Hello Falcos.
I've been playing this game an awfully long time and I still never have felt comfortable in the match up of Ganondorf vs. Falco.
Any snark remarks such as "lol Ganondorf sucks" "Play another character" "It's unwinnable don't bother" Will be written off and you will be put in the category of random internet ******. That being said...
I played a lot with DaShizWiz while I was living in Lehigh Acres Florida, I am now in Gainesville. Even with top level Falco experience I still feel like I am missing something that is right in front of me.
Obvious things like do not shield grab, do not let him control the pace of the match and watch for technical errors for easy punishes because most players try to do more things than they are capable of I am very aware of. Either way let me get to the point, I recorded some matches vs. a local Falco.
Tell me your hates and likes about the match up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LselItmi4Ww&feature=youtu.be
please and thank you
0:20 - You could have finished that edgeguard with bair instead of uair. You were probably worried about covering the edge, but you should be able to cover the different Phantasm heights with different moves on reaction. It's definitely hard, but also definitely possible to do consistently.
0:45 - This Falco (like most) seems fairly aggressive because it's beneficial to stay on top of Ganon. Despite this, you seemed overly eager to jump up and bair him off the top plat. If you think he's likely to drop down with an aerial, you should just drift down yourself and punish his landing.
0:48 - When you miss a tech on a plat and they don't have time to hit you before choosing a tech option, you should really focus on the GUA mixup. If you GUA and they try to just hit you, they obviously get hit. If they try to bait the GUA or roll first, then regular getup is usually your best bet and pretty hard to react to.
0:52 - I'm no Ganon expert, but I think you could have reverse jabbed him off stage. Either way, you had the read so you just mistimed the second dair.
1:08 - Idk if you just missed the input, but you could have easily SH baired after that ledgedash and let Falco run into it. Once Falco is off stage in this matchup it's GG so you really want to focus on those opportunities.
1:35 - I would almost always expect techroll in because even if you're wrong, you've got Falco pinned at the ledge. I think you could have just jumped in between TIP and techroll left and covered them with a bair or fair on reaction. If he avoids those, it means he's super cornered and you could potentially WL on reaction to close off his options even more.
1:48 - Obviously you got the edgeguard anyway, but you easily could have LA ftilted him out of that Phantasm.
1:55 - You might not have had time, but just in case, you should jab after whiffing a fair like that.
2:12 - Just rolling obv would have worked, but if you really can't tell, at least GUA.
6:30 - This Falco always comes off the top plat with an attack, so you should have been expecting that WL dair. If you can get a read on these kinds of things, you can definitely just DD grab him. M2K does it with Sheik and Marth non stop, and obviously it will be harder with Ganon, but definitely doable.
7:00 - You got the first hug out of all the games, so I definitely think you should be going for it more often. The alternative is keep trying to sweetspot and keep getting hit with the easiest edgeguard dair in the world.
7:25 - After whiffing a grab like that, you should expect a dodge or at least wait a second to confirm he will hold shield. It's pretty rare for people to hold shield for a split second after messing up and then dodge. They will usually either hold shield expecting an attack or dodge immediately. I also am not sure why you jumped after he rolled behind you, but I think WDing towards center or immediately SH bairing to zone him would be way better options. If nothing else, watch your DI since there's no way Ganon should die at that percent getting hit across the stage.
Overall, you definitely show solid gameplay. I think you have a really bad tendency of biting off more than you can chew. In that last example, you whiffed the grab but instead of cutting your losses and seeking stage control, you double downed by going for another grab that is way riskier and is entirely a hard read. You did something earlier where you uaired him on the top plat, but instead of seeing how he would react to being tapped, you immediately went for a second uair. These situations are causing you to miss opportunities because you didn't fully capitalize on the first strategy and are slow to let go and react to the new situation. The last thing I would point out is related, but you do a lot of aerials that are simply nowhere near the opponent or very unlikely to hit or very unlikely to help you even if they do hit. The 3 reasons to aerial are to hit the opponent, hit the opponent's shield, or zone to protect yourself. If you notice that an aerial didn't do any one of those, then you should just remove it from your game and replace it with something more constructive, whether that be an extra bait with an emptyland/WL or simply staying on the ground and moving that way.
I think if you optimize your tech chases, edgeguarding, and do aerials with more intent you will see much better results vs. Falco. Ganon struggles a lot vs. Falco, but mainly because Ganon's opportunities are much harder to capitalize on. Kage vs. Westballz from Evo should be plenty of evidence that the matchup is not free for Falco as long as the Ganon is playing on point. When Ganon is playing on point, Falco actually has to play even more on point to keep up. Hopefully this helped, and good luck. Maybe we will get to play at a tourney in the near future since you are in PA.
