Pika Q&A/FAQ Thread: Ask a Quick Question, Get a Quick Answer!

[sniperworm]

If I could bring up the sheik matchup for just a second. I played a really good sheik at a tournament yesterday, and he was able to cancel out my fast fall fair to grab combo by jabbing me before I could grab. Are there any other good setups for grabbing Sheik that can't be cancelled by a jab? I can't get the buffered cg off if I can't grab her.

Shield grab the jab...

 

[Kenrawr]

Olimar: Rainbow Cruise, Frigate Orpheon, Jungle Japes

Noooo, frigate orpheon is a baaaaaad idea.

Someone get Fino in here to explain his, and other Olimar's love for that stage >_>

 

[KayLo!]

Yeah, Frigate vs. Olimar is a would-be obvious but very bad choice.

 

[Stealth Raptor]

arg i just noticed. and yeah horrible idea to take them to frigate. works on bad olimars, commiting suicide vs good ones.

 

[Pikabunz]

Why is FO bad?

 

[Pika_Cam]

Oh, I forgot they get lots of yellow pikmin there XD

If we weren't pikachu players, it would be a good idea.

 

[gallax]

gaw/marth: Fd, smashville

ROB: Bf(the plats are your friend)/ Smashville/ halberd(dies at lower percents due to a lower cieling-my choice)

 

[Stealth Raptor]

Oh, I forgot they get lots of yellow pikmin there XD

If we weren't pikachu players, it would be a good idea.

that and low ceiling, and olis with good DI will never be killed by that ledge

 

[Dynamism?]

Olimar: Rainbow Cruise

Don't go Rainbow Cruise against Olimar. People think it's a bad stage because there are no edges but Oli loves this stage. He can camp here better than anyone in the game. Most characters can't even touch him.

Pika might be able to get to him but he'll take way too much damage. And Oli can kill anyone in any direction really early...and bait people into those areas by camping.

Seriously, this is Olis stage against everyone. It's a horrible mindgame/misconception that Oli players abuse. Trust me! Don't trust this stage against Olis! They might know what they're doing. It's too easy.

 

[Stealth Raptor]

actually you are right and wrong dynamism. a lot of olis i know hate this stage and tend to ban it. but my one good friend fino, who plays oli, does so well on that stage that it is called fino cruise by a lot of people in the mw lol. so be careful on who you cp that stage on - a lot of olis will fail on that stage, but if they know what they are doing its hell. since i have been friends with fino for a while, i have followed olis metagame. it was such an interesting development. to wolf and rob being his worst matchups, and FO and cruise being bad stages for oli. as time passed though people learned how to use oli effectivly and now he is so good o.o japes is a good cp on oli, the only good one left, though they tend to ban it. i personally like delfino vs oli as well, as long as you can ***** the stage better then them.

 

[Dynamism?]

actually you are right and wrong dynamism. a lot of olis i know hate this stage and tend to ban it. but my one good friend fino, who plays oli, does so well on that stage that it is called fino cruise by a lot of people in the mw lol. so be careful on who you cp that stage on - a lot of olis will fail on that stage, but if they know what they are doing its hell. since i have been friends with fino for a while, i have followed olis metagame. it was such an interesting development. to wolf and rob being his worst matchups, and FO and cruise being bad stages for oli. as time passed though people learned how to use oli effectivly and now he is so good o.o japes is a good cp on oli, the only good one left, though they tend to ban it. i personally like delfino vs oli as well, as long as you can ***** the stage better then them.

Japes and Delfino are good calls. When an Oli player gets good enough, picking RC against them is like SDing
I ban japes when I'm oli too hahaha

I'd also suggest Corneria if you're certain characters... but apparently that's being banned?
With pika, maybe not, but most characters can eliminate Olis camping there since he needs a little bit of room but not much. And he needs to camp while attacking, Corneria doesn't allow that. Just watch for early deaths.

I don't think that's a good choice with Pika though, just seems bad for pika too.

Kind of like FO, just pika related lol

 

[Pika_Cam]

I didn't think about Delphino, but it does seem like a decent option if the water can kill all of oli's pikmin. I just hate playing on Japes because the klap trap always kills me. I know it's supposed to be good because of the high ceiling though.

Oh, and if you are playing an Olimar in a tournament where Green Greens is legal, I suggest you ban it. It has a low ceiling and from my experience with DanGR, it's a great stage for olimar.

EDIT: Oh yeah Stealth, I played Fino on RC once. I think I got two stocked. Lol.

 

[gallax]

dont play wolf on jungle japes...ever.

 

[[FBC] ESAM]

I played a wolf on jungle japes a loooong time ago...and won

 

[KayLo!]

I played a wolf on jungle japes a loooong time ago...and won

You want a cookie or something?

 

[smasher1206]

hey guys im a new pikachu main and i was just wondering of QAC is necessary to learn to play competitively?

 

[Terios the Hedgehog]

Sorta. Just learn it. It's not hard.


Kaylo's handing out (ccc)s? ^_^

 

[KayLo!]

hey guys im a new pikachu main and i was just wondering of QAC is necessary to learn to play competitively?

No, it's not, but it's good to know how to do it consistently..... only once you've built up a solid game otherwise. Many new Pikas tend to focus on QAC too early when the basic foundation of your game should always come first.

That being said, QAC is very helpful in a variety of situations. Learn it eventually, but it's definitely not necessary.

EDIT: @Terios..... none for you.

 

[Stealth Raptor]

No, it's not, but it's good to know how to do it consistently..... only once you've built up a solid game otherwise. Many new Pikas tend to focus on QAC too early when the basic foundation of your game should always come first.

That being said, QAC is very helpful in a variety of situations. Learn it eventually, but it's definitely not necessary.

EDIT: @Terios..... none for you.

*steals the cookies meant for terios*

 

[KayLo!]

I just said he wasn't getting any, lol. So you just stole..... nothing.

 

[Stealth Raptor]

nothing > something dur

 

[KayLo!]

nothing > something dur

@.@ *head explodes*

 

[Kenrawr]

If we weren't pikachu players, it would be a good idea.

iirc it's just a good stage for them in general.

One of the transformations give them a crazy fortress.

 

[smasher1206]

k thx i guess ill learn it sometime in the future

 

[Xiivi]

Stealth, KayLo, keep the conversations to the social thread/visitor walls/xat/the social group/your 5,000,000 other options. :/

 

[uhmuzing]

I'm a very new Pikachu player and found this Q & A very useful. :D

 

[Xi_Athletics_ix]

No, it's not, but it's good to know how to do it consistently..... only once you've built up a solid game otherwise. Many new Pikas tend to focus on QAC too early when the basic foundation of your game should always come first.

That being said, QAC is very helpful in a variety of situations. Learn it eventually, but it's definitely not necessary.

EDIT: @Terios..... none for you.

So what exactly is considered a "solid game?"
I started playing this a few months back with friends who are a lot better than me. I've been thrown into the advanced stuff real early without having a chance at learning the basics.

Just wondering what kind of things make up a "solid game" for pika.

 

[KayLo!]

So what exactly is considered a "solid game?"
I started playing this a few months back with friends who are a lot better than me. I've been thrown into the advanced stuff real early without having a chance at learning the basics.

Just wondering what kind of things make up a "solid game" for pika.

Ah, the same as the basics for any character, really. But Pika-specific, I'd work on the following:

- Spacing. Pika doesn't have a lot of range, so it's essential that you get really familiar with his moves and learn their range so you don't overextend and get punished for it.

- Grab game. Not CGs in particular. A lot of Pika's game is bait and punish, and at least half of that punishment will be grabbing your opponent after whiffed moves. However, missing a grab will put you in a bad position (especially a whiffed dash grab), so learn from which distances you can effectively grab people and generally how long it'll take to get there.

- Combos. Compared to the average character, Pika has a decent amount of low-mid percentage combos (yes, true ones) and "strings" that you should focus on getting down fluidly. It'll really help tack on damage, especially on heavier characters that live a lot longer than we do.

- Spacing tjolts. Or camping, whatever you wanna call it. It's lame, but it's necessary in some matchups..... however, tjolt has a considerable amount of cooldown lag. If you don't know how to space yourself while you're shooting out those jolts, it'll end up hurting you more than helping you.

- Incorporating tilts. Seriously, a lot of Pikas don't use their tilts enough. Ours aren't the best, but utilt/dtilt are both extremely useful in a variety of situations, and ftilt is a good GTFO/potential KO move. They're also faster than your smashes and keep usmash/fsmash fresher for the kill.

- On that note, refreshing your moves. Not a huge one, but many Pikas use nair a lot and also use a lot of fsmash for spacing, so they can both be pretty stale by the end of your opponent's stock. This ties into your grab/camp game..... grab pummels and tjolts are both useful for refreshing your KO moves.

- KO setups. Pika's kill moves are kind of predictable, so they often take a little bit of setup. Luckily, most of them can be strung into from moves that are easier to land; those that can't be are still deadly punishing tools when your opponent whiffs an attack.

- Recovery. No, not QAC, although this will help with it down the road. Just try to have as perfect control over QA as you can so that you can confidently chase your opponents off-stage and know that you can get back from almost anywhere. Learn when and when not to use Skull Bash.​

That's all I can think of. If I missed anything, someone cover me!

EDIT: Also learn your options out of shield. Pika shouldn't be played overly aggressively, so you'll probably do a decent amount of punishing out of shielding your opponents' attacks.

 

[Xi_Athletics_ix]

Thanks, I've managed to learn a few of those on my own.

I'm just going to have to spend more time concentrating on easier things instead of trying to use QAC in my normal play, which was most likely a big mistake in the first place

 

[KayLo!]

Sounds good. If you have any vids of your offline playing, definitely post them in the critique thread if you haven't already.

Also, I'm free to play wifi most nights (when my wifi's actually working..........), so if you ever want to get in a few matches, VM or PM me.

 

[Xi_Athletics_ix]

I'll be honest, I'm not a very good player at all.

I'm finding I create a lot of problems for myself and can't really seem to fix them. I get players to 200%+ and then can't kill them, which is pretty bad.

I probably look very odd when I play. I can DI pretty well, QAC, use chain grabs on most characters, but can't kill OR recover when I need to.

It's pretty frustrating

 

[KayLo!]

Everyone has to start out somewhere! With more experience, these things will come in time. Just keep practicing your QA control in Training Mode and learn Pika's most common kill setups. They're listed in the Generating A Win guide (stickied here in the forum), which you should read/skim as well.

You'll be pro status in no time.

 

[bigman40]

Ah, the same as the basics for any character, really. But Pika-specific, I'd work on the following:

- Spacing. Pika doesn't have a lot of range, so it's essential that you get really familiar with his moves and learn their range so you don't overextend and get punished for it.​

​

Man, I'm soo good at overspacing that I make impossible moves land (1 framers) lololol. Does this make me good? XD

 

[Stealth Raptor]

[/indent][/color] Man, I'm soo good at overspacing that I make impossible moves land (1 framers) lololol. Does this make me good? XD

you should play marth then

and yeah athletic look at the guide if you havent already, tons of good information there

 

[bigman40]

you should play marth then

and yeah athletic look at the guide if you havent already, tons of good information there

I hate playing him He just makes me feel like Fsmashing all day lol. But on a real note, I need to sit some time down with my Raichu and get him better.

 

[Xi_Athletics_ix]

Yeah I've looked at the guide and know what to do, I just can't do it. I don't really have anyone to practice on either, I play with JCav and them and don't know anyone else that plays.

I know killing moves, I know how to set them up, I just have a major problem doing it.

 

[Pika_Cam]

Yeah I've looked at the guide and know what to do, I just can't do it. I don't really have anyone to practice on either, I play with JCav and them and don't know anyone else that plays.

I know killing moves, I know how to set them up, I just have a major problem doing it.

My favorite kill setup is FF fair > utilt > thunder

Have you tried that one?

 

[gallax]

by far my favorite kill move cam.

 

[Stealth Raptor]

utilt to thunder: 80% of mykills

 

[Pika_Cam]

by far my favorite kill move cam.

It is very gratifying.

There's also a new strategy I've been using to kill people. When they land on the ledge and they do a ledge attack, shield and short hop nair out of shield right after they attack.