Meta I'll be your wingman anytime; Falco Doubles Discussion

[Ffamran]

Welcome to the Falco doubles (and triples and quads if those ever become popular) discussion.

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I don't really know much about doubles, so this is going to be a bit more free-form unlike the matchup discussions I started. With, currently, 55 characters on deck, that means there's 50+ teams Falco can be a part of. For most characters, doubles means their weaknesses can be covered by their partner and their strengths can shine or even become stronger. At the same time, characters who don't do well at singles, but well at doubles might be those uncommon characters, including Falco, like Zelda, Mr. Game & Watch, Pac-Man, etc. This causes an issue where people just didn't know those characters do well in doubles or just don't know anyting about those characters at all.

For the purposes of this thread, I've defined two general roles which either Falco and his partner can play and alternate.

Point: Usually offensive, but not always. A pointman or pointwoman is going to be leading and be in the heat of the action. They don't have to be fast, but they're going to be in front. So, a team of Falco and Sonic could have Falco leading while Sonic covers him with his incredible speed or a team of Falco and Roy could have Roy take point while Falco covers aerial approaches and cross-ups.

Support: Self-explanatory. Support buddies are there to cover, clutch out kills, and in general, assist. Usually in the back and not in the heat of the action, but not always. A tank is a support role, but they're up in the front soaking up damage and drawing attention. Examples being Ganondorf, Charizard, and Bowser who can take damage and hit back hard for clutch kills. Characters considered offensive or aggressive can still be support like Little Mac and Captain Falcon who can clutch kills or rush in to change the situation.

So, let's get started. How about Sheik for the first discussion? Considered the ultimate support buddy by many, but who knows, maybe in theory a Falco and Sheik team is good, but in practice, it might not work.

 

[Nominate10]

Falco Sheik sounds like an extremely solid team combo to me, but with Falco on support. Here's why:
Falco - great followups/combo game, high killpower, nice multihits. weak neutral
Sheik - amazing neutral, great followups/combos. low killpower

So the general idea behind this is that Sheik heads the battle and uses her prowess to create openings, which Falco can capitalize on a great deal and rack percent / close out stocks. Lots of guaranteed kills out of receiving sheik's throws with a back air, or using his multihits (fair/nair) to bounce them back and give sheik enough time to get in position for more hits. Falco also has a ton of vertical mobility making him very receptive to sheik's team setups.
Sheik is an expert at controlling the flow of a battle, and Falco can be a good disruption for when things go wrong (disjointed fair).

Some other things worth noting:
- Falco's down throw can easily link into sheik tipper up smash for the kill due to its lower arc. At percents where the up smash won't reach anymore, they're usually in range for an uair kill anyway.
- Falco's back throw is very hard to combo off of since the lasers end up hitting your teammate
- Sheik doesn't have anything to reliably go out and save Falco if he's recovering too low. Correct me if I'm wrong.
- Team combos will be essential in this duo since both characters lack guaranteed solo kill setups and rely on 50/50s or a read with a powerful attack instead. But a team kill combo like the ones I've mentioned bypass this and need only a grab from either player.
- Falco (82) and Sheik (85) are among the lightest characters in the game. Tanking stocks will be a challenge. (source)

 

[NotAnAdmin]

I agree with everything @ Nominate10 posted.

Falco has so much potential on the support end, all it takes is a bit of awareness and a quick reaction to rebound a grab and turn it into a major dealing of pain or even cut the stock through Falco's usual strings. Shiek can make the openings or pin the opponents down with her speed and needles, while Falco takes advantage.

All we have to do is make sure Shiek doesn't get into too much trouble taking point and force them to back off, or just simply disrupt their flow whenever possible.

 

[Gamegenie222]

I was thinking about doing this myself good thing this is here. Speaking of Falco/Shiek what stages would they both complement each other the most, SV, T&C, Lylat etc?

And speaking on the teams matter I've been working on a Falco/LM team locally but haven't put it under trial by fire in a tournament setting sadly but falco edgeguards and folks getting send flying from LM from days.

 

[Ffamran]

I think Corrin might be a good doubles partner.

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