Ike is very noob friendly because of his rediculously high priority A-Combo. If you wanna mix it up a bit and become a more advanced Ike player, try flipping around and using his back air or approaching with his neutral air. Jab-Canceling (Stopping the jab and throwing in a shield throw or something) also helps mindgame people. His forward air is GREAT if you can get the timing down, I kind of equate it to Ganon's from Melee. I was a Ganon main in Melee and I really don't like him in Brawl. I main Ike in brawl because for some weird inexplicable reason, he reminds me of a slower and more powerful Melee Ganon with better range. Anyway, tangent aside...
Using Aether to keep people from edge guarding you is self explanatory and it's always a good idea to throw in an Eruption on your descent from getting knocked back if you know your opponent won't expect it, or will try to attack you and let you use your Super Armor to your own advantage. I often use Ike's forward throw mid-combo to add some more hits and throw off my opponents.
Beware the dodge>punish ***** when you try to approach. Try it a few times, then play more defensively and punish them instead. Ike is pretty easy to dodge, then punish, save his jabs. They're absolutely silly good.
More than anything, though, just play the character. Get used to his nuance and make up your own combos and find strategies that work. Go to tournaments and get experience there; it's far and away the best method of learning to play Brawl like a pro.
Good luck with your Ike!
Good advice. Ike's FAir is an amazing spacing tool; it's range, combined with Ike's amazing jab, allows you to shut down both ground and aerial approaches just by short-hopping FAir backwards. If you hit with the tip, your opponent will have a difficult time getting in without eating a jab combo. As rtmcs1017 said, stopping the jab combo and mixing in a grab is great; other things you can do is mix in a DSmash for people when they try and SDI the third hit. Watch out if you notice them get closer to Ike; at that distance they are too close for the third strike to hit or a standing grab; you'll want to run backwards and then continue punishing them, if possible.
Learn how to land Ike's UAir; it's easily his best killing aerial (BAir doesn't count since you'll be using it so much, thus decreasing it's killing potential). In fact, it kills opponents about the same % as USmash when they're grounded; when they're up higher, it kills much much earlier. It's so powerful that when your opponent has 100% or so, you can just drop down on them with an UAir while they're recovery and kill them off the top when they're level with the stage. Note that his UAir's hitbox starts behind Ike, shifts to the front and becomes visible, then goes to his back again.
Learn how to get gimp edgeguards with Ike. With his large FAir, powerful BAir, and great spike, your opponent is good as dead if he's coming from below the stage and you're on the edge. Ike can edgehop BAir or DAir to either knock them off the side or spike them, or even drop down and use a reverse Aether so that you grab the edge with your back and Aether spike them. The good thing about using a reverse Aether is that it allows you to catch opponents coming from above the edge as well (Pit and ROB). If you're on the stage, you can short-hop a FAir, double jump FAir, and still up+B for the edge; Ike has a surprisingly good edge game. In fact, you can full jump off the stage, double jump FAir, and grab the edge without using Aether; this can gimp people who move backwards to avoid the FAir and then try to grab the edge only to get edgehogged. Eruption is also a good edgeguard against certain characters such as Captain Falcon, Ganondorf, Wolf, or even other Ikes coming to the stage with a Quick Draw.
). I invite any person to add little hints and ways to fight as Ike here in this post so someone won't have to search 9 different threads to find what they want. 
, anyone have good tips on recovery. (no obvious ones please) Also what's a hyphen smash?
