SSBU/Lucas/Setplay

Lucas

Overview

Combos

Setplay

Tech

Strategy/Counterstrategy

Juggling

Lucas may not excel in Juggles but he has antiair or air to air tools that can simulate similar benefits to a lesser extent . Up Angled Ftilt is a useful antiair in midrange to catch characters from a lower distance,Utilt for directly above opponents, FH Fair and Nair or Uair are used to punish their aerial landing commitments in cases where you may not be able to Ftilt with as much effectiveness. In other juggling scenarios Lucas can use PK Freeze for platform juggling or trapping them into using an escape option like airdodge.

Edgeguard

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Ledgetrap

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Tech chase Set-ups

A tech chase is, as implied, a situation where you punish the opponents' escape options after forcing them to choose one of these options. This happens when the opponent is sent in to tumble low enough to the ground, so that they are unable to attack or jump before landing.

If your opponent misses their tech, it is possible to jablock them, by hitting them with a weak enough move (usually jab). If a jablock is performed, the opponent is unable to act for a short period of time, and can usually be punished pretty hard for it. If you hit an opponent laying on the ground after a missed tech three, you will be able to act again, so jablock punishes are usually 2 weak moves followed by a finisher. It is also possible to lock opponents on platform, which is usually done with weak multihit aerials.

Simple setup options

Sweetspot fair
Jab 3
Sweetspot fair
Sweetspot ftilt

Advanced but not niche

Sour ftilt
Sour fair (particularly efficient, due to low hitlag)
Inner sour bair( has a good angle for platform jablocks)
Sweetspot Zair at higher percents
Uptilt forced techchase on platform stages at low to low mid %s
PSI Magnet
Dthrow at lower percents with platforms

Higher Execution

Aerial footstool from DJCZ

Niche

Upthrow at 0%~ or slightly above on yoshi's story and Battlefield only
Outersour/supersour bair

Jablock variation explanations

- Jab 1-2 : probably the easiest option. Comes out fast, and can also cover a tech in place if you hold it, and gives you a good window to punish. Beware of the bad hitbox of Jab1, that might miss some opponent. Also remember that you have to wait a little bit after jab 2 before inputting your finisher, or you’ll get jab 3. Practice the timing !

- Sour Ftilt : Does more damage than jab 1-2. Prevents you from getting jab 3, so getting tighter followups (like Dsmash) is a lot easier, since you can buffer them. Stops locking at mid %, but can create a new tech situation.

- Nair multihits : Only really practical on platforms. Nair 1-2 or Nair 2-3 can lock opponents on a platform, to open up for a lot of punishes. Beware, you can only hit with two multihits at most.

- Sour Fair, Supersour Bair, and Dair multihits can all be technically used to lock but are very hard to use this way.

Aerial Footstool: They are techable, and pretty hard to get, and thus aren’t really a reliable way to setup tech chases. However, DJCZ > aerial footstool is a setup that leads to a footstool very low to the ground, which makes it nearly impossible to react to. It should be noted that the execution is very difficult.

Techchase Punishes

Now that the ways you can set up Lucas' tech chases has been covered. This section will focus more on what you can get out of these tech chase situations depending on your stage position, the opponent's damage and which way you are facing.

Basic

Jab 1-2 →Fsmash
Jab 1-2 → Dsmash (tighter to execute, but better reward)
Jab 1-2 → Dair offstage near ledge

Advanced but decently consistent

Jab 1-2 → DJCZ (can be linked to kill confirm to fair or dash attack)

Platform specific

Nair multihits → upair
Nair multihits → full Nair
Nair multihits → Fair
Nair multihits → bair
Nair multihits → DJCZ(can be linked to kill confirm to fair or dash attack)

Advanced but takes percent awareness

At certain percentages, it is worth going for some combo starters, instead of single big-hitting moves.

Here is a (non-exhaustive) list :

Jab 1-2 → nair loops( super early percents)
Jab 1-2 → Dtilt → Ftilt/Fair/Grab/Any Dtilt followup
Jab 1-2 → Dragdown Nair ftilt or Dragdown Nair dtilt ftilt

At low % :

Sour ftilt → Dsmash (always better than fsmash)
Sour ftilt → Dair offstage near ledge
Sour ftilt → DJCZ ( can be linked to kill confirm to fair or dash attack)

Niche but not bad

Using a singular PSI magnet replacing Jab 1-2 at earlier percents

Tech Option Coverage

Coverage Options

The coverage that Lucas can do from a techchase depends completely on the player's ability to identify patterns and discover the most suitable move to cover their option or corner them to use that option.

Covering tech in place, getup attack and tech roll back with dash attack (this is in situations where doing jab, nair or bair jablock is not possible)

This option is best used in the corner or near the edge of a platform as they have less options to go for. If they tech roll back and you miss, they still lose stage control.

DJCZ to cover tech roll back, tech in place, getup attack and sometimes tech roll forward:

Djcz being a punish tool can be super creative depending on the situation, in addition to being our best jablock punish tool can be used to cover options by trapping the opponent to be more likely backed into a corner or throw out a panic option.

DJCZ into dash forward rar nair dragdown to cover no tech in place and tech away or djcz dash forward jablock for no tech:

This is a tech coverage concept by vj-vice inspired by gimr

Nair and Bair as platform tech option coverage:

Because of the fact that in platform stages, they could be forced to use 2 main options: getup attack as it could hit you on both sides of the platform and has intangibility or tech in place to avoid cornering themselves to either side of the platform. If they do happen to tech roll in either side, bair and nair cover this too as well and you can apply every other option explained in this section.

Upair as a secondary platform tech chase coverage option:

This links into triplat exclusive tech option coverage but also can work on dual plat or smashville and hollow bastion. If you do an upthrow at 0%~(this symbol means it's character dependant) to the top plat of Yoshi's story and Battlefield you can cover with bair or nair but also upair to link into additional upairs or other strings or options if you figure out the correct tech option. This forced techchase situation on platforms coverage concept can be applied to Uptilt which can fortunately work without the need of a third top platform.

Dair being used as a much more risky platform tech option.

The reason why it's not included in grounded tech option coverage is that dair's utility is stage and character and percentage dependant and in platform stages it gets much better reward if used to cover much more limited tech options and at later percentages.

Close to ledge tech option coverage is very specific but in niche cases be covered with pk freeze, uptilt, dsmash, pivot grab and pk fire( in some very risky cases upsmash and pk thunder can be used)

If you know for sure from habit detection that they will tech roll or use a certain option near ledge or at the edge of a platform, do not hesitate to be riskier if it's too early for dair or bair to be used in this situation. The importance of showcasing that these options can be done in these niche techchase spots on the stage is to determine the correct risk and reward for them.

Reactionary Ftilt tech option coverage( you don't have to commit to jumping, variations include: such as pivot ftilt or dash back ftilt)

Good use of trained reaction time can boost ftilt's usage as even if Lucas is slow, the tech options you're covering can be covered with ftilt's disjoint even if it's less range than DA. Ftilt can lead to even more techchase causing multiple sequences to cover the opponent's limited pool of options.

Dtilt to mix up between these options and bait shield after or a more offensive tech option and to cover it with pivot grab

Similar to catching spotdodges and normal rolls and ledge options in a way, with how you would  position to react with dtilt against neutral getup and ledge rol. This can  be applied to cover tech options.

Doing a preemptively dtilt to bait out getup attack like you would a ledge attack and kill them offstage with dair if you are close to the ledge. You could also do this to be able to catch platform tech in places or to do a dash in to a dtilt to cover grounded tech in place.

For tumble percentage specifics for these tech chase set-up tools, there is a spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lCVfUxWdrXDzIJBMYjvxPhJQ4FI0w-owyZkFcIPjUFE/edit#gid=646642867