What are the best stages for Lucario?

[LividLynx]

I have no idea and was wondering if there are anyone here that wishes to share their knowledge. From what I can tell, Lucario generally kills sideways, and has a good recovery with wall jump, down b, and up b. So I figure stages with relatively short sides but large up wards so that he can live longer? I am new to Smash, so I don't know stages very well and would appreciate some help. Thanks!

 

[foxygrandpa]

metal cavern seems viable

 

[Spiffykins]

Lucario's quite good at gimping certain characters so the side blast zones aren't always that important, and up air and/or up smash should be netting you a large portion of your kills on floaties so a low ceiling can be beneficial as well. It's pretty matchup dependent, but I think the stages that Lucario functions best on in general are Yoshi's (Melee+Brawl), Fountain, Drac's, and Wario Ware.

For some matchup examples, lets say you're CPing against a Falco. Standard three platform stages could get nasty when Falco starts to combo and your recovery goes a longer distance, so FD, Drac's, or Fountain are all solid picks. Now let's say you're up against Peach, Fountain suddenly becomes a very bad choice, but Drac's, Yoshi's, Wario Ware, or Pokemon Stadium 2 would all be decent. Hope this helps.

 

[LividLynx]

That helps a lot, thank you.

 

[Nippo]

I think overall, Lucario's strengths and weaknesses on different stages aren't particularly pronounced. The ability to make a horizontal recovery with Double Team + ExtremeSpeed in tandem helps tone down the recovery problems he had in Brawl. I've never really been concerned over stages as I am when playing with, say, Charizard or Bowser.

 

[Risky]

I support Warioware the more I play on it. It allows for such insanely easy kills on characters like Marth or Fox where DI would easily save them if they were on a larger stage. It leaves no breathing room for spacing characters and allows for cAS combos that kill at ~60%, with Nair being super effective too.

 

[AkashSky]

I support Warioware the more I play on it. It allows for such insanely easy kills on characters like Marth or Fox where DI would easily save them if they were on a larger stage. It leaves no breathing room for spacing characters and allows for cAS combos that kill at ~60%, with Nair being super effective too.

I agree with this post as I see the potential to be overly aggressive with lucario and get massive rewards on the smaller stages. However, I feel that picking small stages also makes little use out lucario's amazing recovery! You can practically fly all the way across dream land with an aura charge. With this in mind, I support stages with small ceilings and larger side blast zones for lucario, so that you can still get some fast kills with Side B and make use of your amazing horizontal recovery. An example of this would be sky loft.

 

[rikochet]

I would say Smashville as well, except against players who know how to use the moving platform in there recovery options I find it pretty easy (and so awesome) to gimp people on smashville and wario ware. And sometimes even Pokemon stadium 2, green hill zone and yoshis island. For some reason i feel its easier to be very dominant with lucario on those stages.

 

[Sorabotics]

I personally like PS2, it has plenty of room for Lucario to move around in and perform extensive combos and the blastzones aren't too close or too far away.

 

[Risky]

Yeah as I've played more PS2 is pretty sweet. Good for his combos, kills, projectiles, aerial DT approaches on people under platforms... Everyone always bans Warioware and the other small stuff too so I end up at PS2 often.

 

[HK_Spadez]

I prefer Yoshi Island, Warioware, and battlefield. small blast zones = kills at like 50% with dash atk -> Fsmash

 

[#HBC | Joker]

Lucario is good on the bigger neutrals, in my experience. Stages like, Smashville, FD, and PS2 are all great, with plenty of room to dash around. I'm of the opinion that Lucario is actually similar to Captain Falcon, where having a lot of room to run around and feel out the neutral game is important. I play against Mewtwo a lot, and having a small stage makes it impossible to land, because going for platforms just means you'll get uaired.

 

[Zorc Of Norway]

Heres my train of thought when picking chosing a stage for Lucario.

1. Lucario has a great recovery with wall jump > b-reverse > b-cancel > wall jump. Therefore I wan't stages like Wario Ware, Yoshi's Story, Green hill zone, Dreamland etc.

2. With downB-auracancel Lucario has strong horizontal recovery. This makes him benefit from big blastzones, but it is not worth going there against characters like peach or puff that benefits ever greater.

3. If I'm up against a char with a good camping game I want a smalles stage so i can get in easier with Double Team. If I'm up against a char without projectiles I want a bigger stage so I can outmanouver them and pressure with Aura sphere.

After that It's concidering what the opponents best stages is.

 

[Risky]

1. I would never pick a stage based on being able to Walljump BR ASC (that's a mouthful) as a recovery. Only in a very specific matchup where the character gimps you extremely far straight down, possibly with some footstool gimp, would I even consider that. Lucario can recover from practically anywhere as long as he survives the hit and your DI is average.

2. I think large stages against Peach/Puff would be preferable since they also have low kill potential (lower than you), and Nair kills relatively early, Uair is difficult to hit with but is strong, while Bair is great for spacing and also kills floaties. After that Charged FP kills very early and never DI'd correctly by the opponent. Usmash kills or leads to a guaranteed Nair if canceled.

3. Yeah, agree with this.

I don't like flat stages very much (FD, GHZ, SV, YI) but that may just be preference. I think Lucario easily pressures people standing on platforms with ASC aerials and Usmash canceled shenanigans if they're on the platform or below it on the ground. Waveland on the platform after and it becomes incredibly safe. I love throwing Aura Spheres at the same elevation as platforms too, either stopping them from jumping, or hitting their feet while they're on the platform. Prevents them from falling through too.

 

[HaloPrime]

It really depends on your playstyle. I usually prefer to use Lucario in a more ground-based way (to chain combos and screw over opponents), but sometimes the aerial game is good. It's especially good in stages like Pokemon Stadium 2 and Battlefield. You can jump to a platform and air-forcepalm them easily. On Battlefield, you can actually make it a kill move if they are on the platform on the very far side (it's rare to do though). Yoshi's Island may be good with that too.

Two other things to consider is Lucario's recovery and has enhanced side-b. Stages like DreamLand are easy to recover in from a far horizontal range (especially if you use an aura charge and cancel the down-a), and the up air cancel is not too bad either. However, if you want to kill others easily, especially if you're dealing with floaty characters like Peach or Kirby, it's best to have a stage with small blast boxes like Green Hill Zone or Yoshi's Island.