NobleClamtasm
Smash Journeyman
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2013
- Messages
- 305
I think we've all experienced this before. You've racked up a good 120% on your opponent, and all you need is a solid U-smash, F-smash or thunder to finish off the stock. This may be simple at first glance, but in reality, all your opponent has to do is to spam shield and bait attacks to easily hold onto their stock. This issue is best showcased perfectly within the entire set between Zero and ESAM during CEO 2015:
In case you didn't know, shields are strong in this game. Really strong. You can act out of it with tons of options almost immediately, and its fast recharge time means that you shouldn't ever worry about it breaking. There's a reason why running shield is one of the best and safest methods of approach.
Unlike the other top characters, Pikachu does not have any method to punish shields in high percent situations. The luxury of throw-to-kill setups are common in other top tiers for this reason, and lacking such an option is a huge detriment for Pikachu IMO. Ness has the backthrow, Luigi has the downthrow -> cyclone and ZSS has the downthrow to Uair. For Sheik and Fox, even if the follow up from Dthrow to Uair isn't guaranteed, they still have an easier time than Pikachu, since they can bait airdodges and catch them with Uair or Bair for the kill. Pikachu's aerials, on the other hand, while having amazing priority, can barely be considered reliable kill moves unless used used off-stage. Even Pikachu's strongest aerial, Bair (I hate this move) can send the opponent towards the opposite direction if you don't land it correctly. Here is what I found to be the best ways to land Pikachu's kill options:
Is there something I'm missing here? I find it hard to believe that Pikachu is top 5 material if he can't get passed shields, the strongest option in the game. The other top tiers, on the other hand, have laughably easy throw-to-kill setups in the form of Dthrow -> blahblahblah, and can rack up damage just as easy as Pikachu. I personally think that Pikachu is overrated as hell, and I'm certain that our tier placement will drop once players start abusing shield against the matchup.
Inb4 edgeguarding
Edgeguarding is difficult in this game. Sheik is impossible to edgeguard. Using Bair to challenge recoveries only works sometimes (did I mention that I hate this move?) adding to the fact that it sometimes hits in the wrong direction (Even thunder can hit the opponent towards the wrong direction lol). Most characters have high, medium and low recovery options to mixup their recovery, so once again more reads and coinflips are required. The ledge-trumping mechanic and the magnetic ledges don't help either.
Sorry for the rant. I wanted to get this off of my chest for a while.
tl;dr - How do I land my kill moves if the opponent can easily camp behind shield to avoid dying until 180%, where my upthrow will barely kill, while at the same time I am at risk of dying at 80-90% thanks to the wonderful rage mechanic, (which even screws up our early percent combos, might I add). What do?
Unlike the other top characters, Pikachu does not have any method to punish shields in high percent situations. The luxury of throw-to-kill setups are common in other top tiers for this reason, and lacking such an option is a huge detriment for Pikachu IMO. Ness has the backthrow, Luigi has the downthrow -> cyclone and ZSS has the downthrow to Uair. For Sheik and Fox, even if the follow up from Dthrow to Uair isn't guaranteed, they still have an easier time than Pikachu, since they can bait airdodges and catch them with Uair or Bair for the kill. Pikachu's aerials, on the other hand, while having amazing priority, can barely be considered reliable kill moves unless used used off-stage. Even Pikachu's strongest aerial, Bair (I hate this move) can send the opponent towards the opposite direction if you don't land it correctly. Here is what I found to be the best ways to land Pikachu's kill options:
- Upthrow straight into Thunder.
- Pray they don't DI. (This won't work against a semi-competent player)
- Downthrow stright into Thunder
- Only works if they DI behind you, and it is difficult to condition your opponent to do so
- Upthrow, read their DI, kill with a sourspot thunder off the top.
- Even if you get the correct read, good luck hitting the 10 frame airdodge punish window
- Randy Up-smash
- Not only is it risky as hell, but Pikachu's run speed is not fast enough to be reliable as Fox's run Up-smash, not to mention its crappy range compared to Fox, Luigi and Mario's Up-Smash
- Punishing as the opponent lands
- A coinflip at best. Your opponent can fastfall -> shield to block and punish your Smash attack, or fastfall -> roll to avoid grabs. They can also throw out an aerial to stuff out an attempted Smash attack
- Punishing ledge options
- A coinflip, once again. Regular getup has a two frame punish window before a shield can be activated so good luck hitting that
- Hard read on a spot dodge or roll
- Yay, more coinflips
Is there something I'm missing here? I find it hard to believe that Pikachu is top 5 material if he can't get passed shields, the strongest option in the game. The other top tiers, on the other hand, have laughably easy throw-to-kill setups in the form of Dthrow -> blahblahblah, and can rack up damage just as easy as Pikachu. I personally think that Pikachu is overrated as hell, and I'm certain that our tier placement will drop once players start abusing shield against the matchup.
Inb4 edgeguarding
Edgeguarding is difficult in this game. Sheik is impossible to edgeguard. Using Bair to challenge recoveries only works sometimes (did I mention that I hate this move?) adding to the fact that it sometimes hits in the wrong direction (Even thunder can hit the opponent towards the wrong direction lol). Most characters have high, medium and low recovery options to mixup their recovery, so once again more reads and coinflips are required. The ledge-trumping mechanic and the magnetic ledges don't help either.
Sorry for the rant. I wanted to get this off of my chest for a while.
tl;dr - How do I land my kill moves if the opponent can easily camp behind shield to avoid dying until 180%, where my upthrow will barely kill, while at the same time I am at risk of dying at 80-90% thanks to the wonderful rage mechanic, (which even screws up our early percent combos, might I add). What do?