I need to stop relying on niche tech stuff to win neutral and start learning the mindgames. I think that's where a lot of Smashers (particularly Melee Space Animal mains) go wrong. The main difference between them and Hax is he learned to be super technical during/after building up a reasonable understanding of Neutral game, mixup counting, etc, not before.

I've started reading into the main options my friends take, but I'm having a hard time baiting them out. It's pretty frustrating losing to a button mashing Samus and a Marth main who thinks he's good because he Fsmashes everywhere but I'm honestly lost as to how I'm meant to improve on this. I only get to work on it once a week and I feel like my options keep getting stuffed when I try to play away from autopilot. It's marginally better when I switch to Sheik but then I feel like I won't be learning as much (Especially since I rely on my friends getting caught out by Aerial Needles/Autocancel Fair > Something as approaches on shield/Shino Stalls, IE: Technical shit), and I really think I should be doing better with Falcon anyway.

Anywho, just some food for thought. Hopefully I can implement this new mindset as fast as possible so I stop getting bodied by people I think I really should be dominating.