Difficulty: 50:50
What to expect:
- Tornado. This infamous move is just a wall of priority dealing a lot of damage if all hits connect. However, falco has ways to deal with this beast, and I'll go through that later.
- Off-stage combat. Seriously, this is why falco doesn't have the advantage against MK. Mk has infinite options against you to break your phantasm and kill you at very low %'s if you are sent off-stage.
- Shuttle Loop will be his main killing move, not to mention a great gimp move.
- Dsmash. MK's spam the living daylights out of this move. It's insanely fast, I think it comes out on frame 5. It also hits both sides, and is more powerful behind him so don't roll into this move. This will also kill near the edge, or at least send you off-stage for edgeguarding which means you will most likely lose a stock anyway if the MK is good at gimping.
- MK will rack up damage very quickly, especially in the air with his quick moves like dair and uair. MK's throws will also set you up for some combos, particularly his dthrow.
- Planking. This has already been discussed in a previous thread.
The Strategy:
MK is always on the approach, especially against falco. His favourite approaches are the fair and tornado. I'll go through tornado strategies in the next section. But anyway against the fair you have to laser him before he connects, or shield the whole thing. Smart/Skilled MK's DI away from you after they fair if they connect with your shield, so that eliminates your chances of chaingrabbing. But if they do that, IAP out of shield since the initial 'jump' cancels the shielddrop lag. Then proceed with lasers to force a grab opportunity. Another approach that MK's might use is the dair. Same rules apply here. Shield it, then IAP. Just don't get too predictable with the IAP since MK will catch on and hit you out of it.
Anyway against the tornado the best way to stop it is SHDL. Shine can also stop it, although MK is very fast and will grab you before you catch your reflector. However, if you don't have enough time and end up having to shield the whole thing, make sure you angle the shield upwards and punish afterwards. And if all this fails, and you end up getting caught in the tornado, Tap DI and SDI up and out of it, and either punish with dair through the middle of the tornado if possible, or just punish MK when he finished the move altogether. Don't try phantasming into the tornado, because you can't.
If MK gets a grab on you, and you see him stamping his tiny feet on your head with the dthrow, DI away from him so you don't get hit by the fair that is most likely coming up and if applicable, tech roll. If you're close to the stage then MK will use a throw that will send you off-stage for edgeguarding.
Of course falco has the chaingrab which will bring MK down to 45%, followed up by a dair that won't kill or gattling combo. Personally I'd rather dair them into the ground and then techchase a gattling combo or another grab, or whatever I feel like. This is one of the main reasons why falco goes even with MK, because without it falco has a difficult time racking up enough damage in sufficient time.
MK will most likely intercept your phantasm off-stage, quite often with a tornado, nair or dair. Just get to the ledge as quickly as possible so that MK doesn't get a chance to gimp. Also make sure that you won't get edgehoggedwhen you phantasm. If you do manage to grab the ledge, don't phantasm if MK is still on the stage. He will just throw out his tornado and intercept. Double lasers are probably your best bet, or just simply get up/get-up attack/roll depending on their position and whether or not MK is shielding. If you end up having to use the firebird, you're most likely screwed.
Falco has difficulty dealing with planking, and this is the thread where it was discussed:
http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=208450
This is why falco does not have the advantage and the overall match-up is even, otherwise he would.
Remember that MK's also love to spam Dsmash, since it's just such a fast and powerful move which can kill or send off-stage (as mentioned earlier). If he dsmashes and you spotdodge or shield, expect another one since it's so fast. Your best bet is to jump out of shield and dair while MK is dsmashing I think.
Killing MK can be a pain, especially since he is so fast. The best killer here is usmash, since it kills at a little under 110%, and is your fastest killing move. MK is light, but speedy. He has trouble killing as well, but that excludes gimps offstage so he doesn't really need that killing power (even though he has fsmash which has a very laggy start-up compared to all his other moves). MK also kills with shuttle loop which is very fast and has invincibility frames, which usually kills if used off-stage. Basically falco's best chance is to create the opening with lasers and usmash, or techchase/'mindgame' a fsmash.
STAGES
Counterpicks:
- Final Destination - This is your best neutral stage, and funnily enough some MK's I verse don't ban this.
- Jungle Japes - On this stage we kill quicker than MK can, and on this stage he can't plank either because of the klaptraps.
Ban These Stages!
- Delfino Plaza/Halberd - Very difficult to play on this stage as falco against MK, since MK will just attack from underneath the main platform.
- Luigi's Mansion - Laser game is hindered. 'Nuff Said.
- Norfair - A terrible falco stage overall.
- Rainbow Cruise - Personally I actually don't mind playing on this stage against MK, although I know some falco players that despise it.
- Yoshi's Island - avoid this neutral stage for the first match if possible, although it isn't TOO bad.
- Lylat Cruise - screws recovery etc etc etc.
- A fair number of other stages - Basically MK is most likely to win in his counterpick.
For the first match try and get Final Destination or Smashville, since those are your best bets of winning the whole set. If you don't win, then you're going to have a very hard time in the last match (assuming you win on final destination/jungle japes).
