Secondary for Mario Matchup

[Zachary Cervone]

I have been going to a lot of locals and getting constant 1-3 but the reason I feel I don't get 1st consistently is Mario. I think it has something to do with my playstyle but I don't feel like the matchup is even. So I am looking for advice on a secondary that has a somewhat similar style to Pikachu but can take care of Mario so I don't have to struggle so much. I have been reading up on Donkey Kong, Greninja, and Meta Knight as potential picks any opinions or alternates I am not thinking of that might do better?

 

[Pikabunz]

I'd say Meta Knight is best out of those characters. He can punish all of Mario's smashes easily with dash attack and his upb out of shield is good when Mario is being aggressive with his aerials. Meta Knight also edge guards Mario well due to having multiple jumps. One thing you have to watch out for is when you upb to the ledge. Sometimes it doesn't snap on the first loop leaving you vulnerable to Mario's FLUDD during that period.

 

[hell-dew]

DK is by far the easiest to use mario counter (something to consider) he outspaces mario hard and has the ding dong for ez kills. its like land 4 hits you win the risk reward goes heavily in your favor. that said the problem with picking up DK if your a pika main is that they are by all accounts the polar opposite characters. DK has trouble landing Pika has free landing options DK is heavy pika is light DK is huge pika is small DK has long range moves and a fairly linear recovery pikachu is the exact opposite. adapting your play style to DK depending on how dependent you are on pikachus stuff might not be that easy but he isnt terrible hard to use in general.

 

[Emuchu]

The big issue with the Pika vs. Mario matchup is that the both of you operate within the same range, i.e. point blank aggression. Although technically Pikachu wins the neutral, Mario gets big, big, big rewards out of nearly everything he does for relatively little effort on the part of the player: his grab strings hurt like crazy, his Usmash beats all of Pika's aerials on approach, his cape and fireballs combat our zoning game, and he has Nair and Dair to contest our aerial game, forcing Pika to play an incredibly clean game to beat Mario through good spacing and mobility rather than raw aggression, because all trades favor Mario.

I don't personally play DK or MK, but I get a lot of mileage against the Mario Bros. by switching to a swordie. I can at least attest to the strengths of Ike, Roy, and Cloud, although you have to play a patient game and learn which buttons are safe on shield to avoid that massive grab punishment. But floating outside of Mario's range with disjoints seems to be a good way to go.

 

[Parisienne]

Matchups are theorycraft, because as much as we hate to admit it - none of us play perfectly, things don't always (or even often) work the way they do on paper and unless a common strategy completely shuts down a character it's really hard to enforce actual matchup odds as the human matchup will forever remain prominent. In a secondary you could look for two things;

- A character who can avoid the scenario(s) you particularly find stressful when fighting this specific Mario as Pikachu
- A character who can force(?)/apply a scenario(s) the Mario player in question finds stressful

On top of that, finding one who is in your comfort zone is always good.

From my experiences, Mario has a harder time "trading" usmash against disjoint hitboxes (due to the hurtbox not being present) and it can really force him out of his comfort zone. My area's Mario player has a load of trouble with my area's Ike player. He also got absolutely flattened by a Shulk due to being forced out of his comfort zone. Cloud could probably do similar stuff. Due to Shulk being pretty complex and Ike or Cloud being stronger, I would not recommend him so let's scrap that.

Imo, go with Ike. Though after G3 Cloud has become a bit of a FOTM pick, he might work out. Experiment, especially in friendlies as to not risk your tournament life vs this player.

Maybe assess your mistakes in the Pika vs Mario matchup in particular.

 

[Zombreed]

I use Marth, perfect shield fire balls and approach, stay just out of range, and play FAIR

 

[Uncle Honey]

Gonna explore Corrin/Bayo against Mario. Wonder who will fair better.