A Couple Lucas Questions

[Pazukunous]

So I've been trying to get all the technical skill along with follows ups with certain situations because Lucas seems like a cool as hell character but I'm always afraid to pull it out seriously online because my approaches and pressure are kinda eh..

Neutral
What I've been doing (like 80% of the time) is pretty much SH to delayed PKF so I can get it low enough to hit my opponent and I always come in with a fair when in hitstun, then to a jump magnet -> WD back and to some other stuff like nairs, more fairs, dairs, more MagWD and yeah. What I'm saying is that most of my openings are like this which is kinda repetitive despite the fact that I can follow up differently.

the other 20% percent of the time I just do some DD/WD to catch em for a nair to other follow ups or just approach simply with a Mag

So if you can, what are is your neutral game (and I can do pretty much all the tech required for Lucas so go all out of what you do)

Shield Pressure
This is something I can never get consistently with. Recently I found out I can do a SH Mag to a small JC nair and repeat. But I've seen some old, pre3.6 Lucas and saw Neon doing crazy **** with Mag to Mag to Aerial. But I don't know much back then, but it seems like you could jump out of mag much quicker than in 3.6

Also, I rarely grab with lucas unless my opponent is like 150% and just do a quick upthrow. But, around what percent should I start going for upthrows and when my opponent is like 30% to 90%, which throw is the best to convert to and with what?

DJC Aerials
I can't say I've mastered djc aerials because here and there I might go into shield accidentally after L-Canceling the djc aerial (and btw the way I'm doing it is X-> Analog Up-> Cstick-> L Button)

My main question, however, is when to use a djc aerial. The only advantage I see is that its good for comboing continous djc fairs or uairs onto spacies on something (or if I'm doing quick shield pressuring). Other than that I only use a djc aerial if I feel like looking cool or something haha because repeatedly SH fairing seems effective and practical enough

 

[Jamwa]

"What I've been doing (like 80% of the time) is pretty much SH to delayed PKF"
just djc pkf. add a wavebounce in too if you wanna

"what is your neutral game"
i use the moves that are most likely to hit my opponent based on how i've conditioned them and what their habits are so there's no good answer to this questions because neutral game is dependent on the opponent.

"throws"
look up uthrow kill % thread. it should be somewhere on this forum, posted by 8adge. you can use search functions to find his posts i think, or just go on his profile and go thru post history. or maybe someone else generous enough with their time can look it up for you.

basically you should always use dthrow or uthrow for follow ups (use uthrow against fox/falco/wolf/fastfallers)
fthrow and bthrow are good for throwing people offstage, and can be used as DI mixups (correct DI for dthrow is the incorrect DI for bthrow/correct DI for uthrow is incorrect DI for fthrow, so try mixing those up to confuse your opponent)

"djc"
just watch how better players use DJC and slowly integrate it into your gameplay. you'll learn how to control lucas the more you play, the more you watch, and the more you think about movement.
djc is underused and underdeveloped though, so dont assume that the way that top players use DJC is the best way. try experiment with it on your own, change the timings of when you cancel your double jump, try double jump cancelling an nair after a fullhop and then fast falling down.

 

[D e l t a]

Neutral game and kill throws are included in my guide stickied at the top of the Lucas forums. I have the sections in an easy to find list under the table of contents. In about 2-3 weeks when I'm back home from college, I'll be updating the neutral game section / the entire guide to make it easier to understand. The upthrow kill % table is fully complete and the values are accurate within a few %.

Changes to hitlag between 3.0 magnet to 3.5/3.6 have been increased. This means the move can be SDI'd easier due to the extra time before the opponent gets launched, and it's a few extra frames before Lucas can act, resulting in 1. a slower move & 2. a less safe move due to the 5 added frames. 3.0 magnet was +7 on shield, 3.5/3.6 is +4.

In neutral you want to SH aerials almost always since DJC aerials don't carry momentum into them. DJC aerials are for shield pressure and magnet -> aerial. You'll find greater success with using tap jump due to the 4 frame jump buffer. If you input tap jump, for the next 4 frames the game will register a jump input. This means that you can input jump up to 4 frames before you could normally jump out of magnet and the game will automatically jump out of magnet when it gets to that point, allowing for frame perfect execution. **Be careful not to get caught up with SH Fairs similar to low to mid-level Fox players constantly spamming SH Nair in neutral. It's a bad habit and easily punished due to only having 5 frames of active hitboxes combined with a short range (Fair buffs when?).

Magnet -> aerial is doable with normal jump and great to get rising aerials as tap jump inputs a 1 frame jump better suited for DJC aerials. Aerial magnet -> Uair is your best bet when comboing as the rising hitbox above Lucas' head is a perfect followup from magnet. SH magnet -> Fair is best for shield pressure and can best lead into jab, Dtilt or grounded magnet -> aerial / another magnet.

Grab stuff: PKF, sourspot Fair and the first few frames of Nair at low % lead into grab. Most times you won't get raw grabs in neutral and shield grabbing is a terrible option 98% of the time. You'll basically only get a grab if your opponent shields a lot or you get a combo that leads into grab. I go for grabs whenever I see a safe opportunity. Dthrow at low % leads into so many things and the more % on an opponent, the less opportunities they will have to crouch cancel my attacks. Also, many people like to shield at high %, which I take advantage of since Lucas' Dthrow is amazing at any %.

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If you have any other questions- such as something I didn't answer above or in my guide, don't hesitate to ask or message me directly.