Some initial Lucas thoughts from my very poor play on a 3DS.
- He doesn't have the awesome movement he had in Brawl, mostly because a lack of momentum shift in PK Magnet. I imagine he is going to play a lot closer to Ness because of this.
-What is good about his PK Magnet, and this is a lot closer to what Ness had in Brawl that I was sad to see leave, is it delays his vertical drop, similar to Fox and his down B. This opens up some excellent approach and fake out strategies when recovering from up high.
- Even though his PK Magnet momentum was neutered, it is still a viable part of his offensive arsenal. Catches people off guard, and it quickly turns him around.
- Now that his tether actually attacks and is extremely long, I imagine it will be one of his primary offensive and spacing options. I can see multiple scenarios where it is more beneficial to use it up close vs PK Fire. This move, in conjunction with PK fire, makes me believe it will be extremely hard for some characters to approach Lucas without having to take some risk.
- His PK Fire is essentially unchange, and that's a good thing. It provides amazing momentum shifting when you are in the air, depending on how fast you are moving back, opposite the direction of where the PK Fire is being throne.This makes in an awesome and incredibly safe harassing move. You can also use this off stage along with Lucas's very good recovery options to gimp from quite a distance.
-His short game is lacking. I think the key to beating Lucas will be to get up close next to him. His nair has a very small hitbox and seems to only hit larger characters out of shield. His Dair seems like the best out of shield option but I can see a good player being able to counter this in some respects. He has a decent fair and a very good uair (although not as powerful as Ness). His bair is situational but it is very handy. His forward and up tilts are very good, much better than Ness. Is dtilt is seemingly useless now that it doesn't trip.
-Lucas was made to gimp the opponent off stage. He is floaty, and has a wealth of recovery options. I can see this being one of the primary ways he scores KOs
-His Fsmash is still awesome. Doesn't seem as powerful as in Brawl though. His usmash is great as usual, albeit situational. His dsmash is actually a very good move when used correctly, because the 3 attacks can throw some players off. I find it to be a good move to use when someone is recovering from the edge and has a tendency to recover without jumping. This is also a good move to bust out against players who attack up close very quickly, like Sonic, because the 3 hitboxes spread out give you a bit more room to time the attack correctly vs an fsmash.
- His PK2 is great. Obviously not a kill move in the same vain as Ness, but it can KO if you hit the person at the beginning of the PK2, which in actually isn't hard to do and I have already done it multiple times, because the PK Thunder goes through opponents.
-His dthrow is great for juggling, his uthrow will eventually kill. His bthrow and fthrow are excellent throws to get the player off stage.
-His PK Freeze is actually a decent changeup harassing tool. I would throw it out there from time to time. Much much better than Ness's Flash or his crappy version of Freeze. It can be difficult to time when the player is going to break out of the ice, and at high percents they will be pretty high, making it hard to follow up with a KO move, so instead I would focus on timing a PK THunder to harass and get a few extra hits when they break out.
- So how should you play Lucas. You actually, in my opinion, play him very similarly to Ness in a lot of ways. They have the same approach, they just do it differently. Maintain spacing with PK Fire and your Snake tether. If the opponent gets close, switch to your tilts, escape with a Dair and a PK fire while in the air. Don't be afraid to go off stage and gimp. If you are going to be a good Lucas player, you have to be able to play off stage consitently. Use nair when the opponent is close above you. Use Magnet almost randomly to make the opponent think about how they will aproach. Don't forget that Lucas can also reflect with his fsmash, and it is much quicker coming out than Ness's bat.
It looks like his primary killing options are uair, fsmash, and preventing the player from recovering off stage. Secondary killing options are uthrow, usmash, PK2 at beginning of attack. Situational kill options are dsmash, utilt if percentage gets high, and PK Freeze
He doesn't look to be as good as Ness overall in terms of the roster, but I can see Lucas being a better matchup option vs some characters that Ness struggles with, like Rosalina and Sonic.
Just means I gotta keep training and get even better!