A secondary to Falco?

[Jabzilla]

Hey guys. I'm just wondering what character I can use as a secondary to Falco? What I mean is what character covers Falco's worst matchups. From personal experience I would say characters that float. I tend to use C.Falcon/Shiek/Lucina but I am not as proficient with them as I am with Falco.

If you guys could share what secondary you use and which secondary I should pick. I would greatly appreciate it. Also if there is a thread like this around here. Feel free to link it or, if there is a mod around, close/delete this thread.

 

[Monnix]

I play Mario, ZSS, and Falco. Mario is pretty decent against Rosalina and Luma because his throws kill luma almost every time and I feel like he combos easily after that. ZSS just dominates in the air and her grab is great unless she misses because the ending lag is terrible.

 

[Ffamran]

The issue is that I don't know Falco's MU - we should really start that MU thread up again... - that much aside from Jigglypuff probably having an advantage. I don't know about Kirby or Meta Knight, the other floaties. Anyway, I would say pick a character(s) you like. So, Falco could be your main, but Lucina and Peach are your secondaries - just throwing out an example. I'm more of a play characters that appeal to you and challenge you. Falco challenges me since I can't pick him up and play like Pit or Fox while Samus and Mega Man appeal to me since I like Samus and Mega Man's Mega Man, the OG of short hop lemons since 1987.

@X-ian has Falco as a secondary and Marth as his main while @ NotAnAdmin has Marth as a secondary and Falco as a main. I main Falco, but I do well with Ike, Pit, sometimes Peach, Dr. Mario, sometimes Shulk, and I mess around with Captain Falcon, Yoshi, Luigi, Ganondorf, and Palutena. If Wolf is ever released for DLC, then I would probably have him as my secondary since I love his fighting style.

So, pick a character who suits your play style, who challenges you, who covers different MUs, and/or who appeals to you.

 

[Jabzilla]

I do think Falco has problems with King Dedede. I played against one in a tournament and got pretty much destroyed. All my approaches were cut off. Rosalina and Luma/ZSS haven't been much trouble for Falco since patch 1.04 hit.

I do play a lot of characters I just need to find one and become as fluent with them like I am with Falco. Trouble is putting my finger on one and saying "There!". I am leaning towards C.Falcon since he is just so stylish.

But yeah. I think a MU thread would be ace if we start it again.

 

[Ffamran]

I do think Falco has problems with King Dedede. I played against one in a tournament and got pretty much destroyed. All my approaches were cut off. Rosalina and Luma/ZSS haven't been much trouble for Falco since patch 1.04 hit.

I do play a lot of characters I just need to find one and become as fluent with them like I am with Falco. Trouble is putting my finger on one and saying "There!". I am leaning towards C.Falcon since he is just so stylish.

But yeah. I think a MU thread would be ace if we start it again.

@ NotAnAdmin , @ Zionaze , and @ BlueBirdE sort of tried to start the MU thread back up, but I might just invite others to talk about MUs. Oh, and we missed the Greninja MU since they forgot about us.

Nobody has said a thing, but if people want, they can ask for a MU discussion with the other character boards or you could ask me and I'll get it started. The Lucina MU a while back concluded that it was slightly in Lucina's and probably Marth's favor because of their range, but since Falco hits hard, then it's not a big deal like fighting Jigglypuff who can glide around you and interrupt Falco's Jab combo and some more with Rest, Bair, etc.

We can finalize the Mega Man and Dr. Mario/Mario MUs or we could pick someone else like Meta Knight, Fox, or Triple D.

Character with range like Triple D, Shulk, and Ike will give Falco trouble. Maybe Link and Toon Link too, but I don't really have much trouble because Links tend to wall people with projectiles which Falco can just ignore with Reflector and get in to punish Link especially off-stage since Link's recovery isn't that great compared to other tether recoverers like Samus, Toon Link, and ZSS.

Yeah, picking a character is kind of hard since there's so many awesome characters. Some are just interesting, some click with you, some aren't that interesting to you, and some make you question why can't I work with them and you spend time learning.

 

[SoundChow]

I think that Fox is a good secondary because he can apply a lot of pressure and is good against Lucario, which I think is a difficult matchup. Wario's also a good secondary because his aerial game is similar and he's very good against floaties. Ffamran, Falco has a better matchup against Toon Link because his reflector stops bomb followups and boomerang. This is from experience and from what most people say on the tink boards.

 

[anas abou]

i would suggest shiek fox and bowser

 

[shoops]

I do think Falco has problems with King Dedede. I played against one in a tournament and got pretty much destroyed. All my approaches were cut off. Rosalina and Luma/ZSS haven't been much trouble for Falco since patch 1.04 hit.

Agreed. I tend to have trouble against the heavier/hard hitting characters in the cast, especially DDD. Maybe FD is not the best stage for Falco against these characters.

 

[Zionaze]

certain matchups do favor other characters but none of them really make me frustrated or make the match unplayable.

Except Ness.

Dear Nintendo,

Drown Ness in a puddle please.

Thank You
~Zionaze


And for that reason I use Rosalina as my 2nd.
Rosalina and Falco share some weakness however, getting bodied by rushdown characters.
I've been trying to learn how to use Lucina, Toon Link, and Shulk tho

 

[NotAnAdmin]

I have my Marth and C. Falcon secondaries.
I almost went with diddy, just because he's easy, but I feel he's too easy, I like a challenge.
I think picking up ZSS or Bowser Jr would be pretty cool though.

Oh, and we missed the Greninja MU since they forgot about us.
.

Feels bad, we're like Link in Melee, no one even remembers he or his mains exist.

 

[Captain Rage Quit 69]

I'm just popping in here to say if you pick up Fox and Mario, your Falco will be thankful for it in the long-term.

So many potential losses avoided because I had a faster character, or that F.L.U.D.D. <3

 

[Ffamran]

Falco, Ike, and Ganondorf here aka FIG. I play a tasty trio of characters.

@SDFox, there are a lot of reasons on why you want to someone as a main, co-main, secondary, tertiary, etc. I've said this before, but I main Falco because he challenges and because I want to prove Falco's not as bad as people think. As for Ike and Ganondorf, well, Ike's someone I'm familiar with since Brawl and Ganondorf's just fun in SSB4. At the same time, Ike and Ganondorf help with understanding of spacing, the also help with learning an air game, and dealing with exploitable recoveries. Ganondorf teaches you patience and to always stay calm in whatever situation and that hits sometimes aren't that bad, he also teaches you how to punish and look for and exploit openings and bad calls from the opponent. So, I guess they shaped my Falco into more of a slugger and punisher since I will tank hits that Falco shouldn't be taking and I do take things so I can keep control of the situation. At the same time, Falco shapes Ike and Ganondorf since do go off stage a lot and feints are nice with the two, especially Ganondorf who can feint and slam you with a Bair or Fair. That's just me.

Some people pick characters to cover matchups, some pick them because they like the characters, and some pick characters because they like the play style. I don't like Rosalina, Villager, Diddy, Wario, Jigglypuff, Lucario, Ness, and Mario because they just don't click with me or I just don't like them period like Wario, Jigglypuff, the Mii Fighters, and Mario - Luigi's the real hero, I tell you!

Sometimes, people might play a character not as a main or secondary, but for practice. So, Dabuz could play as and against Diddy during practice to understand Diddy not just from a matchup and observational experience, but also a personal experience. For one, I know how Fox, Falco, Ike, Toon Link, Mario, Dr. Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Ganondorf, and Mega Man works, but I don't know how Villager, the Mii Fighters, ROB, Mr. Game & Watch, Jigglypuff, Diddy, and Rosalina works from a more personal level, but I have seen and fought them, but it's not enough, especially against Rosalina, Samus, and Villager.

So, if you like Falco and Peach and you feel like the compliment each other well, then by all means, play them. Falco is my main, but Ike feels a bit safer against Rosalina for me and Ganondorf, well, he's the King of Evil.

 

[Zionaze]

I've noticed that using Diddy as a 2nd covers ALL of his bad MUs. Something that Keitaro does often.
I also play Wario now except he shares some of the weakness Falco also has so not suited for a 2nd but just for fun.

 

[NotAnAdmin]

Top 5 secondaries in my opinion:
ZSS - insane mobility and range, an awfully hard to punish recovery, plus the taser shot, you can't go wrong.
Shulk - dat monado tho
C.Falcon - all around solid rushdown character with great speed and good air game
Rosalina - dat luma tho
Mario or Luigi - both due to them being able to juggle more than half of the cast to oblivion with combos and having a projectiles to make your opponent have to rush in close. I can't decide between them.

 

[Roll-Spamming-Peasant]

See, I'm in the boat of using Falco as a co-main to Mario. If the zoning gets to rough for my rushdown orientated Mario, I bring in Falco to deal with them.

 

[theONEjanitor]

i secondary Marth, but that doesn't really cover all of his weaknesses. But I use Marth for gimmicky character like ZSS and Sonic that are hard for Falco to keep up with

 

[Legato]

I used Fox as a secondary, but I am in a Limbo state with mains so I have just started using anyone I feel like atm. I still use Falco a lot, and I would say Pikachu seems like a really good secondary to me right now. Pikachu handles sonic and other gimmicky chars wonderfully and I have yet to feel like a particular MU is impossible for Pikachu because he has so many movement options. In summary, Falco and Pikachu seem like a good pair to me. One caveat though, Pika requires dedication to play, definitely not easy to pick up and use competitively, but seeing as I'm talking to Falco mains, I doubt that is an issue.

I definitely prefer Falco for Marth/Lucina/Links so it works pretty well imo.

 

[Zionaze]

Playing Pikachu requires me to shed some years off of my life. I need that much concentration or else I quick attack SD. ;.;

 

[Omegascizor456]

you should try Zero Suit samus! She counters Falco's weaknesses pretty well!

 

[BlueBirdE]

Mario bros seem to pick up on some of falcos harder mus. For me its be the shorter characters that have given me trouble. Combos dont work as well but with mario bros its no problem. I personally prefer luigi but that gives me trouble against sheik. I heard kirby is a good mu with sheik i may be learning him as well

 

[BlueBirdE]

@ NotAnAdmin , @ Zionaze , and @ BlueBirdE sort of tried to start the MU thread back up, but I might just invite others to talk about MUs. Oh, and we missed the Greninja MU since they forgot about us.

Havent forgotten. Work and school comes first. I got some tike to be active again. Will be labbing aan figuring out the mus

 

[Jpot]

Gonna attempt to revive this thread since I'm trying to decide on a secondary or co-main myself right now. Falco is my boy, I love him to death as a character and as a fighter, but it's becoming increasingly clear that solo maining him just isn't tournament viable.

Characters that seem to cover Falco's poor matchups include Pikachu, Kirby, Luigi, and Captain Falcon. I really want to pick up Marth, but as far as I can tell he shares pretty much all of Falco's bad matchups - any insight on that would be appreciated.

 

[BlueBirdE]

Im working on having 3 tournament mains so far its luigi and falco. I feel both these characters complement each other well. For a third ive been thinking about kirby, fox, or greninja.

 

[Zionaze]

My trinity is working out with wario as my starter and then choosing either diddy or falco for certain MUs

 

[Jpot]

Im working on having 3 tournament mains so far its luigi and falco. I feel both these characters complement each other well. For a third ive been thinking about kirby, fox, or greninja.

I'm glad to hear it, because I am leaning toward Luigi - I like the fact that he's an oddball, as a character, and his combo game is off the charts. Plus, he hits that sweet spot of high tier, but not so high tier as to be totally overplayed. Can you elaborate at all on why you feel he complements Falco well?

 

[BlueBirdE]

I'm glad to hear it, because I am leaning toward Luigi - I like the fact that he's an oddball, as a character, and his combo game is off the charts. Plus, he hits that sweet spot of high tier, but not so high tier as to be totally overplayed. Can you elaborate at all on why you feel he complements Falco well?

Its all theory right now, but ive been labbing on falcos combo game in every aspect and i feel at full potential he can have semi similar combo game to luigi with his grab combos that can also kill. I feel theres certain mus that i feel he excels on (megaman,rob for example) that he can do just as well, if not better than luigi can if played right. Other mus (pika, mario bros, diddy) can be challenging to him since their sizeand better frame data make it hard to fight in neutral and combo. Thats where luigi comes in. The team doesnt cover all characters (sheik rosa for example) but thats why im looking at 1 more character. Been hearing good things about kirby and i like his playstyle or seeing amsa do work with greninja makes me want to explore that route too. Again its all theory.

 

[Jpot]

Yeah, I agree. Falco does match up fantastically against projectile zoners and any spacers he can outrange with his reflector, especially Reflector Void if customs are on. I'm thinking Kirby too now, actually, since his customs are amazing and he's solid even without them.

 

[Zionaze]

Luigi is probably the best 2ndary for falco but if only I didnt dislike the character so much :x

 

[Trieste SP]

Zelda, because that's what I use. (Bad advice by the way)

 

[Pazx]

I can't help but feel like having a secondary with the same major weakness as Falco is a bad idea. If you find a player or character who can exploit that weakness, you're done, so picking a character with an incredibly gimpable recovery like Fox seems unwise to me.

 

[Jabzilla]

I been burnt out on Sm4sh for awhile. I picked up Fox and switch between the 2 but Fox kind of has the same weaknesses as Falco. I will probably try and add a third character. Mix things up a little. Might go with Shulk or Falcon since they have the best costumes.

 

[Ffamran]

Spoiler: Not sure if the right place to ask for this, but ...

I might consider training as Villager for some campy match-ups, what are your thoughts on that, since Kirby is only there for a couple niche match-ups (Sheik, ZSS, Capt. Falcon and Fox namely, so I don't get beat up as hard as my Falco does) and my ZSS clearly isn't that good ?

We have a thread on secondaries. I don't know who uses Villager and Falco and frequents the boards here... FOW uses Villager and Ness - don't remember which he mains - and he has used Falco before in the 3DS days. Maybe even continuing since he dittoed Cyro. I do know @Gamegenie222 has fought Villager a lot, though. He also plays Rosalina, Robin, Roy?, and either Lucina or Marth along with Falco.

Using Villager for campy MUs... Falco's kind of designed for anti-zoning while Villager's more for zoning... Well, he would be doing a better job if his Blaster wasn't just "functional". For some, Falco's also pretty decent against Captain Falcon, Fox - basically Ken vs. Ryu or maybe Iori vs. Kyo -, and even Sheik, but that's all you as a player and how you deal with things. If you're looking for speed to deal with moving through projectiles while having projectiles of your own, Sheik, ZSS, Pikachu, the Pits, Greninja, Diddy, Fox, Yoshi, Toon Link, Mario, Wii Fit Trainer, and Sonic - he's a living projectile after all - come to mind. For more slower paced while having (an arsenal of) projectiles, Link, Samus, Luigi, Dr. Mario, Olimar, Mega Man - really good air speed, though -, Pac-Man, Rosalina, Lucario, Mewtwo, Mr. Game & Watch, Duck Hunt, Peach, Ryu, ROB, Ness, Lucas, Robin, and Bowser Jr. come to mind. Out of those options, the Pits and Mario are the most balanced choices. You don't really sacrifice much like or have to deal with a lot of issues like the intricacies of Ryu, Pac-Man, and Peach, having worse recoveries with Ness, Dr. Mario, and Luigi, having kill issues now like Duck Hunt and Yoshi, or having similar issues due to similar physics like Fox.

Now, if you're just looking to break zones and rush in, without projectiles, Captain Falcon, Roy, Marth, Meta Knight, Little Mac, and Sonic. With projectiles, you're looking at Fox, Greninja, ZSS, Sheik, Yoshi, and Pikachu. Ike, Wario, and DK are pretty much worthwhile, but outlying characters as they have issues with projectiles as well, but Wario always presents a threat since Waft charges passively.

 

[Fryelt]

We have a thread on secondaries. I don't know who uses Villager and Falco and frequents the boards here... FOW uses Villager and Ness - don't remember which he mains - and he has used Falco before in the 3DS days. Maybe even continuing since he dittoed Cyro. I do know @Gamegenie222 has fought Villager a lot, though. He also plays Rosalina, Robin, Roy?, and either Lucina or Marth along with Falco.

Using Villager for campy MUs... Falco's kind of designed for anti-zoning while Villager's more for zoning... Well, he would be doing a better job if his Blaster wasn't just "functional". For some, Falco's also pretty decent against Captain Falcon, Fox - basically Ken vs. Ryu or maybe Iori vs. Kyo -, and even Sheik, but that's all you as a player and how you deal with things. If you're looking for speed to deal with moving through projectiles while having projectiles of your own, Sheik, ZSS, Pikachu, the Pits, Greninja, Diddy, Fox, Yoshi, Toon Link, Mario, Wii Fit Trainer, and Sonic - he's a living projectile after all - come to mind. For more slower paced while having (an arsenal of) projectiles, Link, Samus, Luigi, Dr. Mario, Olimar, Mega Man - really good air speed, though -, Pac-Man, Rosalina, Lucario, Mewtwo, Mr. Game & Watch, Duck Hunt, Peach, Ryu, ROB, Ness, Lucas, Robin, and Bowser Jr. come to mind. Out of those options, the Pits and Mario are the most balanced choices. You don't really sacrifice much like or have to deal with a lot of issues like the intricacies of Ryu, Pac-Man, and Peach, having worse recoveries with Ness, Dr. Mario, and Luigi, having kill issues now like Duck Hunt and Yoshi, or having similar issues due to similar physics like Fox.

Now, if you're just looking to break zones and rush in, without projectiles, Captain Falcon, Roy, Marth, Meta Knight, Little Mac, and Sonic. With projectiles, you're looking at Fox, Greninja, ZSS, Sheik, Yoshi, and Pikachu. Ike, Wario, and DK are pretty much worthwhile, but outlying characters as they have issues with projectiles as well, but Wario always presents a threat since Waft charges passively.

Thanks for the info ! Although I ain't sure I'll switch off from Villager for now since I already have a good feel of his moveset, I might look a bit into Pac-Man to see if I can play him well.

The thing is, for whatever reason, I am much more comfortable with slow moving characters that aren't heavies, so that's why Villy came to my mind. Maybe I should just play the game more to see what secondary could help out my bad-match-ups, I don't have much tournament experience after all.

Oh, and sorry if I am hard to understand on some parts, English isn't my mother tongue (If you say it like that).

 

[Tankendog]

Dr. Mario

More realistically, Yoshi, Marth, C. Falcon, Link, Young Link, Pikachu, Literally any character that has an approach.

 

[khariwa]

Hey guys! I comain Ike and Falco and I wanted to know how well they balance each other. I don't like using high level characters because I don't care too much about being good but enjoy the challenge and feeling of beating a high tier character. Do you guys think these two cover enough of each other's weakness to get by in local tourneys. I know they both have trouble in recovery but I really would the communities opinion on this. I talked a bit about it on the Ike forum but I wanted some Falcons mains opinions as well

 

[AviaRy]

My usual training partner is an Ike main, so I feel like I can help with this one:

Both Ike and Falco share some bad matchups (Sheik, Mario, etc) because they have the same sort of problems: Recovering, killing (reliably), getting juggled, and neutral.

Falco and Ike share fairly linear recoveries that are not that hard to gimp (Ike's is deceptively easy to gimp once you get around the sword). Ike is a big body with slow moves, and therfore can be more easily juggled.
Falco is a relatively light fast faller, and so can get juggled fairly easily, although phantasm & being able to angle Fire Bird helps with this.
Neither character has consistent kill setups. The closest thing Ike has is ledge option reads with fsmash, upsmash, dash attack, and ftilt. The closest thing Falco has is edgeguards, reading rolls with fsmash and usmash, or dtilt -> fair. Nothing anywhere near as consistent Shiek's 50-50s or Diddy's dtilt into upsmash.
Both of their neturals are relatively pretty mediocre. Falco & Ike's bairs are mostly safe on shield. mostly. Ike has a little bit of an advantage in neutral due to nair and jab, but can have trouble getting a follow up. Falco has more consistent grab combos, longer strings, great footsies because of his tilts, and can poke with laser and reflector.

The weaknesses Ike covers for Falco are weight, a disjoint, and kill % and the weaknesses Falco covers for Ike are string potential, edgeguarding ability, and projectiles.

There's no reason to not play both, but both of them lose to characters that out-neutral or out-speed them. At a local, you'd likely have trouble with Mario, Luigi, Sheik, ZSS, Diddy, Fox, Yoshi, and Villager. Those characters beat Ike and Falco mostly because of an advantage in the neutral due to having a superior, spammable projectile or simply due to speed.

Conclusion: Get a more well-rounded secondary, like Pit, Diddy, or Mario if you want to cover bad matchups.

 

[LordShade67]

The closest thing Ike has is ledge option reads with fsmash, upsmash, dash attack, and ftilt. The closest thing Falco has is edgeguards and reading rolls with fsmash and usmash. Nothing like Shiek's 50-50s or Diddy's dtilt into upsmash.

First of all, FSmash should never be used under any real circumstance. USmash is mostly for hard reads, but Ike gets more out of it. Even so, Ike has kill setups primarily on Fastfallers, but they exist. UThrow > FAir, UThrow > UAir, NAir to FAir/BAir depending on which NAir hit lands, etc. And besides that, Ike's edgeguarding is solid, between Eruption, FAir, BAir, etc. As for raw killing, FTilt is right, but UTilt is usually preferred over USmash.

Falco & Ike's bairs are kinda safe on shield. Kinda. Ike has a little bit of an advantage in neutral due to nair and jab, but often has trouble getting a follow up. Falco has more consistent grab combos and can poke with laser and reflector.

Ike's neutral primarily utilizes movement(Ike's Dash is quick and short, meaning he can go into shield earlier vs. the other FE characters), Jab, DTilt(Which has solid range and after 11% can combo into BAir and after 30% into FAir), NAir, the occasional FAir, which from a shorthop can autocancel, and BAir, which hits like a truck, autocancels from shorthop, and made safer via retreating. As for followups, Ike's DThrow at low %s True combos into all of Ike's aerials except DAir(Which can be done with a footstool, but eh. Footstools). UThrow > FAir is true up to really high %s(To get an idea, on heavies, it stops working at like 80% or something)?

Just wanted to get that out there.

 

[Ffamran]

Hey guys! I comain Ike and Falco and I wanted to know how well they balance each other. I don't like using high level characters because I don't care too much about being good but enjoy the challenge and feeling of beating a high tier character. Do you guys think these two cover enough of each other's weakness to get by in local tourneys. I know they both have trouble in recovery but I really would the communities opinion on this. I talked a bit about it on the Ike forum but I wanted some Falcons mains opinions as well

I'm merging this thread with the "A secondary to Falco?" thread... I'll consider it the same topic, but yours is like a post asking about Ike as a compliment to Ike...

For me, I just play both characters because I don't really find the other characters appealing enough... They just don't click with me unlike Falco and Ike. Falco's more of I just got used to how he plays while Ike's a Brawl thing. Now, whether or not they compliment each other well... I don't really know. What I do know is that I prefer Ike for fighting characters who out-range either because they just have more range like Bowser - bear in mind that several of Bowser's moves are invincible, so he could be counted as a disjoint character - or they have disjoints like Rosalina. Rosalina is the biggest reason I would use Ike over Falco just because Ike's Ragnell is safer than using Falco's hands and feet. On the flipside, dealing with characters who are close-range fighters or have faster hits like Diddy, Fox, or Sheik, I'd go Falco instead since his moves are fast and also strong enough that he can keep up if not outright kill them. Also, zoners like Villager would make me want to go Falco over Ike since Falco can challenge at range, albeit poorly with Blaster or defend himself with Reflector. That being said, can I, you, or anyone take on say, Diddy with Ike or Rosalina with Falco? Absolutely. It's just a comfort thing I guess and an MU thing which is still iffy. The clearest thing is Falco gets wrecked by Rosalina and Ike also gets wrecked, but not as much. Rosalina, especially for those who don't understand her or at really high level play, wrecks a lot of people player and MU-wise.

My usual training partner is an Ike main, so I feel like I can help with this one:

Both Ike and Falco share some bad matchups (Sheik, Mario, etc) because they have the same sort of problems: Recovering, killing (reliably), getting juggled, and neutral.

Falco and Ike share fairly linear recoveries that are not that hard to gimp (Ike's is deceptively easy to gimp once you get around the sword). Ike is a big body with slow moves, and therfore can be more easily juggled.
Falco is a relatively light fast faller, and so can get juggled fairly easily, although phantasm & being able to angle Fire Bird helps with this.
Neither character has consistent kill setups. The closest thing Ike has is ledge option reads with fsmash, upsmash, dash attack, and ftilt. The closest thing Falco has is edgeguards, reading rolls with fsmash and usmash, or dtilt -> fair. Nothing anywhere near as consistent Shiek's 50-50s or Diddy's dtilt into upsmash.
Both of their neturals are relatively pretty mediocre. Falco & Ike's bairs are mostly safe on shield. mostly. Ike has a little bit of an advantage in neutral due to nair and jab, but can have trouble getting a follow up. Falco has more consistent grab combos, longer strings, great footsies because of his tilts, and can poke with laser and reflector.

The weaknesses Ike covers for Falco are weight, a disjoint, and kill % and the weaknesses Falco covers for Ike are string potential, edgeguarding ability, and projectiles.

There's no reason to not play both, but both of them lose to characters that out-neutral or out-speed them. At a local, you'd likely have trouble with Mario, Luigi, Sheik, ZSS, Diddy, Fox, Yoshi, and Villager. Those characters beat Ike and Falco mostly because of an advantage in the neutral due to having a superior, spammable projectile or simply due to speed.

Conclusion: Get a more well-rounded secondary, like Pit, Diddy, or Mario if you want to cover bad matchups.

LordShade67 covered pretty much what I would have said (after research). I would recommend you and khariwa look into the Ike boards, gameplay of Blitz, Ryo, Ryuga, San, SM, and Stark, or San's channel for Ike stuff.

That being said, playing a well-rounded character like Mario or the Pits would kind of default them to as "main" since they cover pretty much everything well while Falco would be defaulted to secondary or pocket since he's more specialized despite his versatility. I'd also argue that Diddy's more specialized as well.