With custom moves, I've been warming up to Lucy a little more and I've been thinking they might make her at least decent, I think she and Marth benefit quite a lot from customs and they help patch up a few of their weaknesses. Not on the level of
,
,
, or
's customs; but I feel they're up there.
Dashing Assault gives her a cool tech chase option, long range punish, and slightly improves her otherwise subpar recovery. A lot of people like this move, but I personally would keep Shield Breaker for most of the time because of reduced shield damage. Lucina's moves are not safe when blocked and she doesn't get much from a grab, so without it she'll have a harder time beating players who like to sit in shield a lot. Dashing Assault also has like 20 frames of endlag, so its not too great an approach option either. Not seeing how Storm Thrust would benefit her in anyway unless she's fighting Little Mac maybe, wouldn't use it. Lucina's edgeguarding is already good, and situations where you could use this usually has a better option.
Both SideB customs are worthless, would never give up default.
The UpBs are where its at, and all 3 have their merits. Dolphin Jump's better vertical height allows her to go deeper for edgeguards without getting herself killed and makes her already strong edgeguarding even stronger so she has a bit of an easier time killing. It also improves her recovery a little bit and its pretty bad without Dolphin Jump, although its lack of hitbox prevents it from being a great one and she can't angle it, so even if you don't get killed you may still take damage. You lose a good out of shield option, but that's okay, she can still Usmash out of shield instead. The real kicker here is Crescent Slash, which I feel solves 2 of her main weaknesses at once: Lack of reliable killing moves and inability to threaten shields. With Fthrow > CS you get another combo (which is also something she kinda lacks), and a kill combo at that. With this move you get another way to threaten shields other than Shield Breaker and its almost a guaranteed kill combo on most characters at around 55% by the ledge so you get both another killing instrument and some actual mileage out of her throws, which not too many characters get. It also combos off a Fair and can deal good damage to those standing on platforms. I think this alone is a buff huge enough to make her at least one tier and helps her as a character by a good amount. I would not call it a straight upgrade to Dolphin Slash though, you can no longer go as deep for edgeguards, its not as good OoS, and it arguably makes your recovery even worse than before. Nevertheless, I feel Crescent Slash does more good than harm overall and gives Lucina more things to work with.
Iai Counter is in my opinion, among the best counters in the game. The damage is lessened and it doesn't have as many active frames, but sending opponents straight behind you is a great benefit that sets up an edgeguard (if it doesn't already KO them outright) and can sometimes put you at an advantage if you're the one being edgeguarded. It also pushes Lucy a bit forward so its helps bypasses projectiles a bit too. No need for Easy Counter though, wouldn't go for it.
In a default atmosphere, I feel Lucina is sadly a bottom 15 character that is pretty difficult to use with a lot of disadvantaged matchups, and I don't have as much faith in her as I want to. With customs I can see her becoming more of a threat as the meta goes on and would be at
least mid tier with them imo, possibly even on the upper median side of the cast. I feel this character needs customs so badly and probably can't live without them, but with them I believe in her. She still doesn't have a legit advantage over her great Hero-King Grandfather though
.
