Just play around with the top tier characters and fool around with your team setups.
It sounds like your friends don’t really know how to play either, so don’t worry too much about which team you are using. For your level of play, just familiarize yourself with the game system and everything will be fine.
Two suggestions:
- Try to have a solid anti air assist on your team before trying to make teams without one. Teams with/without play completely differently.
- Block a lot more than you would than in SSBM.