FALCO
DIFFICULTY: HARD - 35:65
CHAINGRAB: NO
DIFFICULTY: HARD - 35:65
CHAINGRAB: NO
The Falco matchup is very difficult. He has a ton of advantages – speed, comboing, outcamping you, being able to chaingrab you while not being chaingrabbed back, and being just heavy enough to not die at percentages below 95%. The only real advantages you have against him are the fact that he is still pretty light, even if he’s no Jigglypuff, and his recovery is easy to gimp.
If Falco grabs you, he’ll chainthrow you up to 6 times from 0% and then finish with either a dair, usmash, smash boost, or fsmash, most likely the first one. His chaingrab stops working on you at about 54% or so according to the Falco boards, but their dthrow is a still a good setup for combos after that, so it’s unlikely they’ll ever stop using it or throw you in a different direction. Because of his chaingrab, spacing is really important in this matchup. Ftilt pokes are essential. Be careful not to get within range of his reflector also, I believe that trips the opponent when it hits and that’ll easily set you up for a smash. Also, be sure not to get too far away from him since he can easily outcamp you.
“What do you mean Falco can outcamp King Dedede? Waddle Dees block the lasers!” you might say. This is true for Falcos who stay grounded while spamming lasers, and Waddle Dees could actually be beneficial in preventing a laser lock, as unlikely as that occurrence may be. However, good Falcos will SHL or SHDL you, and when they do this it is almost guaranteed that at least one of them will hit you. TommyG, a very good and respected Falco player, has said that many Dededes only use their ground game to shield, dodge, and grab and that Falcos should use their lasers, either camping or at close range, to throw them off. What this ultimately means is that you’ll have to do something Dedede doesn’t normally do – Approach.
Approaching Falco with Dedede – or anyone for that matter – is not the easiest thing in the world, but it’s still manageable. Powersheilding the lasers is a good solution but not the best as it’ll wear down your shield and make Falco more able to poke you. Spotdodging and rolling on your way there aren’t bad ideas but they are somewhat preditcable. A good way to approach is through a combination of spotdodging and airdodging through the lasers. Neither of these have much lag so they should be ideal for approaching.
So let’s say you’ve approached Falco. Good job! Now what should you do? If you said “grab him”, that is an acceptable answer. But he can’t be chaingrabbed, so where are you supposed to throw him? Bthrow is probably your best option since it’s your best friend in matchups where you can’t chaingrab your opponent. However, you may also want to think about using uthrow against Falco. You know, uthrow? That move you probably never use? It’s fantastic against fastfallers. After uthrowing you can follow up with utilt, usmash, uair, or just follow where he’s going to land, grab him, and repeat. Uthrow will probably end up being a good setup for you in this matchup since Falco is just barely light enough for you to kill him off the top of the stage at >100% (the exact number is 95% I believe).
But a majority of the time you won’t be killing him off the top but instead gimping him off the side. Falco’s recovery isn’t terrible (though it could really only be worse if it were a tether recovery), but if he’s below an angle of about 30 degrees below the horizontal, he’s basically dead. Almost all Falcos will use their sideB to recover if they’re within sweetspot range of the ledge. If they can sideB back onto the stage, your only real option is to spotdodge, predict where they’re going to land (the easy part) and try getting them off again at a lower angle or just generally punish them. A great way to punish their sideB at high percents is by killing them with an utilt, which outprioritizes it. If they’re far enough out and down, though, you should definitely try and gimp them. Bair and nair both outprioritize Falco’s sideB. After they get hit by one of those, Falco will most likely be forced to use his upB. I’m not going to go over how to gimp that. If you can’t figure it out, you might want to think about using a different character.
A few other notes: Don’t stand there with your shield up trying to perfect shield and spotdodge everything like an idiot. You’ll get grabbed and be up to 60% before you can say “Maybe I should’ve airdodged”. Inhale and fhdair can surprise Falco also, so mix that in and use it to your advantage. And finally, stage choice is very important in this matchup. More on that below.
Falco's advantages:
• Superior projectile game
• Faster ground movement
• Ability to CG ;Dedede can't CG him
• Superior stage control with use of projectile
• Quick horizontal recovery to avoid edgeguarding
Dedede's advantages:
• Superior grab range
• High capacity for early kills
• Better poking game (F-tilt)
• Heavy weight
IMO this matchup is in falco's favor.
Video reference for below statements: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loGUQcQO0-E
DISCLAIMER: The above video is old and will be updated with a new one ASAP. It's from 6/30, before i got really good XD
As far as fighting one goes, patience is key, and when you strike you have to get as much out of it as you can. In my time playing falcos i've realized that there are obvious trends in the way they return to the stage and in the way they try to approach/kill. I find that whenever i fight the higher level falcos in my area that these trends don't exist, though when i say "higher level falcos" i mean people like sethlon, the second best falco in the nation, so you can expect these out of average people most of the time.
First, we'll start off with recovery trends and how to punish them. It's a well known fact that NO falco ever wants to use his up-b to recover against someone who can move around in the air like D3 does, so you'll see most falcos using side-b to recover.(Also referred to as the Phantasm) If you'll take a look at the video referrence posted above you'll notice how this move can be quick and annoying to try to edgeguard at 0:37. The great thing about this is, most falcos try to ram the phantasm right into you, so it tends to be really predictable and easy to punish if you use the right techniques. I've found that one of the best ways to edgeguard a falco isn't to wildly fling yourself into to fray, but to stay planted, control your ground and use your range. If you'll view the vid again you can see at 0:57 how this concept is slightly shown. Another great stage guard is throwing a waddle dee into their phantasm as they do it towards you. If they're anywhere under 115% then it'll be a free grab for you because they pop up right in front of you after the hit. (yes waddles do break phantasm) That's just my opinion on edgeguarding, not saying you shuold do that ever time, but it does work. You can see more traditional D3 edgeguarding at 1:25 (<3 Aero)
Now secondly, we'll talk about how to deal with falco's approach/camp game. Ok, this is the hard part, IMO this is what makes the matchup so hard, his **** lasers. In my time playing spammy falcos i've actually developed a technique for approaching at a decent speed safely, and it's called the "Fogo walk" (trademarked ) which is basically a mix up powershielding and approaching that looks pretty impressive. I'll be debuting that on a grand scale with the coming of my combo video "Feel the magic" (Shameless plug) which you should all check out. Never fear though, there are ways around his lasers without powershielding the majority of them. You can easily spot dodge then jump and airdodge threw some lasers on your way towards falco with no landing lag as displayed in the video at 1:50. At the time this was saved i was just thinking of that approach, but now i have it down as you'll see in upcoming vids, and i promise that it works. (if you dont screw up like i did there lol)
EDIT: Bthrow is your best friend! Not uthrow lol
Basically if you play smart and land utilts this is all you'll need to beat the average falco player, good luck guys!
Gates update this thread with the following:
In this matchup you want to avoid being grabbed, particularly in starting percents to 30%. I say 30% because if he gets his first dthrow grab on you at 30%, it won't be decayed enough to do the full CG on you, leaving his CG at around 40% - 45%. After CG percents, avoid to get dthrow > jab for extra damage into a laser lock IF THE FALCO KNOWS WHAT HE OR SHE IS DOING. Against campy Falcos (which is what they SHOULD be doing), if they attempt to side-b to the other side, you can react with utilt, or with the preferred ftilt since it doesn't stale your kill move and puts Falco in a position to get grabbed or Fair'ed, depending on where they are. In general, you wanna stay in the air unless you wanna go through Falco's lasers powershielding them and predicting the aforementioned side-b and intercepting with ftilt or utilt.
When on the defensive, you want to avoid getting grabbed period. Grabs on you can be really dangerous especially if they Falco knows how to mix up dair tricks into baits and punishes. Use waddles to get 5% or to eat some of the lasers at waist level. Since you are either staying at from Falco or keeping yourself in a position to either block lasers or baiting and punishing side-b attempts.
On the offensive (which you should be since a Falco should never be a approaching), you want to stay in the air. Even though I say this for every matchup, your air options are just sooooo much better than your ground options. Bair > Falco's aerials by a lot. Our bair, when it hits, can be followed up really well, by running and going for the grab. If you get the grab, you can bthrow for the 16%, but you can dthrow and go for the tech chase. When tech chasing Falco, it tends to be your best option to slowly walk forward and wait for the Falco to tech in place or tech roll in front of you or behind you. Since Falco's tech roll is about the same speed as your dash, you can use that to regrab and either bthrow or dthrow again and repeat.
When in kill percents, whether it be you or Falco, you want to avoid getting dair. Please. Don't let him do it. Falco's options after a dair at high percents are ****ing ridiculous and can kill you if you don't know what's coming. If you get grabbed, he will dthrow and try to Fsmash kill you. Don't fall for it. Jump always. When Falco is in kill percents, you want to set up for the kill by ftilt him and trying to bait him to side-b, then punish. Whether or not is kinda important, because he can always just airdodge. If he does, go for the grab and fthrow or bthrow off the stage and proceed to kill him offstage. Remember, ftilt eats side-b and can stop his recovery if he doesn't use up-b to recover.
When it comes to offstage and edgeguarding, you have the upper hand. Falco has to get back on stage the best he can or get 30% easily, whether it be from bair or fair. When Falco has to edgeguard you, I usually tend to up-b into the air and wait for the uair to come and SDI the first hit if he tries to hit you with both hits. Not much to really cover in this section of the matchup.
Overall, 60:40 Falco. We have options, he just has better ones.
Good Stages:
Lylat Cruise, Halberd, Pokémon Stadium 1
Stages with weird ledges to gimp his recovery further, and areas where you can avoid Falco’s laser camping (the Halberd platform’s indentation, the Mansion’s pillars) are what you want to look for in a counterpick. Lylat Cruise is particularly notable since when Falco is on one of the platforms he’ll be in utilt range.Lylat Cruise, Halberd, Pokémon Stadium 1
Bad Stages:
Final Destination, Smashville, Pirate Ship, Jungle Japes
Large stages where Falco can out-camp you. At the same time though, you don’t want to choose a stage that’s too small or else you’re more likely to get grabbed. It’s unlikely that they’d pick a walk-off stage, but those would also be bad in this matchup since gimping Falco’s recovery is where you’ll get most of your kills from.Final Destination, Smashville, Pirate Ship, Jungle Japes
ALTERNATE STRATEGY: Ledgecamp.
This is obviously a joke. Many good Falcos know how to get around ledgecampers.