"Watch the power!" Lucario Match up thread! possible AT thread as well?

[MythTrainerInfinity]

Shield SDI is done by lightly tilting the control stick while getting hit in shield, right?
I keep rolling instead; I honestly wasn't sure it was in Sm4sh.

Shield Smash DI is performed while in shieldstun by Smashing in a direction. Easier with a C-Stick. Regular shield DI is just tilting the stick in a direction very carefully.

I've played a great many games vs. my roommate/good friend/eternal smash rival, and have some observations I'd like to bring forward.

I've found two matchups that are particularly dangerous for Lucario:

1: Cpt. Falcon

In my experience so far, this has been an absolutely nerve-wracking matchup for me to go against with Lucario. Cpt. Falcon has excellent mobility and maneuverability, allowing him to rush-down, pressure, bait-and-switch punish. The mobility allows him to easily circumvent Lucario's zoning game, he also has more than enough speed and reach in his kit to easily punish Lucario's missed reads. On top of that, Cpt. Falcon has more than enough raw power in his KOing moves to knock Lucario out before ludicrous-aura starts to kick in. The slight heavyweight class for Falcon doesn't help Lucario's case much either.

I've done my best to play a very conservative reactionary game against my roommate's Falcon; anticipating his running grabs by catching him in reverse-ASC, getting the reads. It's still a very, very dangerous game of cat/mouse, and Lucario is the poor hapless mouse.

2: Link

I've only fought against a few good Links, but those few matches have been enough to convince me this will be a very tough nut for Lucario to crack. The main feature here is Link's multi-layered zoning: not only is there bombs bows and boomerangs galore, there's also a very hefty, long-reaching, quick-swinging Master Sword in the way, and the clawshot that can potentially punish shields during the close-in, plus the Hylian Shield can make Aura Sphere/Force Palm zoning practically moot. A prominent (if not primary) drawback vs. Lucario in this matchup is Lucario's pretty poor kit for closing distance vs. zoners like link, Lucario really doesn't have the inherent mobility to wedge himself inside all of Link's tools like many faster characters can. And to top it all off, Link comes stocked with a plethora of very powerful, very long-reaching KO moves that will easily knock Lucario out before ludicrous-aura kicks in.



Played several matches against my roommate's excellent Marth. Marth, in good hands, can be quite dangerous for Lucario. The tippers give Marth startlingly potent kill power on some very quick F-smashes, and there's plenty of pressuring options Marth can bring to bear against an unwary Lucario.

My personal strategy has been twofold: 1) Zoning with AS (both weak and strong AS) and FP, when higher % aura allows FP to outrange much of Marth's swordplay 2) up-close boxing/grabs.

Lucario vs. Marth is a dangerous mu if you're not prepared for a very high-precision Marth player, but definitely not insurmountable. For one, Marth doesn't really have the kit to take advantage of Lucario's disadvantages as well as other chars can, particularly Lucario's less-than-stellar ability to work under a high-speed pressure game, since Marth is far better suited for precision punishing, and his spacing game is manageable with Lucario's tools. As an added bonus for Lucario, I've found AS to be an excellent way to harass Marth trying to return to stage after a ledgegrab; not as a single shot, but several carefully timed partial-charges, especially if there's a little aura built up.

Against Falcon...Stand with your back facing the ledge when you are 100 or higher and charge Aura Sphere. Make sure he cannot hit you with his UAir and watch him take a lot of damage just trying to get around you, not to mention you can frame trap him and fire it at him when he lands. Falcon is easily comboed and you can string UTilts to a Grab or FP at lower %. If they fail to DI properly or if you stale UThrow you may be able to true combo UThrow to double jump UAir for a kill. Don't forget he has to react to baby Aura Spheres if you want to stop his quick and amazing dash grab.

Vs. Link we can either perfect shield his spam or if it is safe Double Team towards him.

Also, when in doubt aim for the head.

Both Falcon and Link Are fairly heavy, so you can harass them with a BReversed Aura Sphere if they are sitting in their shield.

Marth no longer gets invincibility from a Dolphin Slash in the air, only on the ground, so yay combos. Also don't Extreme Speed in front of him to the stage because dat tipper FSmash.

I'll probably study when Aura Spheres beat their random stuff when I get a chance.

 

[Luco]

You have to remember Ness' PKT starts with Lucas' properties for the first like quarter of a second, so jumping into it is a bit harder now. Out-prioritising it is still an option though.

The thing with Ness and absorption is we start getting a bit jumpy if you have a fully charged AS and at medium levels of play we'll start using magnet if we think you're gonna shoot it, which means you can kinda bait out our PSI magnet and then punish.

At higher levels of play the top players would only really use magnet while recovering to avoid the sphere but otherwise you wouldn't see it that much so AS would be reasonably legit at mid or close range.

Something to consider with Ness also is his combos at low percentages. I suspect Lucario is one of the chars that can get triple Faired after Ness' Dthrow, so my advice is to vector yourself up/away so that we can't do it. If a Ness sees you doing that they'll start going for Uairs instead, so be wary of that too. Air-dodging after the Dthrow will get you out of the Fair strings but often the Ness player will FF Nair and hit you anyways, so just be a bit careful of that.