Win Conditions

• Forcing Pikachu to approach.
• Conditioning him to shield and grabbing at low percents.
• Using bucket to catch Tjolt and thunder. Removing this move from play makes the MU much easier. Don't keep it too long though.
• Good ledge trapping does lots of damage and forces the pika to do risky recoveries.

Focus

• Recovery habits and mixups. A good read at high percent offstage or even mid percent can kill him.
• Disadvantage habits. What do they do in the air while getting juggled?
• Look for up-b habits on ledge. Punish with a dash attack if close enough or go for a grab since they will shield most likely.
• Look for jumping habits. Pika's aerials are their best moves. All can be beaten by nair.

Neutral

• Pikachu will up-b into you a lot to approach especially online.
• They will wait for you to touch their shield. Bair out of shield is fast. Parrying is a combo starter.
• They will try to wall you out with fair and dair. Somewhat hard to punish but if you can time it then nair them. Bair works well against both but is more commital than nair.
• When panicking look out for tjolts.
• Pikachu can't pressure your shield too well because of up-b.
• Condition to shield then grab.
• Will almost always dash attack out of shield or to punish at high percents. (Frame 6.)
• Avoid grabs at low percent. Camp with fair. At lower percents to avoid getting thunder looped.

Disadvantage

Ledge

• Watch out for fsmash at ledge. It's active forever and covers jump super well. You may be able to roll behind it. Or just wait it out. Once on ledge you can't get hit by it.
• Will use fair,bair, upair to ledgetrap. Tjolts too but just start bucketing them.
• Avoid regrabbing. Pika is fast enough to punish.
• Careful when using up-b. Thunder kills really early.

Offstage

• Bair will kill at high percent. Active for a long time so be quick to react to it.
• Will try to catch your up-b with thunder. If under you just bucket to be safe or up-b quickly.
• Can get 2framed by a lot so mix up timings or wait for endlag on certain attacks. (fsmash)
• Will use dair to catch up-b as well. Also active forever.
• In general: watch out for active hitboxes. Don't always up-b towards the stage. Air dodging to the stage helps if he commits to an edgeguard.

Juggling

• Use DI and SDI to get out of combos. Aside from true combos pika has a hard time juggling.
• Will usually try to punish landings since she doesn't have anything fast to cover above her.
• Uptilt is a good anti air so watch out for it.

Advantage

Ledge

• Chef covers ledge pretty well and covers up-b.
• Not too hard to 2frame with dsmash or dash attack.
• Hard to keep at ledge because of up b. Force it with bacon then punish.

Offstage

• Very difficult to edgeguard. Get a read to kill offstage.
• Better off ledgetrapping at lower percents or trying to 2frame.

Juggling

• Small so you have to be more precise with up airs and nairs.
• Fast faller too so nairdodge is really good.
• Use up-b to follow up if too high.
• Upsmash to read nairdodge. Or just wait for the airdodge then nair where he is headed.

Misc.

• Can up-b after first hit of dair.
• Remember to hold shield because of landing hitboxes.
• Up-B is safe-ish on shield.
• When in doubt up-b
• Up smash is good against her up-b.
• Don't charge smash attacks in neutral. Spaced fsmash counters it.

Bucket:

Tjolt

• 3 of these kill extremely early.

Thunder

• Weaker than tjolt when bucketed. Can't bucket the explosion.

Stages

Battlefield

• Can't up-b onto stage properly.
• Can cover platforms pretty well.
• Nair/Upair extensions.

Final Destination

• Decent stage for both players. More in GnW's favor imo.
• Good for juggling.
• Easier to follow movement since Pika's movement is limited.

Town and City

• Always ban.
• Platform extensions and mix-ups are too good for pika.

Kalos

• Walls are too powerful for her recovery on this stage.
• Platforms cover a lot for Pika's ledgetrapping so it's harder to up-b above ledge.
• Thunder still kills early. She lives way longer than GnW does so the trade off isn't worth it.