Show me your moves - Captain Falcon video thread

[-Fatality-]

-Key- I definitely was doing lots of stuff I wouldn't do during tournamenet as much if at all. Mr. Manager is relatively new, and I was mostly just trying to teach him stuff during our friendlies. I was also just taking easy advantage of the various Lucas things you mentioned he wasn't doing, by ignoring them. This is pretty true with the rest of my videos against Mr. Manager as well.
That's all great general matchup for Lucas though, and not enough Falcon players know not to do those things, good stuff for helping to spread the word.
Here are the rest of my Mr. Manager videos from that day. Including the Lucas one you shared.
Vs Lucas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBi5d0SfALo
Vs Lucas again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Zlj2ywKC8
Vs Ness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvQd3anRr1o
Vs Roy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZQ6G51DvbE
Vs DK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi2IoW8gfUo

 

[-Key-]

-Key- I definitely was doing lots of stuff I wouldn't do during tournamenet as much if at all. Mr. Manager is relatively new, and I was mostly just trying to teach him stuff during our friendlies. I was also just taking easy advantage of the various Lucas things you mentioned he wasn't doing, by ignoring them.

Yeah, I had a hunch this was the case. It's always tough to critique friendlies because people approach them differently than tournament matches (to varying degrees).

 

[-Fatality-]

Here's some friendlies, and a tournament set from AUSOM.
AUSOM friendlies: me vs some guy whose tag I can't remember https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJd05lnDcGU&list=UU4dvv-B3l5TKaI-i4AnrXPg
AUSOM tournament: me vs Gadiel VaStar's Peach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is8q0j3Y5DM&list=UU4dvv-B3l5TKaI-i4AnrXPg

 

[-Key-]

Here's some friendlies, and a tournament set from AUSOM.
AUSOM friendlies: me vs some guy whose tag I can't remember https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJd05lnDcGU&list=UU4dvv-B3l5TKaI-i4AnrXPg
AUSOM tournament: me vs Gadiel VaStar's Peach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is8q0j3Y5DM&list=UU4dvv-B3l5TKaI-i4AnrXPg

This probably is a capture issue so I doubt you can fix it, but the videos are slowed down. They're running at about 85% of normal speed if my math is right. Just FYI.

 

[-Fatality-]

This probably is a capture issue so I doubt you can fix it, but the videos are slowed down. They're running at about 85% of normal speed if my math is right. Just FYI.

wtf, this is the same capture card I've been using this whole time, but only now is it doing that? Weird.

 

[-Fatality-]

Videos of my Falcon at AUSOM 10 are up! These were recorded by a friend's setup.
Bracket: Me vs Dron's Lucas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaPkAdNfdOg
Casuals: Me vs Gadiel VaStar's Peach. Video starts at 4:24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHOsXsJc0Hg
Casuals: Me vs Scatz's Mario and Yoshi. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcOdb23cVh4
Casuals: Me vs ****'s Falcon and Lucario. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhPniTQyNbQ
Any and all critique of my gameplay is desired.

 

[-Key-]

I was rooting so hard for the Up B combo you got on Lucas to actually KO, but unfortunately it didn't work out since Falcon Dive is such a horrible move. Oh well.

That Lucas set was so impressive and enjoyable to watch. Out of all the matches you've posted here, I think those two are the best you've played. I was interested to see whether your quality of play from all the friendly match videos would carry over into a tournament setting, and it definitely did. In fact, I think having something on the line made you play better because you were completely focused on doing your best.

Keep up the great work, man. I'm glad you're out there repping Falcon the way you are.

 

[Huemon]

Here's some friendlies, and a tournament set from AUSOM.
AUSOM friendlies: me vs some guy whose tag I can't remember https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJd05lnDcGU&list=UU4dvv-B3l5TKaI-i4AnrXPg
AUSOM tournament: me vs Gadiel VaStar's Peach https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is8q0j3Y5DM&list=UU4dvv-B3l5TKaI-i4AnrXPg

I'm the ganon/falcon player from the first video BTW, I mainly played Ganon at first but i kinda started playing falcon about the day before the tournament and needless to say I'm not very good at him but I'm aspiring to get a lot better with him so i took a lot of notes on how you play and react to stuff because I really liked how you played him

 

[-Fatality-]

I'm the ganon/falcon player from the first video BTW, I mainly played Ganon at first but i kinda started playing falcon about the day before the tournament and needless to say I'm not very good at him but I'm aspiring to get a lot better with him so i took a lot of notes on how you play and react to stuff because I really liked how you played him

Thanks a lot, I'll keep trying my best to represent Falcon, it's definitely easier when people along the way inspire me to keep pushing myself as a player. Also, I'll add your tag to the videos.

 

[-Fatality-]

Here's the PM stream from AUSOM 10. I'm in a BO5 5$ money match with Ryker at 8:54, me in a pools match with Kazuya at 03:07:52, and at 03:30:25, I'm in game 2 of my pools Winner's Finals against Spade ( BO3, I won G1 with Sheik).
http://www.twitch.tv/alabamasmashleague/b/515342686

 

[Blunted_object10]

You guys totally ignored my post of me vs Big D in PM on the last page... no advice? Am I too good?

 

[-Fatality-]

You guys totally ignored my post of me vs Big D in PM on the last page... no advice? Am I too good?

You look solid overall, still a long way to go before you've caught up to me though.

 

[Blunted_object10]

You look solid overall, still a long way to go before you've caught up to me though.

Well either way I would appreciate some advice. Especially from the master himself.

Thanks for the compliment.

 

[-Fatality-]

Well either way I would appreciate some advice. Especially from the master himself.

Thanks for the compliment.

Your welcome
Anyway, the biggest thing I would work on for improving your game would be by far your punish game. You rarely get more than 2-3 hits out of any given conversion in the neutral game, which forces you to have to outplay them a lot more in the neutral position to win the game, then you would if you simply got more hits in on average. Your current combo game seems a bit stiff, as if you're basing your followups on some preconceived notion of what works at certain percent on certain characters, rather than simply reacting to their DI. There were a lot of times when you would U-Air empty space because they Di'ed away, and things like that. Captain Falcon's punish game, when more optimized, is just capable of a lot more than that.

Regarding your neutral game, your general spacing is solid, though you do get shieldgrabbed during Nairs a fair bit, just find more ways to mix up how you control space in the neutral game. A lot of your general strategies during that video, and the others you had up, seemed a lot of the time, that you would just DD around, maybe Nair/U-Air them when they leave the ground. Your opponents are mostly falling for the same tricks over and over again, and when you mostly play opponents like that, it can stifle your growth as a player, since you're not really forced to adapt or die, the same way you would against say, TheReflexWonder, M2K, or Professor Pro. I'd work on developing more movement tricks in the neutral game, and to spend time visualizing as many possible things an opponent could do to bait you into commitment to something, and to try to think of solutions to them that are as non-commital as possible. If you don't, you'd probably get bopped once you play some top players, who are very used to capitalizing on simplicity, you have to constantly adapt to survive in the big leagues. I'm not saying you're bad, or anywhere close to that, just that focusing on these things will help you more gracefully transition from where you are now, to actually standing a chance against these people when you do eventually play them.
Hope that helps.

 

[Blunted_object10]

As a melee veteran; I absolutely understand what you're saying. Yeah I definitely think I need to switch it up more. Also I see that I do need to improve my punish game for sure. What worries me though is when I mess up and then get edgeguard... :/

I have played top players in melee inlcuding Mew2King. Which I will be attending Northwest Manifest next month. Hopefully by then my falcon for PM will be more refined by then. Thanks for the advice!

 

[TheKmanOfSmash]

Here's me getting bopped by wi-fi's best Sonic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXX1TXMbkWg

 

[Yung Mei]

get a look at this combo i dropped hard

skip to 2:55

 

[TheKmanOfSmash]

get a look at this combo i dropped hard

skip to 2:55

What a sad day for humanity.

 

[Blunted_object10]

Hey guys last tournament I went to at North West Majors.. I got 5th place losing to Shroomed (Mario) and Bladewise (Diddy/Peach)

Here is me vs Bladewise... any advice is appreciated.

Blunted_Object10 vs Bladewise

 

[Arctic]

Hey everyone these are some friendlies with Rain and alphabattack. Any criticism is greatly appreciated!!
Alpha (Pit) v Arctic (Falcon) by alphabattack
Rain (Fox) v Arctic (Falcon) by alphabattack
Rain (Fox) v Arctic (Falcon) by alphabattack
Alpha (Pit) v Arctic (Falcon) by alphabattack
Rain (Mewtwo) v Arctic (Falcon) by alphabattack
Rain (Mewtwo) v Arctic (Falcon) by alphabattack

 

[-Fatality-]

Hey everyone these are some friendlies with Rain and alphabattack. Any criticism is greatly appreciated!!
Alpha (Pit) v Arctic (Falcon) by alphabattack
Rain (Fox) v Arctic (Falcon) by alphabattack
Rain (Fox) v Arctic (Falcon) by alphabattack
Alpha (Pit) v Arctic (Falcon) by alphabattack
Rain (Mewtwo) v Arctic (Falcon) by alphabattack
Rain (Mewtwo) v Arctic (Falcon) by alphabattack

From my perspective:
When you don't seem to really know what to do, you usually just throw out moves and hope they'll hit, which leads to you whiffing lots of opportunities, and/or leaving yourself vulnerable to a counterattack. I would advise going to training mode, and trying to find clearly defined uses for every single move C Falcon has (all of them are tournament viable to an extent). Once you really understand what you're character is capable of, it makes it a lot easier to simply react to situations and your opponents DI favorably naturally. Watch videos of high level Falcon players, and try to copy what they do. You might be thinking right now "but I don't want to be a ripoff" or something like that, but once you get a feel of what makes certain tactics and followups good, it becomes easy to understand why the best players do it, and thus know how to potentially integrate it into your unique playstyle.

Work on your mobility. When your not jumping out to attack someone, your movement is stiff. One of the best things about Falcon is his blazing, overwhelming speed. Work on implementing Dash dancing, SHFF'd aerials, and wavedashes into your regular movement. Fast, shifty movement makes it a lot harder for your opponents to actually hit you, your speed in turn makes it often easy to capitalize on even the smallest errors your opponent makes.

One last thing, that isn't actually related to your footage.
When you're in a match, you shouldn't ever focus your attention on your own character, watch your opponents instead. Watching your opponents at all times makes it a lot easier to pick up on their habits and exploit them, and ideally you already know your character well enough to where you know where you are on screen without having to directly focus on it.

 

[-Fatality-]

Videos of my Falcon at Cute Cats 7, a pretty stacked semi-regional tournament with 50 entrants.
Friendlies against Cloud's Zelda and Sheik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ktOuGuTEz0
Winner's Quarters against Eagle's Roy and Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyQoCNnlo7g
Loser's Finals against 2KrunkVillain's Toon Link and Luigi (AKA Hazard2KV) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE62ynjDy78
Grand Finals against Pikachad's Mario https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP39X1TS5CY

I'm extremely hungry for any and all criticisms you have of my gameplay.

 

[Arctic]

From my perspective:
When you don't seem to really know what to do, you usually just throw out moves and hope they'll hit, which leads to you whiffing lots of opportunities, and/or leaving yourself vulnerable to a counterattack. I would advise going to training mode, and trying to find clearly defined uses for every single move C Falcon has (all of them are tournament viable to an extent). Once you really understand what you're character is capable of, it makes it a lot easier to simply react to situations and your opponents DI favorably naturally. Watch videos of high level Falcon players, and try to copy what they do. You might be thinking right now "but I don't want to be a ripoff" or something like that, but once you get a feel of what makes certain tactics and followups good, it becomes easy to understand why the best players do it, and thus know how to potentially integrate it into your unique playstyle.

Work on your mobility. When your not jumping out to attack someone, your movement is stiff. One of the best things about Falcon is his blazing, overwhelming speed. Work on implementing Dash dancing, SHFF'd aerials, and wavedashes into your regular movement. Fast, shifty movement makes it a lot harder for your opponents to actually hit you, your speed in turn makes it often easy to capitalize on even the smallest errors your opponent makes.

One last thing, that isn't actually related to your footage.
When you're in a match, you shouldn't ever focus your attention on your own character, watch your opponents instead. Watching your opponents at all times makes it a lot easier to pick up on their habits and exploit them, and ideally you already know your character well enough to where you know where you are on screen without having to directly focus on it.

Thanks a bunch that helps a lot. I never considered where I looked during a match, that's a great concept.

 

[-Key-]

Videos of my Falcon at Cute Cats 7, a pretty stacked semi-regional tournament with 50 entrants.
Friendlies against Cloud's Zelda and Sheik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ktOuGuTEz0
Winner's Quarters against Eagle's Roy and Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyQoCNnlo7g
Loser's Finals against 2KrunkVillain's Toon Link and Luigi (AKA Hazard2KV) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE62ynjDy78
Grand Finals against Pikachad's Mario https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP39X1TS5CY

I'm extremely hungry for any and all criticisms you have of my gameplay.

I have only watched Grand Finals so far. Stage control was a big issue throughout the set. You got trapped near the edge too much and he was able to easily edgeguard you once you were offstage. I can't say I am a fan of the stages you picked. Mario will out-recover you all day at Dreamland 64, and Yoshi's Story was too confined. Once you got trapped near the edge, you had nowhere to run. I think you probably went back to YS because you thought about how you were up 3 stocks to 1 for a fleeting moment in the first match there, but on the other hand you also blew that 3-1 lead, so I wouldn't have probably gone back. Smashville, PS1, or Skyloft would've been my pick for the 3rd match, but you may not like those stages or may have avoided them for a reason I'm not thinking of right now.

Ledgehop Nair was too predictable and you got punished for it a few times (and when you got punished near the edge, you usually lost the stock, so this was a significant issue). You fished too hard for an edgeguard twice and it cost you stocks both times. I realize you have to capitalize on the rare opportunities you get as Falcon to edgeguard Mario, but you also have to leave yourself an escape route if you mess up. In the first match and the third match you overcommitted and ended up getting edgeguarded yourself.

It seems to me like Mario is a really tough matchup for Falcon, so I'm not sure what else to say to help with the issues you had. IMO a lot of your struggles were simply due to character vs. character issues, and there's not much you can do about those things.

 

[-Fatality-]

I've got a lot of work to do in this matchup, but I think I can do it, even against the world's best Mario. Regarding the stage choices, I strongly believe that you want to play on stages with as many platforms as possible against Mario, preferably with a top platform, which is why I banned the 3 stages without 3 platforms for G1. I need to be super disciplined and patient to win this matchup. Thankfully there's a Mario player in Georgia that I get to play with decently often who's super good, and I'll work a lot with him to learn the matchup. Thanks for the advice.

 

[-Key-]

I've got a lot of work to do in this matchup, but I think I can do it, even against the world's best Mario. Regarding the stage choices, I strongly believe that you want to play on stages with as many platforms as possible against Mario, preferably with a top platform, which is why I banned the 3 stages without 3 platforms for G1. I need to be super disciplined and patient to win this matchup. Thankfully there's a Mario player in Georgia that I get to play with decently often who's super good, and I'll work a lot with him to learn the matchup. Thanks for the advice.

I think Battlefield will work better than Dreamland 64 (and perhaps Yoshi's Story) if you're really hung up on that style of stage. I'm not saying you're wrong for having that strategy, but if those don't end up providing the advantage you're looking for, here's why I suggested the stages I did.

Smashville: The platform moves towards the edges and may help with both edgeguarding and recovery. Since Falcon is at such a disadvantage in this matchup in both of these areas, introducing variation/options can only help matters. With your movement skills, I'd imagine you'd be able to use the platform well enough to avoid fireballs when it's above the stage, or you can escape to it when it's near the edges.

PS1: The neutral version might not be great, but it's at least spacious enough for you to move around. I think the transformations work in your favor.

Skyloft: Plenty of room and the uneven floor messes with Fireballs. The side blast zones are medium distance from the stage so his recovery advantage is minimal compared to most other large stages.

Good luck as you work on this matchup. It's definitely a tough one and I'll let you know if I come up with any other ideas. Keep reppin' Falcon like you do.

 

[-Fatality-]

Yeah, I'm in an awkward place right now as a player. My skill is high enough that I'm not losing to high level, or even very high level players at all, but I just can't beat top level players. I'm actually going to start paying TheReflexWonder to tutor me, since he's a top level player, and def one of the smartest players in the world. I'm hopeful that I can really start to tear things up after working with him for a while. Thanks again for bouncing ideas around.
What do you (or anyone else here) think of the other videos of me? Anything noticeable I need to work on from those?

 

[-Fatality-]

Vids of me winning Momocon 2014's 40 Entry PM tournament. Full results and bracket should be posted soon.
Vs James's Toon Link and Ike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNerKLfmBqc
Loser's Finals Vs Scatt's Luigi, Fox, and Falcon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0wyo1su_F8
Grand Finals Vs DP's Mario's Marth, Mario, Luigi, and Samus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXo8OmTV55o
(Once I switch to Ivysaur in Grand Finals, I don't go back to Falcon)

I'm looking for the most brutally honest critical analysis of my gameplay you can give me, fire away!

 

[DatDolphin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGcUIuQ1vlg

Bo3 with my little brother. No johns, but I only lost because my fingers worked faster than my mind and I dropped and kneed before a jump on my second to last stock.

 

[-Fatality-]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGcUIuQ1vlg

Bo3 with my little brother. No johns, but I only lost because my fingers worked faster than my mind and I dropped and kneed before a jump on my second to last stock.

No johns, but johns.
Aside: Your general movement is solid, though it looks a bit aimless a lot of the time. There were lots of instances where you kept getting hit while DD'ing, when DD'ing is your best tool for avoiding Jigg's attacks.
Try to DD with more purpose, actively think about when you think you're about to be attacked, how often, and in what ways, and build your DD game around that. For instance, this matchup on both sides is all about hit and run, rather than the faster DD'ing you were mostly using, try using broader ones to effectively threaten more space.

 

[Met]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZlQYkxod_I&list=UUz9wArgQCtSDqD3tbRHjwNQ

anyone have any advice for an old school falcon main started playing pm 4 months ago?

 

[-Fatality-]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZlQYkxod_I&list=UUz9wArgQCtSDqD3tbRHjwNQ

anyone have any advice for an old school falcon main started playing pm 4 months ago?

The biggest thing that stuck out to me, was that your followup game was a bit stiff. You would usually get a solid hit on someone, then sit for a moment before following up, which led to you forfeiting lots of guaranteed Knee's and what have you. You have a solid foundation for a Falcon, just try to tighten up as much of your game as possible.

While not necessarily related to your video, if you're not particularly acquainted with some of PM's new characters Falcon has to deal with, to try to learn them as much as possible. Falcon more so than many characters, is really punished and rewarded for matchup knowledge, due to how fair of a character he is, and because of how easily he's combo'd if you're DI and Smash DI isn't on point. Likewise, Falcon is capable of really destroying anyone he gets a hold on, and by knowing these matchups, you can get in that position much more efficiently and consistently than someone who doesn't.

 

[-Fatality-]

Here's Grand Finals from Smash Carolina IV, a SC Project M regional that happened last Saturday. I use Ivy in 1 game.
Set 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Zo05hx_Ng
Set 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-0n9c6AbdM

More vids from the event coming later.

 

[j-slo-3]

A match of mine at our last weekly. I play Falcon for the first two games and then switch to Ganon for game 3. I am a Ganon main, but I enjoy playing Falcon as well, but have less experience with him overall, so any tips or pointers are welcome!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpAl2zfZaXE&list=PLk4CEqVedzOZz_74ECrcl0Y56Quu8_bMn&index=4

Only used Falcon for game one of this set, which I should have won, but I wanted the offstage knee too bad lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czfOcZLy_gk&list=PLk4CEqVedzOZz_74ECrcl0Y56Quu8_bMn&index=3

 

[MangoNation]

Can you guys take a look at my falcon?

 

[TheKmanOfSmash]

Can you guys take a look at my falcon?

You don't use nair AT ALL to either space/zone or approach. Your main approach method was using raptor boost (side b). That may work on your brother, but against other players, that would most likely get you punished extremely hard. Your combo game was decent, though there were places where you could have extended the duration of the combo (if you can't tell where said places are, ask. I'm too lazy to point them out in this post unless you request lololol). And your combos were mostly started from raptor boosts instead of grabs. Which brings me to my next point: Also, you don't grab AT ALL. I personally think that Falcon's nair, dash dance, and grab are Falcon's best moves because they are the moves that give him the most basic chance for him to compete in the neutral game and you neglected to use 2 of those 3 moves almost entirely.

I would suggest to work on all those things I commented on and you'll be 4 stocking your brother for free

 

[Steel Banana]

So I'm a DFW Falcon main seeking advice on how to improve and become the top Falcon in my area (gotta start somewhere). I've been placing pretty well at recent tourneys (9th in the last two, which is pretty good for the amount of competition in my area) but I still struggle in certain matchups and mess up my tech skill a lot.

Here are two videos of me in the latest tourney (luckily they were my two losses):

Vs Pizzacato (Shiek, Samus): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBQHHZPr9A
Note: the beginning is not a button check, but the commentators didn't know

Vs SparkingZero (Ike, Squirtle): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmTflOscCOk

That was my first time ever fighting a Samus, Ike, or Squirtle, so I didn't know the matchups and did a little better in friendlies against both of them afterward. One specific question I have is: how do I approach unfamiliar matchups, since experimentation in a tournament match is extremely risky? (I also struggled heavily with the Dedede matchup in the pre-tournament friendlies)

ALL advice is welcome and thanks in advance! :D

 

[TheKmanOfSmash]

So I'm a DFW Falcon main seeking advice on how to improve and become the top Falcon in my area (gotta start somewhere). I've been placing pretty well at recent tourneys (9th in the last two, which is pretty good for the amount of competition in my area) but I still struggle in certain matchups and mess up my tech skill a lot.

Here are two videos of me in the latest tourney (luckily they were my two losses):

Vs Pizzacato (Shiek, Samus): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFBQHHZPr9A
Note: the beginning is not a button check, but the commentators didn't know

Vs SparkingZero (Ike, Squirtle): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmTflOscCOk

That was my first time ever fighting a Samus, Ike, or Squirtle, so I didn't know the matchups and did a little better in friendlies against both of them afterward. One specific question I have is: how do I approach unfamiliar matchups, since experimentation in a tournament match is extremely risky? (I also struggled heavily with the Dedede matchup in the pre-tournament friendlies)

ALL advice is welcome and thanks in advance! :D

You approach familiar MUs by playing a ton of different people in friendlies. Since I was a wi-fi player and played various types of people on demand, I was exposed to almost every MU in the game playing as Falcon, so I have a lot of MU knowledge that way. Seeing as the official Nintendo wi-fi servers are down and you're probably not an online player at all (don't know how much you care about Netplay or the new, independent wi-fi servers), the best you can do is to play friendlies with EVERYONE in your scene and as many people as you can when you travel out of your area to play Smash. If neither of these things are options, practice comboing different characters in training mode and classify eash character as a fast faller or a floaty as the combos for multiple fast faller characters and floaty characters are very similar, respectively, and when you run into one of them in tourney, try to go off of that.

I could do a detailed play-by-play of your matches but that's waaaay to much work for me to have patience for, so I'll just say a lot of general things about your set with Pizzacato:

• Learn to jump cancel your grabs. Falcon's dash grab comes out later and has a lot of cool down lag on it whereas his JC grab comes out faster and has less cool down. His dash grab has extended range behind him, but utilizing it can be really situational so it's recommended to ALWAYS JC grab.
• You side b to recover too much. Using side b to recover is a GREAT mixup, but using it repetitively will get you gimped pretty fast. You have more mix-up opportunities with up-b, believe it or not. You can up-b with Falcon from a large portion of the offstage map where as you can only side-b from a pretty small area. Also, you ca reverse up-b to pseudo-sweetspot the ledge and ledge tech the stage if your hit. Things that are difficult to accomplish with side-b.
• Up-air destroys Samus. I saw a lot of times when you were trying to combo offstage, you'd get a back air instead of an up-air, up-air being the correct option. That could have been the result of you trying to do an up-air (up+A) while trying to DI towards the stage so you don't fly too far off. This is why I up-air with the c-stick because I can hold in with my DI without worrying about getting a back air from pressing A because I DON'T have to press A at all (this is also why the c-stick is just generally useful)
• Stop spamming Falcon kick. Falcon kick, despite how strong it is, cannot solve all of your problems.
• Up-throw --- Knee/Up-air won't work on Samus because she can jump out quickly due to her being a floaty (low fast fall speed). This is how I combo Samus:
  • Almost always use down throw. There are certain things that up-throw could be used for in other floaty MUs like baiting people out of their double jump, but that may be too situational for you to have to worry about and it doesn't really give you a lot of utility anyway vs Samus because of Samus's bomb stall. For your intents and purposes, almost always use down throw when comboing Samus.
  • At low-percents (around 0-35%), like 85% of Samus players will be mashing nair to attempt to get out of the combo if your reaction time is not on point. Even if it is, they may/may not still trade with you. Instead of taking that chance, what I personally do is I may do a down throw, wait for the nair, and then regrab them and try down-throw up-air. If they jump out (which is an option that Samus players tend to use when they notice that spamming nair isn't working), then you may have not gotten the regrab from waiting on the nair, but they are now in the air with no jump. Proceed to juggle with up-air. Smart Samus players will prioritize good combo DI over simple combo breakers like nair and jump, though they will use those options if they work against the Falcon they're playing.
  • At medium percents (around 35-75%) down-throw ---> up air should connect reliably. Like 70% of Samus players will try to mash jump to avoid the up-air. Unless they DI the throw really well, then the up-air should either hit or take their jump. If their jump is gone, that's a plus for you.
  • At high-percents (around 80%-mid-100s) down-throw ---> Knee should work.
• Utilize moonwalk bairs to attempt to edgeguard Samus offstage. Also, you can try to hit her just as she's trying to tether the ledge with a jump down weak/strong Knee offstage. Also, when Samus tethers the ledge while someone is on it and she reels in, she is forced to do an auto pop-up where a ledgehop Knee is guaranteed. However, Z-air tether characters like Samus and Link can utilize a mix-up where they can tether cancel the tether when it snatches on to the ledge and then up-b, hitting you while you're hanging on the ledge. The situation would then become a 50/50 and you'll just have to trust your gut on what to do when edgeguarding.
• Pizzacato was using a lot of up-bs to get out of the down-throw combo and you punished those extremely poorly with badly spaced Knees. Personally, I would play it safe with up-air because the hitbox covers so much space that it's almost impossible for it to miss.
• Be careful when using jabs vs Samus, including using gentleman. If the jabs pop her up in the air but you don't link the jabs correctly, I believe she can mash nair in between the jabs to get out. With that said, never jab ---> grab Samus. It will almost always fail and you'll eat a nair as a result.
• Samus can crouch cancel a lot of Falcon's moves at low percents and she can do it with her meaty down smash and down tilt. Spacing nairs reaaally well, wisely using stomp (which cannot be CC'd), and not using jab at low percents are key.

Ok, that's all I got for that. I'd do a general review of your set vs SparkingZero and help you with the D3 MU but again, too much work, sorry xD

What I can do, though is leave you some videos of me playing the D3 MU and hope they help out. If you have questions, I'll try to answer them at a later date.

Here you go (Me vs 9k+1, a D3 player from MD/VA, playing on wi-fi):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0PoOIYOQGA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frNDSSDWVrs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQv1zq6yVlk

 

[Steel Banana]

Wow, thanks for all that feedback Kman.

No one has ever pointed out that I was missing JC grabs, but now that I know, I'll drill it until I don't miss them anymore. Side-B recoveries and excessive Falcon kicks are all side-effects of me playing on autopilot, I think. They work really well sometimes when people aren't expecting them, but I end up making myself predictable by overusing them.

That combo strategy sounds really solid, even against other floaties besides just Samus. I don't really pay too much attention to percents, and that's probably hurting my combo game a lot.

As for netplay, I've always been hesitant to try it out. I have a computer that can run pretty much any game at max settings and have access to a pretty stable internet connection, so I assume it would work smoothly for me. I'm afraid of it building bad habits since I've heard that lag is pretty prevalent, but I'm not against trying it out.

 

[TheKmanOfSmash]

Wow, thanks for all that feedback Kman.

No one has ever pointed out that I was missing JC grabs, but now that I know, I'll drill it until I don't miss them anymore. Side-B recoveries and excessive Falcon kicks are all side-effects of me playing on autopilot, I think. They work really well sometimes when people aren't expecting them, but I end up making myself predictable by overusing them.

That combo strategy sounds really solid, even against other floaties besides just Samus. I don't really pay too much attention to percents, and that's probably hurting my combo game a lot.

As for netplay, I've always been hesitant to try it out. I have a computer that can run pretty much any game at max settings and have access to a pretty stable internet connection, so I assume it would work smoothly for me. I'm afraid of it building bad habits since I've heard that lag is pretty prevalent, but I'm not against trying it out.

No problem, glad I could help :3

Also, playing any fighting game online definitely has the potential to create bad habits as many people abuse things that honestly only work online (things that can be punished easily on reaction can become extremely difficult in bad/decent connections). However, always playing with the same people in your area or scene offline can breed bad habits as well. I think what playing online lacks in emulating a perfect offline environment (though with a good connection, it comes pretty darn close) it makes up for the ability to play multiple people and experience soooo many different playstyles without ever leaving your home. To me, that's a great tradeoff, but if online isn't for you, then I understand.