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MU Thread v2 | PM 3.5 Ness Matchup Discussion |

Bryonato

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Looks like it's pretty decidedly Lucas. Aight, everyone, share your Lucas mu knowledge! I'll start updating the thread accordingly.
 

SoniCraft

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Pit I guess since he was pretty popular last time.
 

SoniCraft

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Oh whoops didn't see the new page and thought we were still taking suggestions. My bad.
 

reslived

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Lucas. Oh man. :lucas:. Between Pink Fresh, Yars, and Crescent Monkey, I have lost this matchup way more times than I would like to. Lemme give some insight into what I've decided about this matchup.

1) STAGE CHOICE: Take :lucas: to a small stage. This is incredibly important, and im not 100% sure why. I absolutely DESTROY Lucas on smaller stages. My theory is that he doesn't have the ability to approach as well as he'd like and he doesn't have the added option of run away pk freeze. GHZ, Yoshis Story, Skyworld, all great stages for this matchup (try to get high cieling wherever possible because lucas only kills up). And for the love of GOD don't let him get Distant Planet or Yoshis Brawl. These stages are a Lucas wet dream versus Ness. TRY TO GET A STAGE WITH A WALL TO RECOVER AGAINST. See point 6) for more on this.

2) EDGEGUARDING: Hold the edge. Just do it. With talks of 3.5 nerfing a lot of the recovery possibility, Lucas looks like he's going to take a huge hit and this will benefit us even more. You can break his tether with ledge drop dj nair (almost always), or if u hold on and he snaps back to the ledge u can wait for the laggy tether jump and LJ waveland and punish. There are very few occasions where you will have to (or even want to) absorb Lucas' PKT1 or trade PKT1's with his, but just remember that this is a valid option.

3) NEUTRAL GAME: this surprisingly isn't SO bad. He doesn't just outright win so long as u full hop consistently and stay above him. Lucas's rising fair is better than Ness's rising fair, so watch out for that. You can hit pkfreeze with pkfire and set up a mini wall, which is kind of helpful. LEARN TO POWERSHIELD though. This is huge in the Lucas matchup because pkfreeze is his best mid-long range option and powershielding it gives YOU an advantage at that range. If you can't powershield, mag approach isn't super bad in this matchup. You can either absorb the pkfreeze and time it so the absorb hitbox comes out and hits Lucas, or you can just know the absorption lag timing and djc out of it to punish pkfreeze (which is mad laggy from both air and ground).

Other than that, the neutral game is pretty simple. Rely on pkfire to zone. Use fair when you think you can catch him doing anything that isn't his fair (or if he mis-times it). And use mag approach sparingly as mentioned above.

4) COMBO GAME: This part here is just to remind everyone that lucas falls mad fast. Way faster than you'd expect. Doesn't fall like Ness at all. Practice some combos against a CPU just to make sure you're aware of his fall speed before you get surprised by it in tourney (has happened to me). Because of his fall speed, Ness gets 40-50 damage on any one combo. djc uair, fair -> grab, dair shenanigans, it all works on Lucas. But you gotta hit him first, which is hard, so I point you to my point 3).

EDIT: also you can dthrow cg Lucas a few times at low percents. Just keep that in mind.

5) GETTING HIT: For the LOVE OF GOD dont get grabbed. seriously. usmash combos out of grab at like 70 no matter how you DI (as long as he knows how to dacus) and then we die at like 115 automatically to grab. Not to mention at lower percents you'll take about 30-40 damage off of one grab. Don't get grabbed. And DONT TRY TO SPOTDODGE THE GRAB. you'll get hit. roll away. its mad laggy, you can still punish if you roll. If you get grabbed, DI dthrow behind him and cross your fingers with all your might.

A lot lot lot of Lucas's stuff can be cc'd. It's actually crazy. Experiment with it on your own and see how you can change the matchup in ur favor. It's a great way to get out of Lucas's guaranteed shield pressure, which you also just need to experiment with and figure out on your own. I tend to see how good my opponent is at shield pressure with each individual game, so I can't really elaborate.

6) OH **** YOU'RE OFFSTAGE: cross your fingers and pray to the only god you know. As people are getting better and better at edgeguarding Ness I can't stress this enough: Ness's recovery is BAD, ESPECIALLY against Lucas. If you recover high, a good Lucas will usmash you FOR FREE. If you recover low, a good Lucas will bair spike you FOR FREE. Just be aware of these options and look at his positioning while you angle your recovery. START HIGH, AND SWEETSPOT THE LEDGE. this is your best option on bad stages, but because Ness's recovery is so bad, there's a good chance a Lucas can start to read this and just go hit you. The other good option is to get a stage with a wall so you can vary your angle of low recovery. He can't bair every angle if you have a wall, so that's why GHZ/Yoshi's Story are a godly stages against Lucas.



I think this is enough for now. mu is 40-60 or 45-55 in :lucas: favor.
 
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Soft Serve

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Dont hold shield Or this will happen

Ummm I dont know a whole lot about it but latter I'll post some videos of the MU that I think people could get info from.
 

The_NZA

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You can dthrow lucas consistently to around 30-40 percent, at which point yo uneed to DJC uair. This is of course unless he dis away, in which case you can DJC fair to regrab.
 

Geenareeno

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I struggled with this matchup a lot but I overcame most of the troubles, here are my tips. Reslived said a lot of good stuff but i'll reiterate some of it.

Make the most of your grabs. As people have said you can cg him for awhile and then start doing djc uairs into whatever.

As reslived said, in the neutral game you can clank your side b with his; I like to predict it and run in with and aerial magnet then dj out and nair him or something. It's something you do all the time but it keeps them honest with their side-b spacing. If they'er shooting low enough you can also just hover over the side-b with magnet like Peach does to Falco and then punish him. This options works better sometimes since there's absorption lag that can cause you to miss the input/punish.

CC d-tilt is really good for getting out of some of his stuff. I'm not knowledgeable to give specific examples but it's a good combo breaker until he learns what moves are safe at what %'s.

Seriously don't spotdodge his grab.

For edgeguarding I like to drop from the ledge and stall with magnet then rise out of it with nair. It's not super developed tech but you can wait for him to commit instead of just guessing the timing of his recovery. Sometimes the magnet will just knock him away and then you can do it again or combo from the magnet. If he up-b's use bat or dair.

Lastly, try to smash di out of his dair.
 
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Some small things:

-Lucas' Nair is safe on shield. Dair is not. Nair OoS has been my best friend in this MU.
-Ban PS2. Lucas kills early here, and he can run away from you for years.
-Don't magnet DJC PK Freeze at mid-range. He's out of recovery frames before your absorb lag is done, and he can punish hard.
-If you can force him to recover low, harass with PKT. A lot of Lucas players will try to jump, and if PKT eats it, edge guards become much simpler.
 

reslived

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Would like to point out to viewers in the future that WE ARE DISCUSSING 3.0 LUCAS. BRO IS ABOUT TO GET CHANGED, ESPECIALLY IN THE RECOVERY. TAKE ALL OF THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.

also is dair really not safe on shield? i always get hit by lucas-shine or jab after l-canceled dair. TO THE FRAME DATA THREAD!

Edit: Lucas dair almost definitely safe on shield if followed up with JC shine. Lucas dair is 9 frames of lag with L-cancel, and perfect Lucas JC shine is frame 2 (therefore u have 11 frames). Ness nair oos is frame 8, grab is frame 7, but that doesn't account for shield stun, which is almost definitely more than 3 frames.. If someone can find out for me though that would be wonderful.
 
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Soft Serve

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Good resources to figure out Lucas:
http://smashboards.com/threads/lucas-hitboxes-and-frame-data-2-6.333944/ <-- Up to date expect a few magnet differences in repeating damage.
http://smashboards.com/threads/neons-match-up-discussion.341751/ <-- some ness talk in there, Oracle says its Lucas's worst MU after Fox, because Chaingrab to 70% and Fair out-prioritizing everything lucas has.
http://smashboards.com/threads/implementing-footstools.352806/ <-- Another reason why shielding is bad against lucas, and its like 80% my fault 8adge (a tas lucas tester) burnsy and Neon learned that footstooling beats shields and started developing it (sorry guys)

Some videos of players of the respective characters to see what the MU is like:
Neon vs Calabrel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3xAHKtt-Co
Collum W vs Massive from UFGTX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JQ8EuUu5jM (not as good as an example)

Oracle and awestin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Cg7mrs0ZX0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SiJwHrAov4

Lucas as good shield pressure, so do your best to just avoid those situations entirely. If he's coming at you, Dash dance out and in to punish. If he is trying to get your shield up by DJC Pk freezes, either get out of range, jump over it, powershield it, or make sure you have platforms to retreat to for pk fire camping.

I think just smart PK fire usage and DD>grab, DJC fair>grab, then d-throw>regrab/combo will be all you really need. Just be good/smart and efficient.
 
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Speaking of Footstooling, Ness has some pretty nasty set ups with that himself. He gets less opportunities to implement it though, due to not having the shield pressure that Lucas does.

As for the Dair on Shield: Frame Data Thread says Lucas' Dair is -5 at best on the last hit, and magnet comes out on frame 5, I believe? Jab would probably be a better option, but it's really punishable on block as well. Unless the last hit of dair hits just before they touch the ground, nair should win or trade with whatever they throw out.
 

Soft Serve

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Theres no reason for Lucas to use Dair for shieldpressure when He can use sweetspot DJC fair though. Fair does 13% damage, and when throw through the shield stun calculator ((x+4.45)/2.235, where X is damage), Fair has 7 frames of shield stun (15 if it counts as electric hitbox, which i question) and only 7 frames of landing lag. The hitlag is probably only like 3-4 frames, and magnet has a 4 frame start up before the hitbox's come out. so you have only 7-9 frames to do anything. And thats only his Fair, Multimagnets are pretty much completely safe (You can Roll out after the grounded magnet, and only the grounded one. So if he's doing ground magnet>jump>Airmagnet>DJCmagnet> fall slightly to hit the ground>jump>repeat, your only safe window to get away is after the grounded magnet, once he starts jumpsquat)

Your only safe options for lucas's shield pressure (if they are doing it well) are to Roll away after a DJC Fair, or not get caught in it in the first place.
Then again the only lucas I really play is Neon, maybe the lucas's you guys run into don't do shield pressure as stupidly.
 
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Smart Things
Oh, I'm not saying that shielding against Lucas is a great idea. It's just that a lot of people seem to get eaten alive by dair when it's actually quite unsafe in most situations.

Also, in Oracle's defense, he is playing easily the best Ness in the world on a regular basis. I'd say take that with a grain of salt, but I wouldn't disregard that completely either.
 

Bryonato

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Right, but Oracle is known for is highly exaggerated character johns.

There is absolutely no way Ness is Lucas' worst MU next to Fox, I'm sorry.
 

Bryonato

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I feel like his is one MU where magnet usage is safe and important vs pkfreeze. I think dealing with/getting around freeze spam is very important, especially since he can confirm in into a dacus. Freeze is very telegraphed so I find it's easy enough to throw out a reactionary magnet.

Question: Can Lucas still DACUS us while we're stuck in absorb lag after a pkfreeze? Or would the magnet-absorb hitbox prevent that?
 

SoniCraft

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Yeah Lucas's upsmash isn't the fastest move out there, so I think as long as there's some distance between you and Lucas then absorbing a pkfreeze shouldn't be deadly. Unless it's a charged usmash, in which case you better bait that out with a safer move.
 
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It's actually more of the dash grab and fair hitboxes that I'd worry about, not so much DACUS.

I'd actually more recommend using Mag to float ABOVE the PK Freeze without absorbing it, then DJC Fair to punish.

If the Lucas knows the spacing, he can punish your magnet very consistently. Absorbing them is risky, in my opinion.
 

Red(SP)

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I legit have built muscle memory to drop > rising dair every time a Lucas tethers.
If you think nair is the way to go then go for it, but in my previous history dair is used more in my kit.
 

Bryonato

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Gmaster and I have been experimenting with ledgedrop -> mag for awhile. I think it's very effective vs tethers.
 

SoniCraft

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Do you have to time the magnet effectively?
 

HermitHelmet

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AH, Lucas. I do this MU very infrequently, as our locals organizer plays him as his secondary. All I find is that you need to play a little offstage against him, without going too deep. If you watch the fight of Colum W VS Massive (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JQ8EuUu5jM), when Colum gets offstage, he just mixes up his recovery and Massive goes in for a DAir once or twice at most.
 
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Ledgedrop Magnet against Lucas will get you boople'd hard, and then you'll die because Lucas bodies us offstage.

The best strategy vs. Lucas is to simply harass with PKT to do a little damage and let him have the ledge. If he gets complacent, you can get a dair or magnet on his tether reel in, but Lucas has too many options on recovery for Ness to effectively edgeguard without a fairly hard read.

If he doesn't have his jump though? Party time.
 

Bryonato

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I played soooo many games vs. Lucas this weekend at LTC2. Got a long session in vs. Neon.

I've found that with Lucas pkfreeze = free combos for Lucas. It's SO important that you don't get hit by pkfreeze. He can confirm it into a dacus, grab, dash attack, fair, etc.

I very frequently stayed in the air and tried to space/harass with pkf. If you get a grab do NOT let go. So important to maximize our punishes vs this character. If you sh -> mag away from him there's not much he can do in neutral. I use mag a lot in the MU to deal with freeze spam.
 
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Yeah, Neon housed in the same place as Zeroic, Wild, Jitty, and I, so I got quite a few games as well. He's more technical than any Lucas I've played, though I feel his neutral (at least in the Ness MU) is actually fairly poor. (<3 u Neon, u dabess. keep watchin dose pinkfresh videos you'll get there some day kappa)

Again, MultiMag on sheild isn't safe (nair him when you see the second one), watch out for DJC fair (which is safe on shield), SDI and tech for your life against dair (it's also not safe on shield though, so blocking works), and watch out for the forbidden taunt-trip technology.
 

phi1ny3

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Does Ness fair really outrange all his things as Oracle mentioned? I got bopped by Lucas' fair at max range when I tried to challenge it, might've been where the hitboxes where vertically.
 
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I feel like it's a matter of hitbox placement and physics, not actual range. Lucas' fair is lower in relation to his body, and I think it just sneaks under our Fair in a lot of situations
 

UmmBees

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I think it's good to remember that against Lucas you have a guaranteed d throw chain grab at really low percents and a DI dependent one afterwards (If they DI in front or behind you the regrab is easy. Also it's super important to be careful with PK Flash edgeguards against Lucas as he can magnet/heal them, I see a lot of videos with people in tournament abusing PK Flash and making it tough on them as it heals like 30%
 

SoniCraft

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So should we discuss a new MU now? We can come back to Lucas once 3.5 hits to discuss his recovery changes.
 
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