Does this mean Mario's going to be the student to Ryu? 'Cause y'know, they both have Shoryukens... sort of.
Welp, Falco's definitely the bottom character now. They nerf him of all characters. What happened to giving him safer options like a faster Dash Attack, faster, but weaker Dair, better IASA on jab, faster grabs, less end lag on Blaster, fixing his Falco Phantasm hitbox, faster run speed, and faster air speed? Nope, let's make his Uair which wasn't a problem weaker, let's make his Fair landing weaker when it's part of a move not meant to be used purposely, let's remove the ground bounce from Dair which frame canceling could abuse, but was difficult as sin to pull off in the heat of battle, let's make Nair weaker, but make it connect better, and let's give Fair 1% more, apparently change its KB so you can't combo it like Fox can, and seemingly make it quicker despite the fact it being relegated to an edgeguard move is all it can do and has been doing.
Falco's patch history can be summed up as nerfs with trivial buffs, but aren't major enough to make him better. 3DS patch removed a janky way to spike people, added 3% to his landing Fair and fixed the hitbox a little, and made his Blaster fire quicker. Overall: nerf. Why? Yes, it's janky and a lot of characters lost those weird spikes, but it was a boon to Falco's game plan, Blaster doesn't need to fire more projectiles, it needs less end lag to be safer, and why 5% on the landing hit? Just give it better knockback to cover his landing if he screws up; Fair's not even supposed to be used from a short hop or even on the stage. Mewtwo patch: Up Smash connects better. Whoopty-freaking-doo! It's not even a good kill move or anti-air. A small buff. Lucas, Roy, and Ryu patch: 1% less on Uair - Why? Was this move a Diddy or Rosalina Uair? -, 1% less on Nair - does this move look like it kills? -, 2% less on landing Fair - basically reverting it to 3DS Fair -, and Dair cannot ground bounce which cool, people can't tech it, but the fact it had hit lag prior to this patch meant it had a cue to tech. In return: Fair does 1% more in the air and might be faster and Nair connects better - yeah, like connecting better does much since you could position yourself backwards to connect it better. Overall: nerf.
At this rate, Falco's going to have his own tier if this trend of nerfs and trivial buffs continue. Future Wolf patch: Falco's jab now true combos into rapid jab and his Bair does 10% sweet-spotted and 5% with the late hit to make Wolf's Bair look good. Meanwhile, Dr. Mario: Super Jump Punch accepts the Shoryuken input for more power and height.