Falco vs ICs Matchup

[Seba]

Hi there.

Probably this matchup has been already been discussed on another thread, however I couldn't find a recent one.

I would like to read what fellow Falco mains think about this matchup. I have been playing it a lot lately and I think it's pretty even/stage dependant. I found myself watching PC vs Chu when he mained Falco back in the day and despite the videos being old, PC showed some real smart play going on (like how he gimped Nana with the lasers and did a good job avoiding the grabs/separating the ICs).

However I feel Falco gets punished way harder if he commits a mistake, and shield pressuring ICs seems tricky to me, due to Nana's shield messing my L cancel sometimes.

I see the matchup going even, however it would be good to read some advices and inputs about this match.

Thanks!

 

[PEEF!]

This matchup sucks, but I can tell you my 1 or 2 tricks.

If you get a grab, you need to dthrow to avoid the other climber grabbing you or smashing you. Dthrow to dsmash should hit one of them, and you can do stuff from there. The shield thing is hard because they can do the lightshield bs that screws up timing, it sucks. Plus if they are decent at chaingrabs its going to be one or 2 grabs per life. Plus they can approach with WD jab to dsmash which ***** and gets falco offstage at like 40.

My hardest matchup. I just go Ganon.

 

[Ryan-K]

move alot don't go directly above them, keep them seperated and/or in the air with shine. once you seperate nana you can just like hit her with nairs then spike her she DIs into almost every hit perfectly you just have to concentrate on popo and then like throw him in the opposite direction. the only problem arises from when they hit you or grab you which both can kill you from obscenely early. its like ganon vs falco in that you should theoretically **** them but they only have to hit you like 5 times or grab you once to take a stock.

 

[Charlesz]

go ganon or fox. If you think your gonna get sheild grabbed ( like I always do).

 

[Seba]

Thanks for the replies, guys (=
I also think this matchup is easier as Fox, but it's nice to read strategies from another players, since my Falco is getting counterpicked with ICs most of the time.

As for stages, I like Stadium and I ban Final Destination. I don't know if there's any normal stage I should consider as a counterpick?

 

[PEEF!]

Banning FD won't help vs a good IC. IC's have amazing platform movement and attacking abilities. Try being on a plat above IC's. Uairs ****. I wouldn't ban FD, but I'm no expert. I would ban FoD because I get jocked on by those platforms, they stop alot of what I want to do and...its tough.

 

[Fly_Amanita]

some random stuff:

-CC shine is very good at low percentages.
-Know how to SDI out of dthrow -> dair. It actually isn't very hard.
-All of Falco's throws are good, but dthrow and fthrow tend to be better if you accidentally grab Nana.
-If you get them offstage, you can keep bairing them over and over and they shouldn't be able to make it back a lot of the time. You can also dair if you feel like it.
-On levels with low ceilings, you can shine often shine -> shine -> up-B to KO Nana off the top. >_>

Falcos that know this match-up are really hard for me, personally. However, most Falcos aren't because they just don't know basic stuff like how to properly execute aerials into the ICs' shields or they just don't position themselves very well, both of which you should be able to learn by playing the match-up a lot.

 

[Seba]

Thanks guys, I'm playing the matchup a lot.
Shine to Shine to Firebird is great (more specifically on Yoshi's). If I remember clearly, I saw Forward doing that to Chu on a tournament video, long ago.

I just need to practice the SDI out of the Dthrow.

Also, how do you like to approach ICs?