SSBU/Pichu/Strategy

Pichu

Overview

Combos

Setplay

Tech

Strategy/Counterstrategy

Matchups

Resources

Gameplan Summary

Pichu's goals in most matchups are divided in three set-play scenarios:

Shield pressuring: Getting in front of the opponent while the opponent is shielding, spaced around one Pichu away from the opponent where ftilt and some uptilt angles can hit. This spacing threatens tilts on shield, dash grabs, fadeback and crossup aerials.

Whiff-punishing: Baiting the opponent to throw out a landing attack and then punishing accordingly(hence the importance of being grounded to always bait landing attacks instead of rising so you can abuse the good oos options).

Cornering the opponent: If neither of the scenarios present themselves, the only option left for the opponent is kiting backwards until they get cornered. In this scenario Pichu can apply both of the above options or read out of the corner options to setup for advantage state[link] / edgeguarding[link] / ledge trapping[link]

Neutral

As Pichu -rushdown -tjolt aproach -oos play -wiff-punish

Against Pichu -air camping -jumpback spacing -tjolt breaking with big active hitboxes -2 framing

Advantage

As Pichu -True combo into finisher, decide for vertical or horizontal finisher

-Staying lower to the ground than the opponent (most of Pichu's good, fast options can only be accessed by being grounded + very good oos play to cover for aggressive combo breaking and reversals from opponents)

-heavy techasing

-bait combo breaking when combo is finished and extend it

-platform awareness and extensions [link to combos in platforms / extensions]

Against Pichu (Pichu's disadvantage)(maybe move this to counterplay later?) -true strings and whiff punish a fast combo breaking option (mostly Frame 3 nair), pichu has no options in the other other than: *cant change trajectory other than b reverse *cant stall other than startup of upb

-cover double upb to stage (pichu's upb has no hitbox) / corner during faraway advantages. Don't try to punish upbs that land directly on a surface, as it makes it practically legless if pichu doesn't enter freefall.

-Pichu can sideb to get out of a juggle Pikachu-esque, but it has a ton of lag (~2-3 secs after the end of the trajectory).

-Don't get hit by ledge jump tjolt while standing at roll distance, it sends into tech starting at around 60-70 and confirms into combos and can. If read, a big strong hitbox thrown preemptively can break the tjolt and hit Pichu.

Disadvantage

As Pichu -almost no mixups and subpar airdrift, little mixups: *combo breaker frame 3 nair *breverse neutral b *stall with upb, mixup landing spot *sideb out of a juggle (landing mixups on platforms or on the ground) / to go to the other ledge

-DI hard out and away (except for kill moves), most combos don't work on Pichu and you can get out , plus you have plenty of mixups offstage

-Try to get to the ground as fast as possible, most of the good defensive options Pichu has (really fast (but short) roll, frame 3 nair, active quick and big bair) cant be accessed in the air

Against Pichu (Pichu's advantage)(maybe move this to counterplay later?)

-Dashing and then jumping back after a true string most of the time is the best option

-If you get hit by dropzone bair at stagespike % (starting at around ~40%), 90% of the time the Pichu wants to drag-down and force a buffered airdodge trying to tech, which kills most characters instantly. Be patient the first time around, try to react to the final hit if possible to tech. Its a 50/50 in Pichu's favour, but pichu's skew a bit towards dragdown

-Buffering jump out of hitstun offstage means killing yourself on the spot to fastfall thunder, drift back and after stalling a bit then jump (risks double jump fair from Pichu) or jump and instantly airdodge going high. Everything can be covered if read, but it's at least a 50/50.

Stages

-Good traits: no plats, small stages, small lateral blastzones, high vertical blastzones, walls

-Best: FD, Town, Smashville (avoiding projectile camping), Kalos (susceptible to circle camping)

-Bad traits: Big stages, triplats vs mobile characters that can circlecamp, platforms that cover diagonals for projectile characters that cover well the horizontal space

Counterplay

Abuse Pichu's low range: fadeback low commit aerials to bait oos options and then punish impatient play

Air camping: Pichu has little to no options other than fullhop aerial to punish people above him past its fullhop jump height (which is pretty short in combination with how small he is). Playing around these moves in the air makes

Pichu more predictable and more prone to be whiff-punished.