This nerf has hurt because you believe you are doing the right play and end up eating damage for it. Also it’s kind of bs that it doesn’t hit crouching opponents in the first place when other character rarely have this problem.
Uniquely, Gief’s FA has pros and cons. Doesn’t hit crouchers, and its as slow as a tank, but LOOK AT THAT REACH.
It just means, we have to hit confirm into it, before emptying the entire bar. Yes, that means, you will hit a few crouching limbs with EXGH, and HOLD the RFC.
I would like to see cr.mp being special cancellable to allow for RFC combos from a jump in.
If FA’s attack box is enlarged downwards to hit crouchers, then that buff alone, not only takes care of Sagat’s low tiger, but it kills villains long ranged low pokes, like Balrog’s cr.hk or fei’s cr.hp. Sure makes the footsie game hell easier.
I shall check it out when I can. Did you represent? 
Bodied
I’ve been using low shorts hit confirm into ex bf fadc r focus grab combo after a cross up. This will make them think twice about trying to jump lol.
Really good second game man, round one was great, that delayed SPD in the end was fantastic, I would have done the exact same U2 in the second round and I’m not sure, but did you do MP GH in the third round? you were doing great and then that Tiger Uppercut wrecked the momentum.
Overall great reads, I’d say that all things considered, you rep’d the character. Good job man.
Very nice Sinep. Not a bad performance at all versus one of the best Sagat players in the world.
The U2 in the second match. No way would he have DP’d there. That DP would be betting the farm when he had a fully stocked…barn? Any other Sagat would have done a DP, but he knew better. Better to eat that SPD or light attack pressure than go for a chip out DP. I’m sure I would have done the same thing.
My Gief is still an infant compared to most of you guys. Week 3 is going well… Kappa
Also, I did a bunch of testing (outside of who crumple > U2 worked on)…
Red Focus will still hit E. Honda, Blanka and Rufus while crouching. They are the only 3 though…
and I did a U2 crumple thread for fun as well
I thought I did ex hand but I did mp 
and I really thought he was going to backdash so I did U2.
This Friday I’m going to stream for about 2 hours. About an hour of ranked and an hour of FT3s in endless on XBL.
Could really use some live critique if any of you guys can watch. I’ll be streaming here: http://www.twitch.tv/blockstring
I’ll do it around 12pm EST until around 2pm EST. For reference if you’re not in the NA, this post was made at 7pm EST (or 19:00 EST).
Thanks Chief, Macho and any others that popped in. I appreciate the tips. I definitely need to jump less for the love of god.
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You mostly lack match up knowledge, and severely need to learn spacing and counter pokes
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Need to stop random FA, because you need to know exactly what your countering
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Your spacing is way too far to be tempting. You need to dance closer to their poke range. Also need to know the right counter poke, eg. st.lk
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Go for the cross-up splash/knees/empty jump at every opportunity, you missed a few
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Practice reaction EXGH, otherwise you should block instead.
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Need to revamp and practice your GH hit confirm:
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Use 3 to 4 hits, if you use 4 hits, you must end with far LK xx LPGH
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If you tick HP SPD off the first or second hit, use a 4 hit confirm, otherwise 3 hits if you only tick off the first hit
You don’t know the counter to their pokes, and thus have a weaker ground game, and have to rely on jumping in
The game’s mostly matchup knowledge for you at this stage.
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eg. rufus galatic tornado is -1 on block, can’t be SPD.
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eg. far MK or far LK xx EXGH to beat fei’s cr.hp or Ryu’s cr.mk
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eg. far HK or EXGH to whiff punish Hugo’s far MP *Then guess correctly afterwards to win/survive
Otherwise use far MP or far MK, which avoids the fight getting dirty -
eg. use cr.lp x EXGH against bison’s far MK or HK
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Have to get into the habit of performing cr.lk or st.lk o/s EXGH when you get into range, in case they throw something out.
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After LPGH, use AS. Not SPD. Slightly safer. Also, all tick SPD need to be HP.
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Have to improve the range on those walk up LP SPD.
Otherwise use far MP or far MK, which avoids the fight getting dirtyAlso, I recommend you use your judgement to EXGH anti-air Lariat trades, and get the follow up cross-up. Especialy if it means you could win the round. The RFC combo is good, BUT its VERY VERY situational. Landing it doesn’t even guarantee you the round. Plus, you can still win without it. It’s situational, because you need the right conditions for EXGH-RFC-U1/AS to be worth it. Plus, you need the opening for it, which you can’t guarantee. Sitting on full meter, means you don’t gain more meter. RFC should be secondary, not the aim of meter management. o/s far st.lk xx EXGH is still the best use of EX meter in my opinion, due to the range over far lk xx LPGH
Thanks Evan. Copying all that stuff and adding it to my notes.
I thought HP SPD isn’t as good as LP SPD for post knockdown set-ups though.
I wouldn’t use AS after a GH. If they jump back, you’re 100% gonna get punished. If you do SPD, you only get punished if they neutral jump (or backdash for certain chars) or do something invincible/airborne.
And I do think that saving all your meter for a RFC combo (especially against shotos) is a good strategy. But if you have full bars, just use 1 if the opportunity arises, especially if it isn’t the final round.
Hey Chief, good to hear from you. After LPGH, you can’t get RBG. You ALWAYS get AS, because your in 1.0 range. AS is the SAFEST of all Zangief’s command grabs. AS is 45 frames of recovery. HP SPD is 48 and EX SPD is 47 frames of recovery. And LP SPD is 52 frames. Plus, you can sort of crouch block throw tech that AS (with DB+LP+LK).
Back dash will counter you well and truly, but if they neutral jump, its 3 fames harder for a punish, and they have to punish late on their descend. But it should still be possible.
Any option selects into EXGH, are superior than LPGH, due to its more forgiving range. You don’t have to stand as close as possible with EXGH. So if your timing and spacing is a bit off, you don’t have the problem of the LPGH whiffing, and being in recovery for a punish. As for EXGH after trade Lariats, everyone’s gonna be frugal. But if the guaranteed 50 damage can give you the life lead or change the match. Not sure whether you can get a cross-up with regular GH, I doubt it, but worth testing out.
All the regular SPD’s have the same post knockdown advantage. You don’t get any cross-up setups. They differ in range and recovery. Risk/Reward says you should always use HP SPD during ticks. AS is a bit harder. The pushback from the first tick, and the slight pause before grabbing (during which they use those 2 frames to get further away - via back jump or back dash), means they are outside range when you go for AS. And then it’s RBG time!
Also, for your tick HP SPD game to work, your GH hit confirm has to have a gap, to allow them to jump out. Thus you have to use links, and not cr.lp chains.
It depends on your hit confirm combo. For example, the bread and butter, cr.lp xx cr.lp xx. cr.lp st.lk xx LPGH isn’t good for inserting tick SPD. But a hit confirm like cr.lk. cr.lp xx cr.lp. st.lk xx LPGH would be suitable for SPD ticks after the first hit. If they try to jump out after the first hit, they get hit confirmed into LPGH.
Why bother using cr.lp when you can just keep doing cr.lk? I try to only use cr.lk. It used to be a difficult 1 frame link but since they changed it back to 2 frames, it’s a very doable combo.
I think the main issue is predictability. If I know your bread and butter is cr.lk x 4 into LPGH. Then after I block the first one, I’m gonna to shoryuken or EX right through your second cr.lk. Theoretically, they could Ultra you, but the cr.lk +1 on block, makes the window 1 frame. The Ultra pause would allow Zangief to block, if he failed to link immediately after.
Edit: Even if you hold DB while doing the links, the 3 frame gap, will mean, you eat reversal. As most likely the second cr.lk is pressed during those frames.
If you use cr.lp chained, its not predictable, because they don’t know when you allow the gap to occur for sure.
Opponent’s will be looking for that reversal after the first cr.lk, since that its a 2 frame link, its back in fashion. I would recommend, cr.lp xx cr.lk as a good alternative, just to mix it up. They just have to time the DF, DF well, ALL during block stun, otherwise cr.lk gets them - not hard to do really.
Zangief’s new outfit. All 22 colors:
Maybe one day Capcom will show some gratitude to their fans and give us costumes for free instead of cash grabbing every chance they get. Yeah, I know it will never happen lol.