o.k Wogrim im going to attempt the Meta Knight match up guide, in this post im going to edit everything I know to take out MK's that underestimate Falcon over the next while. I have beaten spamming MK's and some skilled ones, however some of them now know how to defeat me, but im going to make this the MK *** whopping guide 1.0 regardless, then build on this base later.
Recognize ~ im sure we all know Falcon's glaring flaws against MK, he's fast, has priority, long range (sword), can rack damage up ridiculously fast, and is freggin small. However to beat MK we must recognize his very little flaws, which makes sense because if you see no flaws in your opponent he/she therfore must be the perfect player/character, we must see that MK is top tier, but not perfect. He is the most broken character of any smash game BUT he isn't perfect, with these words let's analyze the character MK, and recognize his faults. Meta Knight is a VERY light character, a good Dsmash/Fsmash could EASILY kill this character at very low %'s. Meta Knight is also very weak and has a kind of hard time K.Oing his opponents when using his attacks independently (A.K.A spamming moves and not using strings) these are the only two faults that set Meta Knight back. Thus we must capitalize on them, Falcon is a character who specializes in gimping recoveries but that won't work on MK so you have to disband your gimping style to play Meta Knight. MK is a very fast character and very agressive character, he can send out any attack and have an almost sure chance that it will be a success, also MK's are agressive because they have next to no landing lag to all aerials making it able for them to basically SFFL regardless of no L-cancel. So how does one play an agressive MK? seeing what he lacks, you see because no matter how good the MK is they have a certain style of play, some like to spamm the tornado and Shuttle loop over and over then Dsmash you to death, and some link to use Fair's, Dtilts, Dair's, and Uairs so they can keep their prime moves fresh, but the most deadly are the ones who actually have skill, those who can reverse shuttle loop you with ease and totally read your attacks. however all these play styles have at least one flaw, your job while in the match is to recognize it, expose it, and take advantage of it. For example spamming MK's with tornado's get out prioritized by Fsmash, charge this baby up when they try to rack up some easy damage, then release at the opportune moment to punish and hopefully kill. For the more relaxed MK who like to keep their moves nice and fresh you must realize that at around 100% they are going to totally switch styles so the way to beat these MK's is to kill them very quickly with smashes. Also when im saying use smashes you are all probably thinking that this guy's a scrub, i don't use no C-stick think again bud, about 70% of your moves are going to be out-prioritized so you must think that "well i may as well get a Fsmash to hit rather than a Dtilt or knee". To continue the skilled MK's are very tough because they know how to change their play style very easily and quickly, making it seem that they have no certain weakness. For these players theres nothing I can say but, you have be faster and smarter than your opponent.
Confrontation ~ If anyone has heard one of Gimpyfish's rants on how to have a mental mindset, you'll be recognize what im saying when I say that the match is 90% mental. Before the match starts, and you find out your playing a Meta knight knowing that your Falcon, your most likely to lose all confidence and accept your defeat before it begins. I know about the odds stacked against you, but if you don't think your going to win you may as well put down the controller and give up because im 99% sure your going to lose. Anyways excuse that little intro it has to be said, there are two ways I find successful to defeating MK, one is risky but more effective and the other is a bit more stable but doesn't have (in my experience) as high as a success rate. One thing to keep in mind is that you have to be a "skilled" player to win, by skilled I mean that you have to be able to adapt to situations quicker than your opponent. So the more stable method follows something like this for a spamming non-skilled MK, when the match starts expect a tornado, or a bunch of shuttle loops, all you have to be is calm in the beginning (this standing is the first step in all the guides I put out because it's necessary to analyze your opponent). If he gets the on the start of a tornado just wait and Falcon kick, MK is going to approach argressively so ALWAYS counter with the kick when he does the tornado for the first hit and a good 14%. If the MK start's up at the beginning with a series of shuttle loops then your in trouble.........or so you think, you see the main problem I had with a shuttle loop spam is that it always seemed so fast and covered such a large area. You have to realize that it's not that fast on a horizontal perspective, seriously if its spammed it goes slower than bowser walking, what you want to do is not stand still thinking of what to do or cowering in fear at the ledge. What you want to do is one of two things, 1. get into MK's glide cancel range and act helpless (or stand doesn't matter) then on the glide cancel shield grab MK, get at least one punch in then Dthrow (because it's a better setup than Fthrow) after which Uair, Usmash, ect. then run. Method 2 is a little trickier depending how calm you are, in a nutshell you Dair MK while he's moving upwards in his shuttle loop, usually I do this by using both my jumps but to do this correctly you have to practice it over and over and over. The beginning of the match deserves it's own section because once MK hit's you he doesn't stop until the player screws up, anyways from a spammer here's what to expect when you can see these signs (FD is the neutral stage). When MK is about one fox trot away expect a tornado, they like to build up damage then when you become farther away they lead in with a quick tornado. Anyplace further than the tornado a usual spam will start with shuttle loop, counter as previously stated. Then after picking at MK's damage this is when you become agressive (around 80-90%), now it's the time to start mashing on your C-stick for the quickest smash you can do (I perfer Dsmash). If they start the tornado you can out-prioritize it with a Fsmash, so just charge it until he comes near you then send him back to hell, a good thing to keep in mind is to foxtrot when MK is at high damage because you can cancel it into a Fsmash which can catch a lot of people off guard. If you follow this method you have a o.k shot at beating a MK that loves to spam, in fact they may try to stop the spam to throw you off guard but take it lightly, spammers can only spam, they don't know anything else. The second, more effective yet riskier method starts off like the first method to counter the beginning spam, so refer to it (im not going to write it out again). When the match is underway you want to be SEMI-agressive, if you have a lot of Falcon experience under your belt I suggest you use this method, because it requires you in the match to have good prediction, of attacks, spot dodges, and spam. Good moves that can be used aggressively are sliding jabs, grabs, Falcon kick (this should almost be spammed), Uair, and Utilt (learn spacing with this move, it outranges MK's sword!!!11!). An approach is something that Falcon can't do but Falcon kick just eats a lot of MK's moves, so in this match-up use falcon kick if your doing nothing, if your hit in the air use air use it to prevent his follow-ups. Strings are important in this match, because you can easily kill MK in 30 seconds if you get a string to hit, most people when in air will air doge a little too late when facing Falcon because they don't know about how fast it comes out. After growing acustomed to the Uair they'll AD at the right times, so if it misses Uair again, the second one is 99% sure to hit because of the Speed of Uair. Recovery is quite easy for Falcon when facing MK IF!!!!! they don't edgegaurd (most MK's are new joiners to smash and don't know much past the B button).........................
that's it for now im going to finish maybe tomorrow the rest of this (expected to be) huge section, im not even close to the end of confrontation, plus theres extra's left which involves stage picks and such
