Best Matchup against Captain Falcon

[Octagon]

My friend recently picked Captain Falcon up and I was just wondering if there is a character that is for sure the best matchup against him

 

[Mikkelmann]

I just play Diddy and Sheik.

 

[PGP]

I think Pikachu is Falcon's hardest matchup, but sheik, diddy, and puff are pretty effective too

 

[Octagon]

I'm already very used to using Diddy so i'll get better with him, thanks

 

[fez4321]

Honestly, I don't think diddy or sheik present an incredibly tough matchup against falcon. Diddy and sheik are just good characters, so they're going to have a decent time fighting against a majority of the cast. And of course, if the falcon player doesn't know how to deal with these characters, he's going to be in trouble - but that can be said about almost any character. I certainly don't think that falcon has a disadvantage if both of you are at the same skill level though.
In my opinion, characters like pikachu, ness, and mario present pretty tough matchups.

 

[opplemobl]

Pikachu is hard for me.

 

[stancosmos]

My friend recently picked Captain Falcon up and I was just wondering if there is a character that is for sure the best matchup against him

Based on my experiences..:
Best against CFal:
Sheik (Rushdown like falcon, but needles wreck falcons dashes, plus great areal game makes her hard to combo)
Luigi (fireballs keep falcon away while amazing combo game lingering attacks make him hard to combo)
DDD ( A good ddd player can sit back and force falcon to have to try and rush through gordos into a well timed NAir)

Generally i find falcon worst against any character who can poke and keep characters from getting too close (Luigi,Megaman)

I generally have an easy time against rosalina, diddy and Little mac. But I think it's mostly that on FG the people that play those characters pick them because they think they are easy to win with, so generally bad opponents.

 

[FruitNukes]

Honestly, I don't think diddy or sheik present an incredibly tough matchup against falcon. Diddy and sheik are just good characters, so they're going to have a decent time fighting against a majority of the cast. And of course, if the falcon player doesn't know how to deal with these characters, he's going to be in trouble - but that can be said about almost any character. I certainly don't think that falcon has a disadvantage if both of you are at the same skill level though.
In my opinion, characters like pikachu, ness, and mario present pretty tough matchups.

I'd have to agree with this; in particular, with Diddy. I don't think Diddy specifically counters Falcon, he's just an all-around good character to use who is better than Falcon.

 

[dandeto]

I main Captain Falcon, and any character who has good spacing tools is a good character to use against Falcon. Megaman and his megabuster are really good spacing tools. Falcon has to get right next to you for all attacks. Even though the magabuster has low damage, it can be used as an areal, and I ended up with a lot of damage from it.

any other character that can swamp him with projectiles is good too.

 

[Xinc]

That moment when you think Falcon is the best matchup against Falcon.

Also, try Diddy or Shiek.

 

[Yori12]

Sheik isn't a good character she can play well all game and make one mistake and lose it all. I think the only bad matchup for falcon would probably be link because you cant approach him at all from the ground

 

[The Revolutionary Cafe]

Smaller characters can give him a hard time along with more projectile focused characters.

 

[SwordsRbroken]

Sheik isn't a good character she can play well all game and make one mistake and lose it all. I think the only bad matchup for falcon would probably be link because you cant approach him at all from the ground

I'm sorry, what? Shiek gives Falcon quite a hard time, IMO. Needles are great against him, she combos and edgeguards like a boss, how does she not have a slight advantage at least?

Pikachu does the best against Falcon IMO, followed by Mario, Ness, anyone that is short and/or has a half-decent projectile, etc.

 

[dandeto]

You can always make a mistake and lose it all in a close match, regardless of character choices. Sheik has some great combos, the captain doesn't really have many fool proof ones. everything else has already been covered thoroughly.

 

[Comet7]

You can always make a mistake and lose it all in a close match, regardless of character choices. Sheik has some great combos, the captain doesn't really have many fool proof ones. everything else has already been covered thoroughly.

sheik's stuff is ridiculously safe, so that doesn't happen much, and she can often punish our mistakes more than hers, especially if she can get us off stage which means falcon should be dead 90% of the time.

 

[Knee Smasher]

I'd say Meta Knight is by far the hardest matchup for Captain Falcon.

 

[visvim]

Sheik fo sho. I usually go Falcon vs Falcon (cuz you just gotta, man), but Sheik's got a counter option to almost anything Falcon can do.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Against Rosalina, Captain Falcon's dilemma is similar to Ganondorf's. But what does work in Captain Falcon's favor is his higher mobility, so he can overwhelm a Luma-less Rosalina more easily than Ganondorf.

Still, even with the higher mobility, Captain Falcon has to be careful with his approaches, since the Luma can mess them up, and most of his attacks only deliver one hit; this can result in Captain Falcon getting shield-grabbed if Rosalina successfully blocks any of his single hit attacks, such as Raptor Boost and Falcon Kick.

With customizations involved, Rosalina's Shooting Star Bit can be a nuisance for Captain Falcon. However, the Falcon Kick Fury can help Captain Falcon in that its multi-hit properties make it more difficult for Rosalina to shield-grab properly.

 

[dandeto]

most of his attacks only deliver one hit; this can result in Captain Falcon getting shield-grabbed if Rosalina successfully blocks any of his single hit attacks, such as Raptor Boost and Falcon Kick.

Emphasis added.

Unless you are really bad at Falcon kick timing/ positioning, you should NEVER get shield grabbed (unless you do it from the air). I use the move all the time, and players try, but it never have I been shield grabbed with that move.

About the one hit moves, with the Captian, you should use his speed, and his aerials. What I mean by that is I never dash attack or use a smash attack with the captain. I always run up to grab (if the character is good, I try to do a read by using short hops with a N-air instead), which if timed well often works, and cuts off badly timed laggy attacks. His aerials are great for reads and defense. While having short range they are very powerful. If I have gotten someone in the air or on a ledge, I ledge guard with aerials and only then do I use smash attacks.

All in all, I don't see Rosilina as a viable option for fighting Captain Douglas Jay Falcon

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

All in all, I don't see Rosilina as a viable option for fighting Captain Douglas Jay Falcon

I guess in a way, it all comes down to if Captain Falcon can get the Luma out of the picture. Without the Luma, Rosalina would have to resort to defensive play, but because Captain Falcon is very mobile on foot, it's almost impossible for her to get away from him.

 

[RyeSSB]

I personally think that Diddy isn't that bad of a matchup for Falcon, but I find Jigglypuff, Sheik, and Pikachu to be the toughest to fight.

 

[dandeto]

I guess in a way, it all comes down to if Captain Falcon can get the Luma out of the picture.

Agreed.

 

[Ree301]

I feel like DDD has a pretty decent advantage over Falcon. Probably more notably online where Falcon can't reliably hit Gordos back (Funny enough, Falcon's jab hits them back when it's fresh).

This match is all about who can effectively edgeguard, and naturally D3 has better tools for this between his side B and run off f-air (god forbid b-air hits), or the ledge camp set up between high gordo and down smash. D3 can choose between both of these extremely effective options against Falcon's predictable recovery.

On the flip side, Falcon has to respect DDD's recovery due to his number of jumps and priority in the air. Falcon can't challenge DDD from onstage do to u-air occupying all space on the ledge, and he has a rough time fighting offstage due to D3's slow flying gordo cover and multiple jumps (not to mention his inhale if he's up a stock). Falcon has a few options though, that rely on hard reads on D3 recoveries. 1- drop zone to get under thrown Gordos and rack some extra damage on D3's side B recovery with rising u-air. 2- Wait further back from the ledge for DDD to try and up B, run off ledge trump, and punish his 2nd ledge grab/ decision to up B on stage. 3- Most stylish, knee his off stage gordos back at him while he recovers. No player in the world has reflexes fast enough to stop a sweetspot'd gordo coming back at them.

Point being Falcon player need to work MUCH harder in this match. It highlights D3's greatest strength in edgeguards while Falcon tries to recover with weaker jump options.

 

[Amical]

As a Pikachu player, I will confirm that Pikachu seems to have plenty of evident advantages over Captain Falcon. However, I would like to go over some of the more picky details.

For one, Pikachu's FSmash seems to just barely outrange the Captain's standard FSmash. And if not, then they are equal enough for Pikachu to punish Captain's FSmash easily. I have personally had matches where my own victory came down to the sole event of me punishing a Captain's FSmash with my own. With this in mind, I'd like to offer some advice to the followers of justice on these forums: if you ever come to a situation where you feel as if you and Pikachu are just within each other's range for this move and you might not make it, angle your FSmash down.
I have tested this, and the range increases ever so slightly. If the right moment comes for you to use an FSmash, then I would advise always angling it down unless doing so would result in a miss. To avoid said miss, I would also advise to never use FSmash as an offensive technique. Pikachu is very agile and will punish hard for a missed FSmash, which lags a lot. Only use this move when Pikachu is lagging from some of his laggier moves: Bair, dash attack, FSmash, DSmash, or grounded Thunderjolt (which you will not see often), and others.

Also, always be aware of Pikachu's Quick Attack. It can travel much farther and faster than you'd think, and some Pikachu players (including myself) love to use this to travel across the stage in almost an instant. The hitstun this move creates on impact is longer than in other games, so always be aware of BOTH sides of you, not just the direction you are facing, because Pikachu can easily suddenly appear behind you from time to time with this as well.

Lastly, let's talk about Thunderjolt (or rather "nuisance-jolt" because it probably consists more of nuisance-essence than it does thunder). I'd imagine you Falcon folk find it difficult to maneuver around this move, for that is what I have seen in my own experience. This is my own opinion, but it probably applies in most situations. Personally, I find it difficult to punish when my opponent perfect-shields my Thunderjolts, and then spotdodges when I get close. I can tell you, however, that jumping over the Thunderjolts is a big NO, unless the situation specifically calls for it. Pikachu has one of the best aerial sets in this game, and with the right timing and spacing, you can be punished VERY hard if Pikachu predicts that you are going to jump or airdodge or both.
Also, keep in mind that Pikachu CAN use Thunderjolt off the stage as a very effective edgeguard. This paired with his FSmash makes recovering high very risky. I'd suggest never recovering with Raptor Boost against Pikachu players, and always fall until Captain Falcon is almost vertically aligned with the ledge before using Up-B.
The reason I say ALMOST vertically aligned is that these nuisance-jolts can also travel AROUND the edge of the stage and hit you when you're recovering. Keep that in mind.

Explanation for my random appearance and very passionately-written post? Dandeto here is a real-world friend of mine that I just introduced to the competitive world of Smashboards, so shoutouts to him. Make sure to welcome him warmly, agents of justice!

With that, I say, "Pika, pika-pi" and scurry off~