Uses for f-air?

[WaffleDinosaur]

I've been playing a little bit of Pikachu lately and noticed that forward air seems mostly useless, is there something i'm missing?

 

[un.dead]

It can lead into pivot grabs, certain tilts/smashes, and even n-air and uair. Still, being a weak multihit move you have to watch out for when people use SDI/ASDI/Crouch Cancel on it. All in all it's a pretty nice approach tool if you know what you're doing.

 

[sheNanagans]

Fair is probably one of pikachu's best moves lol. I use mostly 1st hit of fair into grab/upsmash/uptilt/nair.

Fair is godly on tether characters too. grab ledge ---> ledgehop 1st hit of fair ---> grab ---> backthrow/Upsmash/uptilt is amazing.

 

[WaffleDinosaur]

Thanks for the information guys, I appreciate it.

 

[Yambotico]

I get that fair is good and can lead to big punishes, but when do you use it over Nair? It's so punishable on shield (I think it does 1 frame of shield stun). Do you use it on a soft read or something?

 

[un.dead]

Whether you'd use it over nair depends on what you want to accomplish. Nair is good for sending people offstage, or putting on crossup shield pressure if your opponent's bad, or as a general approach mixup. But Fair is basically a setup tool. I think somewhere in this video on Dreamland, Axe had a 3 hit combo which was started with f-air, then led into u-air, into d-air. You can do a lot of different followups out of it.

 

[Choice Scarf]

The idea is that your little hits of far deal less knockback than Nair's so that you can immediately be in range for more stuff like grabs. Also having another aerial is just another move to use as a variety to keep them all fresher, which helps for Nair or other power moves when you want to try for the KO.

Fair is just good for this when you use it low enough to the ground and use your follow-up when the opponent expects that final more damaging hit.

 

[Faust the Lich]

It can break crouch cancel
I am 90% sure of that

 

[Psyant]

It can break crouch cancel
I am 90% sure of that

Especially against the big characters it seems really good for that. Like on Bowser for example it kinda pulls him right off the ground which is actually really useful.

As to when to use it, it's a lot of personal preference I think, but I mostly use it at high %s to confirm into Usmash more safely than just using Usmash raw. You can crossup Fair and be safer if they shield and turn around Usmash if they don't. At lower %s crossup Fair > Utilt can be good. I don't like using it without crossing up so I don't really go for grabs from it.

Fair > Usmash is insanely good vs most floaties, with a huge potential reward in killing them early and relatively little risk to yourself. Especially against tall floaties like Zelda and Mewtwo who you can hit Fair on easily, it's devastating.

 

[un.dead]

I don't like using it without crossing up so I don't really go for grabs from it.

My hardest conversions are off of grabs which I often get from f-air into boost pivot grab. That's actually really good near the ledge, because b-throw>edge guard. Or if you just want a grab in general.

 

[proxibomb]

When on the ledge, do a small ledgedash with a fair to create space if you're being pressured, and make even more space with a dtilt. Do whatever you want after that. lol

 

[hype machine]

If you predict a mis tech you can do a fair > up tilt/up smash, before they are able to get up and continue the combo

 

[Quadruple]

I usually use fair as a mixup, just to keep them on their toes, as well as fair -> upsmash on floaties

 

[ShadowKing]

Fair to dtilt works against bigger Characters

 

[Boondocker]

Fair is AMAZING for traversing platforms. Seriously go to battlefield and try it out. You can auto cancel /edge cancel it all over the place. Here are some of the things you can do with it:

~It is good for pressuring shields from below.
~You can land on platforms without needing to l cancel it. This is good for keeping up the pressure against someone on a platform.
~The top platform can be pressured from the side ones and then you can QAC or waveland bair afterwards.
~The side platforms can be pressured from the ground and then you can QAC afterwards for more.
~You can even Full jump-->Fair--Double jump-->Fair the side platforms and STILL time it so you don't have to l cancel it.
~You know that funky animation where pika jumps backwards out of his slide and keeps his momentum? Try reverse Fairing out of it. It gets great distance and the hitbox stays out forever. The point of reversing it is to go for an uair afterwards.
~Fair-->Upsmash/Grab

Similar things can be done on Smashville, PS2, Wario ware, and pretty much anywhere except FD.

 

[MorphGuy1000]

Isn't ledgehop Fair bad because they can just CC it and punish you?

 

[sheNanagans]

If they CC you can hit them with the weird hitbox of upair that sends them behind you, they are nicely holding down just for you as well so they will go plummeting down!

 

[MorphGuy1000]

If they CC you can hit them with the weird hitbox of upair that sends them behind you, they are nicely holding down just for you as well so they will go plummeting down!

still doesn't make ledgehop fair safe. you just said that ledgehop uair is an infinitely better option (which is true lol)

if you mean condition them by getting yourself punished a bit...well that's just dumb lol

 

[sheNanagans]

Fair from ledge is really good against airborn opponents as it leads to a free backthrow or upsmash. watch the 1st match of me vs Papa in this vid: http://www.twitch.tv/nlgtcg/v/4662352

Starts at like 22 minutes in, especially the 2nd stock. vs tethers you can do an amazing job at covering the onstage tether pull.

 

[MorphGuy1000]

Fair from ledge is really good against airborn opponents as it leads to a free backthrow or upsmash. watch the 1st match of me vs Papa in this vid: http://www.twitch.tv/nlgtcg/v/4662352

Starts at like 22 minutes in, especially the 2nd stock. vs tethers you can do an amazing job at covering the onstage tether pull.

you're forgetting that ledgedash into any if those options is infinitely safer since u actually have i-frames during startup...

 

[PandaPanda Senketsu]

if they're close to the ground and you fair them and land first, you can follow up with just about anything

 

[MudkipUniverse]

It's like a Mario Dair that reaches forwards, because it doesn't have much endlag

 

[MorphGuy1000]

So apparently, the Skype Group informed me that if you SH Fair (no FF, just L-Cancel) and do it fast enough + space it properly, you will get the last hit of Fair which sends them behind you. The important thing to note is that this breaks CC.

I don't find this option viable since I don't feel as if you get anything else off of it (because you either get center stage or you're rushing in at them from a corner so you probably made a mistake if you're in that spot), but it's an option worth exploring...anybody have success doing this?