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Guide Pika's Matchups

Tope

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But I was being truthful.

Pichu does not have the upper hand on falco. (uair doesn't win the match)

Pikachu does not have the upper hand on fox. (dsmash doesn't win the match)

Zelda does not have the upper hand on Pikachu. (Fair/bair doesn't win you the match.)

Sorry, I'll be more clear next time.
 

mood4food77

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i know those moves don't win a match, but other factors take into effect

pichu is the overall hardest target to hit by the SHL, chainthrow to like 65, and just easily juggled

pika, i don't know why but pika does great on fox, i think chainthrowing, the downsmash combo's, uair, other stuff, he jsut is good against one

i hate zelda against pika....the toe, can't rush in or the toe, mindgames don't phase her, i just hate it, she's definitely not an "easy" match-up
 

Tope

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Personally as a pikachu I could say that I personally don't have problems with zelda, but maybe that's just me.

i PERSONALLY have problems against Fox. It's just a hard matchup.

That is all.
 

N64

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Eh, I have moderate trouble against zelda. Fair/bair come in at nice pika-face height, and her fsmash has decent priority against pika's approaches. That being said, she's horribly immobile, decently easy to edge-guard, and easy to ko if you can pop in a jc usmash. Her big gun is her fair/bair, so if you watch out for that her game kinda deterioriates.

I find myself doing evenly against zeldas, but it always seems like i'm making stupid mistakes. It just looks to me like as long as the pika's smart, he's got a lot more to worry zelda than vice versa.

On the fox matchup, it's tough. Yes, pika does a lot better against him than a lot of the cast, but he's top-tier for a reason. Pika can chainthrow him, but any decent fox will put on enough pressure and hit his l-cancels enough that grabbing is going to be difficult. Also, on any stage other than FD, he can usually DI away to a platform, wall, or uneven land to tech and escape the next grab. On FD, you'll likely get him to about 70% (or off the stage, whichever come first). The thing is, he can do some decent damage to you if he grabs you as well, and it's probably easier for him to grab you than vice-versa. Grab leads to uthrow which leads to uair, which can then lead to another uair at lower percentages, and outright death at higher ones. His projectile beats yours, he can reflect yours (which, while slowing him down somewhat, doesn't prevent his movements that much, and can now hinder your approach with the reflected jolt), and he has a few more approach options. Dsmash is pretty good for tripping him up, but if you miss one you'll probably get usmashed. And, while his usmash is slightly less powerful than yours, it's still the second most powerful in the game, and will kill you pretty quick. Or lead to a uair for some nice damage-stacking.

Basically, pika does well, but Fox is top tier for a reason. Basically, pika spends most of the match waiting for an opportunity to gimp kill or abuse fox's fastfalliness, and fox spends most of the match chasing and otherwise beating the crap out of pika. Unlike other matches, you can't outrun or outmaneuver your opponent much in this fight waiting for an opportunity, so you have to play it fox's way. Which fox happens to be better than you at.

Not sure that made sense. Oh well. Zelda matchup is iffy, I'll wait for others to respond. Fox matchup is decently hard though. He's just too good.
 

Zig-Zag!

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I play Eddie a lot in tournies guys. If you're wondering...

He's just plain amazing. He's so much better than most people, it doesnt matter what character he is. As far as one on one matchups with pika and ganon, I've never gotten worse than two-stocked, but then again, I've never won.

That's not to say I dont like the matchup. Any lesser ganon's I wipe the floor with, truely. I love playing ganondorf with pika! Flipping them around is so easy, just so long as you avoid the downsmash combo. And I've beaten Eddie in teams before, so its not impossible.

Also, its easier to gimp ganons than you think. Tail them, and then either tail them again or down smash near the edge and watch what happens.
 

N64

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Well, as I get more tourney experience, my views change a bit. So, i'd like to suggest some changes.

Ganon back to Even. I played Joe Bushman's ganon in pools and, it honestly wasn't too terrible. 2-0'd him. As long as pika watches out for fair/bair, stays below him when possible, and avoids being grabbed, he can run circles around ganon.

Marth to hard. He's not that bad. Uair and Usmash->thunder own him.

Jigglypuff to Even. I'm having trouble with them lately. Yes, usmash will kill him at like 60%, but it's so hard to approach him with his bair and fair spacing, as it'll outprioritize any pika's aerials. And he's one of few chars that can edge-guard pika fairly well.

Any problems with that logic? discuss?
 

-Chad-

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Dunno about Ganon.

Marth should stay where he is...a good Marth that will abuse his range and use tilts to keep Pika out of range and bat him away as he approaches is one of the most frustrating things ever, since Pika can't approach with anything other then his self and jolts get slashed right through without stopping his blade for the most part.

Dunno about Jiggly either, do jolts not help in approaching her?

You can tell I didn't play enough =X
 

Tope

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I doubt Bushman has any serious experience against Pikachu, but regardless good job ****** him.

I never thought that Marth was that hard of a match to begin with / too easy to edgeguard usmash.

Jiggly is tough to approach, I played quite a few matchs with The King out in Dallas, and the closest I ever got to winning was on Corneria and that was 1 stock. Of course he's way better than me, but I haven't had a problem with any other puffs beside him. I beat Kishprime pretty handily with Chu.
 

Zig-Zag!

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N64 said:
Well, as I get more tourney experience, my views change a bit. So, i'd like to suggest some changes.

Ganon back to Even. I played Joe Bushman's ganon in pools and, it honestly wasn't too terrible. 2-0'd him. As long as pika watches out for fair/bair, stays below him when possible, and avoids being grabbed, he can run circles around ganon.
Pika is a counter to ganon. I still hold this, and only the absolute best ganons will give you trouble because, well...they're the absolute best at the character! Of COURSE you have to look out for ganons best moves, but thats a given. Just because you may have had trouble with back airs or whatever doesnt mean the match is even.

N64 said:
Marth to hard. He's not that bad. Uair and Usmash->thunder own him.
Marth is light to a degree, yes, but he is Pika's best counter, next to shiek. Can you outduel a marth? Of course! But this doesnt change the fact that pika has little to no good approach on him, nor way to get back on without danger.

N64 said:
Jigglypuff to Even. I'm having trouble with them lately. Yes, usmash will kill him at like 60%, but it's so hard to approach him with his bair and fair spacing, as it'll outprioritize any pika's aerials. And he's one of few chars that can edge-guard pika fairly well.
The best Jiggs will give you trouble.....duh. But that doesnt mean this is a fairly easy matchup for pika in general. Jiggs play is mindgames mostly, so if you can get it to bring down its wall of aerials, you've got it made. You just have to be patient.
 

N64

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How do you wait out a jiggly then? I find no good way to approach one, and they'll just do their fair/bair spacing towards you and slowly close the distance. I just don't see an opening, I dunno.
 

Zig-Zag!

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N64 said:
How do you wait out a jiggly then? I find no good way to approach one, and they'll just do their fair/bair spacing towards you and slowly close the distance. I just don't see an opening, I dunno.
mindgames, up smashes out of shields, juggling, up air to thunder combos, and sailing down airs through the air.
 

technomancer

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vs. Jiggs just run at it and attack. After a bit that stops working; run under it and attack.
 

NeeQueoHH

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the thing with thundering a jiggly, is that u HAVE to catch it most of the time. cus if u miss, the crazy lag will cause a PING with jiggly blowing bubbles in ur face.

also playing my frends jiggly, he seems to get really annoyd with jolt spamming. jolts seem to work well. and a good SHFFL Fair into sumthing else comes out pretty fast
 

Pikaville

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Marths combo attack can easily be cc'd and coutered with d/u smash.I actually don't have that much trouble with marths(probably cuz half my friends main him)Fast fallers are ***** with a well timed n air off the edge especially falco and fox.I never knew the marios were hard for pika.Interesting.Jiggs never gives me any trouble, the thuder flip(who named it that anyway?)owns her.Double u airs off the edge and an f smash when they make it back do pretty nicely.
 

Gea

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Yeah, some Pika at HOST refused to play his Pika agianst my Doc in pools (****er countered with Marth -.-) saying that he just would NOT play Mario or Doc with Pika. Deafsithe or something like that. Word was he had a decent Pika. Not like Tope or anything, but still knew his way around the rat.

Definitely known as a tough matchup for Pika.
 

N64

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Really? I dislike the doc matchup more than the mario one. Pills have an annoying height, and uthrow/dthrow -> fair can be kinda brutal. Does mario just have an easier time chainthrowing pika? or is his fsmash too good?

I guess I admittantly don't get much practice vs. the marios though. Got knocked out of gauntlet last weekend by a doc player, so now I'm uberscared of docs.
 

Zig-Zag!

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I play a few docs from time to time, and I find that they arent as bad if you keep them in the air, or at least unable to control the ground. Your best bet is to take the battle to the edges and screw them over, but you have to be super careful of their cape killing your recovery to the edge.
 

Gea

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Really? I dislike the doc matchup more than the mario one. Pills have an annoying height, and uthrow/dthrow -> fair can be kinda brutal. Does mario just have an easier time chainthrowing pika? or is his fsmash too good?

I guess I admittantly don't get much practice vs. the marios though. Got knocked out of gauntlet last weekend by a doc player, so now I'm uberscared of docs.
Actually I'm pretty sure it has to do with the chainthrow. Mario can end a bad DI'd throw in his chainthrow with a sweetspotted fsmash for the win.
 

Tope

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You Mario can chain Pika for a tad longer, and just the whole concept of him being a wee bit faster and having more reach.

Also it's technically eaiser for him to chain Uair combo's then Doc.
 

ResumeDPosition

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hey this thing is pretty great. I figured marth would just open a can on pikachu before i even looked at the entire thing
 

wuthefwasthat

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so... like 2 pages ago... mood4food said something about zeldas not being phased by mindgames...
i thought that was funny - from a person with like 1,200 posts

ness > pikachu
yeah...
 

Tope

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so... like 2 pages ago... mood4food said something about zeldas not being phased by mindgames...
i thought that was funny - from a person with like 1,200 posts

ness > pikachu
yeah...
I don't believe that's true at all.

I 3 stocked Sinma's Ness with Pika. XP

He then two stocked me back the next round but still.

:psycho:
 
D

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I've beaten every pikachu I've ever seen as ness

then again, I've also beaten every pikachu I've seen as pikachu. Except vidjogamer, I didn't play him in pikachu ditto though, only ness vs pikachu.

*arrogance grows by the minute*
 

Tope

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^ You've never beaten me with Ness, althought you did beat me in a ditto, in October of last year.
 

Zig-Zag!

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I've beaten every pikachu I've ever seen as ness

then again, I've also beaten every pikachu I've seen as pikachu. Except vidjogamer, I didn't play him in pikachu ditto though, only ness vs pikachu.

*arrogance grows by the minute*
I'm still in edinboro until saturday if you want to play, mow. Im a bit rusty since I havent gotten to play much since I've been in this state, but I think it'd be fun. I play some ness too, so we could even ditto.
 

Scissors Sir

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I've beaten every pikachu I've ever seen as ness

then again, I've also beaten every pikachu I've seen as pikachu. Except vidjogamer, I didn't play him in pikachu ditto though, only ness vs pikachu.

*arrogance grows by the minute*
umbreonmow we played in a pika ditto and I beat you all three matches we had. Those were the only three matches we had. then you picked marth and then fox.

either you just truly forgot or you were hoping I forgot. I'm not trying to brag or boast cuz it was a little while ago but I would just like you to clear up that statement until it really holds true.
 

mood4food77

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so... like 2 pages ago... mood4food said something about zeldas not being phased by mindgames...
i thought that was funny - from a person with like 1,200 posts

ness > pikachu
yeah...
that was from months ago...i don't play pika anymore, sorry, but still, i had a hard time against zelda...but now no one even attempts to use zelda anymore, and that was for me, not for every pika player...my mindgames didn't phase her, not tope's, N64's or anyone elses, besides then i had 700 posts and was a semi-spammer (tried to help but it didnt') now i'm completely different and i can back my stuff up with facts, thank you and goodnight
 
D

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umbreonmow we played in a pika ditto and I beat you all three matches we had. Those were the only three matches we had. then you picked marth and then fox.

either you just truly forgot or you were hoping I forgot. I'm not trying to brag or boast cuz it was a little while ago but I would just like you to clear up that statement until it really holds true.
nah, I beat your pikachu with ness right after I lost to your pichu though >_>

maybe you're right and I truely did forget. If this is the case, I apologize.
 

NJzFinest

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>.> @ Mow

Okay, Pikachu guys, I need some info on Link vs Pikachu. I'm don't know anything in this matchup. Doesn't Pikachu have the advantage? I mean, he's completely out-spaced and all, but he has annoying spam, a solid vertical KOing ability, and edgeguarding against Link. I never ever played a good Pikachu <.<
 

mood4food77

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it's even, link's sword serves pika problems, just remember a sheild cancelled up smash is pika's best friend in the match, and just keep your distance and grab as much as possible if you're the link
 

N64

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Yeah, I've had more problems with y.link than link, but I also haven't had much experience with either matchup. From links I've played, the most difficult part about the matchup is getting through his projectile game. Pikachu doesn't have a whole lot of approach options outside of nair, which becomes predictable, but once you do get close it becomes a fair amount easier. Pika's uair can be pretty brutal against link's recovery, especially if it leads to an opportunity to snipe him with a jolt while he's hookshoting to recover.

From a link's standpoint, I guess good advice would be to be weary of pika's uair, try to stay at a distance just outside of pika's usmash/rising uair range where you can still ftilt, fsmash, dsmash, grab, upB if they mess up, etc. Try to draw out a whiffed usmash from the pika and punish him with any of those when you can. Link's uair makes approaches from above pretty difficult for pika (not that he often approaches from above, it just pretty much takes out this option alltogether), and his dair can kill pika at fairly low percentages, especially with poor di. It's mostly a positioning fight, from my experience, so try to stay a medium-long range and force the pika to come to you.
 
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