishable) as you don't have much horizontal variation in where you can land with the aerial, and it leaves pika in a position that he's usually not very fond of: above the opponent while they're on the stage. Dash in more (and dash dance some to keep them guessing as to when you'll approach), short hop in more (and learn to move through them with most of your aerials so you land behind them if they shield and you can't be easily shieldgrabbed), feint approaches to get them to whiff an attack (half the times you got punished on your approaches he upB'd, a very easily punishable move if it whiffs). Mix things up.

I was glad to see your diversity of moves though. While you made some, in my opinion, poor decisions on continuing/finishing combos (i.e. your third uair of the match should have been a nair or bair, or at least been followed by a thunder), you did use most of the moves in pika's arsenal somewhat effectively at some point, which is what I like to see. A lot of pikachus get stuck in usmash, nair, or uair mode and spamspamspam. This makes them predictable and punishable. Pika doesn't really have any bad moves (except skullbash heh), just a lot of them are situational, so keep using them all to figure out which fits what situation best.

might comment more later. pretty sleepy.
 
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