Neutral Tips for Ness vs Pikachu
Pikachu
-Ness has some good close-mid good options to stuff Pika out in Nair, F-air, PK Fire, Dash Attack and Dash Grab. Challenging them is hard so work on your position and whiff punish them.
-You want to play mostly grounded so you can minimize Ness' approach options. All of them are unsafe on shield and can be punished on whiff and on block.
-Try to avoid being in the dash attack / dash grab range to avoid the mixups and overall have a safer neutral.
-Hitting Ness out of the air is a great way to win neutral, bait him with F-air and D-airs outside of his range; once he starts jumping you can punish him with rising B-air, Up Air, and N-air.
-D-air will beat Ness' dash attack. If you hit Ness' shield, remember to mix up your cross ups and fastfalls to maximize safety.
-Only use Thunder Jolt when Ness is at low percent as he can quickly recover HP with PK Magnet and move out of the way without much compromise. A hard read on PK Fire may work if you are getting stuffed out by it too much, but there are better ways to punish PK Fire.
-You can use QA to punish whiffs and landings from long range, take in mind Ness can predict this and start trading with you and potentially giving you RCO lag.
-Switch into passive and aggressive accordingly, switching up both styles can be annoying for Ness.
-You want to play mostly grounded so you can minimize Ness' approach options. All of them are unsafe on shield and can be punished on whiff and on block.
-Try to avoid being in the dash attack / dash grab range to avoid the mixups and overall have a safer neutral.
-Hitting Ness out of the air is a great way to win neutral, bait him with F-air and D-airs outside of his range; once he starts jumping you can punish him with rising B-air, Up Air, and N-air.
-D-air will beat Ness' dash attack. If you hit Ness' shield, remember to mix up your cross ups and fastfalls to maximize safety.
-Only use Thunder Jolt when Ness is at low percent as he can quickly recover HP with PK Magnet and move out of the way without much compromise. A hard read on PK Fire may work if you are getting stuffed out by it too much, but there are better ways to punish PK Fire.
-You can use QA to punish whiffs and landings from long range, take in mind Ness can predict this and start trading with you and potentially giving you RCO lag.
-Switch into passive and aggressive accordingly, switching up both styles can be annoying for Ness.
RAWR! - September 15, 2018
Ness