Thoughts on pika competitively

[ZTD | TECHnology]

His kill power just becomes ridiculous at high percent and like you said, if we make a mistake we will die at a very low percent. It's really hard to find an opening to punish him with a kill move if he's camping hard with aura spheres and force palm. His kill moves are so much safer than ours too and his aura spheres force us to approach since it beats our jolt spam. Recovering against a high aura Lucario is pretty scary too. I'm not 100% sure about this, but I believe his aura sphere can hit us as we're trying to QA to the ledge even from below the stage. His aura sphere also covers our ledge options very well because of how huge it is. I think the best way to close a stock is to try to grab him and get him in the air. After that, we try to punish his landing with upsmash. But that's a lot easier said than done. Or we can throw him off stage and try to edge guard which is also really hard to do.

I can agree with all of that. I definitely think its in Lucario's favor, I'm just not sure by how large of a margin. I'm still trying to test certain things. Like I know, we can Nair through Force Palm and still hit him and that's helped a little bit for approaching. The thing I struggle with is, I start camping super hard, they'll just charge AS, which is something you want to avoid. But when I approach him at aura it feels like a giant risk every time. I can't let him get past 130% or the situation just gets even worse. You could try to get him off stage and edgeguard him like you said, easier said than done. You might be able to hit with Thunder but thats not gonna kill him. Hell, I've hit Lucario with Thunder at the top of the stage at 160% and he still didn't die rofl. Getting him in the air above you seems like the best option for pressure. We do well there but then if you fail to follow up your juggles with a kill, you'e just made things worse.

 

[dettadeus]

just posted a good display of the pika/lucario matchup on the video thread btw

literally at worst it's even. like... pikachu completely destroys lucario in neutral. we should never have to get hit if we don't want to because we can outspace him and vastly outspeed him. we have a stronger combo game and faster punishes. literally the only problem is that he can usually kill us before we can kill him - if he actually hits us.

 

[Ryusuta]

just posted a good display of the pika/lucario matchup on the video thread btw

literally at worst it's even. like... pikachu completely destroys lucario in neutral. we should never have to get hit if we don't want to because we can outspace him and vastly outspeed him. we have a stronger combo game and faster punishes. literally the only problem is that he can usually kill us before we can kill him - if he actually hits us.

I saw the videos and while I agree the matchup isn't terrible, I think you severely overstated Pikachu's abilities in neutral. From what I was seeing, the Lucario was dominating neutral really well and Pikachu did most of his work on the defensive and won mostly due to his killing power.

 

[Tagxy]

While Lucario might have the advantage on pika, I cant imagine him having a better neutral than Pika. it seems like Pika has one of the best neutral games in smash 4 now, if lucario wins im 90% sure its bc of aura not because he has actual better tools.

 

[Ryusuta]

While Lucario might have the advantage on pika, I cant imagine him having a better neutral than Pika. it seems like Pika has one of the best neutral games in smash 4 now, if lucario wins im 90% sure its bc of aura not because he has actual better tools.

I'm just saying what it felt like the match looked like to me. A good half of it was Pika getting juggled around.

 

[Gamingboy]

Ryusuta, that Kirby sig may be the cutest sig I've ever seen.

 

[Tagxy]

Ive been hearing from good lucario mains that all of his normals are worse in range. I feel like regardless of how much stronger he hits, it shouldnt be too terrible for pika if his range isnt as good.

 

[Shog]

Did someone saw gameplay of SuperGirlKels? She plays a pretty damn good Pikachu (and Sonic)

What does other Pikachu main think?

Ryusuta, that Kirby sig may be the cutest sig I've ever seen.

Yeah that sig indeed adorable, but why did you say that in a Pikachu competitive thread?