Falco edgeguarding memo

Falco edgeguarding memo

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"In general, Falco's whole recovery MO is to deceive you into covering one option so he can do the other one. Side b and up b are neatly complementary, and Falco's high double jump, as well as his shine stall, make it so that if a Falco structures his recovery properly, things can turn sour for the edgeguarder if they overextend since Falco can go around you easily."

"You’ll always want to first cover side B since it’s the fastest, least reactable option (especially when combined with double jump to create slight variations in height)"
He has to be within a certain range for side b to access the ledge/stage
His best case scenarios = you shield in anticipation of his side b, you’re on a platform and he’s dropping past you (other way around isn’t as good b/c you’re able to punish him from the ground), you’re offstage and you’ve used your DJ
If he lands on stage, try to generate a tech chase if he’s far in, and if he’s close to the edge, reset the offstage situation at higher percents, but create a tech chase at lower percents (unless you’re good at gimping?). Putting him on to the other ledge is OK with dsmash, I guess.
Don’t try to punish the start up of side b in almost all cases, you’ll die. Just interrupt

"After you close off side b from him, he’ll look for up bs."
He wants to up b around you (can also do it at you if your invincibility is gone)
He almost always wants to stay above the ledge when recovering since it’s easy to react to him going low even if he has a double jump
Generally snuffing the startup, if possible, is best.
Percentages and double jump availability can produce complications
Percentage: if it’s too low and he’s too high above the stage and you snuff the candle it’s hard to follow up
Double jump availability: if you snuff he can create a situation after where his side b is hard to beat and you don’t get enough frames to beat the up b he’d do if you tried to cover his side b
Remember that Falco falls fast and has OK drift left and right afterwards, and that his landing lag is only 3f.

"The distance between you and the ledge that Falco’s facing is so so so important. You need to make very sure not to try for edgeguards that you don’t have from the stage"
Hard to impossible to cover: you’re far from the ledge and Falco is close to stage + below to the ledge, Falco has a double jump and you have to enter run but he escapes hitstun/is able to execute recovery options when he’s above the edge or slightly below the ledge, you’re on the top platform and Falco can side b to the ledge
In these cases, it's best to set up a ledge trap/find good positioning. If you want to try for edgeguarding, you should have absolute confidence in this scenarios because things can go very wrong very quickly if reversed

"Note: if you're on the ledge, there could easily be situations where you can't cover his up b reactively because he does it too high and/or too far from the ledge that you're on. These cases require you to try to punish his landing or initiate a trap."

"If you’re offstage, it’s important to pay attention to the horizontal and vertical) to the stage, your resource and also your relative positions to each other."
If side b is possible and Falco still has a DJ, that’s the worst case scenario (just grab the ledge to get invul and try to read, or punish obviously bad recoveries)
If side b is not possible but Falco still has a DJ, it’s safer for you to try to snipe him using your DJ, but make sure you’re cognizant of how the situation could change if he used his DJ (i.e. what if he tries to side b to the stage after DJ’ing around you, or get on the stage somehow, etc.)). Also if you’re too far vertically displaced to Falco it can be hard/impossible
If side b is possible but Falco doesn’t have a DJ, if you have a DJ it should basically be free since you can readily get to the ledge. Only thing to watch out for is if you’re above the ledge, obviously. Watch out for tricky up Bs!
If side b isn’t possible and Falco doesn’t have a DJ, he should be dead every time unless some percentage garbage happens.

"Falco's double jump is a waiting tool"
Self-explanatory.
An easy way to envision Falco using his double jump well is to notice that you grabbed the ledge too early then double jumping farther above you + picking an up b that lets him go high or on to the stage (if he's close enough).
Jump + side b is theoretically <20 frames. From this basic data alone you can see how misdirection in cases where side b is possible can definitely lead to good outcomes since your frame commitment to an edgeguard could easily reach a level where it’s infeasible to reach Falco up b’ing during your actionable frames.
Since shine stall alters Falco's fall speed, having a double jump while Falco's on his way down or even below the stage can complicate things, especially since shine stalling somewhat circumvents needles (though if they're too low and stuck in reflect lag from reflecting many needles funny situations can happen)
Nevertheless, Falco doesn't want to fall too far/shine stall too low especially because he doesn't have tools to meaningfully disrupt your attempts to up b refresh using no-poof stall
If Falco can DJ/DJ AD on to the stage or DJ + grab the ledge he will, but both those situations require him to be fairly close to the stage (since he can't execute an aerial on the way down if he wants to live, unless he can get the aerial to put him on stage or create a situation where you're not able to punish him for hitting it soon after so he can recover with up b)
First line of thought when Falco has a double jump is to consider how he could get on to the ledge using side b (stage also included in this if you're offstage when he has a double jump). If he can't get back using side b, then try to wait for his up b (obviously), and if you make a commitment, be sure that you can at least grab the ledge/get back on the stage if you fail (worst case), or you can still kill after the commitment (best case).

"Frootloop summary"
'ok so here's what everybody does
1) beat all sideBs
this is generally done by running off  the stage and double jumping
important is the timing where you run off, the timing when you double jump, and whether you should react aerial or always aerial
all this depends on the position of the falco
generally this can also cover all or most of their options to double jump to the stage or ledge
and this tactic leaves you standing on the stage
2) beat some upBs
if they're upBing low then you can just grab ledge and bair them on reaction
if they're upBing higher up then you are just gonna cover upBs that aren't to the ledge
do some aerial in place (standing by the edge) to cover upB right at you
then you'll have enough time to see that they went high and cover that too
if they go to the ledge then you let them have it and play a good position
if they become transparent about going to the ledge or maybe always upBing then just kill em
yeah watch the m2k edgeguard vid to discover the important timings
but this is basically the plan'