Like I said I don't know what to think about him OVERALL in terms of the game's meta but this is what my rundown with him has been:
PROS
*Almost all of his normals feel better even including his cr.M which is even more beastly. You can actually use st.M to combo into from a juggle/anti-air situation. J.S now properly crosses up on opponents so Iron Man actually has a decent right/left mix up in his arsenal. This makes his hit confirms on the ground and in the air easier.
*Replusor Blast/Spread is hella buffed... in priority, in ease of input and hard knockdown. This is his best anti-air options especially against sword users. Yeah comboing off of its hard knockdown is not that easy but it's doable with Smart Bombs into cr.M. This is a very important part of Iron Man's control of mid screen. Comboing Repulsor Spreads -> Smart Bombs with assists lead to heavy damage with IM (I saw a video with IM using only 1 bar that crossed 1 million in damage!!!).
*Smart Bombs are hella buffed. The damage is buffed so combo ending with Smart Bomb -> Proton Cannon pack a punch and Proton cannon does more damage due to mashing. Less recovery in the air of Smart Bombs means they are a much better pressure/zoning tool and they are a primary way of covering IM's approaches due to his slow start up on dashes from super jump height. The lesser ground recovery means you can easily link cr.M after it into BnB from corner throws, Repulsor Spread and even after certain air combos for relaunches. They are also an important part of IM's control of mid screen.
*Up to down air dash is hella buffed. Like IM has a better high/low mix up than both Nova and Magneto. When coming down he can easily do j.L or cr.L and it's a guaranteed 50/50 mix up at close range. This combined with his faster flight cancel meaning if you can get your opponent locked in for even a second on the ground they can get opened up by IM.
*Dash cancellable normals is very nice as it gives IM much more flexibility in developing combos and air to air hit confirms. He has a very more fleshed out combo game when before he had to rely on just a couple of combos. You should do more soul searching with IM's BnB combos as he has a range of decently easy but good damaging combos to high execution high damaging combos. Now that IM can link j.M after a flight cancel on the ground, he can hit confirm into his KrispyKreme combo from very far distances.
*IM is sort of more versatile in his usage of his air dashes. His tri-dash is mostly used to get in from very far/full screen/SJ height away with smart bomb and after the start up he comes in fast enough and nearing the opponent they have to guess high/low again. Box dash is his mid screen approach with j.S leading into a possible cross up. Up/down air dash for very close mix ups. You have to choose one of these approaches at the certain distance so you can't do tri-dash at close range or box dash at long range. Due to his great normals, it's hard to hit him out of his dashes and use of Smart bombs makes punishing him a bit more difficult than it appears.
*Cr.H buff is of course beastly as expected. He can spam cr.H into Repulsors and unibeam at even full screen away and it makes getting on him a pain. It also allows easier hit confirms as he can even do flight cancel combos after cr.H.
*With all the assists that were nerfed due to hit stun changes, IM's Unibeam is very valuable now as it locks them in place anyway until the hits are over and you can still easily follow up after it.
CONS
*Start up on all his dashes hurt him for sure. Tri-dash at mid range is a joke. This even applies some what to his ground dash and this affects his reset game because it's harder for him to do Smart Bombs dash up air throw. Speaking of his air throw at mid screen, he has a harder time following up air throws at a certain vertical distance. It's doable but it feels harder.
*Due to no block during air dash and having a start up on air dashes... getting in with IM is more difficult and characters like Hawkeye and Ghost Rider give him immense trouble. It's goes without saying but IM does not qualify for a rushdown character anymore.
*While IM's XF bonuses are nice along with the speed boost... I still feel IM is a weak anchor in this game. His air throw game is iffy and he still has trouble getting in so mounting a comeback with him is difficult. I think 2nd slot is the best option for him at this point because seriously the amount of top anchors in this game is going to make IM look like a joke at the back.
*No double jump means no more double overheads. It's missed.
Overall I feel that IM has been greatly buffed in his control of mid screen, his hit confirms, overall damage (which was good before but even better now) and general zoning but weakened in his throw game and general rushdown which by default makes him a worse anchor. You have to play him different now for sure and you have to pester the opponent into coming to him so you can space them out with his gigantic hit boxes and then confirm into a possible TOD. Of course he can't do that against the sword characters but you would be surprised the stuff he can beat out. He's still a high execution character but the barrier of entry has been lowered for him. He gives off a poor impression when you first play him sort of like vanilla Doom but when you get into him more you realize that he's better than you thought he was.
