QD: THE MK MATCHUP
Direct Counters:
· Mk ftilt + mixups
o if the mk likes to use all three hits we can shield + grab or punish how we want. Sometimes we can DI away and punish with fsmash which has more range
o If mk likes to mix up we need to understand what they are trying to punish. Ftilt + dsmash is common because mks expect us to roll behind. We can beat this by approaching with fair + dair but this is risky. We can also delay our roll to avoid dsmash which is very rewarding but risky. We can also try to space fsmash.
o Ftilt + dash grab – this is a common mix up mks use when they condition us to shield. If we expect this we can react by spot dodging or some other evasive option. Ideally we can also jab mks’ approach.
o Ftilt + fair wall – mks use this to wall us out. We can compete with this by trying to space our fairs between mk’s fairs depending on how they are spaced. We can also AS the landing of the fair.
· Dair camping + mixups
o When lucario gets his high percent aura boost mks will tend to avoid being in the same vertical plane as us if we are grounded. If they dair on shield we can punish hard with our fair combos. When they realize this the mk will frequently dair a few times and then nado in anticipation of our attempt to fair approach. If we are fast enough we can still beat nado’s start up because its priority is not high at that moment. Alternatively we can bait the nado with a wave bounce AS. The only problem with the wave bounce AS is that if we do not manage to catch the mk in this trap we are putting ourselves in a worse position (retreating away from the mk).
· Tornado
o Mks have a lot of mind games with tornado. They can cancel it with almost no lag if they end it at the correct altitude. They can pressure shield and then retreat usually safely. They can also fake the retreat to get us to lower our shield and then catch us with the nado again. If we jump, our horizontal speed is slower than mks maximum tornado speed. It is extremely hard to air dodge through tornado because of lucario’s floatyness. If lucario’s shield is low the mk tornado is guaranteed to shield poke lucario (our shield is subpar anyway). Finally, if we are landing, mk can tornado our landing to cover most of our options.
o Dteam if the tornado is obvious and reactable.
o Bair beats nado if we hit the top of it.
o Dair can beat nado – but I’m not sure if it has to do with aura boost or just proper spacing.
o Up air can beat nado if it’s a fast fall up air on the top of nado.
o Start up nado frames are susceptible to all sorts of interruption. Pretty much any of our moves beat it if we catch it early enough.
o AS semi-fully charged beats nado if lined up in the same vertical plane.
o We can pivot grab nado if spaced perfectly.
o Roll + punish
o Shield + spot dodge + punish – if the tornado does not retreat.
o Good mks will try to land behind lucario if they are forced to land close to lucario. Spot dodge + turn around grab or spot dodge + up tilt (covers both sides of lucario) are good options in this scenario.
· Mk glide approaches + mix ups
o Mk has a ton of mixups if we allow him to glide freely. The glide attack can be spaced unpunishably because mk can follow up with an instant grab tilt or dsmash (or sometimes nado).
o The glide itself can be canceled laglessly into the ground and turned into a dash grab when we expect the glide attack.
o The glide can also be used as a bait of our aerial approach. Mk can anticipate our approach and cancel the glide into nado or some other punishing move.
o In general most of our aerials clash with glide attack. That lets us punish a reckless glide with our fair + dair approach. If we don’t have time to set this up we can try to dair since our dair has two hits which means that the first hit clashes with glide attack and the second should connect.
o By moving unpredictably we can cause the mk to misspace the glide attack which lets us shield grab mks landing.
o We can fake an aerial approach to bait a nado and punish with wave bounce AS.
Gameplan:
Mks generally try to play without risk. This means that they don’t try to go for reads, but rather rely on safe pressure (tornado, spaced aerials, spaced tilts, and so on), covering options by putting the opponent in a bad position and punishing when characters have to take risks in order to compete with mk’s safe pressure or to get out of a bad position. Vs lucario, mk can punish non-fsmash or AS ground moves by outranging/outprioritizing us with his own tilts. So when we try to compete with these tilts with fsmash/AS we allow ourselves to be easily read and punished by power shield + grab or whatever follow up the mk wants. If mk waits for us to approach him in the air he can easily catch us with tornado or his superior aerial moves (his fair beats our fair and so on).
Therefore we need to realize what the mk is baiting (roll? Fsmash? Aerial approach?) and use that as a mind game that we can use to our advantage. In general our greatest source of mind games comes from our ASC. Charging ASC lets us channel the mk in predictable ways. If the mk is on the ground they are likely to shield hoping to power shield and punish. We should expect this and delay our aura sphere. This lets us make the mk shield become low if they continue to shield (giving our aerial approaches a high probability of shield poking). If they jump OOS we can read this and intercept them with jump AS. We can also behave as though we are going to AS and then quickly grab the mk. A good setup is sh retreating fair + ASC + AD + dash grab.
Mk Edge guards:
Mks are generally able to pressure us with fairs, uairs safely. Our dairs can compete with his uairs but this can be risky as our dairs can be baited and punished with mk’s shuttle loop sending us in a horizontal trajectory. Air dodging predictably will cause us to be punished with nair, dair, etcet. It is a good idea to accept fairs and uairs rather than try to air dodge in a trajectory where mk can frame trap us. Our double jump is extremely precious. Jump + air dodge gives a trajectory that cannot be inherently frame trapped but can be read. We cannot do this predictably either because losing our double jump puts us in a horrid position.
We need to recover calmly and unpredictably. To accomplish this we need to use wave bounces and dairs to manipulate our trajectory to cause the mk to misspace his frame traps. If the mk overcommits we can try to challenge him with our aerials. Bair is our best aerial for this purpose because it trades with mk’s aerials. Dair, AS, and nair can all be very rewarding for us as they should have enough knockback to let us recover safely.
If we are forced to UpB we need to be aware of all our options. Obviously we can be ledge hogged. Therefore if we up B we need to have at least 2 options to have any chance of recovery. On some stages we can land on the stage or aim for the ledge. If we up B from below the vertical plain of the stage, we can curve our trajectory in such a way as to cover both options meaning if we are ledge hogged we can still curve to the stage but if we are expected to do so we will grab the ledge before our cling occurs. This cannot be done from a vertical plain that is the same as the ledge or above it. Obviously some stages let us wall cling or land on a platform.
Top mks will try to intercept our up B with nair or reverse up B. The reverse up B (anti loop) is particularly harmful to us as it sends us in a terrible trajectory. Therefore if we know that the mk is in position to do this we may need to consider gambling and aiming our up B higher to get hit by the weak part of the shuttle loop that will enable us to attempt another recovery from a better position.
Ledge pressure
Our Dair lets us punish mk’s attempts to pressure us with uair. We can also double team in this position as it is not as punishable as dting on the ground and most mks cannot restrain themselves from pressuring an opponent who is on a platform. We can pressure mk with fair to nair reasonably safely. Mk’s best defense is up B OOS.
Last thing: Our uair can trade with mk’s up B if spaced correctly. This can be really useful because mk will die very early to lucario’s uair whereas lucario should survive up B in most cases. Also our dtilt can beat mk's up B to the ledge if we are edge guarding him.
This isn't super well organized yet but I thought I'd post it to get things started! I'd like to have vid clips showing applications of stuff we mention but I don't have time to do that right now.
