And what Falcon needs to do to get around it. We've talked about it before, but the obvious answer of "space better" just doesn't cut it, we need to be more specific. To start off, we should list the most relevant characters and the dangers that their crouch cancelling represents to us.
First we have the space animals. I think the most obvious danger they represent is shine. I've noticed that if you nair a space animal at low percentages, they can crouch cancel and shine you before the second hit even comes out. This is made more painful by the fact that they can just hit our foot, so spacing doesn't seem to be as effective of a way to stop it. Does this mean that we need to not nair them before a certain percentage? This also applies to gentlemans. This means that the way we act on a space animals shield has to be different at low percentages. If we're trying to aerial into gentleman on their shield, it's easy enough to just drop their shield and crouch cancel our gentlemans. So how do we get them to a percentage where we can not be crouch cancel shined?
First off, we should actually learn for sure what that percentage is! Do any of you know it? It's going to change based on the spacing, but we should still have a very good idea of when it's likely to happen. With that in mind, it seems to me that nair and gentleman are much less useful at low percentages, and moves like bair, uair, and grab rise in effectiveness. Stomp is safe on crouch cancel, but it seems very difficult to just land a stomp on a space animal. I think that if you land low bairs or uairs on a crouch cancelling space animal, you won't get hit by shine at all if you spaced it well, and you can avoid stuff like fsmash from falco and usmash from fox by just dashing away.
Grab is obviously an amazing way to build damage, but it's not like that's the safest thing to try either. We all know that the spacies spotdodge is amazing, and if you grab a spotdodge you're probably going to get shined, which could mean your stock against either one of them. Unfortunately, I don't think (I could be wrong) that our grab range is high enough to outrange shine, and if it is, it's certainly difficult to do consistently, which means we need to be a step ahead mentally at all times. So the goal is to not be tricked into falling for this trap, but you need to be able to recognize the situations that the space animal is likely to spotdodge. How do you start a match with a fox or falco that you've never played against and instantly recognize when they're going to spotdodge at low percentages? I think one good way to condition space animals into spotdodging is by kneegrabbing their shield. If you do it once, and tech chase them to death with it, it's going to put the fear of god into their tiny fur covered hearts. But we also need to recognize when they do it defensively to get out of combos. Most space animals seem to spotdodge a lot when they're afraid of getting regrabbed out of techchases, but I'm sure there are hundreds of other situations that spacies all over the world are going to be tempted to buffer a spotdodge in.
With all of these things in mind, I'd like to get your guys feedback, and see what you guys think about the things I've said. If I get positive feedback on this, I can go on with other characters.
Here are a few questions for you guys. What do you think about first hit of nair as a way to build damage at early percentages? We can use it as a hit and run type of move, and if they try to crouch cancel it into a smash or shine or something, we can just dash back in and punish it. And what do you guys think about using Usmash as a way to solidly cover spotdodges? If it fully connects, I don't need to tell you guys what a fun time that can lead to (for proof, look at Hax vs Javi) and even if it gets crouch cancelled, you're just in a tech chase situation with them. What other ways do you guys think you can rely on to build damage in the early percentages while avoiding crouch cancelling? I'd love to hear your guys feedback.
First we have the space animals. I think the most obvious danger they represent is shine. I've noticed that if you nair a space animal at low percentages, they can crouch cancel and shine you before the second hit even comes out. This is made more painful by the fact that they can just hit our foot, so spacing doesn't seem to be as effective of a way to stop it. Does this mean that we need to not nair them before a certain percentage? This also applies to gentlemans. This means that the way we act on a space animals shield has to be different at low percentages. If we're trying to aerial into gentleman on their shield, it's easy enough to just drop their shield and crouch cancel our gentlemans. So how do we get them to a percentage where we can not be crouch cancel shined?
First off, we should actually learn for sure what that percentage is! Do any of you know it? It's going to change based on the spacing, but we should still have a very good idea of when it's likely to happen. With that in mind, it seems to me that nair and gentleman are much less useful at low percentages, and moves like bair, uair, and grab rise in effectiveness. Stomp is safe on crouch cancel, but it seems very difficult to just land a stomp on a space animal. I think that if you land low bairs or uairs on a crouch cancelling space animal, you won't get hit by shine at all if you spaced it well, and you can avoid stuff like fsmash from falco and usmash from fox by just dashing away.
Grab is obviously an amazing way to build damage, but it's not like that's the safest thing to try either. We all know that the spacies spotdodge is amazing, and if you grab a spotdodge you're probably going to get shined, which could mean your stock against either one of them. Unfortunately, I don't think (I could be wrong) that our grab range is high enough to outrange shine, and if it is, it's certainly difficult to do consistently, which means we need to be a step ahead mentally at all times. So the goal is to not be tricked into falling for this trap, but you need to be able to recognize the situations that the space animal is likely to spotdodge. How do you start a match with a fox or falco that you've never played against and instantly recognize when they're going to spotdodge at low percentages? I think one good way to condition space animals into spotdodging is by kneegrabbing their shield. If you do it once, and tech chase them to death with it, it's going to put the fear of god into their tiny fur covered hearts. But we also need to recognize when they do it defensively to get out of combos. Most space animals seem to spotdodge a lot when they're afraid of getting regrabbed out of techchases, but I'm sure there are hundreds of other situations that spacies all over the world are going to be tempted to buffer a spotdodge in.
With all of these things in mind, I'd like to get your guys feedback, and see what you guys think about the things I've said. If I get positive feedback on this, I can go on with other characters.
Here are a few questions for you guys. What do you think about first hit of nair as a way to build damage at early percentages? We can use it as a hit and run type of move, and if they try to crouch cancel it into a smash or shine or something, we can just dash back in and punish it. And what do you guys think about using Usmash as a way to solidly cover spotdodges? If it fully connects, I don't need to tell you guys what a fun time that can lead to (for proof, look at Hax vs Javi) and even if it gets crouch cancelled, you're just in a tech chase situation with them. What other ways do you guys think you can rely on to build damage in the early percentages while avoiding crouch cancelling? I'd love to hear your guys feedback.
