halp

melee tip:
everyone acts like the neutral game in melee is basically incomprehensibly deep, and it maybe is in theory, but all you really need is to understand at least two things you can do in any given situation, if not 3, and specifically choose things that are as many of these 3 things as possible. 1.) have a good risk reward 2.) are difficult to punish most of the time even if you are wrong 3.) between the two of them you can cover any option your opponent could reasonably be expected to do if you choose the right one.
so let's give an example
i play this little known char known as captain falcon and i am fighting fox mccloud
i do a neutral air
i realize that the fox player likes to dd punish my nair landing and is going to space just outside of my expected nair range to punish it
this is a super common situation that I'll encounter a million times
i fade back with the nair just further than the fox expected, not actually trying to hit the fox like he is positioning and preparing for
fox runs in to punish me but OH NO WHERE HAVE I GONE?
because i faded back i had just enough time to prepare for a punish, in falcon's case it's the "lord stomp" where you dash back, stomp, then fade back in as the hitbox comes out
ends up looking like this
https://gfycat.com/ConsciousScaredKarakul
so then just having that one option which beats the standard fox reaction, means I start using a second option which beats the things which beat what im currently doing
Then when I nair I just have 2/3 things I try to do with it
Because I have only 2/3 things there's really not that much to think about, I just do the one that's working
Congratulations you now have the basis of how to play neutral like a top player in smash as this is basically how leffen/wizzy etc play
tldr
keep it simple, keep options limited to things you really like and theorize/find to be really successful. always have at least 2 things you threaten in any given situation. do this for each common situation you find yourself in and you'll rapidly improve your neutral
m2k approved this post so i figured i should share it lol
hope someone finds it useful!