A Stock is Worth a Thousand Percentage
You can sit around and do damage in a match all day and you won't win the match. As simple as this sounds, it's something that is often overlooked. Killing your opponent, even if you take damage in the process or even if it is at great risk to you, is worth it in the right situations. There are a lot of things to keep in mind when going for the kill.
Stale Moves
It's important to realize how stale your moves are. If you've been Fsmashing all day to rack up percentage, don't be surprised when it won't kill anymore. While Uair can be a great move to juggle opponents, you may also consider saving it for kills off the top because it is much easier to hit with than many of Lucas's other moves. Stages with destructible terrain allow you to regenerate your kill moves by hitting them with Dtilt, Dair or PK Fire. A lot of what you consider when it comes to stale moves is going to depend on the matchup, the stage and even the opponent.
The Kill Zone
The easiest percentage to kill opponents is around 80-90% range for many matchups. This is because Dair (depending on how stale it is) combos directly into Fsmash on most characters around this percentage. Not only will this often be DI'd incorrectly for early kills, but it often leads into easy edgeguarding. It is also relatively easy to connect and is hard to mess up.
The second easiest percentage to kill opponents is around the 90-110% range. This is the range that Dair will usually (depending on how stale it is) send the opponent onto the ground to be Dtilt locked into Fsmash or Usmash. Unfortunately, it is much more likely that things will get messed up with this combo due to terrain, DI, teching etc. It is not a true combo.
A more difficult kill percent is anything above 120% or so, especially for heavy characters. As percentage gets higher, opponents will more often be knocked out of Dair so that you can't Dtilt lock them. This is especially noticable for some characters. From this point on, although the opponent's percentage may be higher meaning they will die from any strong hit, they are more difficult to hit with kill moves. Lucas's aerials do not have high knockback and his smash attacks are all slow. From this point on, you must kill your opponent from a read. You are relying on them making a significant mistake atleast until much higher percentages when you can get them with a Nair to Utilt combo.
Low percentage is obviously the most difficult range to kill an opponent. Lucas can gimp with PK Thunder with stage spikes or just by hitting them far enough to edgehog them. This is going to depend on a pretty big mistake on the opponent's part most likely.
Saving Your Bag of Tricks
Because it is difficult to land kill moves with Lucas, you may have developed several mindgames to get them to work. But remember that mindgames are only good the first few times you use them before the opponent catches on. Because of this, you should try to save them until they will actually kill your opponent. This might include PKT2 tricks, extended Dsmash and Usmashes, Pivot grabs into Dthrows and well just about anything else that lets you get kills.
What's the Point?
Being a stock ahead of your opponent is infinitely better than ANY percentage advantage. Not only does it psychologically help you, it puts you into a position where you can afford to play safe and make fewer mistakes.
You can sit around and do damage in a match all day and you won't win the match. As simple as this sounds, it's something that is often overlooked. Killing your opponent, even if you take damage in the process or even if it is at great risk to you, is worth it in the right situations. There are a lot of things to keep in mind when going for the kill.
Stale Moves
It's important to realize how stale your moves are. If you've been Fsmashing all day to rack up percentage, don't be surprised when it won't kill anymore. While Uair can be a great move to juggle opponents, you may also consider saving it for kills off the top because it is much easier to hit with than many of Lucas's other moves. Stages with destructible terrain allow you to regenerate your kill moves by hitting them with Dtilt, Dair or PK Fire. A lot of what you consider when it comes to stale moves is going to depend on the matchup, the stage and even the opponent.
The Kill Zone
The easiest percentage to kill opponents is around 80-90% range for many matchups. This is because Dair (depending on how stale it is) combos directly into Fsmash on most characters around this percentage. Not only will this often be DI'd incorrectly for early kills, but it often leads into easy edgeguarding. It is also relatively easy to connect and is hard to mess up.
The second easiest percentage to kill opponents is around the 90-110% range. This is the range that Dair will usually (depending on how stale it is) send the opponent onto the ground to be Dtilt locked into Fsmash or Usmash. Unfortunately, it is much more likely that things will get messed up with this combo due to terrain, DI, teching etc. It is not a true combo.
A more difficult kill percent is anything above 120% or so, especially for heavy characters. As percentage gets higher, opponents will more often be knocked out of Dair so that you can't Dtilt lock them. This is especially noticable for some characters. From this point on, although the opponent's percentage may be higher meaning they will die from any strong hit, they are more difficult to hit with kill moves. Lucas's aerials do not have high knockback and his smash attacks are all slow. From this point on, you must kill your opponent from a read. You are relying on them making a significant mistake atleast until much higher percentages when you can get them with a Nair to Utilt combo.
Low percentage is obviously the most difficult range to kill an opponent. Lucas can gimp with PK Thunder with stage spikes or just by hitting them far enough to edgehog them. This is going to depend on a pretty big mistake on the opponent's part most likely.
Saving Your Bag of Tricks
Because it is difficult to land kill moves with Lucas, you may have developed several mindgames to get them to work. But remember that mindgames are only good the first few times you use them before the opponent catches on. Because of this, you should try to save them until they will actually kill your opponent. This might include PKT2 tricks, extended Dsmash and Usmashes, Pivot grabs into Dthrows and well just about anything else that lets you get kills.
What's the Point?
Being a stock ahead of your opponent is infinitely better than ANY percentage advantage. Not only does it psychologically help you, it puts you into a position where you can afford to play safe and make fewer mistakes.
