Friggin' Falcon

[Bravo_10]

Just... how do I DI out of the combos? Stro told me that there's some kind of percent dependance to it, but I haven't been able to figure it out. Others trumpet the down-and-away strategy, which works okay against up-airs, but then the captain'll mix a knee into the combo or something and I'm in a terrible spot. What's disheartening too is sometimes I'll react in time to the knee and DI it up, only to realize that I got the percent wrong and I'm set up for a double-knee finish. It also seems like nair-regrab is pretty much guaranteed at low percents (but prove me wrong please?).

Not getting #rekt in the neutral game isn't nearly as much of a problem for me (as well it shouldn't for Link in this matchup) as getting 0-deathed every time I'm touched. Seriously, I'm better at DI'ing Sheik's chaingrab. I feel like when you're a Link main and Sheik isn't your worst matchup, you know you've gotta seek some help.

 

[Looticforgothispassword]

Down and away until knee, and thats actually the only thing you can do. And I easily set CF as second hardest in NTSC and hardest in PAL for Link.

 

[Bravo_10]

That's not the kind of thing I was hoping to hear, but I guess there you have it. New plan: never lose neutral against Falcon.

 

[SAUS]

That's not the kind of thing I was hoping to hear, but I guess there you have it. New plan: never lose neutral against Falcon.

Hey, this post is a little old, but replying anyway.

Combo DI:
Always combo DI. In general, I think holding down any time you think you will get hit is a good rule of thumb. Then you can switch that up when you know about certain moves (Peach down-smash, for example), when you are at high damage (still good sometimes at this point because of the weird ground techs you can get), and when you see a stronger move coming (like the knee, for example).

Around 40-70%, you should just not DI the knee (or DI in the same direction it sends you which doesn't change the angle). It's awkward to do, but it is very helpful. It gets you away from the double knee without killing yourself with strong downward DI.

One of the most painful things in this matchup is up-throw -> knee. It works starting around 80-90 and keeps working for ~20 more damage. Your only hope is to mess around with the DI so he can't follow up as easily. DI away forces him to do run, full jump, knee. DI behind forces him to full jump back and knee. You can try the middle angles, but I don't think they are that useful.

 

[Bravo_10]

Hey, thanks for the reply! You're quite right, combo DI is easily my biggest issue against Falcon. It seems hard to avoid at least two or so up-airs when your percent is low enough, but at least I don't get kneed as often. Oh, and I've learned to absolutely hate the low-percent throw combos. He seems to get regrabs for days regardless of what I try to do about it.

I also DI behind Falcon almost universally on up-throws, I guess because the Falcons I play against don't realize that they can still get the knee when I do it? Generally they just opt for a bair to put me in an edge guard situation. I'll have to watch out for them catching on though, it's pretty rough that all you can hope for is to mix the other guy up with DI at those percents.

 

[Looticforgothispassword]

Hey, this post is a little old, but replying anyway.

Combo DI:
Always combo DI. In general, I think holding down any time you think you will get hit is a good rule of thumb. Then you can switch that up when you know about certain moves (Peach down-smash, for example), when you are at high damage (still good sometimes at this point because of the weird ground techs you can get), and when you see a stronger move coming (like the knee, for example).

Around 40-70%, you should just not DI the knee (or DI in the same direction it sends you which doesn't change the angle). It's awkward to do, but it is very helpful. It gets you away from the double knee without killing yourself with strong downward DI.

One of the most painful things in this matchup is up-throw -> knee. It works starting around 80-90 and keeps working for ~20 more damage. Your only hope is to mess around with the DI so he can't follow up as easily. DI away forces him to do run, full jump, knee. DI behind forces him to full jump back and knee. You can try the middle angles, but I don't think they are that useful.

Copied to Link guide and added some stuff to get a CF writeup.

 

[SAUS]

Hey, thanks for the reply! You're quite right, combo DI is easily my biggest issue against Falcon. It seems hard to avoid at least two or so up-airs when your percent is low enough, but at least I don't get kneed as often. Oh, and I've learned to absolutely hate the low-percent throw combos. He seems to get regrabs for days regardless of what I try to do about it.

I also DI behind Falcon almost universally on up-throws, I guess because the Falcons I play against don't realize that they can still get the knee when I do it? Generally they just opt for a bair to put me in an edge guard situation. I'll have to watch out for them catching on though, it's pretty rough that all you can hope for is to mix the other guy up with DI at those percents.

No problem Any discussion about Link is good, imo, since there is so little of it.

I haven't experimented with it much, but I want to look into using smash DI to get out of the regrabs. Armada uses smash DI so well it's insane. I think we can make use of it as well. Smash DIing the first hit of his nair can get you out of some of his combos (I'm pretty sure) and you can use it to make landing regrabs a little harder. I still need to try it out, but it's something to look into.

 

[Looticforgothispassword]

I've thought about using QCDI to better get out of comboes.