Matchup Thread Export Directory
LUCARIO
DIFFICULTY: EASY - 60:40
LUCARIO
DIFFICULTY: EASY - 60:40
Quick Tips
- Down-smash after down-throw? NO
- Bucket anything? Aura Sphare (Does 44% - 60%, Kills at 20% - 0%). SideB, closer is better (Does 50% - 60%, Kills at 0%).
- Lucario's UpB does not have a hitbox, use this to your advantage. Lucario's UpB can also stick to walls, allowing Lucario to wall jump and get back on stage AFTER an UpB.
- When Lucario has fewer stocks than you, then he becomes stronger. Also, the more damage the Lucario has the stronger he becomes.
Videos
- Vinnie (PGN) vs Zucco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5irbypdpHGo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79nmHqKY-J0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcp-xQ0wU-g
- UTDZac vs Trela
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc4iPrajIUQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrp2roug1IQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL68pceT8C4
General Matchup
- Lucario specializes in a lot of things. Good survivability, good range in some moves, good combos, good camping, and he gains strength when his percent increases and as he becomes behind in stock. All of these factors make for a pretty well rounded character that has few flaws but no real solid advantages.
- Lucario's priority and range are only on some of his attacks. Fsmash, ftilt, upsmash, dair, even forward b all have either good range or good priority or even both. You'll find the upsmash beats the key, fsmash will outrange quite a few of your approaches, and the dair can even make a quick approach from below tough sometimes.
- Lucario's best kill moves are most likely his fsmash and aura sphere (charged). These moves are excellent punishing moves and you will likely find yourself dying after making critical mistakes from these. Bair, forward b, ftilt, upsmash, and dair are also quite strong when used in the right place so watch out for those moves as well.
- Lucario has an interesting recovery at best. First of all he moves in a floaty manner through the air and has a decent double jump, so he will likely not find himself not able to recover. When in range of landing on the stage lucario can manipuate his up b to land in a variety of places, so keep this versatility in mind. Because it has no attack attached to it, any attack is fair game to my knowledge, but i would stick with a ledgedropped nair to edgeguard, mainly because it covers so much ground.
- Lucario would likely edgeguard with a dair dropped low, possibly a bair unless he is stringing you off the stage. Aura spheres can also be used to pressure you into making bad decisions, but remember the up b goes through these and it is likely that a dair won't be going through your up b too often. Any other aerial should be countered easily by a fair or something of that nature.
- Lucario has a pretty fearsome combo game if i say so myself. Fair ends quickly in the air, and nair auto cancels. These moves string together well in a shorthop and then a jab to grab will certainly pressure you further. Lucario can also combo out of dthrows/upthrows at low percents either by hitstun or watching you and punishing. Also the dair combos nicely out of fairs. Overall many of his attacks string together nicely, don't be surprised by high damage combos.
- Gw's combos work much in the same against lucario. He has quite the short tech roll, but a lengthy buffered roll. This works well for you as tech chasing shouldn't be too hard against lucario, if they are buffering rolls punish by jabbing and grabbing again or dsmashing. Up air if they are above you and dair spamming. Other than that, standard combos apply.
Basic Strategies
- Other ways to edgeguard lucario would be to apply a lot of pressure offstage with fairs weak or strong. This can sometimes push them too far away for their up b to reach.
- They are quite capable of camping most characters with aura sphere, although it is likely they will only use a fully charged one against gw's in times of need (punishment). Don't expect the bucket to make or break this matchup, it only forces them to approach you instead of them being able to camp.
- Fsmash is an excellent tool to punish sloppy gw play. If your turtle happy, expect to get stuffed by a lot of fsmashes. Its quite easy for a lucario to walk away and fsmash these attempts, so get more creative with your approaches and mix it up. Also don't get too trigger happy with the keys, these will also be thwarted by an upsmash if the lucario has some timing.
- Landing kills can be tricky, but luckily gw has strong ones to get rid of lucario quickly before the percent advantage kicks in too quickly.
- Overall this matchup comes down to approach methods and who punishes who better. Overall turtle/fair will beat most of lucario's aerial approaches. Up air can make it difficult for them to approach with the dair from above. Their approaches will be limited to creep forward ftilts/fsmashes, which you can certainly do something about if you see it coming. Keep a cool head and this matchup should play out in your favor, just don't rush in to get punished, because lucario can do this very easily.
Stages
- Rainbow Cruise works pretty well.
- Avoid Frigate (lucario's tend to like this stage, flat edges and all). Pick a smaller stage if possible, corneria would work nice i imagine.
- Ban fd, yoshi's island, frigate, norfair, etc.
Frame Data
- Neutral B: 19
- Side B: 9 (grab), 22 (attack)
- Up B: N/A (move starts frame 16)
- Down B: 6 (invincibility frames 6-36)
- Fsmash: 21-30
- Dsmash: 17-23
- Usmash: 12, 17
- Ftilt: 12, 15
- Dtilt: 9
- Utilt: 5
- Nair: 6, 8
- Fair: 7
- Bair: 15, 18
- Uair: 10
- Dair: 4, 11
- Jab: 6, 9, 9
- Dash Attack: 7, 10
- Standing Grab: 6
- Dash Grab: 8
- Pivot Grab: 9
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