Falco Lasers: When to shield?

[DieHard]

So recently I have really been struggling with the falco matchup as a whole; the root of the problem pointing back towards the neutral game and dealing with lasers. After researching on my own to find out more on how to deal with approaching lasers and or lasers from a distance, one suggestion that kept coming up for me was that you do not need to shield every laser.

This makes sense.

Shielding every time they laser can make you predictable and severely limit your overall options.

So this is where I have a hard time understanding this:
- When is it ok to be hit by the laser, and when is it recommended to shield and then act OoS?
- Also, what options do you have as a marth after being hit by a laser?
Whenever I choose to get hit by a laser instead of shielding, the outcome seems to be even worse than if I chose to shield; I'm just left standing there awkwardly until I get hit by another laser or an aerial.

Any and all suggestions are appreciated, as well as any links to outside sources discussing this situation further.

 

[ridemyboat]

You need to choose the option that beats what they want to do after the laser. PPMD has a video with Zhu and Cactuar where he talks about how you can notice you'll get hit by laser and use the time in between the hit to adjust your spacing, and then jab Falco for a grab or dtilt.

Marth can do whatever he wants after a laser. You might want to shield if you're planning on going for grab or fair, but keep in mind that you'll have less time to adjust your spacing. You'll want to take the laser if you need to adjust your spacing more, or are looking to jab. You can also jump over lasers, but it's usually bad because you'll probably land with a fair, which is predictable but betas Falcos nairing at you sometimes, or nair, which will usually lose to Falco's nair. The idea though is that you have all of your (good) options available to you after a laser unless you're in shield, or the Falco is too close or too far away.

You can look at ikneedata.com for Marths out of shield options. The general idea though is that Falco's lasers are most powerful when you let them limit your options, and that the options that they're able to limit depend on spacing and whether you commit to shielding, jumping, etc.

 

[Eevee Neill]

So recently I have really been struggling with the falco matchup as a whole; the root of the problem pointing back towards the neutral game and dealing with lasers. After researching on my own to find out more on how to deal with approaching lasers and or lasers from a distance, one suggestion that kept coming up for me was that you do not need to shield every laser.

This makes sense.

Shielding every time they laser can make you predictable and severely limit your overall options.

So this is where I have a hard time understanding this:
- When is it ok to be hit by the laser, and when is it recommended to shield and then act OoS?
- Also, what options do you have as a marth after being hit by a laser?
Whenever I choose to get hit by a laser instead of shielding, the outcome seems to be even worse than if I chose to shield; I'm just left standing there awkwardly until I get hit by another laser or an aerial.

Any and all suggestions are appreciated, as well as any links to outside sources discussing this situation further.

I'm a Falco main, and to he honest I think the best way to avoid the lasers is simply to jump on to a platform away from them. Get close to Falco, though, and force your opponent to fight up close and you should have no problem with the lasers.
I was pretty vauge here, so if you need more info, feel free to ask me!

 

[A_Reverie]

The threat of lasers changes your movement patterns. You have to do a lot of OOS stuff like wavedash, but what ridemyboat said is very accurate. You aren't necessarily selecting an option for the laser, you're acting on what Falco is doing after the laser, so with this in mind you have to learn when NOT to shield as well. If Falco isn't in range to jump in on you with N-air or D-air, then the only purpose for the shield is to prevent laser damage and stun.

You want to be in this range as often as possible. In this range you can shield without Falco transitioning directly into shield pressure, but you can still avoid stun and act in a reasonable time. This range is usually just inside of Falco's full forward jump range. He should still be able to reach you with a D-air but only if he inputs it early, which will hit high on your shield or miss. If he doesn't input it early, you can react to him entering your space. This also allows you to act on unsafe things, like him landing in front of you with a laser -> jab. My favorite option however is probably N-air out of shield. It busts Falco up pretty badly for jumping in at this particular spacing.

 

[DieHard]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

For any further reference on this, I found the video that ridemyboat mentioned
PPMD starts discussing how to deal with falco's lasers in this video around 21:50

Which then continues into this video until 10:40

 

[Barbeque]

you have a bigger window to powersheild laser if you are dashing away when it comes at you. but the more free option is to camp platforms when they send them. you can also dash attack underneath them at closer range