How the hell do you beat Falcon?

[aDavid4]

Every game I play against Falcon, I get whooped. How do you play the match-up?
He controls the stage with his ridiculous dash dance, and his Knees kill so early and easily.
Can someone help me out?

 

[Jank++]

Get an early lead with a rest and then plank for 8 minutes <3

...Literally falcon can't do anything against invincible fair bull****. How does he approach that?

 

[-LzR-]

Best advice I ever got on the matchup: Spam nair.

 

[Massive]

Dont's:

• Don't get grabbed
  • dthrow > knee is guaranteed
  • there are other tricky throws too, bthrow to nipple spike works on puff at low % if you DI wrong
• Don't shield too much
  • puff has bad OoS options and falcon has lots of safe ones
  • falcon can stomp your shield all day
  • you might get grabbed
• Don't try to grab l-cancelled knee
  • gentleman will beat it
• Don't land in laggy aerials
  • you will get grabbed/kneed/stomped
• Don't be afraid to DI away from the stage.
  • Falcons will chase you way off to pop you off the side, if they can't make it they are vulnerable

Do's:

• Do duck his grabs
  • most grabs wont work on puff
• Do wavedash in under his aerials
  • falcon has a lot of momentum and will overshoot with aerials, giving you superior position
  • puff's low profile wavedash means most of his aerials won't hit
  • this messes up his spacing so you may be able to grab
• Do ledgehog
  • falcon has lots of lag frames when he lands
  • you can rest lag frames
    
  • you can grab > bthrow > ledgeguard in his lag frames
• Do chase him off the side to punish/gimp
  • Falcon's up-b recovery is very predictable
  • If you get caught in the up-b next to the stage you can wall tech and punish
• Do nair a lot
  • nair is great!
  • nair > utilt leads to rest
  • nair autocancels
  • autocancel nair > crouch can bait grab OoS
• Do tomahawk grab
  • puff's grab is awesome against falcon as his recovery is so punishable
• Do survival DI towards any corner
  • puff has the best recovery in the game, and can even survive coming from the bottom left or right corners

 

[aDavid4]

How do you combo DI all of his stuff? Also, other than up-tilt, how do you get rests?
(Also thank you Massive)

 

[Massive]

Dthrow > knee cannot be avoided if the falcon is on point.
You can throw him off by mixing up which way you DI.
Generally speaking DIing farther away from falcon doesn't really help as much as DIing up up does, unless you're way off stage, but even that is situational.

Uthrow > uair > missed platform tech > rest
Punish recovery lag on stage > rest
Duck Falcon Punch (lol) > rest
Accidentally rapid punch instead of gentleman (and you're crouching) > rest
Correctly spaced, Wiffed (from ducking) Misspaced Dash Grab > rest
duck that spinny get-up attack thing > rest

 

[1000g2g3g4g800999]

Grab release falcon out of a jump or up-b at the ledge into sing edgehog. He dies. You can actually kinda of set up for this if you catch him out of one of those with ac nair. If you're ever feeling like you really need to shield, usmash oos is kind of amazing. You can also try to catch him out of dashdance with pound, preferably when you're positioned so you could bair otherwise. If you're worried about being punished for going for a rest, whether or not it hits, you can tech-chase with dash attack and dash grab. AC nair when you're below falcon but going towards the ground can combo into smashes which can lead to death. If you feel like making everyone hate you, you can Plank Falcon and there isn't much he can safely or reliably do about it. Watch out for utilt if you do this, and be ready to drift slightly back, either to grab ledge when there's no danger, or pound to whiff punish a move. Retreating fair as you jump off is hard to deal with.
The most optimal stuff was pretty much covered by Massive and Jank.

 

[Pafslash]

A lot of the Falcons I play against tend to be incredibly aggressive. They just wanna get up in my grill to do their fair, nair, grab or whatever. I usually counter this by camping them out and punish whatever approach they throw at me with a well-spaced bair and tech-chase rest when an opportunity presents itself.

 

[MrWeavile]

Dont's:

• Don't get grabbed
  • dthrow > knee is guaranteed
  • there are other tricky throws too, bthrow to nipple spike works on puff at low % if you DI wrong
• Don't shield too much
  • puff has bad OoS options and falcon has lots of safe ones
  • falcon can stomp your shield all day
  • you might get grabbed
• Don't try to grab l-cancelled knee
  • gentleman will beat it
• Don't land in laggy aerials
  • you will get grabbed/kneed/stomped
• Don't be afraid to DI away from the stage.
  • Falcons will chase you way off to pop you off the side, if they can't make it they are vulnerable

Do's:

• Do duck his grabs
  • most grabs wont work on puff
• Do wavedash in under his aerials
  • falcon has a lot of momentum and will overshoot with aerials, giving you superior position
  • puff's low profile wavedash means most of his aerials won't hit
  • this messes up his spacing so you may be able to grab
• Do ledgehog
  • falcon has lots of lag frames when he lands
  • you can rest lag frames
    
  • you can grab > bthrow > ledgeguard in his lag frames
• Do chase him off the side to punish/gimp
  • Falcon's up-b recovery is very predictable
  • If you get caught in the up-b next to the stage you can wall tech and punish
• Do nair a lot
  • nair is great!
  • nair > utilt leads to rest
  • nair autocancels
  • autocancel nair > crouch can bait grab OoS
• Do tomahawk grab
  • puff's grab is awesome against falcon as his recovery is so punishable
• Do survival DI towards any corner
  • puff has the best recovery in the game, and can even survive coming from the bottom left or right corners

When you say 'nair a lot' in what way does it combo? As in, is there a % threshold it combos to utilt, or if he's in the air etc?
Fantastic post btw, helpful info.

 

[iG Rawr]

You can also spam Rest into any of his knee options if he doesn't perfectly space his knee. He cant do anything to you off stage so go for multiple gimps. you're OOS options are alright, Neutral out of shield is pretty good. Up-throw Up-air into missed tech is a rest. Down-throw into tech chase on the platform equals a rest. Gotta work on your fundamentals aswell

 

[Massive]

When you say 'nair a lot' in what way does it combo? As in, is there a % threshold it combos to utilt, or if he's in the air etc?
Fantastic post btw, helpful info.

Nair doesn't really combo into much at all, it is just an insanely maneuverable poke that autocancels if used correctly.

Nair > uair usually involves coming off an aerial or crossing up someone's shield. You generally land behind them and either poke with an utilt or delay until they drop their shield. It is a good shield pressure option against characters without immediate OoS options (peach, marth, falcon) or characters with bad shield coverage (gannondorf, G&W, ICs).

It's not nearly as effective against Sheik, Spacies or anyone with a very fast/effective OoS punish.