Pikachu's Matchups Discussion

[TehBo49]

In the Brawl Tactical section, there's a thread about every character's matchups (link is at the bottom of this post). In order to expand the chart, I'm asking my fellow Pikachu mains to contribute their information in regards to how well Pikachu fares against each character. A lot of matchups have already been filled in, but you can still debate those if you don't agree with them. Once we've reached an agreement on a certain matchup, I'll post it in the matchup thread. So, go ahead & discuss.

http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=157979

 

[PikaTheXIII]

Ill fight you if you are any good with Pika

 

[gkrackerr]

Ill fight you if you are any good with Pika

Mad off topic lol....

But on to match-ups.

From what I've seen, pikachu fares pretty well against falcos. He can duck under his lasers, his d-smash is fantastic out of a shield drop, and pika can effectively u-air to n-air falco. Also, falco gets gimped somewhat easily from thundershocks and nairs off the stage (or even a Thunder lol). Overall, this is pretty good for Pika. I know this aint too much info, so I'll come back an edit this post or post another post when I get more info.

 

[Ussi]

Mario gives a campy pikachu a hell hard time. =\ Since i'm more campy than aggressive i feel that.

 

[neji32]

Pika is good against pit. Arrows miss unless there directed toward you. But Pikas aerials are also good to knock off pits wings.(His Up B) When pits wings are gone and hes off the stage, he'll die because pits cant Up B twice even if hit

 

[Roller]

I gotta say, I think a good defensive fox is a bad matchup. Their shine f***s up our thunder and Bair, his gun can rack up some serious damage over time, and he's fast.

On the other hand I definately feel Marth is a good matchup for us. Just spam B and if he gets close dsmash his @$$.

 

[philbobjoe]

Almost anyone Pikachu can chain grab is a good matchup.

 

[VEC]

Pikachu owns snake.

 

[Eggm]

I gotta say, I think a good defensive fox is a bad matchup. Their shine f***s up our thunder and Bair, his gun can rack up some serious damage over time, and he's fast.

On the other hand I definately feel Marth is a good matchup for us. Just spam B and if he gets close dsmash his @$$.

you even play this game? lol Pika ***** fox.

 

[superspick007]

http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=162472

supposedly Wolf ***** pikachu according to that thread. I have an easy time with him though

any thoughts?

 

[Roller]

you even play this game? lol Pika ***** fox.

Sry, meant wolf.

 

[LunchRush]

On the other hand I definately feel Marth is a good matchup for us. Just spam B and if he gets close dsmash his @$$.

i competed in my first brawl tournament yesterday and placed 2nd because i lost to a marth.

i tried spamming B on him, but he would just run at me and quickly shield them, and when he got close enough, he would spam fair on me, DI'ing backwards after to stay out of grab and dsmash range.

if i tried to dsmash, it would miss and lead to an easy fsmash tipper. pika doesn't take those very well =\

i owned everyone else though, except for a very close call against a camping rob

 

[Roller]

We are talking about when you have 2 players of equal skill. He was obviously better than you if you are telling the truth when you said you could never hit with your Dsmash...

 

[LunchRush]

We are talking about when you have 2 players of equal skill. He was obviously better than you if you are telling the truth when you said you could never hit with your Dsmash...

Maybe you've been playing against bad marths ; )

 

[Emblem Lord]

It's called spacing. Marth out ranges all of Pikachu's close range options, not to mention how easy it is to deal with Thunder Jolts. He can just jab them or perfect shield.

Try to D-smash a good Marth and you will hit nothing, but air and then meet his sword for your wasted effort.

Summary = Marth has advantage Pikachu.

Pika is still good though.

 

[Anther]

Somewhat true. Dtilt and Fsmash outrange marth, both relatively dangerous to him because you can dtilt to sheild if he sheilds and retaliates with a fsmash. Marth's aerials also lend to him getting punished if you dodge his attack...
At the same time Dtilt can set you up for a tipper if you're max ranging it against him.. and miss. But otherwise it leads to grabs. Still.. similarly, people said pika's matchup vs marth sucked in melee regardless of Pika's easy gimps and uair that outspaced marth. x_X.

 

[Emblem Lord]

D-tilt and F-smash don't outrange Marth.

Test it in practice mode.

Pika sucked vs Marth in Melee not only due to being outranged, but being comboed straight to hell and back.

 

[Anther]

Though it's not melee discussion I think any Pika that had as much knowledge as most other char mains did just fine against marths. A lot of pika's never really pushed it to find out their possible advantages... anyways... not melee discussion, I r sorry.

Marth's a relatively uphill battle. Probably about equally hard as ROB.

 

[Tagxy]

QAC vs range characters like Marth and meta = advantage pikachu. In fact that's quick attack cancel in one of its most affective uses, and the first thing I thought of when I heard how QAC worked. Without a projectile, there's not much they can do to deal with it.

As a side note, d-smash against marth is almost defensive tactic. On the ground it's something they can avoid and punish, but I dont think a marth can get a pika with his critical aerials if the pika uses a well placed d-smash (pretty sure, though Ill test in training next time I can).

 

[-: Trey :-]

hm as for me my bad pika matchups are
Vs Marth
Vs Fox
Vs Metaknight
Vs Pit
Vs R.O.B

XD PIka vs mario is a walk in the park I believe

 

[EnigmaticCam]

D-tilt and F-smash don't outrange Marth.

Test it in practice mode.

Pika sucked vs Marth in Melee not only due to being outranged, but being comboed straight to hell and back.

I haven't actually tested this in practice mode, but I can say that there have been many times a marth whiffed an fsmash to me because I was too far, and without moving I retaliated with a direct hit fsmash.

 

[Emblem Lord]

Maybe because Marth moves forward with his sword for his f-smash and sticks his body out so you can hit him alot easier?

Also When fully spaced Pikachu's and Marth's f-smash share the same max distance. One tidbit though.

Pikachu's sweetspot is in the middle of his shock blast, Marth's is at the tip.

So who benefits more at the max distance of thier spacing? Marth does. Pikachu will f-smash Marth and deal lower damage and knockback. Marth does his f-smash and will deal maximum damage and extreme knockback.

Range goes to Marth.

 

[EnigmaticCam]

Maybe because Marth moves forward with his sword for his f-smash and sticks his body out so you can hit him alot easier?

If I can hit marth with my fsmash as he whiffs his, as far as I'm concerned my fsmash out-ranges his. At least in the pika vs. marth discussion.

But yeah, I can agree that sweet spot gives marth the advantage.

 

[Emblem Lord]

If Pika whiffs then Pika gets nailed too so what's your point?

You sweetspoted Marth because he MOVED FORWARD. Not because your f-smash out ranges his.

Thier f-smashes are actually equalin range, but Marth has a better sweetspot placement.

 

[EnigmaticCam]

I don't understand. Marth's fsmash moves his body forward within range of my fsmash, but he still misses. Doesn't that mean my fsmash out-ranges his?

 

[Emblem Lord]

It means the Marth had crap spacing and that Marth moves his body forward just enough that you can f-smash him when he misses.

Anyway there is more to this match then range, and Marth wins this match.

 

[philbobjoe]

I'm curious as to what people think about the Metaknight, Pikachu matchup. It seems that Pikachu would do well because one of Metaknight's strengths is punishing lag, which Pikachu does not have much of. Another thing is that Metaknight is light, so Pikachu can KO off the top with Thunder pretty easily. So any opinions or insights would be appreciated.

 

[andysoard]

I'm curious as to what people think about the Metaknight, Pikachu matchup. It seems that Pikachu would do well because one of Metaknight's strengths is punishing lag, which Pikachu does not have much of. Another thing is that Metaknight is light, so Pikachu can KO off the top with Thunder pretty easily. So any opinions or insights would be appreciated.

yes metaknight is lighter, but his tornado is hard to cancel out or spot dodge
.

 

[TehBo49]

hm as for me my bad pika matchups are
Vs Marth
Vs Fox
Vs Metaknight
Vs Pit
Vs R.O.B

XD PIka vs mario is a walk in the park I believe

I agree with most of those except for Fox. Seriously, Pika can chaingrab Fox in his sleep. Advantage Pika.

@ philbobjoe: MK is hard basically because he beats Pikachu in the air (faster, more range, & more priority). If he didn't have that, I would give Pika the advantage but that's not the case. Advantage MK.

Also, I was wondering if Marth can be chaingrabbed (by either throw) & if he can, how effective is it?

 

[philbobjoe]

Thanks for helping me understand the matchup better.

I think we should start making a chart with Pikachu's matchups. This would help all Pikachu players a ton.

 

[Tagxy]

It means the Marth had crap spacing and that Marth moves his body forward just enough that you can f-smash him when he misses.

Anyway there is more to this match then range, and Marth wins this match.

As long as pikachu has his QAC, Marth is at a disadvantage. Marth has nothing to get around it sufficiently.

Also, Im almost certain pika's f-smash outranges marths, this isnt melee pika anymore. Ill test it in training tonight to make sure. Plus pika's d-smash outprioritizes a ton of marth's aerials.

 

[ForestSage]

What are some tips for fighting Marths? My brother is getting really fair happy with him, and it's been giving me trouble. It also seems like I'll eat a Fsmash whenever I go for a QAC to attack (lawlz rhymz) but im going to try and use it as movement as well for epic mindgamez.

 

[chongx04]

Olimar has given me alot of trouble...has anyone found out good ways to deal with the Olimar matchup?

 

[Browny]

ive been looking for a main to use as a counter against snake, took one look at that chart, saw pikachu, and OMFG.

pika just ***** snake on all accounts. if theres one thing that god-awful opinionated matchup picture has got right, its that. snakes horizontal recovery is so pathetically slow he cant airdodge through the entire thunder animation. once hes off the edge, hes not coming back on.

lets not forget he can chain grab snake to about 50% even with DI hahahaha. chain grab x5 + fmash + thunder = win

 

[iankobe]

Pikachu actually has a lot of good matchups.

But as Aether said, Pikachu doesn't have THAT much of a trouble while going up against Marth. You have to pay extra attention of what the Marth is doing and play SMART. Its true that Pikachu's range has gone better now in brawl, but doesn't mean Pika has BETTER range than Marth.

In my own opinion, Marth still has the most range in the game.

Nevertheless, PIKACHU FTW.

 

[Spyckie]

For metaknight, since I play against a metaknight most often -

If pikachu is campy and spams thunderjolt+runs away, 50/50. If pikachu tries to confront MK head on, Mk has advantage 70/30. Seriously, MK has very good priority in the air and his ground game is equal to pikachu's.

pikachu's dsmash > MK sh-fair though.

 

[Ch0zen0ne]

LoL.. fighting for the rights of Marth again i see Mr Lord...

 

[EnigmaticCam]

LoL.. fighting for the rights of Marth again i see Mr Lord...

hehe, indeed. I see Emblem antagonizing the likes of smash players all over the forums with Marth's supposed godliness. He's a Marth cheerleader Nothing wrong with that, but I think it's kinda funny.

 

[Roller]

ive been looking for a main to use as a counter against snake, took one look at that chart, saw pikachu, and OMFG.

pika just ***** snake on all accounts. if theres one thing that god-awful opinionated matchup picture has got right, its that. snakes horizontal recovery is so pathetically slow he cant airdodge through the entire thunder animation. once hes off the edge, hes not coming back on.

lets not forget he can chain grab snake to about 50% even with DI hahahaha. chain grab x5 + fmash + thunder = win

I must agree that pika is a beast vs snake. I played the 24th rated player on mlg who used snake and owned him in the mouth (also beat his marth in G2 XD).

 

[Star654]

what do you guys think about pika VS. lucas, i usually have a rough time against skill lucas users. hes very hard to gimp with shock and thunder cuz the risk of him absorbing it.. and if hes a skilled lucas user using the super PK fire jump ( i forget what its called ) not to mention lucas' fair/dair