Pac Man Trap Situation (What can the opponent do)

[LanceStern]

Take this situation

The opponent has a melon either coming straight at them or slightly above them, a hydrant rolling toward them at mid speed (from a rising fair) and Pac Man running that same direction.

What can opponents do in this situation?

And what would be optimal punishes for Pac Man?


Note: (you can reproduce this setup by charging fruit to a melon, then drop a hydrant and either bair or nair it. Then do a rising short up fair to tumble the hydrant, throw the fruit and sprint at them)

 

[Nu~]

Take this situation

The opponent has a melon either coming straight at them or slightly above them, a hydrant rolling toward them at mid speed (from a rising fair) and Pac Man running that same direction.

What can opponents do in this situation?

And what would be optimal punishes for Pac Man?


Note: (you can reproduce this setup by charging fruit to a melon, then drop a hydrant and either bair or nair it. Then do a rising short up fair to tumble the hydrant, throw the fruit and sprint at them)

Depends heavily on the opponent.

Someone with a large disjoint (marth ftilt for example) can just ftilt the hydrant and potentially you if you are too close. If the opponent had a low short hop, they can potentially sh fair the hydrant while ducking the melon. We can punish both with DA due to the hit lag that the hydrant will put them in.

If they roll past the hydrant, we can punish with a smash attack, tilt, aerial...pretty much anything since they'll be on top of us.

If they try to catch the melon with an attack, the hydrant will get them if they don't manage to hit the hydrant while simultaneously grabbing the fruit. We may not be able to punish them if they are able to accomplish both depending on how laggy/disjointed the attack was.


Edit: May I ask why you made this thread?
Is it supposed to become a place for us all to post trap situations and find out optimal punishes + potential holes together?

 

[BSP]

If the melon hasn't been thrown from hand, I'd jump out of shield and grab it with an airdodge. Then I'd fade back to the ledge and grab it until the hydrant disappeared, then take things from there.

If the melon has been thrown from hand, SH uair it and then do everything else i just said.

 

[LanceStern]

Depends heavily on the opponent.

Someone with a large disjoint (marth ftilt for example) can just ftilt the hydrant and potentially you if you are too close. If the opponent had a low short hop, they can potentially sh fair the hydrant while ducking the melon. We can punish both with DA due to the hit lag that the hydrant will put them in.

If they roll past the hydrant, we can punish with a smash attack, tilt, aerial...pretty much anything since they'll be on top of us.

If they try to catch the melon with an attack, the hydrant will get them if they don't manage to hit the hydrant while simultaneously grabbing the fruit. We may not be able to punish them if they are able to accomplish both depending on how laggy/disjointed the attack was.


Edit: May I ask why you made this thread?
Is it supposed to become a place for us all to post trap situations and find out optimal punishes + potential holes together?

In response to your question, my original post had options I thought the opponent had to get out of this situation. But I changed my mind and thought I'd hear from the other Pac players what they see in this situation, since sometimes I can be clouded to think that my setup is fool-proof.

I was originally thinking of making multiple topics with different trap setups, but maybe this could just be one topic with multiple posts from users

 

[Direspect only!]

If the melon was thrown directly from charging, you could grab the fruit and either Insta toss it down or z drop it. Both would cancel out the hydrant. The knockback could be advantageous though.
As pacman worst case scenario, if it was item thrown. I would trampoline into the melon. The melon would push me off. I could charge some fruit, and hopefully the trampoline there could give me a non contested recovery.
As Fox, I would just hold reflector into side b to reset stage control.
*And as ganon I would use his up smash to clank the hydrant. The low end lag would allow me to punish your most likely dash attack?