Match Up Export: Pikachu

Overview: Yay!!! T-jolt = annoying.

I caught him and I left him in a pokeball in my 20th box on Bill's PC; SUCK IT PIKA.

Kirby’s Pros and Cons:

+ Great aerial game
+ Strong kill move
+ Better w/ t-jolt
- Lightweight
- Slow aerial movement

Pkiachu's Pros and Cons:

+ Spammable projectiles
+ Good recovery
+ Fast all around (jab, rolls, aerial speed, etc.)
- Lightweight for early kills
- Predictable projectile patterns with startup lag (T-jolt and Thunder)
- Lacks good kill move

Watch out for:
T-jolts – It should go without saying you wanna avoid any and all t-jolts. Small damage racks fast is Pikachu's mindset. Avoid being on the ground too long and utilize all of Kirby's jumps to aircamp.

Thunder – Understandably this is one of Pikachu's most annoying and destructive kill moves. ALERT! PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT I'M ABOUT TO WRITE: DO NOT ****ING AIRDODGE DIRECTLY AFTER A DSMASH OR USMASH. If you get knocked up into a position to get thundered don't airdodge; DI instead and wait for them to Thunder. I realize this sounds crazy and Kirby should be worried about dying but if you airdodge, you'll eat a Thunder.

Edgegaurd Jab Combo (AAA)– Pikachu will space the edge and speed-jab while you recover. What happens then is you're jumping to stay near the edge and when you still haven't grabbed the ledge and are outta jumps you'll FC and get punished. Either recover over the edge or sweetspot from underneath. If neither option looks good then FAir or BAir Pika away before recovering.

DSmash – Annoying and leads into other attacks. DI both stick UP and out.

How to win:
Stay off the ground – You have a lot of jumps so use them to avoid the t-jolts.

Get Pika's t-jolt ability – Don't eat damage like crazy to get it but it's foolish to fight this whole match-up without it. Aircamp once you have t-jolt capability and force an approach.

Get in close – Until Kirby has T-jolt the action has to stay close quarters. Jab, tilts and grab to rack damage and stay on Pikachu. Pikachu is a light character so the grab combo that is best suited would be FThrow>Utilt>reverseUTilt>BAir for quick damage racking.


Get in the right mindset – If Kirby wins, this is going to be a long-ish match since Kirby has to get in close. But w/ the right mindset it's easier to feel comfortable against Pikachu. Honestly, start off by choosing YELLOW Kirby. If you get the power the similarity in color can throw off Pika during clashes and such.

Spit out or Swallow?
Swallow. With Kirby's multi-jump aircamp and the annoying spammability of T-jolt a camp power to rival Snake-Kirby is born. Stay in the air and alternate jump and landing to create a wall of projectile with off-timing.

Stages (in order of priority):
Brinstar – Janky stage, close quarters, platforms, early side kills, etc.; good stuff for Kirby
Pictochat – Terrain changes, rock-glitch on the slant of the right side edge, side blastzones are slightly close.
Battlefield – Platforms null thunder and the platforms help to avoid t-jolt spam.
Castle Siege – We don't ban this one often but this stage for this MU deserves it. platform and slants help t-jolt camping in the first area. In the second area Pikachu thrives when percent/stock lead is in Pika favor because of the large area that can be used to camp. In the third section though, hope for a gimp by the tilting of the stage.
FD – It's pretty massive and flat. It's never a good Kirby stage unless it's MK lol.
Smashville – Same as FD basically.


Synopsis:
This matchup is one about working a powershield approach to get in and rack damage until you have the t-jolt; then it's in the bag. Remember not to airdodge because you're afraid of the 'thunder'; DI it, wait for the 'thunder' AND THEN airdodge it. It's small weird tactics employed by Pika that will get you killed so stay on your toes.....or off them in the air!

Huh, what to say here...

I'll start with a quick Kirby-Pika comparison.

In the air

Pikachu has good priority on a lot of his aerials, but some (like the Fair) lack in terms of range. Spacing Bairs can usually overpower him, but you can't live off of them. Get creative with Fair and Uair, Pika's laggy Dair can be intercepted by an Uair if spaced, and should he accidentally land a Dair, punish. Go for a grab, Ftilt, or if you're feeling lucky, a Fsmash for the kill. Our Fair often leads into another (at low, but not 0%) when hitting Pika (as well as other characters) and can drag him offstage.

Ground game

Pika's speedy jab can trip, comes out ridiculously fast, and is just a nuisance. His Dtilt comes out fast as well, and can not only act as a C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER, but can even catch you in wall locks on some stages. His Dsmash is devastatingly strong if you don't SDI it correctly, but if you manage to escape, it's a free Fsmash. Usmash is fast, not phenomenally strong, and doesn't have much horizontal range to be an effective kill move unless Kirby is in the air. Pikachu also has a notably fast dodge roll, be careful of shenanigans. He loves to use QAC as a set up for after he shoots by you, or just return to the start point. If he catches Kirby in the freefall landing, it sets up a jab lock, only with QAC, it can go on forever.

Kirby can usually land the Fthrow>Uair>Pivot Utilt>Bair combo, though I've heard Pikachu can break it with a Nair. Ftilt should be applied liberally, it has great range, and can really rack up damage over time. Utilt is the Utilt, and while Pika is light, he has fast falling speed for his weight, and is usually combo'd by it. Be prepared to throw out tilts after Pikachu rolls, he loves to use high damage grabs.

Gimping

Pikachu isn't too impressive here, aside from offstage t-jolt spam and the occasional Nair stage spike. There might be more, so I'll ask the Pikachu's to evaluate.

Kirby's Bair can break the SideB of Pikachu, and I the Quick Attack, though that move can be tricky and confusing. Our Dair goes through the Skull Bash, and I want to say the Quick Attack, but I'm not really sure. Even still, we shouldn't rely on Dair for much of anything, seeing as it's laggy startup isn't very effective(...) against a fast Pikachu.

T-jolt Spammage

I hate to say it, but unless you can aircamp like a tourney MK, you're gonna eat some of this.

Luckily, the T-jolt has an incredibly predictable path, and if copied, is spammable on our end as well. Pikachu also uses this for ledge shananigans. Be careful, when it wraps around a ledge, it often prevents your grab. May evaluate later.

Well, I'm sick of typing, and will now go get a towel for the haterade Tiersie is about to drown me with.

Love you too Tater

Kirby rocks the heck out of Pikachu...
Actually I main both of them...
They are both pretty good (that's why I chose them, duh)

Were you just saying that to bump the thread or did you actually mean that Kirby's Stone is an effective move against Pikachu?

I will say that this matchup is in pikachu's favor as long as he plays a campy game e.g. t-jolt spam and just waiting for the kirby to mess up. I especially like it when the Kirby tries to play extra aggressive, I will usually try to QAC around and just see what he does. If they are smart they will just stand still and wait for an opening, but if they chase me I will usually QAC into a nair or u-air in which I will begin to try to juggle, then it just goes downhill from there. But the second Kirby sucks up Pikachu the MU drastically changes into your favor. Kirby can utilize t-jolt in the air much better than Pika can. Also following up a successful t-jolt with a smash attack (usually f-smash) can be deadly for Pikachu.......so I think this matchup is 50-50

Hope i was some help

Kewkky said:

Uhh...

In all seriousness, if your reason of the MU being in Pikachu's advantage is that "you can camp until Kirby messes up then punish", I'll have to disagree with you. Kirby can do the same thing: feint approaches until you make a mistake, then we punish. This argument goes both ways, which is why I really don't like using it.

I myself think it's near even, but dunno in whose favor... We both have strings, good kill moves, decent recoveries... The only thing Pikachu has that makes this MU a bit of a bother is thunderjolt... We can cancel it with our own attacks (bair/ftilt/utilt and their disjointed goodness) or powershield it, though, so it's not enough of a big deal to skew the MU in Pika's favor... If we get it, we can use it as a better pressure tool, since we can spam it while aircamping due to our floatiness and multiple jumps.

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>.> you basically just said what I said lol.... besides a good pika would t-jolt when you least expect it then follow up with almost anything

You guys haven't posted here for a month!! GET ON IT AND DISCUSS!!!

Hmmm, can Pikachu go right through Kirby's inhale? Yeah, I know inhale is hard enough to use let alone a quick moving target but I was just curious. PikaKirby really does changes the gameflow.

I can't post a summary now, but I'll edit this post with one some time in the next few days (hopefully tomorrow).

Edit: My computer is refusing to access smashboards, and writing anything lengthy without a real keyboard is a pain, so my summary might not come for a bit.

JoWii said:

Yay!!! T-jolt = annoying.

I caught him and I left him in a pokeball in my 20th box on Bill's PC; SUCK IT PIKA.

DISCUSS!!!

Click to expand...

I don't have much to add, I'll probably do a write up later, but I thought the pokeball thing was hilarious. XD