Japes is a terrible stage.
I don't main falco, and I've randomly picked Falco and counter picked this stage in the past and won.
Disagree with Yoshi's Island being moved to counterpick (Read back to some discussion about it). FD is more unbalanced than YI. This is why you should use stage striking.
Either the Starter list should be:
Final Destination
Yoshi's Island (Brawl)
Smashville
Battlefield
And your choice of Lylat Cruise/Pokemon Stadium
Or
Yoshi's Island (Brawl)
Smashville
Battlefield
The randomness of the cloud on YI is noteworthy, but ultimately not as influential and game impacting as say, random tripping. In Melee, Yoshi's Story not only terribly favours Marth, but also has a cloud that appears (though whilst not randomly, definitely isn't accounted for most of the time by players).
I dunno, was reading this thread randomly and wanted to give my two cents.