Capping Cap's power? Or, How do I deal with Captain Falcon?

[Strider755]

OK, so I'm having a very, very hard time handling Captain Falcon. First things first, my main is Charizard, and alts are ZSS, Samus, Ike, and Bowser (Sheik isn't ready for tourney play yet). With all of those, and esp. Zard, i can handle any other character, but not Cap.

Any suggestions? I simply cannot handle his dash grab; I try to respond with a spotdodge or jab, but 4 times out of 5, he's grabbed me before that response can land, and is completely having his way with me. IN perspective: at my local tourney today, I got 3-stocked as Zard (it was double-blind pick), and then 3-stocked again as ZSS. I easily handled other characters with those, and even with Samus, so I know it's Cap that causes problems.

By the way, my practice options are limited; I can only practice on 3DS (that's all I have) and the online on that is terrible; I don't know any other 3DS players very well, meaning all I can practice on are CPUs. Perfect storm?

 

[Deleted member]

OK, so I'm having a very, very hard time handling Captain Falcon. First things first, my main is Charizard, and alts are ZSS, Samus, Ike, and Bowser (Sheik isn't ready for tourney play yet). With all of those, and esp. Zard, i can handle any other character, but not Cap.

Any suggestions? I simply cannot handle his dash grab; I try to respond with a spotdodge or jab, but 4 times out of 5, he's grabbed me before that response can land, and is completely having his way with me. IN perspective: at my local tourney today, I got 3-stocked as Zard (it was double-blind pick), and then 3-stocked again as ZSS. I easily handled other characters with those, and even with Samus, so I know it's Cap that causes problems.

By the way, my practice options are limited; I can only practice on 3DS (that's all I have) and the online on that is terrible; I don't know any other 3DS players very well, meaning all I can practice on are CPUs. Perfect storm?

While as a main, you need to exploit his weaknesses to be able to win. And those are his recovery and lack of disjoints. Without disjoints, Falcon's own attacks are easily stuffed by disjointed moves. As for his recovery, he doesn't have a hitbox on his Up B, which is also rather slow. 's Nair probably flat out beats it without too much timing, although I rarely see/play Zards so I can't verify that. Dair meteors ala and (including ) literally crap on our Up B.

It sounds like you're having trouble beating 's Dash Grab the most (not uncommon since its arguably the best in the game). If the opponent just spams it with no thought, Flamethrower and Ftilt should stuff it offensively, and defensively besides timing spot dodges better rolling towards Falcon is a good idea. However, Zard is easily juggled and combo'd by Falcon's Dthrow, Uair, and Nair which all can lead into easy Knees due to Zards large frame. I'd recommend using another character against Falcon if you feel like Zard can't overcome the matchup. Characters that can force weird/not optimized/harder approaches on Falcon are characters with low crouches/frames in general, , , and immediately come to mind. also happens to body Falcon offstage with Nairs, Fairs, and Bairs, but dies really early in exchange.

Hope my advice helps somewhat, even if I'm not the best Falcon.

 

[meleebrawler]

While as a main, you need to exploit his weaknesses to be able to win. And those are his recovery and lack of disjoints. Without disjoints, Falcon's own attacks are easily stuffed by disjointed moves. As for his recovery, he doesn't have a hitbox on his Up B, which is also rather slow. 's Nair probably flat out beats it without too much timing, although I rarely see/play Zards so I can't verify that. Dair meteors ala and (including ) literally crap on our Up B.

It sounds like you're having trouble beating 's Dash Grab the most (not uncommon since its arguably the best in the game). If the opponent just spams it with no thought, Flamethrower and Ftilt should stuff it offensively, and defensively besides timing spot dodges better rolling towards Falcon is a good idea. However, Zard is easily juggled and combo'd by Falcon's Dthrow, Uair, and Nair which all can lead into easy Knees due to Zards large frame. I'd recommend using another character against Falcon if you feel like Zard can't overcome the matchup. Characters that can force weird/not optimized/harder approaches on Falcon are characters with low crouches/frames in general, , , and immediately come to mind. also happens to body Falcon offstage with Nairs, Fairs, and Bairs, but dies really early in exchange.

Hope my advice helps somewhat, even if I'm not the best Falcon.

Falcon's dash attack and fsmash have disjoints.

 

[Deleted member]

Falcon's dash attack and fsmash have disjoints.

Who Fsmashes in neutral? And dash attack isn't safe. I was more or less saying that he should exploit Falcon's lack of a sword/disjoints on the majority of his attacks.

 

[Strider755]

Disjoints? What are those?

By the way, may I remind you that that Charizard round was a double-blind pick; i couldn't do much about the matchup.

 

[goose32]

Can you do retreating nairs as Charizard? You want to use some safe, defensive move to deal with his approach, if you don't have a reliable projectile to slow him down. For example, Ike is one of my mains (along with the Captain), and I'll do either retreating fairs or nairs against him as he dashes in. If spaced properly, it's difficult for him to land his grab.

Captain Falcon has a lot of strengths, but he also has his share of exploitable weaknesses (a sign of a well designed character; strong, fun to play as/against, and not unbeatable by any member of the cast if played well enough). He's combo food for a majority of the cast, has a predicable return, no projectiles, and no disjointed hitboxes (hitboxes that aren't his hurtbox/body, like a sword).

 

[Strider755]

So that's what a disjoint is.

Anyway, I'll need to practice that retreating nair. I'm still not sure how to counter that grab b/c by the time my response is input, it's too late.

 

[Strider755]

I still need help countering Captain Falcon; I can't stop his dash grab. Your advice was worthless.