Thunder's Vertical Knockback

[Shady Shaymin]

Most of the utility from thunder I see discussed in these boards are

A) The cloud's ability to spike offstage
B) Pika's hitbox and knockback when struck by thunder

Something I don't see oft discussed is the vertical knockback of the actual bolt of thunder and how this can be useful. On the top of 3ds battlefield yesterday, I up-threw a sheik, chased the DI and hit her with the bolt hitbox of thunder, which sent her into the blast zone at 114% with no rage. Pretty useless off of platforms, but perhaps a nice kill option to consider on high platforms.

 

[Noro~]

There are two ways to follow up with DownB after an Upthrow:
Hit the spike with the cloud and connect with the hitbox around Pikachu, which is a true follow up and kills pretty reliably if the opponent DIs the wrong way (which happens quite often since DIing outwards kills to the sides and DIing in can kill off the top on certain stages).
Or wait for the airdodge and connect with the bolt only, resulting in a kill off the top.
Personally, I prefer the true follow up, since it is, well, true. And more stylish. However, the true follow up can potentially condition your opponent to airdodge as soon as possible after they get upthrown (for the chance of you missing the strict timing to connect truely connect the cloudspike), making it easy to read the airdodge and mix it up with a Brawl-like thunder kill (which is the kill using the bolt).