Lucas Matchups

[OldHickory]

One of these is bound to pop up sooner or later, so I'll make it sooner.

I feel the general removal of Lucas' grab game, and the strengthening of basically everything else, will have a pretty decent effect on how he fights old foes.
However, the real question comes for how he'll fight newcomers and Brawl returners.

I'll open things with Snake.
First off, the ability to eat explosives with PSI Magnet is incredibly useful in this matchup, letting you choose to either return grenades or absorb them, and get really cheeky with baiting C4 detonations. This forces Snake to approach himself, into a wall of PK Fire and f-airs.
Off stage, Snake's recovery is pretty exploitable, given how it's mostly linear. Allows for Lucas to kill with a b-air or PK Freeze.

 

[Reservings]

I feel like Lucas does extremely well against K Rool. He can juggle him well and can deal with the crown by either reflecting it or clanking with z-air, but edge-guarding is what makes the MU. Harassing with PK Thunder is insanely good and if you push him far enough he'll be forced to recover above the ledge which is a free PK Freeze kill. Lucas's linear neutral can hurt against K Rool's armor though, especially f-tilt.

 

[OldHickory]

I feel like Lucas does extremely well against K Rool. He can juggle him well and can deal with the crown by either reflecting it or clanking with z-air, but edge-guarding is what makes the MU. Harassing with PK Thunder is insanely good and if you push him far enough he'll be forced to recover above the ledge which is a free PK Freeze kill. Lucas's linear neutral can hurt against K Rool's armor though, especially f-tilt.

Oh man, I'm feeling that.
Had to go try the matchup, since I'd previously been using Incineroar to deal with K Rool, through sheer damage.
It's so much easier to PK Fire/Thunder/Freeze him to death than wrassel that gator.
Although, that said, there is a pretty serious amount of hype to be found in rocking someone with Incineroar.

 

[Schmidty]

I feel like Lucas does extremely well against K Rool. He can juggle him well and can deal with the crown by either reflecting it or clanking with z-air, but edge-guarding is what makes the MU. Harassing with PK Thunder is insanely good and if you push him far enough he'll be forced to recover above the ledge which is a free PK Freeze kill. Lucas's linear neutral can hurt against K Rool's armor though, especially f-tilt.

I feel like the hardest part about the K. Rool MU is when he is guarding you off stage. I'm trying to test dropping from ledge into PK freeze and then getting back on stage. In theory it should put K. Rool in enough pressure to make him back off and give you breathing room and reset neutral.

 

[EdreesesPieces]

I feel like Lucas does extremely well against K Rool. He can juggle him well and can deal with the crown by either reflecting it or clanking with z-air, but edge-guarding is what makes the MU. Harassing with PK Thunder is insanely good and if you push him far enough he'll be forced to recover above the ledge which is a free PK Freeze kill. Lucas's linear neutral can hurt against K Rool's armor though, especially f-tilt.

Can you elaborate what ftilt does to his armor?

 

[Reservings]

I feel like the hardest part about the K. Rool MU is when he is guarding you off stage. I'm trying to test dropping from ledge into PK freeze and then getting back on stage. In theory it should put K. Rool in enough pressure to make him back off and give you breathing room and reset neutral.

True. I haven't met a K Rool who edge-guarded/trapped well, but I can see d-air being dangerous when recovering low and n-air hitting us out of our tether. His ledge trapping can also go either way due to how slow but strong he is.

Can you elaborate what ftilt does to his armor?

My b, should've worded it better. I meant how K Rool's f-tilt armor can throw us off.

 

[Schmidty]

True. I haven't met a K Rool who edge-guarded/trapped well, but I can see d-air being dangerous when recovering low and n-air hitting us out of our tether. His ledge trapping can also go either way due to how slow but strong he is.

One of my friends is playing a decent K Rool and is doing really well with the MU. PK freeze will work sometimes to throw them off but you have to use your double jump away from the stage so you don't get sucked in by the neutral B. After that you can decide on freeze or fire.

Also if he doesn't cover with neutral b down smash will probably be the next option. It covers all get ups except for jump but then you still have to land against him or run to the other side of stage.

 

[OldHickory]

As a proof of concept for covering your recovery with PK Freeze, I was messing around with the Inklings, and they can do that with ink mines.

 

[Cheryl~]

Agreeing with Reservings about the K. Rool matchup, Lucas takes crazy advantage of K. Rool’s size with Up-Air juggles (I can usually land 3-4 U-Airs against K. Rool) and just racks up damage very easily, and if the K Rool is forced offstage his recovery gets easily harassed by PK Thunder or PK Freeze. Only problem I’ve had is the armor as mentioned before, it can be scary getting up close to K. Rool when he can just beat your attack with stuff like F-Tilt. Overall though, I’d say Lucas has the clear advantage against K. Rool with how easy it is to combo and juggle him, as well as K. Rool’s susceptibility to Lucas’ edgeguarding game.

 

[Schmidty]

I think that the Link MU is kind of hard for Lucas. In my opinion it's about a 45-55 for Lucas (maybe 40-60). Link has so much harass with boomerang arrows and the time bomb now. Fortunately I am able to play against Raid | RMU Rin from Chicago consistently. He is helping me learn the MU but it is definitely a struggle. He hits very hard and makes it difficult to approach. And when you try to camp away he can just out spam projectiles. Best thing to do is get his bomb away from him. It is a little bit easier to guard him off stage now that Link doesn't have a grapple so PK thunder is a great coverage option in my opinion. As for neutral I think grabbing is gonna be the best way to start a combo. Once I get more practice with him I can try to post more about it, but that probably wont be until after the holidays are over.

 

[OldHickory]

In addition to being able to put out nonsense faster than Lucas, the kid's traditionally had problems with swordsmen.
While that definitely pertains more to Marth, Link still has respectable reach on ariels.
If nothing else though, losing the clawshot made Link's recovery way more exploitable.

Won't lie, I've just opted for Isabelle against Links. Steal the bomb once and they'll be hesitant on it the rest of the match.

 

[Cheryl~]

Yeah, I’ve fought against a few Links on Elite Smash and that matchup is just frustrating for Lucas. Link just outcamps with all of his projectiles and can outrange us with his gigantic sword. Luckily as you’ve all pointed out, his recovery is very exploitable now with the loss of his tether, so it’s not all bad. Still not a matchup I like, though.

I’ve also fought a few Lucinas (no Marth at all weirdly) and I’d say that matchup is about even. You can space her out with PK Fire and once Lucina is offstage she’s pretty easy to edgeguard. However, Lucina has the sword and can harass Lucas offstage as well with Counter and her aerials. Same goes for Chrom honestly, although he’s a bit harder to work around with just how fast he is.

 

[EdreesesPieces]

One of my friends is playing a decent K Rool and is doing really well with the MU. PK freeze will work sometimes to throw them off but you have to use your double jump away from the stage so you don't get sucked in by the neutral B. After that you can decide on freeze or fire.

Also if he doesn't cover with neutral b down smash will probably be the next option. It covers all get ups except for jump but then you still have to land against him or run to the other side of stage.

If k rool uses neutral b (I assume nuetral b is the vacuum move?) just hold the ledge until it runs out and time your return so you can punish the cooldown.

Yeah, I’ve fought against a few Links on Elite Smash and that matchup is just frustrating for Lucas. Link just outcamps with all of his projectiles and can outrange us with his gigantic sword. Luckily as you’ve all pointed out, his recovery is very exploitable now with the loss of his tether, so it’s not all bad. Still not a matchup I like, though.

I’ve also fought a few Lucinas (no Marth at all weirdly) and I’d say that matchup is about even. You can space her out with PK Fire and once Lucina is offstage she’s pretty easy to edgeguard. However, Lucina has the sword and can harass Lucas offstage as well with Counter and her aerials. Same goes for Chrom honestly, although he’s a bit harder to work around with just how fast he is.

I find that Bair is key against link and all campers. I was struggling against a link in elite smash for like 15 games in a row but then I started beating him every game. The hitbox stays out so long you don't need to time it and you can eat up projectiles as you approach and actually punish them sometimes too.