Pikachu MU s.

Compiled and Edited by Sheaf

Pikachu

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Pikachu

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Preface
My nick in Smashboards is Felth. Im from Chile and I main Pikachu. This document
is just a summary of the Pikachu Matchup Thread written in smashboards. The usser
Umbreoff made a summary of this Thread and I just I wrote it again using a different
compilator called TEX. The original document can be found here. I created this document
just to help those who want to contribute with the Specific Math up of each character.
You can find hyperlinks to some specific character in the corresponding section of this
document. If you want to help me with the transcription of this summary just send me
an inbox in smashboards to Felth. Ill by writting this at the same time as I create the
corresponding Match up Thread of a certain Character.

Thanks to the Smashboards community for working so hard in developing more and
more theory about Smash. Thanks to the users that wrote in the Pikachu Matchup
Thread for making this document to be possible and thanks to the usser Umbreoff for
organizing the whole information of this Thread.

Contents
1 Matchups
1.1 Diddy Kong. . . . .
1.2 Luigi. . . . . . . .
1.3 Mario. . . . . . . .
1.4 Meta Knight. . . .
1.5 Mii Brawler. . . . .
1.6 Ness. . . . . . . . .
1.7 Rosalina & Luma. .
1.8 Sheik. . . . . . . .
1.9 Zero Suit Samus. .

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Chapter 1
Matchups
1.1 Diddy Kong.
Click here to see the Specific Characters Match-up: Pikachu vs Diddy Kong .

Basic Information.
Posts: 336, 246, 242, 241, 234, 225, 146, 141, 137.
Thoroughness: 6.5/10. (some of the posts are old, though)
Matchup: 60:40 F.
Verdict: Medium, Id think (if not, medium-high). Theres a lot of good stuff here,
but I heard that the Roy/Ryu update patched Diddy Kong. If thats the case, some
reevaluation may be in order (even if he was nerfed).

List of Posts.
RODO

#608

Ness and Lucas are IMO two of the hardest matchups for Pika. Sheik, Diddy, Rosa
and Luigi dont really bother me near as much.
ReedBeefBaron

#336

Hey guys, Ive always played mostly Diddy and Shiek but I have pocketed Pikachu
since Brawl. I think Pikachu may end up being a great counter to Diddy Kong post
2

Matchups

Diddy Kong

patch for a couple of reasons and Id like to hear what you guys think. Going through
some of the same points we were talking about on the Falco boards.
1. Pikachus mobility is better than Diddys so Diddy will not be able to get away
and get 1 or 2 seconds to himself whenever he wants to safely pluck a peel in this
matchup. Since the damage and KB nerfs Diddy needs to get in cleanly many more
times than before and the banana is how he does this. You need to be able to stop
Diddy from setting up by either patiently plucking it behind him and immediately
jumping, z-catching, and fast falling back to the ground, or aggressively b-reverse
plucking the banana towards the opponent from mid range and approaching with
fair, dash grab, nair, and empty hop mixups as the banana falls and traps. If you
can stop Diddy from setting this up successfully enough he will not get the damage
output he now needs.

This is a lot harder to deal with than it sounds on paper. Even if you defend
against the banana really well, say, by z-catching it and immediately throwing it
away or back at Diddy, or quickly jumping and destroying it, youre still being
forced into a situation where you have to do something and the grab/fair mixup
is on the way. Its like how Dedede mains use gordo, it can be defended against
but you have to do something, which allows Dedede to come at you the way he wants.

Except Dededes are explaining why Gordo isnt trash. Diddys use this strategy
to make bananas the best projectile in the game. There are dozens of of ways to
approach with bananas in Smash 4 because now we can repluck a banana out of
our hand after the initial spawn pluck, in addition to four directions to throw and a
z-drop. Different setups require different defense maneuvers. Because the Diddy
player will know which way he will approach out of many setups and the opponent
has to guess or react, skilled banana approaches are the most free mix up in the
game. And Diddy gets a lot of reward for getting in. So use your superior mobility
to either catch or destroy the banana on aggressive plucks you can punish and get
in Diddys face on patient plucks to stop these mixups before they can be set up.

As far as taking the banana away goes, air speed is good but foot speed trumps
it. Because a foot speed character can just sprint across the ground as far as
he needs to before jumping and z-catching the peel if its in the air. Addition-

Matchups

Diddy Kong

ally z-scooping, or z-catching an item that is on the ground, is now a thing.

Simply running up as close to a grounded banana as you can without tripping
and jumping with an immediate z-scoop is a fast, lagless way to pick peels up
off the ground. But its going to be a bad idea if you have slower foot speed
than Diddy, because again, Diddys entire playstyle now revolves around using
bananas to force the opponent into situations where he has the advantage. He will
use grounded bananas as lures and you will get faired if he catches you going for this.

Characters like Fox, Pikachu, Falcon, Sonic and such are better at taking bananas
from Diddy off the aggressive pluck and off the ground for this reason. Someone
like Falco probably cannot handle this situation like that. A Diddy who knows how
to get the most off of every banana and setup as many times as he can will actually
force an approach himself. Which he can also use to lure people into hits, so watch
that too.
Youre other option is to overpower Diddys neutral by approaching while simultaneously destroying the bananas Diddy tries to pull out to set you up. Someone
like Pikachu can do this well, destroying aggressive b-reverse plucks with jumping
thunderjolts and fairs on the way in. But again, if youre too telegraphed with how
you try to destroy bananas the Diddy Kong will cover it and you will get faired or
worse.
2. Pikachu is good enough at disadvantage to not get bodied too hard when Diddy
does get in cleanly. Nair is fast enough and QA helps with landing and escapes
in general in a lot of ways. You dont have to worry about getting comboed and
juggled for days like some other characters do. So thats good.
3. Pikachu now beats Diddy in terms of kill power and ease of kill setups. Since the
patch, Smash 4 Diddys Achilles heel is the fact that he has terrible kill power
outside of hard reads and perfect banana setups. He has reasonable moves for this
though, in his F-smash which is now only a little bit more unsafe, and the second
hit of his D-smash which is actually quite powerful. With customs on rocketbarrel
attack is a risky yet brutal coin flip mixup that will destroy people early if Diddy
can bait an air dodge, but Diddy will get hit if he misses.
If you can avoid these three things and draw stocks out for as far as you can and
use your superior kill power to close stocks before Diddy lands his kill you will have
a much easier time.

Matchups

Diddy Kong

4. Many characters can gimp Diddy fairly easily if he has to charge the barrels because
he is too low to recover with monkey flip, the hard part is actually forcing Diddy to
recover low.
What Ive been practicing is using Pikachus B-reverse thunder just off stage to
create a disjointed wall which will block the monkey flip from reaching the ledge
and force Diddy to charge the barrels low where he is easily gimped by thunder jolt
and quick attack.
But even thats hard. Monkey flip is a fast, safe, and confusing recovery since Diddy
can wait to leap halfway into the stage and back to neutral where he dominates
for as long as he wants. Coupled with the fact that the peanut cancel makes his
movement even more crazy, I dont think most characters will be able to stop this
recovery enough to put Diddy under the stage where hes screwed. Pikachu has a
real shot, but youll have to practice and have reasonable reads.
I thought Pikachu may have ended up winning this matchup pre patch if the Pikachu
mains really nailed it down. Pikachu is one of the few that can can expose both
Diddys poor recovery and the bananas awful durability well, and Pikachu is also
more mobile. Post patch i think Pikachu definitely wins, at least 65-45, as now
Diddy has to work significantly harder.
I think Pikachu completely flew under the radar and may be the best in the game,
by the way. There were no real changes for Pikachu in the patch because she is
hard enough to play correctly that not many people were complaining about her
like Diddy or Shiek. Im hoping to see Pikachu mains doing work now.
Isaiah :)

#246

so i wonder how the diddy pika MU works now considering the one combo that gets
an early ( and in pikas case REALLY) early stock is easier to DI out of and less of a kill
combo.
RadioactiveMoth

#245

Using T-Jolt is a good tool for him since popgun isnt strong enough to stop it, so he
cant approach as well. Getting his to approach by air can be risky though, since his air
game is really good like ours.

Matchups

Diddy Kong

M15t3R E

#244

Make sure to DI up and away from Diddy when he does his inevitable hoo-hah
throw combo. Also be careful how you approach because Diddys airgame has surprising
range and speed.
Kenrawr

#242

Grabs, juggle, DI dthrow properly (followed by you jumping - try not to airdodge),
throw out random qas over his grounded banana sometimes (he thinks hes safe, heh
heh)
Get him off stage if you can. Try to force him to recover low and run off bair/fair/nair
w/e. I dont recommend thunder. Too slow and less guaranteed than a well place aerial.
Hoenn

#241

How to beat diddy: Wait 2 days BAM! we win the MU

But seriously, maybe we should wait and see what happens with the balance patch
before we try super hard at the diddy mu I think we should focus on weird mid tier
matchups and stuff like that for the next day or 2
Not saying we should rely on the patch though, I do not think pika vs diddy is hard.
I do really well against diddy, I just can never execute what I want to do and end up
getting grabbed for it. I literally am the only diddy player in chicago, so everyone has
diddy practice except me.
My only diddy practice is JJrockets and he has a brother that mains pikachu, so I
have experience with a diddy that knows the mu, but only like once every 2 weeks for
like an hour, but at least it is practice with a top player, nonetheless
Isaiah :)

#240

i like to follow his attacks and keep him under pressure but i always have to watch
for that Fair . but a good diddy could do anyone in
Soul

#239

Beating Diddy is a question everyone is asking. We work harder to KO. I think we

all know by now what Diddy does. You DI his throws and you still get rekt. Jolts beat
bananas, but he has FAir (which I believe destroys Jolts). Perhaps the best way to beat
him is to find an opening. Every character loses to him so idk really

Matchups

Isaiah :)

Diddy Kong

#236

you should practice QA canceling then if you time it right, your opponent will have
the most difficult time attempting to grab you.
Pikabunz

#235

I never really liked using thunder as an edge guard, its too slow. Ive had lots of
success using nair as an edge guard though. My biggest problem in the match up is I get
grabbed a lot and I dont know what to do when he has a banana.
Isaiah :)

#234

space him out with tjolt and dont run head first in to him. use QA to avoid his grabs
and keep him under pressure. best way to do that is tjolt gimps and using thunder to
edge guard his side B. honestly you cant get too close to him considering pikas easily
dies. you can also use down tilt to space him and then go for grabs to keep on ledge
pressure. around 108 you wanna go for safe combos AS CLOSE TO THE EDGE AS
POSSIBLE. Id recommend (UPthrow-thunder) or (Dthrow -thunder) depending on
how well you know how to use thunder.
Radiance

#225

I know that i notice myself dying way earlier than i want to to things like diddy and
anyone with a grab, but that doesnt make the MU bad. I think olimar is still hard and
diddy as well, but again the game is young and im still getting back into it so i just see
myself having issues with diddy and rob
SolidSense

#146

(Referring to post #141) You need to play a grounded game using tilts. You dont
technically approach Diddy. You box him in. Once hes in d-tilt range, you can up-tilt
on reaction to roll behind, Quick Attack on reaction to roll away, and d-tilt pressure
him if he doesnt move. His f-air wont hit you if you use your d-tilt because youll be
crouching. His own d-tilt is pretty good, so its not an easy matchup in neutral.
LumpyGravy

#141

(Referring to post #137) How does the neutral work then? If were not permitted
to use our projectile or aerial approaches (I believe the latter is what you were alluding
to at the end of your post) then our approaching options are limited to quick attack or
hoping we can get a grab. Does he really shut down that many of our options?

Matchups

SolidSense

Diddy Kong

#137

Dont shield Monkey Flip; youll get command-grabbed. Spotdodge it instead, or

pivot f-tilt it. But dont shield it.
If Diddy tries to recover using Monkey Flip you have to hit him out of it with Thunder
or n-air, depending on where he is. Force him to use his vertical recovery.
His vertical recovery is actually very good as long as hes not directly below the lip of
the stage. He can angle it even if he is to go around you. You have to aggressively chase
him. Use your double jump, and rely on Quick Attack to make it back to the stage. Its
worth the risk of taking Diddys stock early.
Thunder Jolt is kind of useless in this battle. Diddy can powershield it with a banana
in hand and then youre in the air, against Diddy Kong, and he has a great out of shield
option. Youre better off pressuring him with d-tilt. Jab when he gets near you to prevent
him from grabbing. Do not just throw out spotdodges, thats how you get f-smashed
and die early.
z-catch banana peels. If you do that, you can tjolt camp him a little bit because
one of his best out of shield options is gone, and you have a strong tool to interrupt his
approach. You can also set up the banana peel on the ground, but I dont know exactly
how Pikachu capitalizes on that situation.
d-tilt and up-tilt are your friends here. SH f-air gets you SH f-aired in return.

Matchups

Luigi

1.2 Luigi.
Click here to see the Specific Characters Match-up: Pikachu vs Luigi .

Basic Information.
Posts: 531, 522, 509, 413, 259, 224, 209 (probably), 206, 205.
Thoroughness: 6/10 or 6.5.
Matchup: 55:45 F, somewhat debatable.
Verdict: Somewhat high. Although a few people do seem to have trouble with
this MU still, they dont seem to have as much trouble against this character as they
do against Mario.

List of Posts.
Thor
#613 7/2/2015
For Luigi, unless someone can show tests otherwise, well-spaced fair and uair beat his
combo-breaking nair.
hell-dew
#612
6/30/2015
luigi is a do the damage and reset it to neutral kinda char your combo game gets heavily
neutered and his fireball is SUPER dumb in the neutral (PS or else have fun) it is +
on block which is pretty silly and his dash grab can easily punish a ton of our options
meaning if he sheilds he can actually mess us up pretty hard. his grab range is also
literally just better then ours meaning he can out space us for grabs if the luigi has any
reaction time and his dash grab is nuts.
Your forced to gimp him and gimp him hard. I think Dair beats nado (although its
tough as heck to time if the luigi isnt a moron due to dair being sluggish on startup) and
Nair destroys his Side B recovery (hit him at the end of it) BEWARE OF MISFIRE ive
had misfires trade with the thunder 2 hitbox before (which i timed pretty nicely) and it
traded resulting in my death which is dumb. i havent found a way to intercept his up B
yet though (need to test more)
honestly our lack of ability to safely apply shield pressure and luigis ability to punish
OOS makes this MU really really dumb ive honestly tested a ton of things and havent

Matchups

Luigi

10

had much success his Nair makes comboing hard his Bair kills his grab can kill and he
can also kill you after a grab followup with Bair and nado.never airdodge a grab ever
you will get UpBed if the luigi isnt bad. TBH i find i can fight him to some extent in the
neutral but he not only out damages us but he has options that cover multiple options
of ours and reward him heavily also he can kill us stupidly easily where as we have a
stupid hard time killing him
never quick attack out of neutral a whole lot vs him cause he can punish it pretty
easily if he reacts with nair and understand if he doesnt powershield it will actually send
him back pretty hard in terms of the slide effect he has and honestly camping him with
jolts doesnt work nicely against him in my experience.
6/29/2015
PrinceofPeace #611
You can DI backwards into luigi but you can still get hit with fair and bair and ok I am
very aggresive with pika that explains why
Soul.
#610
6/29/2015
Luigi is a tough *** MU, honestly. Grabs for days. I honestly feel were better off using
someone else. Actually no, maybe Im just being pessimistic. His mobility sucks at least,
so perhaps camping with Jolts helps. Dont get grabbed is the norm. Speaking of
which, is there any way to DI the down throw for less combos? Ive been wondering this
for a long time now.
PrinceofPeace #609
6/29/2015
The worse match ups I have with Mr.GW,Pikachu is against another pikachu does anyone
have any advice for that? Also I who wins these match ups Mario vs Pikachu and Pikach
vs luigi and Pikachu vs Ness I personally hate fighting luigi with Pikachu and dont know
the match up
RODO #608
6/27/2015
Ness and Lucas are IMO two of the hardest matchups for Pika. Sheik, Diddy, Rosa and
Luigi dont really bother me near as much.
Jmacz #590
6/20/2015
What are the general thoughts on the Luigi MU? I really struggle playing my friends Luigi
with Pikachu, probably win 1/10 games even though I feel as if he is my best character. I
dont have nearly as much problems beating him with custom Kirby, Greninja, and post
patch Charizard. I specifically have problems with him on the ground, his nair can be
pesky when breaking combos but Ive gotten a lot better at knowing when its coming.

Matchups

Luigi

11

But on the ground I just really struggle with punishing him. His F-smash comes out so
fast I have all but given up hope on that, but his dash attack is what really annoys me.
He is really predictable with it, and especially with Kirby I have gotten really good at
baiting it out, hopping over him and bairing him for a kill or at least. With Pikachu the
best I can seem to do is nair or bair him which just barley sends him offstage. Its really
hard to follow up on those for whatever reason, and usually just able to grab the ledge
before I can even do anything.
Am I just bad at Pikachu, or am I better off just using one of my other characters
against Luigis?
Soul
#531 6/3/2015
Luigi on the other hand.... Eh, might as well waste time using a pocket Sheik or
somethingnah just kidding. We certainly can hold our own in the MU; its just his ability
to KO so early that is annoying. Ive said I dont have much experience on the MU so I
cant say a lot.
6/3/2015
Isaiah :) #530
p.s. no matter what pikachu mains say, the match up is close to even with luigi slightly
being in his favor depending on the stage. just take him to lylat though i always do that
when i wanna get stuff done lol
Soul
#528 6/2/2015
In what ways does Luigi beat us? Ive been hearing that he beats Pikachu latelyI havent
played the MU much, so Id like to know more.
Thor
#523 6/1/2015
Maybe Im just crazy but I swear Ive outspaced Luigi nair with Pikachu fair... I thought
you could go ham with fair chains IF you were trying to just tip Luigi with the fair, but
I havent played against many Luigis and I dont have someone to practice with regularly
so I might just have been seeing things.
Equi
#522 6/1/2015
I actually have improved at the Luigi matchup since I train with a friend who mains
Luigi/Sheik. Its mostly just about patience... picking your grab spots... spacing with
dtilt and retreat fair... not getting too combo happy since he can break your combo
instantly with nairs. Its a fade in an out sort of match. And of course gimping the hell
out of him. Mario is somewhat similar. Both are winnable MUs. I find that I use QA
actually more sparingly against Luigi (not sure if this is correct) since his nair just lasts

Matchups

Luigi

12

so long and I have had my QA intercepted unintentionally by the Luigi player more
times than I can count.
6/1/2015
Isaiah :) #521
Luigi is probably the most difficult because he is an awkward character, however QA in
to grabs can catch him, just dont go all in and try for gimps on him, he is easily gimped
Rideae
#509 5/26/2015
One matchup Im not to sure about the odds but I personally really dislike is Luigi. I
dont know if there is a section here about that mu so Im going to talk about it a little
bit. I dont know a lot about it, Im just sharing what I know.
The main thing you have to do when playing against Luigi (at least in my case) is
respect his down b. It has too much priority to challenge in the air. You might as well
just wait for it to be over and punish the end lag. Thats my main problem when facing
a Luigi.
Another thing is; dont go rushing in with quick attacks as much as you normally
would. Dont approach a whole lot with quick attack on Luigi because of his nair (and
down b) and you cant really combo quick attack into other things such as nair or up air
because at most percents youll just get a nair to the face. Sometimes it trades but its
not worth it in my opinion.
And another thing is you cant really break out of Luigis air combos with nair,
especially from his dthrow combos. Theyre just too fast. Maybe every now and then but
most of the time youll be unable to. Thats about all the cons I know of the matchup so
far, so now Ill talk about some of the pros.
Probably the best thing going for Pikachu in this matchup is the fact that you can
heavily exploit Luigis recovery. A simple bair or a well timed down b will gimp Luigi
most of the time. Even a thunderjolt gimp will work. Just be careful when he uses the
down b because sometimes it can stage spike you if you go that deep to gimp him.
In my opinion Pika might have a slight advantage when in neutral, even without
the option of approaching with quick attack sometimes. The reason for that is because
thunderjolts travel farther than the fireballs. If you can space them correctly then Luigi
will still have to approach you. I dont think either has a noticeable advantage between
their airials in neutral.

Matchups

Luigi

13

I will add to this post whenever I find out more helpful information about the Luigi
matchup. I am in no way stating this as fact when playing against Luigi, Im just stating
this off of personal experience, so I am sorry if some of this is incorrect.
Hell-dew
#482
5/19/2015
Now my question is WTF do we do in the luigi MU i feel like off stage we should have
our change but i dunno how to deal with him yet
[FBC] ESAM #414 5/2/2015
So Skull bash helps us live longer?
Pikabunz #413 5/2/2015
Survival percents with each move: Luigi Bthrow - Training Mode
DI only - 121%
Dair - 121%
Uair - 120%
Fair - 118%
Nair - 118%
Air Dodge - 116% Bair - 114% Side B - 112% *Luigis bthrow has Pikachu facing the
stage after being thrown so its best to just DI. Using any move will just kill you earlier.
[FBC]ESAM
# 271
4/16/2015
Just do it faster. Notice when he will get out and then just bait him to nair and like
regrab him or something.
Kenrawr

#267

And in regards to comboing luigi: how exactly? I always get naired. Are my combos
just not tight enough?

Matchups

[FBC]ESAM
*cracks fingers*

Luigi

#259

14

4/16/2015

So Ima talk about the closest ones first. Will be editing as i go

Luigi
Quick Synopsis: Both combo the hell out of each other. Luigi kills better on
stage, Pikachu edgegaurds really easily. Pikachu can play VERY evasive and avoid luigi
fairly easily. Luigi cannot punish good QAs. Careful approaches help a lot because of
luigis no traction. Pika controls the entire pace of the game

Ground-Ground: Pikachu DEFINITELY wins this part of the MU. Luigi

NEEDS to powershield to get in, whereas we can just kinda...do what we want. If
Luigi is on the ground just dtilt because he will slide back and not be able to punish.
Any hit immediately causes pressure due to luigi NOT wanting to go offstage vs Pikachu.
Also, d-tilt trip combos into QA which leads to everything else. Luigis grab game is
scary, but as long as you control space correctly you should be fine.

Ground-Air: Most rising aerials will hit luigi, such as rising fair or instant dair.
Both of these lead into long long combos and luigi typically has to have aggressive ground
move spacing in order to hit you like f-tilt or utilt. However, this is REALLY bad in the
ground-ground game so if you frustrate them with that itll be hard for them to hit you.
In terms of luigi in the air, anti air up-angled f-tilt is amazing vs luigi. It might trade
with nair, but he will probably not be able to combo out of this regardless. Luigi is going
to want to SH A LOT in this MU to overcome our ground game so we will have a lot of
opportunity to anti-air him period. Also, if you expect a commit to a landing aerial, you
can pivot backwards F-smash (OR HSB with customs on) to get big punishes and land
kills.

Air-Air: - Pikachu really wants to be under luigi if in the air because it is really
easy to bait out nairs and air dodges. Being anywhere else and pika essentially just
wants to get back to the ground because IF YOU COULDNT TELL BEING ON THE
GROUND IS AMAZING IN THIS MATCHUP

Off Stage: lelelelelelelelelelelele. Force him low with just your presence and they
get scared. If they are already low, t-jolt and run off fair/bair. He cant really edgeguard

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15

you because QA 2gud. ALso if you get the bair FF multihit spike when he doesnt have
a jump he dies regardless. yaaaay

Killing: Luigi obviously has more general kill potential, but it is pretty easy to
push luigi off the stage. Also, pika forces characters to air dodge or throw out moves
defensively so its pretty easy to F-smash/U-smash that.
Budget Player Cadet

#258

4/16/2015

I was gonna say, Wait, Luigi in our favor? Whats he smoking? Then I saw the
postbit and was like, ...Oh. Hang on.
...Seriously though. Luigi. Cmon. He kills us for free and can wall us really effectively.
What do you do in this matchup, man?
Hoenn
#257
4/16/2015
Mario vs pika? 55:45? pikachus favor?
ESAM are you sure? If so? please help! I cannot stand that matchup....
I think luigi beats pikachu though but even if that is the case. we still have a ridiculous
matchup spread
Hoenn
#224
4/7/2015
@Kenrawr I ended up not having a ride to those events but I played against the best
luigi mains in my state online with a smooth connection. I figured that you should Jolt
at long range and read the way luigi fireballs. If luigi dashes at you with the fireballs,
just fair him. Fair will beat through the fireball and luigi will not be able to shield due
to being stuck in his initial dash. Do not do this at kill % though, that gives luigi a free
Usmash if he reads it, and obviously holding onto your stock is extremely important in
any matchup were you get punished super hard. I tried zoning with Utilt and it worked
for the most part against the least skilled luigi that I played, but I have no idea if it
would work well against boss. (Front hit Utilt btw) Fair through fireballs is almost always
our best option since we do not have any options fast enough to punish out of perfect
shield. While I did say that Fair was amazing for dealing with fireballs but is risky at
kill percent, I did not get punished for it at all when I retreated it. Luigi has to read
what you are doing out of your retreating fair and because fair has a hitbox, fair does
not allow luigi to create the same super safe pressure that he creates when you perfect
shield it. After retreating fair you might be able to dtilt before he can get the grab. (I

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16

did not think of this though, I literally just walked away and made luigi wiff the dash
grab, but then he started reading that, but we need mixups) When I say retreating fair,
I am not meaning that you have to retreat right away. I found it a lot easier to start
retreating after I beat the fireball. Anyway, sorry if this was not super helpful and I wish
I could have gone to the offline event, but the connection was good and I at least figured
something out
#211
4/3/2015
Hoenn
Yeah theory crafting is something I am good at, but it is not for everyone I hope to
help out with this matchup since most luigi players that I have played with say I play it
really well and since i have a ton of luigi mains to play with. I feel like if we have an
easy answer to fireballs and just a few more safe options in neutral vs luigi, then this
matchup will swing in our favor IMO I will try to lab out with matchup and I will talk
with the luigi mains about it
I do feel your struggle though. It is kinda hard to deal with characters with deadly
punishes from grab in this game, the neutral game is super complex in those matchups,
but when you ask for advice people tell you Dont get grabbed.... obviously!!! But
they dont understand the options to avoid grabs.
Anyways, thank you, I will do my best
Kenrawr #210
4/3/2015
(Responding to Hoenn 209) Im not too sure about that Uair idea. That just kind of
seems desperate at that point
I wish I had an answer myself but Im garbage at theory-crafting haha. I was kind of
hoping yall would already have an answer.
Make sure you get some juicey info at that tournament and good luck!
Hoenn 209 4/3/2015 (Responding to Kenrawr 208) Yeah I dont know if it got
uploaded... Every other set from that tourney is on the page though... sorry
But I see what you are saying, maybe if we use Fsmash at all, we need to find a lot
of other reliable options first to make it harder to anticipate. Or We could just use those
options instead.
Luigi also does not have nearly as strong of aerial punishes Oos due to lack of range
and air speed, so do you think that using full hop aerials like FH Uair would be good
for zoning him out? He has a lot of trouble punishing that, but it kinda puts us in an

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17

awkward situation. I do not know if luigi has the ability to capitalize on us being in the
air though. Maybe even using SH Uair would be better, since we can always just jump
away or quick attack if he tries to run at us to punish the Uair... that might be better
Also I do not believe that pikachu can play the cat and mouse game against luigi as well
as other characters. Once we are in the corner, he can just run under our jolts. So when
we are cornered he can just fireball freely. Do we have any easy ways of dealing with
fireballs?
(I probably will be able to play like 4 tournament sets with very high level luigi mains
before the next xanadu, so I can probably test out anything discussed here)
Kenrawr #208
4/3/2015
(Responding to Hoenn 207) Do you think it is possible for luigi to react to fsmash while
being prepared for the other options in neutral? I think Luigi is going to be shielding
regardless. He wants them grabs. If its a power shield - youre boned. If its not...he
slides off into neutral again. I guess its kind of a win for Pikachu if he slides near the
edge of the stage. I would think that you would only be able to react to fsmash with a
power shield if the fsmash was anticipated Well if you use it as one of your main tools in
this match-up then I dont see why they wouldnt be anticipating it. As an example of
how hard it is for luigi to punish fsmash without powershield, In my set vs Greenbeast,
we played on Omega windy hill zone, where the grass improves his traction... he still
had issues punishing it I do see what you are saying though Can you link me to the
video please? Im having trouble finding it. I am no expert on neutral vs characters like
luigi, but whatever we come up with, it should be something manipulating the traction
problems luigi has. I guess the lack of traction kind of does help the cat and mouse game
that Pikachu has to play.
#207
4/3/2015
Hoenn
Do you think it is possible for luigi to react to fsmash while being prepared for the other
options in neutral? I would think that you would only be able to react to fsmash with
a power shield if the fsmash was anticipated As an example of how hard it is for luigi
to punish fsmash without powershield, In my set vs Greenbeast, we played on Omega
windy hill zone, where the grass improves his traction... he still had issues punishing it I
do see what you are saying though
I am no expert on neutral vs characters like luigi, but whatever we come up with, it
should be something manipulating the traction problems luigi has.

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18

Kenrawr #206
4/3/2015
(Responding to Hoenn #202) fsmash is very good against luigi since he cannot
punish it if it is spaced properly I keep hearing this but Im not exactly convinced! Its
safe but have you guys tested it to be absolutely sure? Do you have to be perfect with
it? Also what if the other guy has the reaction time to powershield? Its not especially
hard to. Its not that great against Luigi imo. Against luigi it is extremely important
to reset to neutral if there is any doubt that you are over extending. Just throw out
some jolts, space fair, forward smash a lot. You already know how I feel about fsmash.
Spacing fairs often leads me to taking 10% + to their 1%. When I do get a fair on em it
usually doesnt lead into anything because goddamnihateluigisomuch. Also if luigi tries
punishing things out of sheild or dashes at you, it is normally not a good idea to pick
defensive options like shielding/rolling/spot dodging. Just down tilt, he may try to roll
behind you and grab you, but that will not secure a punish for you, he then has to read
you again. So dtilt gives him a hard time and it gives us a good opening if it hits. It is a
very good zone breaker in this mu Agreed When edge guarding luigi, just react to what
he does and stay on the ledge. If you try to Bair luigis up B, it is very smart to not
throw it out right away. Fall towards him a little bit before he Up Bs because most luigi
mains like to recover super low and will wait out your bair if you throw it out too early.
I do this against Luigis that arent Boss. Bosss down b mashing is crazy so it gives him
a little bit of a mix-up option in that he can save his jump. the more patient you play,
the more luigi struggles. Oh, definitely. Im just never sure what to do in the neutral
game. His options out of shield are devastating.
(Now responding to Hell-Dew) also luigi IMO is our worse matchup his defensive
options are insane mixed with his grab punishes and fire ball approches you have a super
tough character. also Dtilt isnt safe on powersheild and if the luigi can powersheild well
this is becomes a miserable MU. I dont want to call it our worst match-up yet since
we havent had any real top level Pikachus fight any top level Luigis. But its def my
toughest MU. Up B you can trade with Fair or Bair it kills him with the spike. God
Bless do not quick attack against luigi and do not Bair his shield either. the low hurtbox
of Bair is an easy punish for him and QA is a free upsmash for him if the luigi is remotely
good i also think his Nair just beats it QA hard to. He will punish everything hard with
grabs dont let him grab you he can grab Dtilts (i was messing with the spacing on this
im pretty sure its not safe) Ftilt Fsmash Dsmash uptilt Jab and dair. even fair he can
grab for for so yeah just understand his grab combo does an insane amount of damage so
be wary of going in and trying to fight him in CQC also his jabs frame data is dumb he
can jab to grab and use jab to break our CQC game/jab us on reaction if we attempt to

Matchups

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19

grab him. Eh I wouldnt say DONT QA against him. Its a good mix-up every now and
then against anyone. Its what you do after the QA that you need to look out for. If you
pop him up with the second part dont go in too eager to get a follow-up. Youll probably
get hit. Bait etc. I agree w/ most of the other stuff. I think Dtilt is a decent option if
you dont overuse it. It can lead into stuff and its one of the tougher moves for Luigi to
get past. Nair for your life out of his grab I prefer thunders. Faster, more unpredictable,
safer. Only thing thats annoying is if hes comboing you horizontally and outruns the
thunders while moving you along with him. Just make sure to stop spamming the input
as soon as you feel a bait coming. and camp the crap out of him try to push him off
stage and gimp him and abuse his meh platform game. and yeah he if grabs you DO
NOT AIRDODGE (you die if you do) and be very careful rolling/spotdodging in general
cause Up B is something you should be aware of and if you get the lead camp if your
down never force the kill on him you will get bodied. outside of that space your self
insanely well and mix up your approaches like crazy and understand his grab = death at
high %s. Haha, yup. Pretty much.
Hell-dew
#205
4/3/2015
also luigi IMO is our worse matchup his defensive options are insane mixed with his grab
punishes and fire ball approches you have a super tough character. also Dtilt isnt safe
on powersheild and if the luigi can powersheild well this is becomes a miserable MU. he
murders us in the CQC hes a bit tough to combo (space your up airs really nicely for
him or else you get Naired) his recovery is really the only reason why we can do a damn
thing to him in that MU otherwise i would say it would be a easy -2 for us but because
his recovery is gimpable (although super freaking risky/hard at times) i would say its a
-1.
Off stage do not thunder him by thundering in front of him he can misfire you for
free and if he luiginados you you get spiked with an insane amount of hitstun which can
very easily gimp us (it sounds stupid to even type this with how dumb that move is). his
recovery works in 3 ways:
he has Side B which has a TON of lag at the end and only really covers horizontal.
Up B which is straight upwards. and DownB which if the luigi can mash he can go
anywhere.
Up B you can trade with Fair or Bair it kills him with the spike.
Side B you can do whatever you want to him its easy to punish down B is hard as
hell to deal with. if you dive him hes gonna nado you i havent been able to test the

Matchups

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20

spacing out on this moves but it doesnt seam like Bair wins at all and i think Fair can
trade while i dunno about Nair Note this move does spike if i didnt make this clear so be
aware of when you chose to trade with it.
do not quick attack against luigi and do not Bair his shield either. the low hurtbox of
Bair is an easy punish for him and QA is a free upsmash for him if the luigi is remotely
good i also think his Nair just beats it QA hard to. He will punish everything hard with
grabs dont let him grab you he can grab Dtilts (i was messing with the spacing on this
im pretty sure its not safe) Ftilt Fsmash Dsmash uptilt Jab and dair. even fair he can
grab for for so yeah just understand his grab combo does an insane amount of damage
so be wary of going in and trying to fight him in CQC also his jabs frame data is dumb
he can jab to grab and use jab to break our CQC game/jab us on reaction if we attempt
to grab him.
Nair for your life out of his grab and camp the crap out of him try to push him off
stage and gimp him and abuse his meh platform game. and yeah he if grabs you DO
NOT AIRDODGE (you die if you do) and be very careful rolling/spotdodging in general
cause Up B is something you should be aware of and if you get the lead camp if your
down never force the kill on him you will get bodied. outside of that space your self
insanely well and mix up your approaches like crazy and understand his grab = death at
high %s.
Hoenn
#202
4/2/2015
(in response to Kenrawr 201) MK has an easy time zoning us out and can get easy kills
on us with UpB I did some testing with @Pikabunz and he was not able to connect the
UpB at all, so that may be why he has a maybe next to meta knight
I might have some videos of pikachu vs luigi from my chicago weekly Youtube.com/events2compete
fsmash is very good against luigi since he cannot punish it if it is spaced properly and it
beats through his fireballs Against luigi it is extremely important to reset to neutral if
there is any doubt that you are over extending. Just throw out some jolts, space fair,
forward smash a lot. Also if luigi tries punishing things out of sheild or dashes at you, it
is normally not a good idea to pick defensive options like shielding/rolling/spot dodging.
Just down tilt, he may try to roll behind you and grab you, but that will not secure a
punish for you, he then has to read you again. So dtilt gives him a hard time and it
gives us a good opening if it hits. It is a very good zone breaker in this mu When edge
guarding luigi, just react to what he does and stay on the ledge. If you try to Bair luigis
up B, it is very smart to not throw it out right away. Fall towards him a little bit before

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21

he Up Bs because most luigi mains like to recover super low and will wait out your bair
if you throw it out too early.
I am no pro at the matchup, but I do know a luigi main that plays a bit of pikachu
that has been trying to coach me in the matchup and he says that the more patient you
play, the more luigi struggles.
Kenrawr
Why MK?

# 201

4/1/2015

I have trouble with Luigis. I saw Dojo also lost to a Luigi a while ago while I was
looking for vids on the match up.
SolidSense
# 126 2/14/2015
Pikachu can wall Luigi out and force him to approach because of Thunderjolt, so Id say
that yes, he has a slight advantage in the MU.
M15t3R E
# 123
2/14/2015
Luigi is a pain but I have no good experience against one. What I can determine is that
he has a stronger SH aerial game than Pikachus but not ground game if you dont run
into his jabs. His floatiness makes him hard to juggle but at least he is very gimpable
off-stage. I *believe* this all applies to Mario as well.

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22

1.3 Mario.
Click here to see the Specific Characters Match-up: Pikachu vs Mario .

Basic Information.
Posts: 522, 508, 488, 485, 483, 478, 475, 474, 375, 299, 189?, 81.
Thoroughness: 5/10 (a lot of small tidbits of info, but nothing real huge like
post 561 or 524 I dont think) matchup: 55:45 F, but almost everyone else seems to
think its even or in Marios favor.
Verdict: High priority. We should break down and analyze this matchup pretty
soon.

List of Posts.
Equi
#522 6/1/2015
(says the Mario matchup is similar to the luigi matchup he analyzed in this very same
post)
Isaiah #521 6/1/2015
for mario you have to play a more hit and run strat. see his combo game is strong so he
will attempt grab set ups on you, just avoid getting baited with the cape and try QA
mix ups with Dtilt - grabs as well.
Equi
#520 6/1/2015
I see. I seem to do well in other MUs but definitely struggle with this one and Luigi/Mario
online.
In these matchups I try to space with dtilt more. Lag might have something to do
with it.
O Hobbit
#511 5/26/2015
Bair is great for edguarding DDD and Mario. If you manage to trade your bair with
Marios up-b youll mini-spike him, which will kill him. As for DDD, sometimes multi-hit
moves are able to beat his armor, so you should try this or respect his recover and then
punish.

Matchups

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23

Rideae
#510 5/26/2015
And for Mario? Im actually not too sure. I think if you just go off stage and nair it
trades with the up b but Im not completely sure about that.
Hell-dew
#508
5/26/2015
again with mario just use Nair you can intercept his Up B with Nair
#492 5/20/2015
Thor
I admittedly am not very good at Pika-Mario either, but working on it, and will apply
your advice. Its like the only MU where I really understand when I should actually be
dtilting [that and maybe vs Sheik].
#491
5/20/2015
Hoenn
ESAM do you have any examples of the MU that i could watch? I think I am understanding what you mean to an extent
So I should just dtilt and play a bit patient and wait for him to do things when I am
at kill percent? Shield if I am too scared, and roll away seems like it would be good?
Right?
I know you mentioned retreating fair and dair being good for this mu, but I am
assuming that is not smart to use at kill percent?
[FBC] ESAM #490
Just dont jump into it.

5/20/2015

Hoenn
#489
5/20/2015
I just end up not being able to hold onto my stock. I do not know how to engage mario
without getting usmashed....
[FBC] ESAM #488 5/19/2015
Castle Siege isnt even a remotely bannable stage the hell?
I mean Pika is good against Mario on all stages pretty much, I just dont like BF.
Everywhere else is pretty good. If you are losing because he is outplaying you that is
more than just the stages.
[FBC] ESAM #485 5/19/2015
(in response to Hoenn asking what stage should be picked against Mario aside from SV
and FD) says duckhunt in post
Duckhunt is good, castle siege probably is as well.

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24

[FBC] ESAM #483 5/19/2015

I actually dont like BF in that MU for once since you want to be able to threaten with
thunder out of combos. I would probably go to Duckhunt
Hell-dew
#482
5/19/2015
Dair isnt safe on shield also thank god esams back i was kinda sad to say that the best
pika out there might have been nakat... *cringe* Ahem moving on
Dair isnt safe on shield but it works insanely nicely against a lot of marios hit boxes
Dtilt actaully boxes him out really nicely to also you have zero buisness using randy QAs
out of neutral mario can punish that crap for free and our combo game is way better
then his we can also break out of his combos with Nair Foot stools and Thunder cancels
pretty hard.
also you can clash his up B with Nair which makes dealing with him off stage a lot
easier
Hoenn
#480
5/19/2015
i say that we have to play marios game because most people beat mario by zoning him
out. pikachu cannot do that. If you try to camp mario, he just gets stage control, you
end up in the corner,and he gets kill setups and lots of damage on you.
i also think mario gets more out of his hits than we do, unless i am doing something
wrong. I juggle him with uair and try to bait out his nair once I know the combo is
going to end, but since we cannot take mario to a stage without platforms, he gets away
free eventually (and without getting hit too hard).
ESAM where do you think we should take mario anyway? (the mario mains in my
region ALL ban FD and smashville)
[FBC] ESAM #478 5/19/2015
Since when do we have to play Marios game? Also...what is marios game? Grab combos
are just as potent for Pikachu as they are for Mario. Pikachu can also outspace Mario
typically with D-tilt and retreating fairs are kinda gdlk. SH dair is actually kinda hard
for him to deal with besides like U-smash but if he misreads that you get whatever you
want on him.
PIkachu has as much combo potential than Mario if not more. He has the same type
of neutral game and he can edgeguard mario with run off fair and thunder frame traps. I
have edgeguarded several marios with that lol.

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Hoenn
#477
5/19/2015
mario has invincibility on his up b and it is super fast. He looks really easy to gimp but
that stupid invincibility beats right through our aerials.
mario isnt really that hard to gimp, but he is harder than most characters.
I find it very hard to get mario in the situation to gimp, or at least good marios for
that matter.
Basically what i will say about mario and gimping is that gimping mario is not
something we should be relying on for taking stocks. we should only be getting a gimp
or 2 per set. because it is hard to get him in those specific situations. Those specific
situations usually require mario to have higher percents anyways so.....
Maybe I am just tired idk
even with gimping though, i Dont think this matchup is anywhere near even. We
outspace his aerials with fsmash to catch his landing, right? If they ban FD and smashville,
Where are we supposed to take mario!?!? He beats us on every stage other than FD (I
think we beat mario on FD just because we can abuse his landing tools and juggle him
forever)... but if he has platforms, he can pressure us like crazy and has a place to land,
but because of being able to ban 2 stages, we are kinda screwed over
I might just sound like I am ranting, but i am tired and i passionately hate this
matchup (Even though this has been the only matchup I have been training in for the
last month .)
Isaiah :) #476
5/19/2015
yeah the match up isnt completely bad, gimping mario is what makes this match up
closer to even instead of a Bad MU for pikachu, it just takes a lot of move reading to get
it done
Phili
#475
5/18/2015
I agree with everything here except when you said he is difficult to gimp. Wait.... since
when? Marios recovery is very sub-par in this game compared to the rest of the cast
and he is basically forced to recovery low. Imo this makes him a prime target for edge
guarding with t-jolts and run-off bairs.
Idk, maybe I havent played any marios who actually know how to recover properly.
But from my experience, getting him off stage seems to be the only way to win this
matchup

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26

Hoenn
#474
5/18/2015
I think pikachu loses to mario because he has the ability to force our approach AND has
the tools to wall us out.
He is so small that fair cannot hit him unless poorly spaced. He can usmash an aerial
that we approach with and we cannot approach mario with shield to punish Usmash,
because it is safe. Usmash makes it REALLY hard to approach.
Also if you look at pikachus frame data, pikachu does not have burst options, infact
he has nothing close. Dash attack is super unsafe, dash grab is extremely laggy, fair is
super slow (and will not hit mario), dash shield is the only fast option we have (and mario
is VERY hard to punish Oos). I have died for using quick attack on many occasions and
most of the mario mains that I have played with have discouraged me from using it too
much. Fireballs also beat pikas QA. Normally fireballs are a bad projectile, but pikachu
does not have the speed to punish mario for using it (Unlike a huge portion of the cast)
due to bad burst options.
Mario also gains massive reward if he gets in on you (especially if he gets grabs).
Pikachu is basically forced to play marios game since he cannot play the runaway game.
We also cannot kill mario since he is difficult to gimp and all he has to do to stay
safe is Usmash, shield, and play patiently when he is at kill percents. He can kill with
Bthrow (very likely to have rage due to our kill potential), usmash, or edge guard us,
fsmash and dsmash are also very lagless and have some situation usage.
Overall imo, this is our worst matchup. I have given up on this matchup.
I actually could write more, but I have to go.... I really hate this MU
Isaiah :) #472
5/18/2015
Pikachu vs. Mario is close to even, mario has increadibly lagless smash attacks and it
makes him difficult to get really close to, + his cape removes pikachus rush apporch and
takes off much of pikachus range game, but pikachu is faster with quicker areals so he
can do small combos on mario without interuption.
Phili
#381
4/23/2015
I am yet another pikachu main who struggles with marios. I will take the advice posted
here though and just camp/run away until I see an opening to get him off stage, then
edge guard him hard.

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27

Hoenn
#375
4/22/2015
Dthow into utilt does not work on the majority of the cast. Most characters can shield
out of it almost instantly and others can easily just jump out of it. I am like 95% sure
that you can just jump out of it. I dont feel threatened by dthrow utilt I dont usually
see good mario mains go for dthrow (probably for this reason). Most marios just go for
uthrow
4/22/2015
*GenericHandle* #373
Yes, thunder inturrupts quite nicely. Just be sure not to get baited.
Legato #372
4/22/2015
Hey guys! As a fox main I never had issues with Marios utilt combo (DI down and
shield). I notice Pika is not the same way. Does thunder have any potential in disrupting
this string? I usually test this kind of stuff myself, but I have no access to the lab atm.
4/22/2015
Isaiah :) #371
Maybe to QA in to him, and pivot grab his fall lag
Dee-SmashinBoss
#370
4/22/2015
Considering the rediculous amount of little lag his moves have in general, it wouldnt be
that bad if he was going offense mostly, you have to hit him either during or before he
does a move is what I think is key
Dewey #369 4/22/2015
I also struggle against Mario. Not sure because I still want to test it in the matchup
myself, but I would think if you were gonna play defensively against a Mario, Pikas
d-tilt would be key.
Migul
#368 4/21/2015
Stand there and crouch. I meant gimp his double jump. Without it, he cant recover for
****. Literally just do nothing and wait for Mario to act and react to it. Doing nothing
and making sure the opponent cant do anything will anger your opponent, so once that
happens, you can start punishing his unsafe moves. Also, fight him on the ground.
Hoenn
#362
4/21/2015
I have found that jolt camping gets me nowhere. He can just cape it on reaction. Sadly
cape doesnt have cooldown so we cant punish it.

Matchups

Mario

28

Gimping him isnt as easy as it sounds either. Mario has invincibility frames on his
up B, so he can end up almost stage spiking us for that. I do think that we destroy
mario offstage, but it is not as easy as some characters.
If I want to play defensive against mario, what should I do since jolting him sucks?
Dee-SmashinBoss
#360
4/21/2015
Btw YES Mario with his practically unpunishable attacks............I swear it irritates me.
Its not like I get comboed much even from a grab, but I swear it is frustrating to deal
with characters that have so little and I mean SO LITTLE ending lags in a majority of
their attacks. Those characters I do hate so much......
#359 4/21/2015
Migul
Just like grab him... And throw him off stage. You dont always have to be close to him.
Camp with T-Jolt, and hell come eventually (even if it takes 5 minutes.) Once you got
him off stage, gimp him to hell. One bair to gimp his double jump will kill him at pretty
much any percent.
Never play his game in neutral. Do weird stuff he hasnt seen, like going under the
stage with your recovery and popping up on the other side. Mario I think really relies on
an opponents patterns, and if you have a lot of mixups, youre golden.
Hoenn
#356
4/21/2015
I dont quick attack because mario can just throw out like any kill move and NEVER
commit.... So I feel like it is super risky
Like, He doesnt have to read my quick attack, he can cover it by just throwing out
his normal super safe and nearly unpunishable hitboxes I am not saying that I am an
expert though, I would love to hear you challenge the way I think about mario
I really hate this character.... so much... I am a power ranked player and I struggle
with even low level mario mains. I really on hard reading every single move they make.
I will keep the stuff you mentioned in mind though.
Isaiah :) #355
4/21/2015
well how do you QA? you cant just QA up and over, and you cant QA through unless
hes coming at you and close, but yes it is, you just need to bait out the cape and read
his air game, shield grab, your D-Tilt should work against his ground game, and fire ball
spam gives you QA opportunity, try ramming in to his move lag with the second zip of
QA to get him in the air, if he throws out a Nair or Bair the first time, then he will most

Matchups

Mario

29

likely be doing it every time you get him up so you can jolt in his general direction or
shield grab. btw if hes only walking at you, dont QA at him, its bait. you can throw a
T-Jolt and watch his reaction.
Hoenn
#354
4/21/2015
I have died both from getting caped and from getting up smashed while quick attacking
I have actually gotten my quick attack countered with fludd..... That hurt a ton
Do you think it is possible to wall out mario instead of running away? I dont think
running away gets me anywhere against a technical mario
Isaiah :) #353
4/20/2015
you cant get cornered with QA
#352
4/20/2015
Hoenn
I am still struggling with the mario matchup. I took the advice about using Pivot
fsmashes to cover landings, but I still find it fairly difficult to get him in the air safely.
I feel like he can easily approach us, but we cant easily approach him. I feel like he
can kill a lot easier than us since he does not have to commit when he smashes. People
always tell me that mario cant kill if you play defensive and run from him, eventually I
just get trapped in the corner.
The only thing that I think pikachu benefits from in this matchup is the ability to
land
What should I do against mario in neutral? I still have massive trouble and lose to
random mario mains that are far worse than me in skill level. I kinda understand what
to do once I get in on him in terms of punishes, but I have no idea what my mixups in
neutral are. What can I abuse about marios neutral game? Even aside from neutral any
help would be awesome
[FBC] ESAM #299 4/17/2015
Mario and Pika are actually very VERY similar characters. Both get a lot of mileage
from juggling and get a lot of mileage off of stringing random aerials off of an errant
hit. I actually ran like 50 or so matches against Dooms mario. I think Pika wins
slightly because stuff i mentioned above, but also because Marios landings are typically
very...linear so pika can punish with Pivot F-smashes or HSB (With customs). ALso we
can still get a lot of edgeguards because if mario ever uses his jump and we hit him out
of it, hes dead. Dead as hell.

Matchups

Mario

30

Too late for me to do the more detailed analysis like before, will maybe do more
tomorrow.
#257
4/16/2015
Hoenn
Mario vs pika? 55:45? pikachus favor?
ESAM are you sure? If so? please help! I cannot stand that matchup....
I think luigi beats pikachu though but even if that is the case. we still have a ridiculous
matchup spread
#189 3/25/2015
Emuchu
Chaosmasterro(post 185) said: The main characters I have a problem with are Olimars
because pikmin absorb jolts, Mario because of cape and fireball. Sonic is weird because
he pings with a lot of our attacks, F smash pings with his dash attacks. Jolt pings with
a couple of moves as well. I guess I have trouble in match ups where I cant rely on jolts
to approach. Yeah, I feel the pain, too, when my Tjolt gets bounced or sponged, but its
not game over if thats the case. In quite a few match ups against people with reflectors,
you can actually still use your Tjolt as a mixup tool because of the strange way Tjolt
moves. Against Fox or Falco, you dont really care if your Tjolt gets reflected, because
its slow anyway, and Pikas almost never in the reflection path. In addition, you can
mix up between obvious reflect-bait Tjolt from mid-close range (to get them used to
reflecting things) and longer-ranged Tjolts that you run with, and then Fair or grab them
or something before the TJolt gets there. Its even better against Marios cape because
he doesnt get to act immediately after a reflection/absorption like Fox or Ness can.
SolidSense
#126 2/14/2015
Mario is probably dead even with Pikachu, especially with customs. Pikachu can gimp
Mario, but onstage is pretty much in Marios favor because of Marios additional weight
and airspeed. He can wall Pikachu out in the air and make it difficult to land a KO or
grab.
M15t3R E
#123
2/14/2015
Luigi is a pain but I have no good experience against one. What I can determine is that
he has a stronger SH aerial game than Pikachus but not ground game if you dont run
into his jabs. His floatiness makes him hard to juggle but at least he is very gimpable
off-stage. I *believe* this all applies to Mario as well.
SolidSense
#113 2/6/2015
At this point in time I dont believe that Pikachu has any bad matchups in the game.

Matchups

Mario

31

He goes even with at least the following characters: Sheik, Yoshi, Mario, Greninja, Mega
man, peach.
These guys all have tools that are effective against what Pikachu does, but Pikachu
has tools that are annoying for them, too. Mario gets outragned.
#81
1/8/2015
ZTDTECHnology
Its not that easy. Lemme explain why this is erroneous. In this game,when you grab
the ledge, you are actually vulnerable for 1 frame. If Mario knows youre just gonna
swetspot the ledge, he can just Dash Attack and most of the time itll hit you anyway. If
you arent expecting it you get stage spiked. If you are, then once youre popped off the
ledge, you now have to deal with Cape and FLUDD. His aerials outrange ours yet his
move set is also very fast so he could choose to pressure/frame trap us. On the ledge
against Mario is really really bad. **** is annoying.
FirewaterDM #80 1/8/2015
Recovery against Mario isnt too bad as long as you sweetspot most of the time, but I
think that tjolt camping is useable in this matchup because its still better than fireballs,
and if Mario is just going to cape them, then that is a free punish for you because of the
capes lag. Recovery at least isnt that hard to deal with as long as you can sweetspot
the ledge, though I think the safest spot is to recover low against Mario.
Soul
#79
1/7/2015
I honestly thought Pika was even vs. Mario. Might be in his favor since Cape and
F.L.U.D.D. ruin Pikas recovery and like Tech said, his moves are fast. Probably has a
chance of KOing early as well with up smash (lel that super armor above his head), down
smash or forward smash if he gets a read. Not to mention the down throw - up tilt -
up air - Up B combo. Perhaps PP FSmash helps? Jolts could zone him out since Mario
cant use Cape repeatedly (correct me if Im wrong). If that doesnt work, then...down
tilt? Or mix them both. What do I know, though.
ZTDTECHnology
#78
1/3/2015
Id like to talk about Mario. Right now theres a Mario in my scene whos skilled and
knows the MU better than i do. The matches are close but I cant seem to close it out. In
particular, Marios moves are SO FREAKING FAST. Hes so good at bullying Pikachu
in the air. Hes also good at pressuring us off stage. Not an easy MU at all.

Matchups

Meta Knight

32

1.4 Meta Knight.

Click here to see the Specific Characters Match-up: Pikachu vs Meta Knight .

Basic Information.
Posts: 330 (best), 206 (maybe), 9, 6.
Thoroughness: 6/10 (ESAM did a good write-up on this. Psyant#6s write-up
also looks impressive, but its also pretty old.)
Matchup: 60:40 or 65:35 F.
Verdict: Medium priority. It might be nice to look over some of this stuff.

List of Posts.
4/18/2015
[FBC] ESAM #330
Metaknights neutral kinda relies on his dash attack and grab, so avoiding those two
moves is pretty essential to you winning.
On the ground, use a lot of D-tilt because i think it is longer than MKs d-tilt and
f-tilt? Not 100%. Either way, T-jolt camp to slowly approach is really good since he
doesnt really have an answer to it besides like...walk up shield. Either way, you cover
space and then get into dair/dash grab mix-ups. Pikachu gets A LOT more out of every
hit than MK does. Pikachu can also edgeguard MK really well because we can kinda
manipulate where he is with t-jolt and fall off fair/bair. MK does have a lot of kill
potential with up-b, but Pikas size and weight honestly makes it hard for him to get it.
Ive fallen out of it so many times and punished them. Metaknight really cant contend
in the neutral game, in the air, or off stage. MKs weight is also very condusive of Pika
combos, which is amazing.
Kenrawr #206
4/3/2015
The MKs I have played against almost never get their combo-upb off. When they do
Im pretty sure its because I miss-DI.
How exactly do they have an easy time zoning? I feel like run up shield beats him for
the most part. afaik Pikachu bair also beats everything MK has off-stage.

Matchups

Meta Knight

33

Psyant
#6 Despite the gigantic nerfs this guy got, hes still good. Pretty damn
good. Though his reach has been shortened a great deal, he actually received some good
buffs and is better than he appears at first. His forward smash is VERY powerful now
and his throw game is incredibly strong, having many guaranteed high damage follow-ups
off of his throws regardless of %.
Overall, its a bit of an awkward fight, as Pikachu vs any similarly small, fast character
is. Pikachus main advantage in the neutral game is having a projectile, but Metaknight
closes distance so fast that it barely matters and youll be slugging it out at a very close
range throughout much of the match. MK has strong options out of shield with his
blindingly fast Dsmash and Ftilt, but shielding against him isnt that great of an idea
due to just how much he gets off a grab. I found that to be the number one thing to
keep in mind in this match-up: dont get grabbed. If you get grabbed thatll lead to a
free Up B or aerial for him most of the time, and at lower %s even a free up smash.
The pain doesnt end after that, however. So he just got a free hit off a throw, and
now youre above him to boot. Being above MK in this game is AWFUL. Easily one of
the worst characters to be above. His up tilt has a bonkers hitbox vertically so hes a
threat when grounded, but in the air is where you really need to be scared of his lightning
quick Up B, which is much better for chasing people in the air than it was in Brawl. It
can be seriously hard to get to the ground without being hit by that thing, even with
airdodging. If he hits you with it then you wont be able to get back to the ground before
him to punish him in time. At higher %s his Up B will easily kill you off the top as well.
Despite the heavy nerfs it got, do not sleep on the Nado. His neutral B move can
still do like 20% to you if you eat every hit, so be on point with smash DI (what little of
it there is in this game) as it lost the vacuum effect. He can quickly perform it out of a
full dash, so dont get caught off guard by that. Its something to watch out for because
youll be extremely close to each other most of the battle.
Where edgeguarding is concerned, a lot of MKs like to recover at an equal height
to the stage with Side B. Its either that or recover low and Up B. Youll rarely see
nado recovery anymore. Side B can be a bit of a pain to edgeguard due to its constant
hitboxes, but its doable. MK has a bit of a harder time edgeguarding us than we do
him, so we have the advantage there. Still, there wont be many successful edgeguards
for either side in this MU, so it mostly comes down to on stage game.
Overall, our range, damage, kill power and edge guarding, weight and recovery are
on pretty equal levels. MK however has a stronger grab game than us, while we have a

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34

projectile and quick attack a surprise approach. I think its either an even 50-50 fight, or
possibly a slight advantage to MK like 55-45. Dont sleep on him regardless, or youll be
in for a surprise the first time you fight a good one. Hell-dew 9
in terms of MK i dont know what i can really say i watch Blacktwins and holy fight
PIka/MK where Holy won with MK. that MU looks really interesting i want to play it
more MK loses a lot of annoying brawl jank and frankly its a MU that resets to neutral
a lot. i found platforms do not roll in his favor at all cause his lack of mobility and out
amazing platform game works well against him. unlike a lot of characters juggling him
is crappy to like wise he fails pretty hard at gimping us so both sides of that MU look
really awkward cause neither character can abuse their best strengths

Matchups

Mii Brawler

35

1.5 Mii Brawler.

Click here to see the Specific Characters Match-up: Pikachu vs Mii Brawler .

Basic Information.
Posts: 481 (and that was a question post).
Thoroughness: 0/10.
Matchup: N/A
Verdict: High priority or very high priority. Custom mii brawler at the most
optimal settings can get some serious results. I know of a custom mii brawler that
got 2nd at a 100+ person tourney once and custom mii brawler was place in the
top 8 on ZeRos tier list (yes, I know his list is far from perfect (peach lower than
mid-tier wtf?), but still). I honestly think that one major reason why that is is
because people simply dont know the matchup. We should do ourselves a favor and
learn it because in the customs meta, I dont think this character is going to go away
soon.

List of Posts.
#481 5/19/2015
Soul
Id like to know what do you all think about the Mii Brawler MU now after that Twitch
stream from days ago. That MU is really weird, or at least, seems to be one. Helicopter
Kick is ridiculous if anything; the small Mii has insane air speed. How are we supposed
to get after them? (mentioned in post 497 that they were ignored)

Matchups

Ness

36

1.6 Ness.
Click here to see the Specific Characters Match-up: Pikachu vs Ness .

Basic Information.
Posts: 533, 409, 389, 271, 270 (request for JayWon (or anyone willing): This is
really useful! Update this if possible), 189, 131, 128, 126?, 125.
Thoroughness: 7/10
Matchup: 55-45 F.
Verdict: Medium priority. Possibly light high.

List of Posts.
#613 7/2/2015
Thor
Also vs Ness, his autocancel fair cannot hit you if you just stand still [and ducking helps
more], though he can fair if hes willing to have fairs landing lag [but then you can react
to late fair and shieldgrab it I think, or at least shield it and have some sort of frame
advantage].
RODO #608
6/27/2015
Ness and Lucas are IMO two of the hardest matchups for Pika. Sheik, Diddy, Rosa and
Luigi dont really bother me near as much.
Gibbs #607 6/26/2015
So after I got harshly stomped on by Meccs on stream this week at my weekly, Ive been
putting a lot of thought into the Ness match-up. This seems like a good time to talk
about this match-up since I believe the massive buff to PSI magnet in patch 1.0.8 has
changed the dynamics of pikas neutral game quite a bit.
While it was never safe to use t-jolt against Ness, pre-patch at least he had to commit
to something laggy to reflect/absorb. Now that psi magnet is totally free (end lag reduced
to only 4 frames down from 20) t-jolt and thunder are almost removed from our tool
kit. With only QA left in our bag of gimmicks pika is left to play an almost *shudder*
honest neutral game. In my sets versus my friends Ness (over wi-fi sadly) I was pleased
to find how effective pikas grounded spacing and footsies game is against Ness. Ness has

Matchups

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37

great tools to box out Pika with his super disjointed and fast SH fair, the occasional well
spaced PK Fire, and a decent to good jab and tilts. He even had decent anti QA tools
with SH nair and cheesy onstage PK thunder stuff.
The big thing he lacks however, is any reliable way to approach a grounded pika. Dtilt
is great in this match up, as it stuffs all of Nesss grounded approach options (maybe
dash attack is disjointed enough to be a problem, but I havent experimented with that
yet, shouldnt be too big of a problem as it is super unsafe on shield). I also found that
D-smash to be a decent anti aerial option against Ness for when a falling fair is poorly
spaced.
Since Ness can convert so well off of a grab at almost any percent, baiting dash grabs
is likely to be a big part of this match up. I find that one effective mind game is to
deliberately wiff an f smash and then punish the dash in with a d smash. This isnt
safe by any means, but since it hits frame 8 (only 2 frames later than our fastest tilt or
standing grab) and has enough knockback to possibly set up an edge gaurd. D-tilt and
SH nair are also ok options, since the get space and might force a tech chase scenario
or set up a jab lock, but between these two D-tilt is the best option as it has way more
range and shouldnt get shield grabbed or stuffed by a SH fair or dash attack.
Theres tons more to say about this match up, especially on off stage shenanigans,
effective and safe QA useage and how not to get grabbed, but Im quickly getting out of
my depth on this subject. Im going to guess that a lot of pikachu mains are going to
say that pika might lose this matchup, but I think that is because Ness strengths define
the matchup more than pikas. But even if Ness restricts pika options quite a bit, and
even if he has really janky easy kills I suspect pika might still have more ways to win.
Though its probably super even.
Now for some ESAM footage. All Pika mains should study this set that was played
last week between ESAM and Shaky at a weekly in south florida. It contains not only
some of the highest quality Pika and Ness play Ive ever seen, it might just be one of the
better sets of smash 4 to have taken place so far. Get hype and take notes:
Video here
And just for full disclosure, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, here is me
getting absolutely bopped by Meccs. If you refuse to take me seriously after seeing this I
wouldnt blame you. This was my first time on stream XD:
Video here

Matchups

Ness

38

I have johns for days about how on tilt I was after work and on little sleep, but really
Meccs is just on a totally different level than me at the moment and would beat me at
my best. I just wish I went out in a way that didnt make my pika look like slopcity.
Hope I get to play him again soon.
#533
6/3/2015
M15t3R E
Ness has no trouble comboing Pikachu like he does the rest of the cast. After all, they
are about the same size. Pikachu also has no trouble comboing Ness. Getting frequently
trapped by pk fire WILL lose you the match-up. As such, aerial approaching is often
preferred. If the playstyle is more aerial-based, youll probably see lots of empty fairs,
which you can counter with a well-timed grab or u-air. Bait out pk fire here and there
too because it does not ignite into the flames when it hits a shield. Also bait his absorber
with thunder jolt when you have trouble getting up close and personal. During the second
or so of absorbing animation that takes place youll have that rather large window of time
to run up and grab. I dont recommend using thunder until Ness is at a substantially
high percent because only then is the hitstun high enough to render thunder safe from
his absorption. Edgeguarding Ness should be intuitive, and it is indeed a cakewalk. Just
be sure that if Ness hits you with his up+b that you are ready to tech the stage. I use
Ness, btw.
#532
6/3/2015
Dee-SmashinBoss
but anyway what about characters like....Ness you guy talked about him yet? how would
he do against Pika? I heard he can immediatly cancel anything he absorbs, has disjointed
rediculous ariels, that annoying Bthrow kill they ALWAYS go for......not an entirly bad
mobility, but nothing special.
Pikabunz #409 5/1/2015
So heres a small tip on surviving certain bthrows a little longer. Notice how some
bthrows knock you off stage with your back facing the stage? If this happens, hold
towards the stage and mash A so your bair comes out. The start-up frames from bair
moves Pikachu towards the stage a bit allowing him to survive about 5% longer. This
works against Ness, Sonic, Peach, Shulk, and Captain Falcon. Im just going by memory
so there might be 1 or 2 more characters Im forgetting. Dont try this with fair when
facing the stage though! This actually kills you a little earlier! And heres one little
random fact. Pikachu has two different knock back animations. One where hes spinning
and the other where hes not. His spinning animation can kill him 1% earlier if hes still
in it when he reaches the blast zone. Its completely random as far as I know. And I only
tested this when he was facing the stage. It could be different when hes facing away.

Matchups

Ness

39

Hoenn
#389
4/25/2015
Against ness, play passive. Sit around his PK fire range and bait react to what he does.
Quick attack is very good against ness if you need a zone breaker, it forces ness to wait
and see what you do.
The thing about his aerials is that none of them protect him from below. AND Fair
cannot touch you unless you are in the air (or he delays it out of a short hop). Take
advantage of how floaty ness is. Use a lot of RAR Uairs and Spaced Fsmashes (get good
at dash canceled Fsmashes out of fox trot). If he tries jumping away, you can usually
catch his landing with a spaced fsmash since he has no way of getting out of it unless he
retreats to a platform. Plus if you catch his double jump with fsmash and he ends up
offstage... (I dont need to explain this lmao)
If you find yourself getting grabbed a lot, use a lot of short hops and dtilts. Short
hop allows you to get out of his grab range and allows you to safely escape. If he tries to
run up to it and shield, you are not forced to play the 50:50 landing game, dont throw
out an aerial, just double jump/quick attack away.
Basically short hops beat ness grab without committing so it is really safe and hard
to punish even if they read it. (at super high percents ness relies of bthrow and cant
grab you for doing this. Ness also cant chase you with any strong aerials for doing this,
especially if you jump away)
I think this matchup will get better for pikachu as time goes on, I dont think anyone
truly knows the ness MU, but I do think that short hopping and getting good at forward
smashing after dashing will be a huge part of this MU)
Cubesphere
#388
4/25/2015
Hey guys, I could need some help on the Ness Matchup... Whenever I fight a good Ness,
I get destroyed. The reason why that is is because I simply cant challenge any of his
attacks. Mainly because of all of his Aerials that are all either disjointed like Fair, Bair,
(Dair) or they are strong with a lot of priority like Nair and UpAir. His Dash Attack
is also very disjointed and I just cant seem to work around it... He also absorbs any
TJolts and even heals himself. Sometimes I can manage to bait out a DownB by Ness
by shooting a TJolt and get a combo in because of its End Lag. However, the Ness Im
used to fighting to has managed to work around that. Also, none of my other approaches
work because he can just Fair and I dont get any hits in. And QA doesnt work because
he can see it coming because my momentum stops in the air...

Matchups

Ness

40

The only good thing is that Ness is quite easy to juggle because of his floaty-ness
(hehe)
TL;DR Nesss aerials are disjointed, he can absorb TJs and has more kill options.
How does Pikachu win that MU?
btw: same problem with GW and Rosaluma
[FBC] ESAM

#271

4/16/2015

Ness Synopsis: Ness is pretty annoying if he is in the air and facing you. Thats
about it. Grabs are good for him as well, but Pikas grabs are equally as good. Pika
excels in EVERY other aspect of the MU, especially edgeguarding.
Ground-Ground: IMO pikachus favor. Both of us get a lot off of a grab, but Pika
d-tilt . Dtilt starts a lot of pressure. If you d-tilt and he attempts to stay
out of range and PKFire, you can shield. Be cognizant of pk-fire spacing because you
will take a LOT of damage if it hits. However, you can punish every PK Fire unless you
suck. QA breaks the neutral game REALLY hard and it starts like EVERYTHING
Ground-Air: Honestly I think Pikachu wins both incarnates of this. When Ness is
in the air all you have to do is shield and he cant really do much. You can punish all of
his aerials on shield which is super free and he doesnt really have a lot of mix-ups. You
can also run under him and get uairs that would beat out most aerials besides nair. You
can be patient and its pretty easy. Ness doesnt really get a lot when hes on the ground
so he will want to go in the air a lot, and it isnt really problematic.
When Pika is in the air, you can essentially maneuver around ness really well. Landing
fair and bair are pretty devastating. Nair is also really good rising as is fair, but Ness
can punish that so you have to do risk/reward. A lot of cross-ups are really good as it
makes it harder to punish for Ness.
Offstage: Pika Ness. T-jolt manipulation, bair fastfalls, fair to keep them off,
thunder if they go high or dont have a DJ. All the good stuff.
JayWon
#270 4/16/2015
I recently played a really good Ness player that spaced with N-air/F-air (he practically
just spammed it and never approached) I couldnt get in. And holy jesus his U-air is
so freaking strong. If he airdodges any of my aerials when I try to follow up he just

Matchups

Ness

41

immediately punishes with an U-air/B-air. Scary. But yeah I know hes gimpable, thats
fine. but I struggle on the neutral.
Any help short advice would be nice.
Edit: Nesss aerials are freaking insane! For comparison purposes (data from pre
1.0.6):
Ness:
N-air 7-11%
F-air 1%, 1%, 4%
B-air 8-15%
U-air 13%
D-air 10-12%
Ike:
N-air 9% (clean), 6% (late)
F-air 12%
B-air 14%
U-air 11%
D-air 15%
Charizard:
N-air 10% (flame), 7% (tail)
F-air 11% (early, clean arm), 12% (clean tip)
B-air 10% (body), 13% (tail), 15% (flame)
U-air 13%
D-air 14% (clean), 8% (late)

Matchups

Ness

42

Donkey Kong:
N-air 11% (clean), 8% (late)
F-air 16%, 15% (sweetspot), 13% (sourspot)
B-air 13% (clean), 8% (late)
U-air 13%
D-air 16% (sweetspot) 13% (sourspot)
Marth:
N-air 2%/3% (hit 1), 6%/8% (hit 2)
F-air 7%/10%
B-air 9%/12%
U-air 9%/12%
D-air 11% (blade), 13% (non-meteor tip), 14% (meteor tip)
Theyre so freaking fast and go on par if not better than heavy hitters.
Emuchu
#189 3/25/2015
Chaosmasterro(post 185) said: The main characters I have a problem with are Olimars
because pikmin absorb jolts, Mario because of cape and fireball. Sonic is weird because
he pings with a lot of our attacks, F smash pings with his dash attacks. Jolt pings with
a couple of moves as well. I guess I have trouble in match ups where I cant rely on jolts
to approach. Yeah, I feel the pain, too, when my Tjolt gets bounced or sponged, but its
not game over if thats the case. In quite a few match ups against people with reflectors,
you can actually still use your Tjolt as a mixup tool because of the strange way Tjolt
moves. Against Fox or Falco, you dont really care if your Tjolt gets reflected, because
its slow anyway, and Pikas almost never in the reflection path. In addition, you can
mix up between obvious reflect-bait Tjolt from mid-close range (to get them used to
reflecting things) and longer-ranged Tjolts that you run with, and then Fair or grab them
or something before the TJolt gets there. Its even better against Marios cape because
he doesnt get to act immediately after a reflection/absorption like Fox or Ness can.
SolidSense
#131 2/22/2015
Learn to love d-tilt, up-tilt, sh f-air, and sh d-air. Thats about it. D-tilt is your best

Matchups

Ness

43

tool in the MU; Ness has no answer due to his lack of range. Average Nesses will roll
behind you when you d-tilt pressure, so be careful not to overcommit to d-tilt and end
up getting grabbed from behind. Up-tilt catches the roll, so try d-tilt - pause, wait for
roll - react to roll and up-tilt.
#129 2/19/2015
SolidSense
Yeah, you should never try to hit Ness with Thunder from below unless you are b-reversing
the Thunder. Instead, try to be right next to him and hit him with the Thunder as it
hits your body. He cant absorb that, and it kills him instantly at high percents.
Hell-dew
#128
2/19/2015
ness is weird hes disjointed and hard to apporch we hit him really hard when we get in
Nair breaks combos off stage he really has two options in a lot of cases go for the ledge
or go for the stage. if he goes for the stage its gonna be something like Fair comming in
or Air dodge fun fact Fsmash beats both of those you just have to be situated in the
right spot and time it right.
if he goes for the ledge when you dive down theres a few options first one is jolt.
people might be thinking what? you can hit the PKT2 with jolt getting rid of it (which
is hard to do) you can hit ness after he hits him self if you do this it cuts the distance
by a fair bit of the PKT2 which can make it so he doesnt reach the ledge. or you can
just hit him before hand sending him further out allow you to rejolt him for one of the
other situations or go for something else entirely also if the ness is waiting off stage not
commiting he can jump canceled his magnet meaning he can absorb your jolt then use
his second jump dont get baited understand the situations where hes forced to commit.
if you dive him straight with Fair or Bair know the spacing for it obviously it works
but if he hits you with PK thunder 2 it hurts bad. be ready to be stage spiked in a lot of
cases so tech
alternatively there is the option to just go below him and thunder him with the spike
hit box and just kill him.
likewise walling him off with thunder and also note if you go below ness and he
magnets your thunder you dont get the upwards momentum from the thunder which can
kill you (this also applies to rosa with gravity pull)
on stage realize that fighting him in the air is tough as hell. his fair outspaces you
badly. his upair is also nuts so dont bother challenging either. his Nair combo breaks
to. if you opt for a ground approach understand hes gonna want grabs cause free grab

Matchups

Ness

44

combo damage and at high % he has kill throws. use lots of Dtilt running around baiting
Fsmash landings low % combos of course pivot grabs etc. when hes above you go ham
beat him up with Up airs cause his Dair sucks and his landing options are fairly limted a
lot of them will try landing with Fairs for example and remember Fsmash outspaces Fair.
when at high %s stay center stage it limits his kill options get get caught by roll into
ledge and back throw and know you can snipe PK thunders hit box with jolt to defend
your self in the air ive wave bounced jolts and disabled them many times before.
past that i cant think of much more i know Esam know this MU stupidly well
SolidSense
#126 2/14/2015
Absolutely the most important thing against Ness is edgeguarding. Perfect your edgeguarding game, and never ever let him on to the stage or ledge for free. You might miss
sometimes and end up in a bad situation, but who cares? Its Pikachu. He can just get
back to a good situation with QA again. You have to be aggressive because Ness stuffs
Pikachu on the stage and kills way earlier. Jump near him while hes using PK Thunder
to recover and use Thunder; if you time it right, you wont get hit by the PKT2 but you
will send Ness flying. It takes a bit of practice and a lot of guts.
M15t3R E
#125
2/14/2015
I may be crazy for this but Ive always loved fighting characters who are ready with the
down+b to absorb my jolts. This includes GW. You know why? It gives you a powerful
baiting tool which has a remarkable success rate. I will certainly allow Ness to absorb my
jolt in exchange for getting grabbed. The thunder is what you should be extraordinarily
careful in using. And not much can be done about that back throw. Try not to stay
grounded. Ness loves his SH nair so youll want to challenge his SH nair with your own.
Autocanceled SH dairs are golden too especially at higher percents due to Ness utilizing
throw combos and back throw as a kill move. If you are close to Ness during his recovery
attempt he is easily gimped. If not, but you are at a low percent, feel free to intentionally
get hit by his PK Thunder recovery because when Ness hits an opponent this way it cuts
the recovery distance by about half.
#84 1/21/2015
PKMudkip
Pikachu can easily combo him due to him being lightweight but almost of his specials
can be blocked by Ness PSI Magnet. I say 4 6

Matchups

Rosalina & Luma

45

1.7 Rosalina & Luma.

Click here to see the Specific Characters Match-up: Pikachu vs Rosalina & Luma .

Basic Information.
Posts: 453, 452, 447, 445, 423, 385, 383, 382, 205, 1.
Thoroughness: 5.5/10.
Matchup: 60-40 F.
Verdict: Medium priority. Perhaps higher, since shes a high-tier character.

Posts.
RODO #608
6/27/2015
Ness and Lucas are IMO two of the hardest matchups for Pika. Sheik, Diddy, Rosa and
Luigi dont really bother me near as much.
phili
#588
6/20/2015
(HELPING THE ENEMY) (this post is a response to post 587) If you are looking for
a secondary, I suggest Yoshi rather than Sheik because of the fact that you said you
already struggle with Yoshis. Ive heard a couple top players say that Sheik struggles
with Yoshi because she has no reliable way to kill him. Therefore, picking Sheik would
cover the Pikachu matchup, but you would still struggle when you came up against Yoshi.
However, picking Yoshi also covers the Pikachu matchup, with the added bonus that it
may also help you with Sheik.
Just my opinion anyway, hope this helps.
Kaishin
#587
6/19/2015
(after noting that their main was Rosalina and Luma) I can deal with the run-of-the-mill
Pikachu mains that are just getting on the hype train. In fact, the only Pikachu Ive ever
fought that Ive had trouble with was ESAMs. However, when it comes to the upper
level ones Im going to eventually hit a block as the matchup is really gonna get me. Its
probably Rosalinas second worst matchup simply because of how good Pika is. Though,
its still significantly better than Yoshi as its just a case of better char worse char

Matchups

Rosalina & Luma

46

unlike that MU. Im already looking for a secondary to counter Yoshi, so if any of you
would have any advice on who counters Pikachu, Im all ears.
#459
5/13/2015
Hoenn
Once I started beating nite consistently, I will make a matchup analysis video or something.
He has gotten a ton better at the matchup and our matches have been extremely even
lately. I did not know how to beat rosa nair until after the last time I played him. Our
last matches were just me running into nair and making hard reads to even it out. I used
to never drop games to him until he starting nairing
Now that I know how good crawling is in the MU for beating nair on reaction, I dont
think I will go even with him next time.
#455 5/12/2015
Thor
True [I think most keep Luma fairly close as well].
I was thinking of being at range when they start charging [ex: cross stage] - if they
start charging close to you, Id think you should just fullhop and fastfall with fair while
theyre in lag to set up a grab, but I guess theres awkward spacings where this use of
t-jolt is best.
Meganmang
#454 5/12/2015
By fullhopping and shooting the thunder, I intend for Rosa to shoot luma past me.
So then Im between luma and rosa, with a tjolt headed towards Rosa. With the tjolt
en-route, she cant come punish me while I try and send luma to her doom.
I feel like good RaL players keep luma close in neutral though.
Thor
#453 5/12/2015
If you mean while shes charing neutral B you FH tjolt, I recommend SH t-jolt - someone
re-test this, but Im almost positive t-jolt stuffs Luma entirely [that is, I think it damages
her and halts her motion], and SH lets you fade back if shes doing it at a range that
makes you uncomfortable, while making the t-jolt block for you on the way down so that
her neutral B cant hit you in lag [whereas with a fullhop, you have to land often without
t-jolt protecting you if she times it well]. Also probably doesnt work with customs if
theres a teleporting one, since I think there is... [Im not familiar with customs since I
dont have my setup on me outside of a 3DS and we werent using them for a while +
finals now and no events = no incentive to learn... but with finals done at the end of
today (Tuesday) and going back home where we have customs, Ill learn, so no worries and yes I know about HSB].

Matchups

Rosalina & Luma

47

If it stuffs the Luma as well as I think, after the t-jolt connects, she can star-bit,
throw an attack, or recall Luma. In the last two situations, fsmash outranges them and
should be safe [or you fsmash the air on recall but Rosa is slow so you should be fine].
iI might not outrange star bit [theres a custom that I know it doesnt outrange] but
that wont KO you as long as you dont get hit by a silly not-real followup from Luma,
and you might still trade. I think potentially depleting a third of Lumas health, if not
outright KOing, is ok for taking a non-lethal 2 or 3 percent when Rosalina is out of range
for a followup. So basically I almost always SH tjolt if I see her start charging it, and
prepare to fsmash if Luma ends up close.
Also, SH dair in the MU - yay or nay? I like it for nailing Luma, doing damage to
shield [not a ton, but its a nice chunk], and the optional fastfallability if you suspect
an OoS counter [this is 99% terrible, but maybe once a set it actually hits a Rosalina
whos trying to punish quickly OoS - and if you do it more than once theyre potentially
on guard of it and lose their punish window], plus the cross-over can help protect from
Luma some. However, I might be missing something [besides the obvious long-startup,
which I dont view as much of a drawback].
EDIT: Also @Hoenn pretty sure I played Nite at End the Paign - maybe if you see
him, you could ask if he remembers a scrubby Pikachu who kept being weird offstage
with Thunder and losing because he shielded dsmash... thatd be me, although Ive
gotten a bit better since then [my Pikachu was still mostly untested, but he made me
feel a lot less awful vs Rosalina and Luma thanks to the straight hour of friendlies we
played, where most wen to last stock but I only won one [admittedly we played nearly all
on Town and City since he didnt care and I dislike the stage, so practicing it I figured
was a good idea] (but no johns)].
#452 5/12/2015
Megamang
Id like to add, when she is in the air you shouldnt try and do some fancy QA stuff,
especially from above, unless you are completely sure you will not be anywhere near
her massive u-air hitbox. That is a good way to die way early, and then you are really
behind because Rosaluma can slow the match down a lot if she wants, and then she can
avoid your kill setups, and then she has rage, and you are back to step one.
If she sends luma out to do her dirty work with neutral B, I like to fullhop a Tjolt at
her and then use the time she is reacting to land and damage luma. Is this viable?

Matchups

Rosalina & Luma

48

Ookami Hajime
#451
5/11/2015
I actually wanted to inch forward and say Pikachu wins it, but I thought most of you
would be opposed to that idea, haha.
Hoenn
#450
5/11/2015
I have not done much testing with this, but we could use luma to help us cover spot
dodges, but I also do not know if using luma for that is an optimal way to cover a spot
dodge lol
#448
5/11/2015
Hoenn
Another thing we can abuse in the MU is the hitlag that luma creates. Rosalina cannot
do a normal get up off the ledge safely like most characters can.
If you fsmash, luma will create TONS of active frames and it will catch Rosalina in
the process. In other words, if rosalina has luma, you can VERY effectively cover the
normal ledge get up by using Fsmash.
See video here
Also dont use this video for MU reference, I was not very good at the MU back then,
I am just using that small portion of the video for reference
Thor
#447 5/11/2015
I think Pikachu beats Rosalina slightly - we obviously beat Rosalina solo, and T-jolt
means she has to approach [we can punish her absorbing move although sometimes the
t-jolt actually hits us away while its being absorbed] while Luma dies easily to dash
attack, dsmash [or fsmash although thats less common], and even landing bairs. Rosalina
is also highly susceptible to uthrow thunder - Im pretty sure that even if she DIs, Luma
is still hit by the Thunder sweetspot, which is a nice chunk of damage and can KO Luma
depending on her percent. Im pretty sure itll always pop her up enough to at least then
usmash or fsmash her.
We outspace jab cancels with fsmash. Our crouch can apparently duck Rosalinas
nair. Dtilt might outrange jab cancels as well, and one strategy that actually can work
against ridiculously campy Rosalina and Luma players is to just outcamp them - Luma
blocks t-jolt, but she has a limited health bar, so you can t-jolt a bunch to KO Luma
[alongside some other moves usually] then go in on Rosalina.
#445
5/11/2015
Ookami Hajime
Rosalina is tricky. Through personal experience, I have never lost to Rosalina in

Matchups

Rosalina & Luma

49

tournament. Pikachu is fast and breaks through the wall-like defensive playstyle that is
popular with Rosalina players. QA is great in this MU, allowing us to quickly rack up
damage off of small conversions. Rosalina also has a very big hit box, combined with
being floaty AND light, which makes ridiculously easy to juggle with our already amazing
u-air. B-air makes quick work of her recovery and forces panicky Rosa players to recover
over the stage with strong punishes. Dash attack can knock Luma off the stage from the
very middle. On the other side, Pikachu is also very light and is susceptible to dying at
extremely low percents to Luma u-air. Luma punishes very hard when they have the
read on QA as well. Luma acts as a shield and blocks thunder jolts, which is one of our
most reliable approach options, and the brick wall that Luma presents with jab cancels
makes it very difficult for Pikachu to get past it. I say its even. This is a tournament
match of me vs one of the Rosas in this region.
See video here
Thor
#425 5/4/2015
EDIT: Also, Hoenn, do you mean that nair cant hit Pikachu AT ALL regardless of if
Pikachu is literally directly under Rosalina as her nair is coming back around to the
ground? That seems crazy good...
Hoenn
#423
5/4/2015
Did you guys know that pikachu can duck AND CRAWL under rosalinas Jab (Jabs 1
and 2, not 3) And pikachu CANNOT be hit by rosalinas Nair while crawling or ducking?
Pikachu can literally just react to it and crawl towards it then punish nair with Utilt or
something big... But crawling seems like a great approach mixup against rosalina if she
is zoning with nair and jab. She then has to rely on dtilt, which is a lot easier to deal
with than jab. I lost to the rosa twice this weekend, due to not knowing how to deal with
nair, and I was going to ask for advice, but I labbed the mu with him... Thanks Nite
Thor
#391 4/26/2015
It was a huge struggle (in some ways worse than when I played more Sheik and had to
fight Rosalina and Luma - I dont get to practice against her and that was a nightmare )
and I think this is the only MU that truly gives me fits (since I played a solid Rosalina
and Luma a ton as Pikachu and realized the risky utility of dsmash for killing Luma, as
well as dash attack and using tjolt to help stuff her).
Legato #385
4/23/2015
Cant say much about bair, but nair definitely separates them, I find nair OOS when

Matchups

Rosalina & Luma

50

Rosa goes for a grab can work pretty well if you know thats what they want. Definitely
not the safest of options, but can be rewarding if you are near the ledge.
Funny though, Ive never tried dash attack to get rid of luma. That is probably the
better option near the ledge. Guess Ill keep that in mind next the time I face a good
Rosaluma.
*GenericHandle* #384
4/23/2015
I havent tested this, but regarding Rosaluma, due to bairs multi hit nature, I would be
very (bairy?) unsurprised if bair pretty much auto separated them. If thats the case,
then RAR to bair would be very useful, yes?
Dewey519 #383 4/23/2015
Ive had much more success against R and L once I started focusing on baiting attacks,
punishing and seperating Rosa from her Luma, and immediately getting the Luma off
the stage w/ dash attacks (also wanna try HSB on a luma) instead of going for followups
on Rosalina herself. Its been worth not getting the followup combos to this point.
[FBC] ESAM #382 4/23/2015
Dash attack typically kills luma pretty damn quickly (Assuming you are hitting her
towards the short side of the stage and not on smashville)
Phili
#381
4/23/2015
As for other matchups id like advice on, (Rosalina and luma) would be at the top of
the list. Are there any approach options that just kill luma instantly so I dont have to
deal with that annoying little star? If not, Id appreciate advice on how to deal with the
matchup in general.
DeathlyFerret
#348
4/20/2015
Huh. Pikachu is usually my go-to character for dealing with Jigglypuff, Yoshi, Mewtwo
and Rosalina. Theyre light enough for Pikachu to get a gimp/early kill, and Pikachu
has great anti-aerial options for floaty characters.
Hell-dew
#205
4/3/2015
i feel rosa is rather +1 for us or even. she has the kill power we beat her in neutral she
can stall our hitboxes with luma and neuter our mutihit moves pretty hard we can kill
luma half decently (not insanely well but not to badly either) TBH i 2 stocked Xatis
game1 at apex and found out the hard way what not to do against her and he got me
back pretty nicely. her worst stage funnily enough is Omega lylat while lylat is really
bad for her on recovery the platform layout plays in her favor and ability to quick attack

Matchups

Rosalina & Luma

51

cancel on them doesnt matter in the slightest learn what moves kill her luma (dash attack
is godly for it) Nair cannot kill luma but will send it away in tumble while Upair nair
will kill luma. Note luma has all knock back not rosa so yeah fear luma lol.
Infzy
#204
4/3/2015
Rosalinas annoying for Pika. One of our main tools in that matchup is to stay away,
and use quick attack to punish Rosie if she presses any buttons. But if the QA trades it
is nothing short of horrible, and we cant let it land near her. So its tough.
Hell-dew

#1 When pressuring

Rosalina is super annoying to approach juggling luma seams fairly effective for getting
it out of your skin. Rar upair seams good for taking it off the ground then Nairing it off
stage leaving it in stun as it falls to its death. when luma is put into its stun animation
until it lands it cannot be recovered by rosa while in stun. Grabbing rosa can be very
unsafe with luma around i noticed pummeling will stun luma and fthrow/backthrow are
good get away from luma tool using the Fthrow hit box or Backthrow to get away. Her
rolls and air dodge seam really really good to making her stalling out for luma respawn
really easy and luma respawns in like less then 10 seconds so killing it high is really
powerful because it delays the respawn timer adding valuable seconds beat rosa up.
Rosa on her own is a lot less stressful unlike ICs rosa her self is far far stronger and
can recover with out to much hassle she can delay her recovery making edge guarding
her really really difficult ive had some luck with mutihit moves like bair and sticking on
the ledge and trying to catch her. again her dodging game is very powerful and her Fair
makes apporching with our fair kinda difficult. I found i had a lot more luck fighting her
grounded.
juggles are interesting on the defensive side i found your better off not challenging
her up air she has insane range making spacing it really easy she has trouble chasing you
though unless shes trapping with luma you should be able to escape with skuil bashes
while high up then quick attacking away to safety resetting things back to neutral.
in terms of play style camping her seams horrid letting her set up luma positions
makes her a headache to deal with while rushing her down seams very potent. abuse
the speed and agility pikachu has quick attacks can pop her up while keeping her on her
toes. in terms of stages i really like yoshis because QAC actually works there giving us
stupid mobility. I found her ability to camp battlefield platforms kinda annoying and

Matchups

Rosalina & Luma

52

her height allows her to abuse the plats while FD makes her more prone to jolts crossing
over im interested in others input here on stages here.

Matchups

Sheik

53

1.8 Sheik.
Click here to see the Specific Characters Match-up: Pikachu vs Sheik .

Basic Information.
Posts: 511, 510, 496, 250, 230, 228, 118, 115, 91, 30(mentions vectoring so shows
its dating), 28?.
Thoroughness: 7/10 (may be dated).
Matchup: 50:50 No customs, 55:45 F customs.
Verdict: Medium-high priority. Sheik is probably the best in the game now. We
have to know the matchup.

List of Posts.
RODO #608
6/27/2015
Ness and Lucas are IMO two of the hardest matchups for Pika. Sheik, Diddy, Rosa and
Luigi dont really bother me near as much.
phili
#588
6/20/2015
I think the word document is right. Sheik is probably the hardest as she is probably the
only character that straight up wins neutral against Pikachu.
O Hobbit
#511 5/26/2015
To edguard sheik you need to hit her before or after vanish. If she has no jump, try to
hit her with thunder jolt before she up-b. If you hit her this might be enough to kill her.
You also can edguard her by hiting slightly under the ledge before she appears. You can
try a thunder jolt, thunder, skull bash, bair, nair... really, you can try everything, but
the timing is really strict. I think you have only one frame to hit her that way, so long
hit box come in hand.
Rideae
#510 5/26/2015
For a Sheik you can try just hitting her with a nair before she vanishes. Youll have to
read it a bit but its still possible.

Matchups

Sheik

54

Hell-dew
#508
5/26/2015
(answering a question asking what to do against characters with invincible upbs) Shiek i
just toss jolts at TBH or go for the one frame ledge vulnerability
[FBC] ESAM #496 5/20/2015
Im assuming you can Perfect Pivot forward and u-tilt it since it will mess up their
spacing if they are trying to hit you.
qed
#495 5/20/2015
ESAM, you said on twitter you figured out the matchup against Sheik, so... how can we
beat her, what do we do against her SH Fair in particular and how good do you think
the matchup is overall?
#428 5/6/2015
Megamang
Anyone have any shiek advice? My basic thought on the matchup is stay low, because
shieks aerials dont work so well on a crouching pikachu. Also, try and get a kill early
while denying her a kill until very late percents (I have trouble with this as pika). I dont
really know much else because I dont have any shiek practice partners.
[FBC] ESAM #250 4/16/2015
Aggressive zoning is pretty annoying for Pika to deal with, which is why Sheik and Yoshi
are the 2 most difficult MUs for pika IMO. However, when Pikachu does get in he can do
a lot of damage to both of these characters and can manipulate the stage to his advantage
really well.
Hoenn
#230
4/9/2015
You can watch my sets vs Akiro if you want pikachu vs sheik vids I lab that matchup
super super super hard because I want to beat him I will link them all here once I find
them all Video Here (laggy stream but a few good games of footage plus me both taking
a game and playing terrible in game 5)
Akiro took a game off 6wx and m2k, so this is a very high level sheik, but I keep the
games pretty close. It is a very hard matchup though
Hell-dew
#228
4/8/2015
With shiek i just go look at what Nakat did to Mr R
Hell-dew
#118
2/10/2015
K ima restart me actaully posting here cause ive been in the lab on a lot of things leveling
up and the like

Matchups

Sheik

55

i was playing Master ravens sheik as well as a few other sheiks at APex i think that
MU is a negative 1 or a 40-60 at worst. that said that MU is very not fun but its more
then winnable. shieks crap kill moves and our annoying size and mobility make that MU
annoying for her plus we have significantly better kill options then sheik does but she
beats us in the neutral. hardest thing about that MU is getting in you get in you beat
the crap out of her. you will have to use every tool in the book to get in though cause
her hit boxes in general beat ours in the head to head IE jolt is really meh in this MU
cause needles just win Fair cant challenge her fair like at all (unless the sheik sucks hard
at spacing) but you can attack her with it if shes grounded. getting under her is really
bad for her and off stage be careful of her up B killing you but you can edge guard sheik
i found wave bounced thunders the safest cause they intercept bouncing fish. and dont
put you in a heavily committal position. aside from that there is a opening on sheiks up
B look around for when you can hit it
off stage in her advantage this is probably one of the most impotent things about
the MU IMO. if you skull bash its almost a free bouncing fish for sheik be VERY aware
when the hell you use a skull bash otherwise you gonna get slapped also Mr R has a evil
needle to BF combo which is a easy snipe to kill for sheik so be smart when recovering
be aware of the spacing your at and the laggy *** start up on skull bash
also if you get Down thrown always always jump she cannot follow up on it freely.
NEVER airdodge. if you air dodge its a free up B for sheik and that crap hits hella hard
plus you in the air meaning closer to blast zone jump retreat find a way down after you
jump you have a ton of options use a thunder to wall her out if she over extends quick
attack away or into her even skull bash away from her use platforms etc. and know her
up air can kill at reasonable high %s shes not worth trying to land on. plus she has the
up air let go of the hitbox land and continue combo nonsense which is a bit annoying (i
havent tested to many options against it yet though)
thunder is really godlike for trading with sheiks stupid moves like Ftilt strings and
the like dont bother using it on Fair strings cause you get knocked horizontally to far
personally if she starts fair stringing me i just accept the fact im gonna get bodied across
the stage and work from there cause shes gets bodied by our uptilt stings and up air so
W/E (sheiks Dair isnt really good to challenge our upair lol)
in the neutral getting in is weird she has better hit boxes in general and can play safer
but does less damage per hit meaning if we play the rock paper scissors with her and
roll even we win.however she has slightly more rolls in her favor in general but we need

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less to win basically we can out space her out right with Fsmash (i like pivot Fsmash
so much in this game its godlike) Dtilt is good cause it lowers your hurt box and is a
long hit box Ftilt is very situational il sometimes toss QAs and Wave bounced jolts in
the mix. its usually good to not stand to far away also i think in terms of stages i like
gimicky Jolt angles to apply pressure so stuff like lylat Halberd are pretty much auto
ban for her against us i personally think smash vile is kinda bad against her cause the
platform gives her way to many options to recovery and kill us early off the side plus it
allows her to pressure us way harder off stage. outside of that FD is easier to focus on
her up close while BF is dumb for extending our combos in general and because jolts are
dumb BF is excellent for us i havent messed around much on castle, Delphino, or other
CPs yet though
hopefully i didnt miss to much and some of thats useful
#116 2/7/2015
Soul
Thats what I thought too. You pretty much cant edgeguard Sheik in this game. Her
air speed makes it even more difficult. There is no point in using Thunder offstage. You
could like, use it on the ground after an up throw to KO if she doesnt DI.
M15t3R E
#115
2/7/2015
Good luck throwing out an offstage thunder before Sheiks bouncing fish hits you. Yeah,
bouncing fish is that fast. That is, if you attempt to hit them with the shockwave while
hovering directly in their recovery path. If you merely leap slightly offstage and throw
out a thunder wall to halt their advance to the ledge its safe of course. However, even
then with vanish (Sheiks Up B) she can wait out part of it and grab the edge while the
thunder is still flying downward and use their invincibility frames to avoid the rest of it.
It is difficult to edgeguard Sheik due to her Up B mechanics. You pretty much have to
go deep offstage and avoid retaliation.
Soul
#114 2/6/2015
Pika vs. Sheik is one of the most interesting MUs to me. Top tier matches, stuff, stuff
and more stuff.. I dont know if offstage Thunder is good here. Sheik has a good recovery
in this game with the new ledge mechanics and Bouncing Fish.
Recovery aside yeah the MU is even. They both have the tools to make it an even
matchup.
SolidSense
#113 2/6/2015
At this point in time I dont believe that Pikachu has any bad matchups in the game.

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He goes even with at least the following characters: Sheik, Yoshi, Mario, Greninja, Mega
man, peach.
These guys all have tools that are effective against what Pikachu does, but Pikachu
has tools that are annoying for them, too.
Sheik is the only one who doesnt particularly mind what Pikachu does, but strangely
Pikachu doesnt really mind what Sheik does, either. They nullify each others tools
onstage and offstage in an interesting way. Its an even MU, but it might lean slightly
one way or another. The major selling point for Pikachu here is that hes short, and to
hit him with f-air while hes crouching Sheik has to be a little bit unsafe.
#91 1/24/2015
M15t3R E
Okay, this is my area of expertise. I have played the Pika vs. Sheik MU too many times
to count. The first thing you need to understand is that the neutral game is dead even.
Someone has to approach first and neither character will want to at the start of the
game. The needles travel so much faster than thunder-jolts and dont fly over Pikachus
head. This usually prompts me to be the one to approach. If you anticipate the fairs and
intermittent barrages of needles, you can approach in multiple ways. First of all, examine
how the Sheik likes to try and shut down your approaches. If its with excessive fairs,
dont try challenging it with your aerials but instead move along the ground and close
the distance. If it is a mostly grounded Sheik player (possibly zoning back and forth),
approach by ground or fairs alternating every so often to mix it up. Approaching with
QA is also effective as it is against any character so long as it is not abused. Sheik will
space with fair and bair as their bread and butter attacks but this gives you an opening
to rush in after you shield it. If the fair or bair is telegraphed, d-smash will work. At first,
I was thoroughly intimidated by Sheiks bouncing fish (down B) as a follow-up and as an
edgeguarding tool. If shielded, it will bounce Sheik right back to her starting position,
too far to punish in most cases. An air dodge gives you the most invincibility frames to
avoid it and when it is avoided Sheik is a sitting duck for a couple seconds. Bouncing
fish is also surprisingly susceptible to being intercepted by Pikachus fair and bair, in
my experience. When you get the grab use f-throw - DA at extremely low percents or
d-throw - u-tilt - uair string at relatively low percents and any damage higher than
that do d-throw - uair string. If Sheik is being predictable while airborne, dont be
afraid to get directly below and start a uair string right then and there. She cant do
anything if you are directly below. As for tech chasing, Pikachu is adept in covering an
opponents tech roll and Sheiks is no exception. I frequently get the punish when my
opponents Sheik is being too predictable in their tech rolling. Its usually going to be

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performed in the direction away from Pikachu. Make use of this information and go for
the tech chase! Off-stage game is pretty moot because neither character has an easy
time gimping the other. Sheik can recover at deceptively far distances with vanish and
once they hit Up B there is nothing more you can do to prevent them from grabbing the
edge. I like to stand near the edge and predict their get-up by throwing out a thunder
wall as I jump forward, putting the thunder between the two of us. Well, thats all I can
remember about that MU right now. It is either a dead even MU, or at worst 55/45 in
Sheiks favor. I feel like Sheik does not need to work as hard to keep up but that is a
biproduct of Sheiks gameplay- not a result of adapting to Pikachus playstyle.
Plasmaexe
#41 10/29/2014
Shrieks been the most difficult match up for me (at least against good ones). I have
no idea how to deal with that neutral air (forward tilt doesnt seem to work that well
stopping it and doing any of Pikachus aerials ends up in a bad trade), plus I cant seem to
ever punish it with a grab. Getting a little better with avoiding Bouncing fish (punishing
it is another thing though and dodging it altogether is tough without anticipating it),
but it does get me still sometimes and makes using thunder jolt very unsafe at mid-range.
Sheik can usually follow up with all his tilt moves, but Pikachu cant unless its an aerial.
Psyant #30 10/27/2014
Sheik is pretty even grounds but I think Pikachu wins by a bit. Pikachu can make even
Sheik look slow in some ways. Sheik also relies on edgeguarding to KO even more than
us if she cant hit with Bouncing Fish, so its a nightmare for her to KO Pikachu. In my
experience if you vector up from her down throw she can almost never hit the up air
followup on Pikachu, which she relies on to kill a lot.
#28 10/27/2014
Nocally
Shiek You can combo around like she can you if you re not careful. Shielding her areal
approaches and her jabs can net you some nice damage on her, if she carelessly throws
out her jabs you can shield or DI down and shield, then punish her with a down-tilt.
If the Shiek player spams needles, spam thunder jolts, since the two attacks will go
through each other. Both Pikachu and Shiek has trouble killing, but the only thing you
really have to look out for is her bouncing fish move, otherwise her kill moves are easily
telegraphed in close range, which is where Pikachus kill moves are dont be too afraid to
go in on Sheik.

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1.9 Zero Suit Samus.

Click here to see the Specific Characters Match-up: Pikachu vs Zero Suit Samus .

Basic Information.
Posts: 555, 500, 498, 493, 171-173, 89.
Thoroughness: 5.5/10.
Matchup: 55:45 F.
Verdict: Medium priority. I saw a few people saying lol. ZSS is easy, just duck to
win, but if the matchup is 55:45, then we should probably discuss it.

List of Posts.
Thor
#555 6/9/2015
Felth (post 551) said: What are the best options to approach a ZSS? When she uses her
whip and laser its very difficult to attack her =( Not 100% sure about whip but Im
pretty sure Pikachu can duck both of these [I know for certain he can duck her paralyzer
shots, I think he can duck the whip really close to her but farther out where the big
sweetspot is]. If she does paralyzer then runs at you, just hitting A will do dtilt or ftilt
and usually stuff her. If she does grab, cross-up roll [roll behind her] should be a free
fsmash or usmash [dont do this every time]. Fullhop airdodge beats both of these but if
she doesnt commit youre in a spot to get uaird, and ZSS uair is super good.
[FBC] ESAM #500 5/21/2015
I literally hold a direction lol I dont tap at all. What is SDI
Thor
#498 5/21/2015
FBC ESAM (post 496) said: Im assuming you can Perfect Pivot forward and u-tilt it
since it will mess up their spacing if they are trying to hit you. I have to actually learn
that tech...? To the lab with me I guess...
Maybe learning to use it will help my microspacing, but I tried for a few days and
doing it was tough to say the least. I guess this is just the technical side of Smash 4
rearing its head [unless I just figure out how to compensate otherwise... which is likely
difficult if not impossible]. [FBC] ESAM said: The ZSS finisher all depends on where

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she starts it and the L/R 50:50. So... do I normally tap down, or do I tap away, or do I
have to play a guessing game [and if guessing game, can I at least get a brief description
of my options]? Also, is just holding a direction enough, or do I always have to smash
DI it [obviously SDI is better, but is it a must]?
[FBC] ESAM #493 5/20/2015
The ZSS finisher all depends on where she starts it and the L/R 50:50.
Thor
#492 5/20/2015
ALSO, random question thatll hopefully take very little time from you: I watched you
vs Nick Riddles ZSS and you dont get hit by the finisher on up+B a few times... how
does one DI that move to not get hit by the finisher? Do we DI toward ZSS? Away? Up?
Do we need tap DI or is holding a direction sufficient?

[The match in question if you are wondering where I watched this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
]
Hoenn
#173
3/16/2015
ZSS matchup in a nutshell: step 1. Duck step 2. laugh at them struggling ZSS has
trouble killing if you duck. Ducking does not just lower your hurtbox, it also reduces
knockback and hitstun. This makes it a lot harder for zss to start up her combos and
destroys a lot of her setups. ZSS also has to approach pikachu due to her stun gun never
being safe since you can punish it with quick attack on reaction. ZSS does not have a
very strong approach game, especially vs small characters with good crouches. Due to
crouching, zss does not have the best Oos options. Due to this, our normal weakness of
having trouble killing becomes basically obsolete. With safe pressure, we can force zss to
pick unsafe options just to reset to neutral. she cannot use patient mixups or hide in
shield like most characters do. So if we correctly read her limited options, then we can
safely secure kills.
On the downside, edge guarding zss is very tricky. You have to be patient and
calculated, otherwise you can easily die due to her recovery options also having strong
hitboxes and it is not super easy to juggle her. (if she is offstage without a down b
though, then go ham like normal) I dont have the most zss experience (so bare with me
lol), but I do have a zss player in my state with TONS of pikachu experience. If I got
anything wrong here, then obviously feel free to correct me
SolidSense
#172 3/15/2015
Spaced n-air low to the ground, d-tilt, and down-angled f-tilt will let you hit Pikachu

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when hes low to the ground. ZSS advantage in this matchup is KO power. up-b kills
really early. Also, ZSS is hard to perform strings on because of her good disadvantaged
state (she can flip jump or use her aerial mobility to get out of traps). Pikachus airspeed
is quite mediocre, so ZSS can usually land up-airs on him if youre high enough up before
Pikachu can Quick Attack away (Pikachu will try to Skull Bash away, but if he has Heavy
Skull Bash hell leave himself open a bit after doing this).
#171
3/13/2015
Odaroloc
As a ZZS main, I can assure you that Pikachu has the advantage. I have a friend who
mains Pikachu and he wins a majority of the time, and this is why: Pikachu goes more
than half of our attacks. Using bair to the ground means that I can only use a dsmash,
but theres usually enough time to dodge out of it. Small characters are the hardest for
ZZS because we cant use all of our attacks. I space with ftilt, and I cant do that against
Pikachu. Id say its a 65-35 in Pikachus favor.
Apply pressure with UpB, use bair frequently, and downb when we flipjump = win
SolidSense
#169 3/9/2015
(referring to post 168) b-air through it, or Thunder it
A good ZSS wont do that, because its punishable.
Matchup is in Pikachus favor because of d-tilt pressure. 55:45 sounds right, though;
ZSS kills really early with up-b.
A10theHero
#168 3/9/2015
Okay. I havent fought that many Zero Suit Samus players so I dont know much about
the matchup. I remember when I was more of a noob at Smash 4, I fought this one Zero
Suit Samus who kept using her Down + B when coming back onto the stage whenever I
was near the edge. It always hit me. :/ Now that I know more edgeguarding techniques
and have a better idea of what I should be doing when my opponents are offstage, Ill try
to avoid being a sitting duck like that, but in case that situation does ever happen again,
what should I do? Should I try to attack, shield, roll forward/backward, or spotdodge?
Pikabunz #167 3/9/2015
Pikachu beats ZSS I think. A lot of her attacks go over Pika which gives us a lot of
openings to punish and it makes some of our approaches a lot safer.
M15t3R R #89 Pikachu beats ZSS. The best way to beat her is by matching
her speed, and Pikachu can do that handily. He makes her supposed range advantage a

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moot point in a number of ways. He can duck under everything. He is fast enough to
powershield her retreating whips and paralyzer shots and continue closing the distance.
He is small enough to easily avoid flip jumps, SH side Bs, nairs and zairs. And, like
against anyone else, Pikachu doesnt fear getting gimped off-stage.
# 88
1/21/2015
Soul
Yeah Pika beats ZSS. Her Paralyzer stuff wont work most of the time; if she misses a
grab she gets a punish, and Pikachu can just get in and out. The matchup is pretty
similar to the one in Brawl I think.
Kyxsune
#87
1/21/2015
Pikachu 6-4 over ZSS. Imho. Pikachu has that tiny body that allows him to duck the
paralyzer and the flip jump. If he was heavier or had more ko potential it would be
heavier in pikachus favor