Emolga & Fennekin

Brief: This support duo is mainly used for Emolga, but Fennekin does have its’ uses. Standard or Support cheer both are fine, as 30s is not that fast, but not that bad either. I would not recommend Synergy cheer or pressure focused with this set.

Emolga

Charge / Recharge: 30/30, 15s debuff

Overview: Emolga is an overall useful support period, but Lucario definitely enjoys having Emolga at his back due to the fact that it’s a long ranged, fast, multi-hit, active… guard piercing move that also inflicts a debuff while being plus on block. When you list the properties Emolga has in a row, honestly it seems insane how many things it has going for it. It has a relatively fair charge time, being fast enough that you can get it when you need it.

Emolga has the ability to act as a frame trap when opponents jump in at awkward angles that your other anti-airs would otherwise miss at, while also trapping opponents who CADC carelessly on the ground. One example of such a trap would be using a Lv. 2 sphere in duel phase vs. Braixen. While they could attempt to light screen and absorb the level 2 sphere, you can react to it and call Emolga to punish them for trying to get meter and a Sunny Day charge, allowing you to effectively control the long-range game until you decide to call Emolga. Upon seeing light screen, you let Emolga rip through light screen (since it pierces) and then close in on the knockdown. The speed debuff is icing on the cake and makes it harder for Braixen to set things up even if you end up getting shifted.

The handiness of a quick piercing projectile on call makes it harder for characters like Suicune, Gardevoir and Pikachu to pre-emptively CA through your pressure or approach. It also acts as a zone-breaker, forcing many characters to block so that you may approach. Since it also leaves you at a frame advantage on block, it can even allow you to force Chandelure to stop and respect you at long range.

Emolga is not without weaknesses: Shock Wave can be eaten up by larger, more durable projectiles, and it doesn’t even stop some. Emolga actually trades with an opposing Lucario’s aura sphere, and a lv. 2 aura sphere will actually eat every shock wave hit and then punish the Emolga call. Similarly, poor timing on your call can result in you getting hit out or shifted out of your call. Emolga has a bit of recovery while calling it too, making it difficult to use it as a pseudo “screen-freeze” support.

Also, while you can do combos and juggle out of Emolga as a confirm, it’s better to try ending a combo with an Emolga call or just not comboing with Emolga, since it scales combos very hard. You can always follow up Emolga with an attack that does not generate phase shift points if you’re within range (like j.Y) and go for a reset situation if you can confirm Emolga.

Recommended Match Ups: Chandelure (breaks zoning, debuffs prevent Overheat armor)
Braixen (allows you to control long range game in duel phase neutral)
Gardevoir (zone breaking)
Suicune (CA-reliant character, beats mirror coat)
Sceptile (can punish him if he gets too predictable using dash cancels, seals mobility)
Any match up where you know the enemy player’s CADC habits.

Fennekin

Charge / Recharge: 30/40

Overview: Fennekin is the original “get off me” support. However, using it as such is actually something that requires more thought than just hitting L and ending your opponent’s pressure. Fennekin is incredibly easy to bait, and is nigh useless against some burst mode opponents since it results in you getting burst attacked for free. This makes Fennekin difficult to use against opponents who have great mobility options and can run out of Fennekin’s range before it even forces them to block. For example, Mewtwo can teleport back, or simply back dash back out of the ember dome, and then slap you with Hyper Beam. Sceptile can dash back and Giga Drain you during your vulnerable frames.

Fennekin also has combo potential on hit, but it scales a decent amount, and may not really be worth doing. Again, you can probably force a reset out of it like Emolga. Fennekin is pretty good at anti-airing opponents. Most attacks that allow opponents to linger mid-air simply do not last long enough to wait out the ember dome, and this makes Fennekin pretty useful for beating dive kicks, especially charged ones like Shadow Mewtwo’s and Charizard’s.

Fennekin can also be used against characters who lack a good way to back out of their own pressure, meaning a character like Garchomp who often goes all in with one of his mix up options on oki will struggle to get away from the ember dome, and will likely at least be forced to block, ending the mix up situation. Though if Garchomp calls you out, he can probably dig under the dome but that requires particular spacing. Similarly, Machamp doesn’t have a good back dash, or not does he have a fast backward moving option.

Of course, Fennekin does not have to be used purely defensively. Calling a meaty Fennekin is an option, but honestly, Lucario has safer pressure options that I feel that this is a waste for him. It’s not useless, and it can definitely catch people off guard if they like to press buttons on wake up, but you probably could’ve just done some other meaty attack instead and used a better support.

One of the biggest weaknesses Fennekin has is that it is almost universally unacceptable to use against an opponent’s burst mode without a hard read to get them off you. Literally every character can burst attack punish a Fennekin call on reaction (though it is harder for some than others). While not every player practices how to punish the Fennekin call with a BA, it’s a possibility in every match up, and unless you are right to underestimate your opponent, you’re giving them an opportunity to do anywhere from 154 to 300ish damage on you while wasting your support slot.

Recommended Match Ups:

Charizard (Beats dive kick pressure, fire punch pressure, need to be wary of fly back options and do not use this against Charizard’s burst mode).
Garchomp (Forces him to respect the support, allowing you at least one chance to get out of pressure if you get knocked down, can use in field to bait the pizza cutter j.X).
Machamp (Beats the j.X slam in field phase, easy way to reset to neutral and make space, he doesn’t have very many good ways to punish, has difficulty punishing Fennekin in burst mode).

Snivy & Lapras

Brief: A relatively underused support pair, but surprisingly effective. Snivy is tied for the fastest charge times in the game, while Lapras has some of the lowest damage scaling of any support, making it powerful enough to give Lucario 300+ damage confirms outside of rage. Depending on how you run this pair, you can go with nearly any cheer skill.

Snivy

Charge / Recharge Time: 20/20

Overview: Snivy acts as a counter attack that does a small bit of damage and deals a knockdown. It is possible to combo off of it and into it, but that requires either an anti-air or good positioning. Though somewhat situational, Snivy is relatively safe to call, and the start up frames actually give you the CA armor before Snivy even comes out! Incidentally, if you are counter pierced before Snivy comes out, Snivy doesn’t get used up.

Though Snivy is categorized as an attack support, it can be used as a “get off me” support, and you can actually use it like ExtremeSpeed, only without the commitment (and of course, it doesn’t come out as quickly or do as much damage). It’s sort of an inbetween of your default counter and E-Speed. Because Snivy has a bit of tracking to it, it doesn’t have to be used as an anti-air, but its’ long vertical hitbox does help in dealing with hard to reach dive kicks. In this sense, it can be used similarly to Fennekin, only more often and without true invincibility.

Like Fennekin, you don’t need to use Snivy purely defensively. Snivy also comes out pretty quickly comparatively, making it an actual tool you can use in neutral. The active hitbox of Leaf Tornado tends to break through counters as well. Snivy also has the special property of causing a hard knockdown in field phase, allowing you to get a lot of momentum by landing it in field, as field oki can be annoying to deal with.

Snivy’s weaknesses lie mostly in its’ limited range, and honestly, somewhat limited usage. It’s a support that quickly comes and goes, so even if you use it often, you may not feel like it’s making much of an impact on the match – especially if it just results in an opponent blocking it. Furthermore, it can be baited out and out-spaced, making it do nothing, and like Fennekin, can result in a long-range punish in some match ups. Furthermore, because it doesn’t have invincibility like Fennekin or Umbreon, it can’t be used as a true “get off me option,” since it will still solidly lose to grab mix ups limiting defensive usage to anti-airing and punishing people who overextend their pressure (which Lucario can already handle with extremespeed).

To top it off, there is a lot of scaling on combos that start from Snivy, making it unideal for damage, and wasting Lucario’s phase shift points on a low damage combo when Lucario is a relatively high damage character is nothing short of disappointing. Still, if you’re feeling that you’ve got a match up where you want to call out aerials and pressure without having to resort to making a hard commitment, Snivy does assist very well in doing so, and having a 20/20 charge time means you can have it ready at almost all times.

Recommended Match Ups:

Charizard (Often in the air, beats most grounded pressure, loses to Seismic Toss and grabs of course but those will usually only be used on oki anyway. Again, don’t use against Megazard X).
Otherwise player’s preference (Snivy’s utility tends to hinge greatly on play style, as it kind of gives you a secure option that you otherwise can rely on Lucario’s innate moveset for. Some players are easier to bait into Snivy than others, but I don’t feel that anyone in particular sees Snivy and thinks ‘oh no, not Snivy’).

Lapras

Charge / Recharge Time: 40/30

Overview: Lapras takes a long time to charge, almost too long, honestly. But the pay off can be well worth it… sometimes. Lapras counter-pierces, launches, erases some projectiles, deals a lot of damage, tracks, and has what I think might be the lowest damage scaling of any support.

Lapras’s hitbox travels mostly along the ground, so opponents can jump over it. You’ll tend to want to call Lapras in a situation where the opponent is either forced to block (like on wake up, meaty Lapras does pretty decent chip damage and solid blockstun), or has committed to an attack that’ll get them hit by Lapras anyway. Recognizing a CA from the opponent (especially if they are guessing and CAing randomly hoping to catch you doing something) can lead into Lapras, and Lapras leads into bone rush up swing, which leads into a very damaging combo.

Lapras can also be combo’d into from j.Y, which leads to 280+ damage confirms. This utilization of Lapras is mostly to just emphasize reward from playing Lucario well, and isn’t truly a usage of the support as a way to win neutral or anything. Still, 280+ damage is no joke, and while getting j.Y isn’t something you will have every match, the threat of such a large punish is just something that needs to be respected.

Lapras’ tracking and ability to clear smaller projectiles allows you to use it as a way to get in in field against characters like Braixen, Suicune and Mewtwo, but remember that Lapras doesn’t stop lasers, so Chandelure can still try to snipe you through it, and once Lapras is blocked, it won’t be able to do anything after that. Lapras is perfectly content to pull U-Turns to hunt down opponents, even in duel phase if it has to (though jumping over it prevents Lapras from u-turning in duel).

Lapras is a pretty strong support in the sense that it is very punishing and that it is capable of many things, but it’s long charge time and medium recharge time often means you will only get one shot to use it per round (twice if you use a cheer skill to preload it). The key weakness here is that Lapras won’t always be ready when you need/want it, and you really need to make its’ usage count. After calling it and having it get blocked, it can feel like you didn’t get much out of Lapras, and relying on an opponent to present an opening to call it can be frustrating (and because you need to wait for openings, you may not get a second usage even if you pre-loaded it with a cheer). Still, if you want a rewarding support, Lapras is definitely viable.

Recommended Match Ups:

Suicune (Breaks CAs, forces reactions to zone break.)
Braixen (Erases field phase projectiles, zone breaking, Braixen’s weaker anti-air game means you get more j.Ys in this match up so you can get hard hitting confirms).
Sceptile (Chases down dashing, can chase Sceptile while petals chase you in field, Sceptile is also a bit more susceptible to j.Y)
Chandelure (Forces Chandelure to block out of Minimize, beats Overheat/Smog, despite Chandelure’s strong Anti-Air game, you can get a lot of j.Ys in that match up, zone breaks in duel, can sorta zone break in field, trades favorably with will-o-wisp).

Frogadier & Eevee

Brief: This pair is meant for those who like going on the offensive and enjoy creating pressure. Frogadier has the fastest charge/recharge time (tied with Snivy), and has the potential for some of the most obnoxious pressure in the game, while also being an excellent zone-breaker. Eevee allows you to get some small healing and a buff that lets you hit through light armor of burst mode opponents. While you can also use it to just do sheer damage, the ability to fight back against Burst Mode opponents can make it invaluable in match ups where opponents get burst quickly.

Frogadier

Charge / Recharge: 20/20

Overview: Frogadier’s Water Pulse is one of the most oppressive supports in the game, simply due to its’ 20/20 timer, two waves of projectiles that have very good range, and the delay that exists inbetween the pulses. Lucario is able to confirm off of water pulse with bone rush or 8Y from virtually any duel phase situation, and in field phase, bone rush upper and j.Y are pretty much always guaranteed confirms.

Because it is a flurry of long range projectiles, opponents are forced to react to it in some way that gives Lucario an opening to move in. This makes it ideal for zone breaking, you only need to be wary of command counters on your way in, and if they absorb the second wave of water pulses, you can actually react and grab if you’re close enough. Do be warned, these projectiles don’t pierce, so Suicune can mirror coat them (but you can react and absorb the hydro pump with your own CA, or even jump over the hydro pump and j.Y/j.X Suicune back depending on the timing).

It can be used for oki to create a pressure situation where you can threaten to grab inbetween the waves (or after the second wave), threaten to charge up a force palm for chip and the possibility to burn through a CA, or you can just wait and react to whatever they do. Some people like to jump away meaning you can anti air them out of such attempts, others like to try and pre-emptively CA you, which again, means you can grab them.

Frogadier also shines in the neutral, as even if you’re hit while calling him, unless you were hit by a phase shifting move, the opponent will have to respect the water pulse waves. This gives you a chance to move in and take initiative, effectively winning you neutral. Due to the nature of having to respect the waves, characters like Chandelure and Braixen may not simply zone you out, you’ll get in eventually, and if you summon Frogadier inbetween their more committal attacks, you might even just simply hit them. Always be ready to confirm these situations into a combo, or in field phase, a bone rush shift.

Due to the relatively high amount of recovery upon calling Frogadier, you can’t just call him whenever you want and win the neutral for free. If your opponent is close enough they can often just hit you during your call animation, and this can sometimes lead to a shift. Worse yet, some command counters like Volt Tackle will hit you AND keep them safe before you can even react. The decent amount of recovery also means you can’t really use Frogadier defensively. Against burst mode opponents, you can also be punished for calling Frogadier, and by BAs no less.

Recommended Match Ups:

Chandelure (Zone Breaking, fast re-charge lets you win neutral very often, helps a ton in field phase).

Pretty much any other match up you want to use it in (there are no real downsides to using Frogadier intelligently. While it may not do anything too special outside of creating a pressure situation, pretty much every character in the cast has to respect it in some way that can create an opening for you.)

Eevee

Charge / Recharge: 20/40, 12s buff time

Overview: Eevee is a simple buff support. You’ll get a bit of healing, and you’ll do more damage 12 seconds after calling. The main things to note are: the buff lets you hit burst mode opponents, and Eevee is not 100% safe to call.

Eevee has some recovery to watch out for, it’s not so bad that you can punished on reaction for calling it, but it is bad enough that you effectively give up neutral if you call it without setting up a knockdown situation or something first. Eevee may recover fast enough that you can use it as a pseudo “screen-freeze” to see what your opponent is doing so you have more time to react.

Because it’s a buff and straightforward, outside of having it ready for burst mode opponents, there isn’t much to say. If your opponent doesn’t look like they’ll get burst, you can use Eevee just to heal or just to try and steam roll them with increased attack.  The long recharge timer may make you reconsider trying to pre-load Eevee and use it ASAP so that you get 2 calls in one round, you may as well just have Eevee as a “I will get to use this for sure, but I will only do so when the time is right.” Save Eevee for when you need it, and use it carefully when you can’t get punished for calling it. (Using Burst -> Eevee call is not a safe way to use it).

Recommended Match Ups:

Weavile
Pikachu
Shadow Mewtwo
Blaziken
Pikachu Libre (All five of these characters get burst mode quickly, Eevee is helpful if you want to fight back using lights.)