How to approach well with Lucas?

[Deleted member]

So yeah, title's kinda self-explanatory but I'll go on anyway. First time here posting in the Lucas board, so I'd like to say hello. In general I'm asking this because despite him being one of my mains in Brawl and me getting really good results with him around the time he came out as DLC, I've kinda lost my Lucas game over the past couple months and keep flubbing over matches. It really bums me out considering I love the character and the way he plays, and I want to take him further. From what I can tell, it's me not knowing how to properly approach with him so I can take control. So, any other Lucas players here have advice for such?

 

[Kodystri]

You don't really approach with Lucas, You poke and use Lucas's strong punish game.

 

[SFR]

Pk fire zair bair

 

[JesterJaded]

From what I've seen of a few tournament matches, Nair and Dair seem to be decent for catching your opponents out of shield with their multi-hit lasting hitboxes, but only after you've zoned a good deal and learned their habits. Nair will lead into some strings for a decent chunk of damage, and the trip from Dair is an extended punish opportunity if you space it well.

But since we have limited options against shields and few safe poking methods, approaching is more often a mix-up rather than a good option.

 

[McDeathstrider]

I have always approached with Nair on more physical characters like CF and Bowser. If it's a character like Link or Samus, who sometimes relies a ton on projectiles, I try to shield when they let a projectile fly.

 

[PKPro]

You don't approach, you pressure to get a form of reaction from an opponent and go from there. He cant approach effectively like most characters. He has moves that are to unsafe on shield and his grab is slow so use it to catch people by surprise.you can ZAir them and empty short hops them or pk fire. Once you got them to react to shield go for the grab. This is a form of conditioning your opponent. Lucas relies on Mix-ups to get the advantage. The more unpredictable the more your rewarded. Change your patterns here and there.

 

[ShiroSSB]

Just do what I do and spam PK fire. I normally destroy people with Lucas' bair. Seriously that thing has so much potential.

 

[JosePollo]

One thing a lot of people seem to forget with Lucas is that he can cancel his SH air dodge landing lag by buffering a back air before he hits the ground. SH air dodge is my main approach option against projectile-heavy characters like Link and Villager since I don't have to rely on zair's ridiculously small hitbox to cancel whatever it is they throw out. His SH air dodge is actionable 1 or 2 frames before he makes contact with the ground. Bair auto-cancels frames 1-2.

 

[McDeathstrider]

One thing a lot of people seem to forget with Lucas is that he can cancel his SH air dodge landing lag by buffering a back air before he hits the ground. SH air dodge is my main approach option against projectile-heavy characters like Link and Villager since I don't have to rely on zair's ridiculously small hitbox to cancel whatever it is they throw out. His SH air dodge is actionable 1 or 2 frames before he makes contact with the ground. Bair auto-cancels frames 1-2.

Zair can cancel out your airdodge, so you can use that before you land instead of using a Bair, and Zair's ending lag is pretty short.

 

[JosePollo]

Zair can cancel out your airdodge, so you can use that before you land instead of using a Bair, and Zair's ending lag is pretty short.

It doesn't cancel the landing lag, though. If you zair off of an air dodge you'll get the full 22 frames of landing lag as opposed to the 7 or 8 frames it normally has (since zair doesn't actually auto-cancel).

 

[Lunacywastaken]

Lucas emphasises on a strong zoning and mix-up game; you should play more defensive, but mixing it up with offensive play is extremely effective. Defensively, you should use PK Fire and z-air to poke at your opponent. On the other end of the spectrum, full-hop d-air, short-hop n-air and FF short-hop f-air can work extremely well to confuse your opponent. Grabbing your opponent straight off in the neutral is dangerous and risky, so grabbing should be reserved for a read or a punish.