Marth vs falco/spacies advice

[Fitzrightin]

So i'm a relatively new marth player who is seriously struggling with the falco and fox matchup, especially falco

What are some tips?

Best way to practice the powershield?

How to deal with lasers?

How to deal with pressure?

Anything helps

-Fitz

 

[JakkSSB]

Same dude i can't fight falco for ****

 

[CarrierPig]

I have problems with the falco matchup too so I'm no expert but here's some tips.

You can practice powershielding laser in 20xx in version 3.something I forget the exact number - not the most recent one. Probably just youtube that to find specifics.

There's multiple ways to deal with lasers but imo it's still pretty difficult and a very tight timing. There's an SSBMT vid going over 5 ways to beat laser besides powershielding and a recent one specifically going over take laser --> action which can be quite good. Personally, I get most use out of wave dashing back but I still get rekt by most good falcos so dunno how much that means.

I think in general the way to win the matchup is to punish very brutally. Whenever you get an opening/grab, they should be dead pretty much, or close. Practice your gimp setups ie down throw -> dtilt, dthrow -> drop zone fair.

In neutral I see some Marths like PewPewU use a good amount of approaching nair even though that's generally supposed to be bad. I'm not sure why exactly but I think it's better in this matchup. Also, you can call out lasers if you're close enough with dash attack, especially if they're lasering high.

For Fox, personally I find that matchup much easier, but basically get a grab and then combo the **** out of him. You can wall with in place nair but he's fast enough to punish that so don't spam it. Use safe dtilts to either get a poke and try to grab or use shallow dtilts to bait him into trying to punish, then grab him. You're "supposed" to play the matchup very grounded in general because he's fast enough to punish your aerial lag. I tried being a lot more grounded and just sticking to grab/dtilt/aerials only once in a while and I'm pretty sure I got significantly better results.

Good luck!

 

[QuantumKiller]

Best way to practice the powershield?
Powershielding you can practice with 20xx. Crouching can make it easier to powershield projectiles. (Look at Kadano's guide)


How to deal with lasers?
If you're on a platform stage you should use the platforms to make it as annoying as possible for them to laser you then punish with an aerial if they get too close. If they sit there and still try to laser, use the top platform as a way of getting to there side of the stage. On the ground you have a few options like powershielding (if you don't get the powershield you can wavedash out of shield or if they're approaching sh fair/nair), dashattack (Marth goes under the laser if they laser too high), rolling behind Falco (this can be predictable so use it sparingly), full jump fair (avoid the lasers and hit them i they're approaching). There many other things you can do, just figure out one that is most annoying for them to deal with (they deserve it for lasering ).

How to deal with pressure?
Against shield pressure you're limited. Try to roll/short hop fair/nair after they shine or shield grab them if they did an early aerial on shield. Also hold away from them to get good DI on the shine (not at high percents though).



Watch Falco vs Marth matches and see how they utilize platform, I think it's very important. Bait out their platform drop aerials with dashdancing and grab. Find that sweet mid range where you can bait out a Falco aerial or dash attack and grab it. Also make sure you punish hard with any grab you get, learn all the follow ups to make it as devastating as possible.

 

[vexoskeleton]

One thing I think many players forget about falco is that, lasers aside, HE HAS NO RANGE. You have this yuge sword that you can fair and dtilt his approaches with or dd grab any of his whiffs. You have to stay in a good range so he can't get in on you and figure out when he will approach out of his lasers. Always be moving so he can't get close enough to hit you.

Also dthrow them off stage. Low level falcos panic when you do this and all you have to do is react to what they do and cover it. Grab the airdodge, turn around dtilt their double jump, etc.