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Squ0ldrive
Keep in mind I'm probably only marginally better than you so any advice I give take it with a grain of salt. I still don't really have fundamentals down, although I'm getting the hang of things (maybe). For reference I only really got into smash after watching the smash doco in January, and only seriously considered wanting to gitgud sometime last month. I think it's helpful for my own place to sit down and think analytically about things like this, which I haven't done much before and I probs should start doing more. A lot of these things I reason about and make sense on paper, but in the in-the-moment-ness of a match I get too caught up in the flow and things just go so fast, so I keep making stupid mistakes. I guess just doing more analysis like this will hopefully eventually ingrain the sort of good things to do and bad things not to do in our reflexes to the point where we just do good things automatically. And I'm pretty sure nothing I'm going to say here is new.
The biggest specific problem, or at least the one that sticks out like a sore thumb, is that you were throwing out way too many up smashes and dash attacks.
The aim of the game is to hit your opponent and not get hit right? Up-smashes hit your opponent hard, sure, but they only really are most effective on higher percentages. Moreover, up-smashes are very easy to punish because after you perform it there's a large space between when you've finished the animation and when you can begin the next attack, meaning your opponent can hit you. But you want to avoid being hit. Up-smash at higher percentages not only can be used as a kill move, but ensures it's 'safe', because higher percents cause higher knock-back, meaning your opponent won't be able to punish you as fast. So you should really only use it as a combo finisher. DAir -> up-smash is probs the easiest Lucas combo to do, so today in friendlies I was doing way too many DAir -> up-smash combo spams on lower percentages and it wasn't working at all. It could work as a mix-up I guess, or if you have OU it's pretty good to string some along at low percentages since OU'd Upsmash has increased hitstun, but at that much of a low percent 0-50%ish, it's probably still too much of a commitment.
Also, better to start on the L-Cancel grind sooner than later - it's easier than Melee in PM because you flash white if performing it correctly (that is, pressing L/R however many frames it is after performing an aerial (so not any air attacks like SH PKFs, just aerials) to speed up landing lag, more effectively stringing along combos, making you faster in general). I find this pretty easy to perform in training mode and I'll just sit there L-cancelling and DJCing my moves for like half an hour, but it's really really hard when it comes to implementing it into actual gameplay, where I usually get around 10%-30%. But I suppose the best way to get more consistent is practice. DJCs will also help, though they're a lot harder to get into so don't worry about it for now i'd say.
You need to be faster overall - sometimes it just seems like you were standing around. Any time you're standing around doing nothing means you're just waiting, begging to be hit. Don't fall into the trap of just playing on autopilot and mashing buttons though because that's just as bad.
Only throw out grabs if you're sure they're going to hit. Lucas' grab is very easy to punish since it's slow af, so use it sparingly and only when you're sure there's not gonna be a hard punish on it. Up-throw only kills past ~130% (don't quote me on that, other peeps provided the accurate numbers somewhere else imma just do it from memory), down-throw's pretty good for comboing most of the cast, except for fast-fallers where you can chain-grab up-throw them on low percentages.
Tech when you hit the ground - press L however many frames after you get knocked down to get up immediately, meaning you'll be able to throw out an attack faster so as to not be hit. This is pretty tricky to do ultra-consistently, but easy compared to other advanced tech in the game. I still have trouble with teching everything because I suck lol.
Recovering with Lucas, you want to use magnet really quickly to stall, air-dodge if necessary and then rope snake (tether grab) to the ledge. Play around and get the timing of air-dodge -> rope snake down. Play around and see the distance/angle of your rope snake. If you double jump on your way to to grab ledge, remember that you can save your second jump as a mix-up, otherwise your recovery becomes predictable. PK thunder only at ranges where the rope-snake won't reach, and if you do make sure you sweet-spot to grab the ledge (this also requires some playing around with it).
First vid 7:03 - What would have countered Toon Link's Up B better?
Magnet wasn't a good option because TL was obviously entering the spin attack animation to recover, which is going to hit you (magnet doesn't offer any special magical protection or anything - it's just a hitbox). You could have WD'd backwards and magneted instead (throwing out a magnet and then WDing backwards is apparently a good way to approach), but that wouldn't have really ledgeguarded TL. IDK really how to safely ledgeguard that move to keep TL offstage - I suppose just wait until the animation's over to punish, since the move has a fair amount of cooldown you should be able to throw some attack in like a throw or something, idk.
Work on your follow-ups. If you get a hit your enemy goes into knock-down/back/hitstun. Capitalize on this to hit your enemy again. Comboing doesn't just look cool but is good because it's actually going to help you win. So don't just do an attack and leave it at that, make sure you follow up. The details of exactly how to follow up some things are what I still have trouble with. For example, with moves with large knock-back I find it hard to follow the opponent to follow-up on the attack. Now if it's vertically high sometimes you could use your double-jump to chase them into the air, but this is also kinda risky. DJCing is also useful just for alternating from one move to the next to make your combo really fast.
