Little tricks and small strategies

[Natch]

The Fake Combo

I was able to pull a fake combo the other against my friend's(really good) Olimar. I will say here and now I call a fake combo due to the fact that it does not fit the current definition of "Combo" as it stands today, but can still work to the effect of doing an actual combo depending on what your opponent does, and also depends a bit on the stage you're on.

Since the actual instance of this fake combo was situational as far as testing shows, I'll tell you what happened.

I was against my friend on FD, and I was a fair bit to the left of the center of the stage. My friend was above 60% when I caught him in a grab and did a U-throw. He DI'd to the right, as any sane would do-I was more on the left side of the stage, and he wanted more room. On a whim, I did a PKT, and turned it into a PKT2 heading towards the right. I caught him with it after he landed on the ground and was still recovering after rolling in the air from my Uthrow.

This fake combo actually relies on predicting where your opponent is going to DI after a Uthrow(and yes, it must be a Uthrow, to my knowledge. Dthrows have not been tested yet, but Fthrows and Bthrows don't leave you enough time to get them with a PKT2 before they have a chance to dodge or shield.), and making sure you won't fall off the stage if you miss with PKT2.

Here's a bit of the a checklist for what needs to be fullfilled for this to be attempted and how and when to execute

Requirements:

-Enough horizontal stage room to do a PKT2 effectively across the ground, without falling off
-Opponent must be circa ~50% or above


Execution

-Uthrow
-Predict where they DI(set things up so you sort of force to DI a certain way)
-PTK2 in that direction(do this immediatly after you do Uthrow


Now, this is something to use sparingly, at most once or twice a match. Otherwise, your opponent will get wise to it, and be able to avoid it. If used against an opponent once, wait a sufficient amount of matches/time before trying it again. This is a trick you use every so often to get that unexpected KO, to be realistic. However, it's very effective and quite fun to see it hit.


Anti Edge Guard

This one is pretty simple. When coming back to the stage from a height above the grabbing edge, aim a PKT2 just right so you rocket towards the edge. I've pulled it off without meaning to several times, and it so fun to see people try and out-prioritize a PKT2. Since this one is simpler than the above, it's much easier to pull off. This works especially well if the opponent has decided to edge-hog, because I've pulled off KOs on edge-hogging opponents before with this trick.


Approaches

One of the most important points of battle is being able to go on the offensive, and to do that you need a way to approach the opponent and make first blood. I consider myself pretty good, and have played many equally good-if not better-opponents. So I've decided to go and compile a list of approaching techniques and attacks that can used. These approaches are chosen based upon ease of use, quickness of execuction, and the actual properties of the attack itself.

Listed in no paticular order, the approaches:

1. Dash Attack
As basic as this attack is, and direct and obvious as it may be, this approach is pretty solid. Actually performing the attack slows your run speed down, but it's just a front-Lucas then lunges forward with his arm outstretched, creating a Psi-blast in front of it. This has a surprising amount of range, good knockback, and the disjointed hitbox eases worries of being out prioritized. Watch out for them shielding it.

2. Short Hopped Fair
This one is pretty good, in that it will work almost 100% of the time against an opponent who's not suspecting it. His Fair comes out pretty quick, and so most of the time you don't have to worry about not having priority-you'll simply beat them to the punch. Watch out for them shielding it.

3. Short Hopped Nair
I love this one. Make sure you do the short hop closer to the opponent than you would with the Fair, as having to take your thumb off the control stick means you won't be DIing at all, and this means Lucas will only go a bit farther forward before just dropping straight now. It comes out quick, and doesn't have to worry about shields nearly as much as a Dash Attack or Short Hopped Fair, as it can break them if they already have some damage on them. This approach is simply one of my favorites, and I love using it.

 

[Hardcorenesser]

nice info... but you forgot the pk fire approach lol
and all those approaches can be avoided. the first two can be shielded and the third has poor priority. if your opponent is really careful they won't work. you can also approach with full hopped fast falled dairs (they can be auto RAR-ed if you want to hit them with an ftilt or something) and auto RAR bairs. and your little anti edgeguard doodah doesn't work if they start to get up off the edge. and sometimes you bounce off in wierd directions.

 

[Hardcorenesser]

nice info... but you forgot the pk fire approach lol
and all those approaches can be avoided. the first two can be shielded and the third has poor priority. if your opponent is really careful they won't work. you can also approach with full hopped fast falled dairs (they can be auto RAR-ed if you want to hit them with an ftilt or something) and auto RAR bairs. and your little anti edgeguard doodah doesn't work if they start to get up off the edge. and sometimes you bounce off in wierd directions.

 

[Tyr_03]

Well first of all the first combo is easily avoided and not the most effective way of doing it. A while back I posted a more effective way of doing the same thing in which you Dthrow, PKT, hit them with the side of the PKT head and then PKT2 at an upward angle into them. Works on most characters at low percentages. I suppose yours would work once or twice but honestly at higher levels of competitive play it's not going get you very far. It's too dependent on how the opponent DIs and if they notice what you're doing (which wouldn't be that hard given how slow PKT2 is and how predictable it can be.) Your anti edgeguard technique has the same issue. All they have to do is shield it and then punish you for the lag. Also doing it while they edgehog is dangerous due to the PKT2 crash properties in Brawl and if you don't time it so they still have invincibility frames you're dead. Not a reliable trick. Also dash attack is a pretty unreliable approach. It may be good if you hit with it, but if they shield the lag afterward is horrible. Sorry if it sounds like I'm bashing your thread or anything but I don't want people to be misinformed.

 

[Natch]

Yeah, I note that you should watch out for shielding with the dash attack, but that's why I included the Nair. It ***** shields.

Also the Anti-edge guard does work, I'm referring to using the PKT2 to rocket towards the grabbbing edge. It's only real purpose is to more or less garuntee that you get back to the stage.

 

[shal]

yeah its helpful but the things alredy said

 

[Tyr_03]

yes it does technically work. But the issue with that way of anti-edgeguarding is that first of all rarely do players edgehog against Lucas since he has such a long recovery and since most recoveries are from above the ledge in Brawl rather than below since it's so floaty and proper DI. Second, if they still have invincibility frames from stalling when you try it then you're probably just going to die from not getting the sweetspot. And finally, misjudging the sweetspot with Lucas leads to a very pointless death because of the bounce properties especially on the right side of stages. It's just something that doesn't come up that often because it isn't useful to edgehog against Lucas.

 

[Evilpenguin]

Good thread. I find that SH-dair works well as an approach, too. It allows you a reasonable margin for error and is almost lagless when landing, which allows a tilt (and sometimes smash) follow up.

 

[Fredd]

Would anyone happen to know the minimum distance, you must be away from the (l)edge, in order to perform a PK Thunder II without bouncing right off?​

 

[TechnoMonster]

You can be touching it, the only requirement is that you move up or down slightly before you hit the stage.

 

[Deeja]

Lucas' dash attack is pretty crappy all around, especially as an approach. It has way too much lag and there are just so many better ways to go about approaching, which is why i almost never use it. SH dair is also not the best option because when you hit the ground before the last one comes out you get some lag, however full hop dairs are pretty good, especially near a ledge. SH fairs and nairs are definitely the best when combined with b sticked pkf's, fairs because you can cancel them into a jab combo or something else, and nairs are hard to counter and can lead into many different things.

 

[Levitas]

Lucas doesn't approach. In a pinch, the second and third that you listed do just fine.

Be sure to cross up your nair: landing behind them is important if it somehow doesn't shield poke.

 

[Tyr_03]

Being able to sweetspot the ledge has nothing to do with the minimum distance. All that matters is the angle that you're coming from. The cutoff point is somewhere around 75 degrees above the horizontal. Any steeper angle from that and it's impossible to sweetspot.