Oh goodness, we're talking about Luigi again... LOL here goes nothing I guess.
Wave-Drop
I learned "wave-dropping" (the act of dropping through a platform while wave-dashing to retain momentum) from Otek in 3.5 after watching some of his sets and being introduced to him in The Luigi Skype Group. Instantly saw the massive amounts of potential this brought to Luigi's neutral game and his mix-ups, so I began grinding it. I have found that once opponents figure out what it is, they will position themselves to properly punish it. With that being said, I will throw it around all day if my opponent can't learn to deal with it, but it can be used for several options... This includes throwing really fast aerials at them (sweet spot nair at high percents, weak nair into punish move, bair pokes, etc). You can also b-reversal fireball to mix-up your momentum as an approach or bait. Sometimes I will tournament-winner from ledge --> wave-land --> wave-drop with b-reversal fireball if my opponent is under the platform. It usually catches people off-guard and I will get a dsmash or jab confirm into something. You can also simply do nothing during a wave-drop, allowing for you to potentially wave-land out of it on the ground to further mix-up your opponent (similar to an empty jump approach).
Wave-Scuttle
I've been utilizing "wave-scuttle" (the act of wave-dashing to the right and using Luigi's crawl to immediately shift his momentum the opposite direction) since 3.02 and have been trying to convince Luigi's to use it effectively (rather than a taunt) for so long. You will typically see me utilize it when they are forced to roll or use their get-up attack... I will wave-dash in to bait them to roll a certain direction, then wave-scuttle up-smash to hit them before they can react. I will also do this from perfect ledge-dash... if they're sitting by the ledge waiting to hit me with a move, I will ledge-dash and immediately wave-scuttle up-smash. This option is completely safe on shield, fast, and you have invulnerability on the startup of up-smash. So I mainly will use wave-scuttle up-smash for reading tech rolls and when I am retreating to the right of the stage as a quick counter move. You can also do other things out of wave-scuttle, but because up-smash starts from behind him at a ridiculous angle, I enjoy using that the most and have had the most success with it. (Essentially wave-scuttle eliminates the lag of using another wave-dash and you can use any move pretty much immediately after the scuttle begins).
Perfect Ledge-Dash
At We Tech Those (and several other tournaments prior that I had traveled to), players would ask me why I give up stage position by retreating to ledge in many situations... Honestly, it's because I find that Luigi still retains incredible stage position by being on ledge because of his perfect ledge-dash (the act of wave-landing from the ledge in which you utilize all of his invulnerability frames). I will get the perfect ledge-dash almost every time (thanks to hours of grinding and Netflix to pass the time). You will almost NEVER see me regular get-up or roll onto stage. Occasionally I will get-up attack, but I don't even really do that either. I think all Luigi needs are tournament-winner to platform wave-land (or aerial), jumping up with aerial or fireball (possibly into wave-land), tournament-winner into immediate wave-land down (faster regular get-up), and perfect ledge-dash options. Honestly Luigi's ledge-dash is incredibly safe, which is why I am always on ledge. I can use that immense invulnerability to secure free grabs, combo starters or simply as a way to keep myself safe while they have invulnerability from a fresh stock. If my opponent is using items (Junebug would throw bananas at me while I was on ledge), it would allow for easy item control as well. I actually feel more in danger when I am sitting in the middle of the stage tbh. If you are a Luigi and haven't learned the perfect ledge-dash, I highly encourage/recommend you to start grinding it now because it is one of the most useful things in his toolkit imo.
If you want to play a tricky bait and punish Luigi, then I think that you should look into utilizing the things I listed above. This isn't everything you need to know about the character, but rather just some of the things I wanted to touch on based on the discussion in here. I've seen Luigi players place well even without all of this fancy stuff. Honestly, its super fun to move around this way, which is why I play the character. It just so happens to be really difficult to deal with and provide a several more options to his neutral game.
As for his tier placement... I used to think he was top 15, but he might be right outside of that. Looking forward to seeing how well I perform at Shots Fired 2 to get some more match-up experience. If anyone wants to sit down for a bit and play some games at that event, I'd be more than willing to talk about Luigi and help you understand how to counter a lot of things I never see players punish. Character is a gawd, don't get me wrong, but people need to learn how to edge-guard this character already
This concludes today's session of Luigi 101: Wave-Drops, Wave-Scuttles, & Perfect Ledge-Dashing. Remember to do your homework and be prepared for a big pop quiz in the upcoming weeks.
TL;DR: Wave-dropping has multiple mix-ups and shouldn't just be thrown around willy nilly. Wave-scuttle is the new meta and will quickly make you rethink your roll and approach options. Perfect ledge-dash is bae and makes Luigi a gawd. Play Luigi however you want tho.
