If I can make a suggestion Cobradude, go into the training arena, hook up with a trainer and take it from there. Initial merge, if you pull for a ho, you are giving up a lot to your opponent - you lose e if they offset it, which hands them directly an e advantage. From there, you'll find it difficult to regain the initiative.
Wurzel
*edit - there is no stigma to working with a trainer - they will help you get more from the game, quicker than you can figure things out for yourself. They'll help with your stick scaling (reduces the amount of bounce your seeing etc). They can take you through the language/skills of acm/bfm etc. Whilst you can learn at your own pace, using a trainers help for an hour or two, is invaluable and helps a lot*