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Tips For Link vs. Falcon matchup

Thamauturge

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Apr 6, 2011
Messages
166
Location
Stokesdale, North Carolina
Hello, I was wondering, does anyone have any tips for fighting Link? His projectiles seem to halt significant approach strategies. The hookshot is also a pain, but that's mostly when he punishes a right side / left side tech or roll. Side Stepping helps counter and then punish the often predictable grab though, but that's only when I am standing up.
 

Blade-Fox

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Jun 12, 2007
Messages
169
Location
Greensboro, NC
I find dash dancing to bait and sort of wait for holes and then using Nair to sort of hop over or go through some of the projectiles to help. This is old (2.5b) but my friend plays Link so I definitely know what you're going through with the projectiles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjD56YQFaoY

Generally, just try and get on top of Link before he starts up but if you can't do that, you just gotta be patient. A hole will open up and you can then dive in. Just don't get baited yourself.
 

-Fatality-

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Dec 12, 2010
Messages
358
Location
Lilburn, GA
NNID
FatalityFalcon
3DS FC
3695-0049-3723
Falcon vs Link may seem like a hard matchup initially, but once you know it's various nuances, I think it's probably 60-40 in our favor.
Fighting Link effectively is all about patience, as reckless play will often result in getting juggled/techchased for days. You don't really want to approach Link head-on, try jumping over his projectiles, then fastfalling when he's farther away from you and slowly get closer to him. Once your close, try zoning with aerials (especially with Bair/Nair) to prevent him from grabbing you while pressuring him. Once you get a hit, you want to follow up with Up-Throw Short hop U-Air, if you can safely U-air again go ahead, if your not so sure, try dash dancing under him and maybe zone with more aerials until he's hit again or forced to land, which with your speed, lets you easily convert that into more hits or a grab. Most of your moves clank with his which is what makes aggressive zoning so effective against Link since your attacks are generally faster than his, you can convert random hits into combos much easier than he can due to his slow grab, and it's hard for Link for to start combos on you if you mixup your blazing fast movement with Nair/Bair walls. When being chaingrabbed, try quickly rolling the control stick around before you tech, so that not even you know what will happen when you tech, as this makes your teching patterns impossible to pick up on, since they're random. You also need to be patient against a more aggressive Link as his shffl'ed nairs can easily lead to large, painful combos. If he attacks you head on, you can easily shield grab him, if his attacks are more well spaced, you can easily falcon kick him, since it plows through or trades with almost everything he does, and he generally isn't fast enough to punish you for it, even if he shields it.
 

Drodeka

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Messages
297
Location
Olympia, Washington
I usually give much more advice than this, but it will be a quick one.

Short hopping while a decent distance away from him or full hop fast falling is an extremely effective baiting strategy, because remember, you don't want to approach him, but he wants to approach you even less. Force him to do so.

Don't jump the gun and try to go combo-crazy too often, because link's weight at low percentages will DI out of your attacks and leave you open, so make sure you use quick, concise attacks to rack the first 40% or so. This is when you begin fishing.

To fish on link, try to seize a moment when he uses Arrows or Bombs, because boomerang is a little too quick, and make sure your D-air, N-air, or F-air are well spaced landing you a safe distance passed him as often as possible, because Link can Up-B on stage and laugh as you get hit.

Hope it helps!
 

ThreeSided

Smash Ace
Joined
May 8, 2009
Messages
600
Location
USA, CT
Once your close, try zoning with aerials (especially with Bair/Nair) to prevent him from grabbing you while pressuring him.
Wat.

How does nair/bair pressure prevent grabbing? That thing is so damn long, my local link actually responds to my zoning with those by grabbing me out of them. ;_;
 

dinn3rr

Smash Cadet
Joined
Dec 10, 2013
Messages
31
Location
Ventura, CA
Whenever I have to play against Link / Tink, I recommend b̶a̶i̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ destroying Link with spaced nairs. Keep in mind this won't work with all Links.
Also, if you hate projectiles so much, jump on a platform, all of Link's projectiles (except charged Neutral-B) can be outran by Falcon.
As for Links who like to Up-B on the ground alot (OoS, whatever) can easily be punished by Dair-ing them (DO NOT SHFFL DAIR, YOU WILL GET HIT).
Just short-hop into their Up-B and Dair. They should pop up, and if you have the L-Cancel timing down, you'll be ready setup for a tech read or tech chase.

Try to have Link approach you, as they aren't going to like approaching you. Dashdance, empty shorthop fastfall, empty SHFFL, etc. Anything to make you harder to hit with his projectiles.
Try to mix up your SHFFLs as well. I've noticed that a lot of Links begin to notice you go for one single SHFFL when you approach(if you approach) after the first few. Mix them up and you won't get wrecked.

Hope this helped.
 

GOLDENMOP

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jan 21, 2014
Messages
54
I'm not much of a pro so if I sound stupid then just ignore me.
Learning how to powersheild against arrows and bombs may help, powersheilding is when you sheild at the exact moment so it will reflect off of your sheild so try to practice that.
For the hookshot you could try mixing up your tech rolls in both directions and also ocassionally just not tech roll so the opponent will have to predict what direction you will tech roll into and if they mess up punish them with a Fair, Dair, or whatever other move you like (As a Falcon Main those moves are my favorites)
Another good strategy is to try and get him to go come to you rather than you come to him, try to stay away and avoid Link's projectile spamming so eventually he will have to walk up to you and you can try to attack him from there
Link vs. Falcon is a pretty even matchup, it is slightly in falcon's favor, but Link still has a good chance, so if you can get the hang of fighting him, he shouldn't be too much of a problem
 
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