Pikachu vs Defensive Falcon

[Angiance]

Can someone please tell me how this MU goes? My roommate plays a very defensive Falcon, and I find it extremely difficult to fight him. I lose most of the time, though we go somewhat evenly as we play.

Help?

 

[The Real Mr. M]

What are some of the specific things that he (or she) does when playing Falcon?

 

[Fabulous32]

Falcon has no projectile, so he shouldn't be able to be defensive against pikachu. If he's trying to wall you out with bair, just thunder jolt him until he's forced to approach. Pikachu is one of falcon's harder match ups because pikachu is so small that his dash grab will often miss and falling up air is hard to land. That limits him to bair mostly which you can poke at with quick attack and zone out with thunder jolt.

 

[Thor]

I'd have to check, or you could test, but ducking/crawling forward might avoid his dash grab [and his standing grab]... if so, you can try to dtilt or jab his dash attack, but otherwise just crawl toward him. None of his aerial hitboxes are great at hitting a ducking Pikachu, so even if he's good at lining it up, you can try to powershield it [given how strict the timing for him is]. You should also check his pivot grab just in case [wouldn't surprise me if it grabbed us because how good pivot grabs are].

I believe his up+b can grab us while crawling/low, but that's not that pratical and is slower than his normal grab.

In any case, if you can duck the normal grabs, as I said, you can crawl toward him. From what I know, defensive Falcons love to bait Pikachu's fair or dair with a foxtrot or otherwise moving out of the way and coming in for a punish, so staying grounded helps you avoid early commits. You can also use QA to try to zone-break his defense, though if you rely on it a lot, he'll start to be able to intercept it [and while Falcon doesn't have a good lasting hitbox to interrupt QA like a Sheik or Fox nair, he can still try to time it with certain moves].

I'm gonna assume you're getting good punishes when you land a combo starter or move that puts him above you or offstage, but if not I can try to go into that as well.

 

[Angiance]

Hm...well, in all honesty, I refrain from using T.Jolt/QA because I really wouldn't like becoming overly reliant on them-but if it's truly mandatory for this MU then...

 

[hell-dew]

force him off stage with fairs and keep fairing him. it beats every single one of his recovery options its stupidly easy to connect with. past that what thor said. crawling is good also why the heck would the falcon be camping you your the one with burst mobility and a projectile. IMO the worst thing about the falcon match up is the true combo to knees and the if you dont gimp him rage is a royal pain. both are things you can work around we kinda mess him up up close can break out of his bread and butter really hard.

 

[Emuchu]

Hm...well, in all honesty, I refrain from using T.Jolt/QA because I really wouldn't like becoming overly reliant on them-but if it's truly mandatory for this MU then...

Generally speaking, T. Jolt isn't that great of a projectile and isn't required for most matchups. Quick Attack, however, is the cornerstone of all of Pika's offense. ESAM recently put up a video on Pika's neutral--in essence, Pika's best normals are Fair, Nair, Dair, Dtilt, and Fsmash, but none of them have good range except Fsmash, even though they're all relatively safe and fast moves. In order to get Falcon to open up, you have to establish that you're a threat from all ranges, which is where Quick Attack comes in.

At the end, though, Pika vs. Defensive Falcon is a game of patience and safety. The mantra is "don't get grabbed;" and all your decisions should revolve around this goal. This means you shouldn't land into him with laggy moves such as Fair and Bair unless you're positive it will hit, and you have to limit offensive pressure to safe options such as fading Fair, SH Dair AC, and OoS Nair, while threatening Quick Attack combos when Falcon repositions or whiffs. Falcon has to maintain a pretty specific range in order to keep his dash grab relevant, so you can often float away from him and pressure him as he moves in.

 

[Rango the Mercenary]

Isn't this matchup 7-3 in Pika's favor? I've seen Fatality take several hard losses to Esam, not just at MVG Frame Perfect Series. Many of his moves seem to go right over Pika's head.

 

[Fabulous32]

Isn't this matchup 7-3 in Pika's favor? I've seen Fatality take several hard losses to Esam, not just at MVG Frame Perfect Series. Many of his moves seem to go right over Pika's head.

^This. You can crouch under dash grab and dash attack which are some of Falcon's main combo starters and punishes making this really awful for Falcon.

 

[Angiance]

Well...it could possibly be my own fault for playing too offensively against him, because Falcon has an incredible defense it seems.

 

[lmntolp]

My brother plays Falcon a lot, and I can say Falcon is really known for having a strong offense rather than defense. Pika's frame data gives him a better boxing game and with Falcon's weight and fall speed, Falcon is combo food and can get hit by utiltx5 into pika stuff at low %. He should really respect Pika's grab and utilt, and being knocked into the air in general. It's hard to tell without seeing your play, but it is possible that he has your approaches downloaded after playing so often, so it would be good to mix up more types of approaches like tomahawks, QA, aerials, shield, pretending to approach to bait defensive options, etc., to be more random.

 

[Hoenn]

At some ranges falcon can still dash grab pikachu's crouches

I dislike this matchup a lot because it feels like falcon punishes me for pressing buttons, but if I try to be more reactive, I just get dash grabbed.
I feel like it is good to wait it out at the ledge because he needs the boost from dash grab in order to kill you from knee, he doesn't get any followups if you ledge camp him at early percents

It sucks when you die at 50 to a dash grab

It sucks for falcon dying at 30 offstage as well.... really hate this matchup from both sides

I wish that there was some ESAM footage to study for this matchup

 

[Thor]

At some ranges falcon can still dash grab pikachu's crouches

I dislike this matchup a lot because it feels like falcon punishes me for pressing buttons, but if I try to be more reactive, I just get dash grabbed.
I feel like it is good to wait it out at the ledge because he needs the boost from dash grab in order to kill you from knee, he doesn't get any followups if you ledge camp him at early percents

It sucks when you die at 50 to a dash grab

It sucks for falcon dying at 30 offstage as well.... really hate this matchup from both sides

I wish that there was some ESAM footage to study for this matchup

That's odd that he can sometimes scoop you up...

One other critical thing worth noting about ducking is that crawl backwards raises our hitbox because of the tail... it's really easy to see this vs a variety of characters [can crawl forward and duck ZSS laser but not crawl backwards, same for Ryu Haudouken and side+b [Tatsu], may be true for Falcon standing grab although that might grab us even while ducking, and the list goes on...]. So if you get hit while ducking a lot, make sure you aren't crawling backwards... if you feel the need to crawl backwards out of range of an attack, shield, and if you feel the need to crawl back to avoid a potential grab, I recommend a FH nair, SH retreating dair/fair [if you feel early], a dtilt, or perhaps even a spotdodge or roll [you can pick other attacks as well of course, but those 3 options strike me as safest and/or most rewarding].

 

[Ninj4pikachu]

Falcon is one of my favorite MU as pikachu. I like to camp by the ledge with thunder jolt and force him to approach. This is because you can get a really easy gimp on him (and other characters with bad recoveries) by simply grab releasing on the edge and running off the stage to a back air. Many people forget that simply pummeling your opponent until they break out is an option. usually they will fall pretty far down because they expect to be thrown. falcons recovery has no hit box so its a pretty easy kill.offstage vs is akin to shooting fish in a barrel.