Since The Great Crash, much of what I’ve said on this topic has gone down the tubes, so I’ll repost them now.
Why Zangief is god in SFEX, SFEX+, SFEX+a.
- Priority. Zangief’s priority in SFEX1, while not supreme, is pretty dang high. IMHO, it’s the highest of all his incarnations, even his SFZ3 version (and Gief is top tier there).
Examples:
Guile Vs. Gief. In other games, Guile can play footsie with Gief very well. While Gief can sometimes get a lucky shot with his crouching RK against Guile’s crouching FK, most of the time Guile wins out. The same is true with Gief Vs. Ryu. The standard Ryu operating procedure would be to play footsie with Gief (crouching FK -> fireball). Heck, in CE and HF, Gief could be held at bay with nothing but crouching SK.
In SFEX1, if Gief can use crouching RK and win the exchange. At worst, both Gief and his opponent will be knocked down. At best, the opponent will be knocked down but Gief won’t. At no time will there be Gief being hit cleanly. What does this mean? It means that there’s almost no way to keep a lumbering Gief headed your direction. You can’t play footsie with him. Try to keep him out with pokes and it’s liable that you’ll just get stuffed. The only character who can outpriortize Gief’s crouching RK would be Garuda using his chest spike, which goes over Zangief’s foot, beats the larist, and has longer range than anything Gief has. Unfortunately, using the chest spikes out of the blue is almost suicide considering its recovery period if it whiffs (remember that Garuda can’t afford to cancel this out of his crouching FK).
Another move with high priority is Gief’s body splash (more on this below).
- Jump angle. Most characters in SFEX has a “generic jump angle” (only Darun and Sim have different angles, while Hokuto and Chun, who look like they have lower higher angles, respectively, complete their jump at the same time Gief would).
What does this mean ? This means Gief jumps pretty dang high, higher than his other incarnations. This means that he isn’t more or less vulnerable to fireballs than any other character. I mentioned this because there are a lot of people who think Akuma owns Gief because of the air fireball. This is so wrong. If anything, Gief is the most powerful character to use against Akuma weilding air fireballs – this is because almost every situation where Akuma does an air fireball will result in Akuma being plastered on his back, ripe for a cross-up.
- Cross-up and anti-air. Cross-ups in SFEX is extremely powerful, more powerful than in other SF for several reasons.
a) Characters that have been knocked down, then perform a reversal, won’t turn around against a cross-up. For example, if you knock Ryu to the ground then go for a cross-up, then Ryu tries to use his dragon punch as a wake-up, chances are his dragon punch will whiff completely.
b) Generally poor priority on anti-air. Only Ryu, Ken, Garuda, and Kairi have invulnerability in their anti air. All the rest can get their anti-air snuffed by anyone else with the proper timing.
c) Huge, moving battlefield. In other SF games, the battlefield is fixed. In EX, it moves. Getting cornered pretty much means it’s imossible to get crossed up, but in EX getting to a corner can take time. And circumstances (like flying screen) make it difficult to maintain being cornered.
Now, so what if cross-ups are powerful? Well, two reasons.
a) Body Splash. Nasty, nasty cross-up. Beats cleanly a lot of things, doesn’t even have to cross-up. Moves that can beat it, like those I mentioned above, have a high chance of completely whiffing if used against the Splash.
b) Lariat. It’s almost impossible to hit Gief with a cross-up.
So Gief has both one of the best cross-ups in the game, and he’s also pretty much immune to cross-ups. Great.
More on lariat: aside from immunity to cross-up, the lariat is one of the best, if not the best, anti-air in the game. Sure, you can try to hit early, but then you’d face a throw afterwards. Only Garuda and Allen have aerial moves that can hit Gief out of the lariat and still manage to combo (and avoid being SPD’d).
- The flying screen effect
Ever hit Gief, then your attack causes Gief to fly away ? Guess what happens next ? Your character runs toward Gief, leaving you in right front of him. So much for attempts at keep away and avoiding cross-ups.
Quote, Guile player: “Shit, why does he have to run?!”
- Game physics.
In an air-to-air match, it’s unlikely that Gief’s Splash will get snuffed. In case it does, that means Gief gets knocked down to the floor first. Which means free SPD when the opponent lands. Can we say, “oh my God i’ll never try to hit Gief while were both in the air again!”?
- Super Stomping.
Gief’s super pactically means that once he has meter he’s now unstoppable. His stomp cuts through everything. Gief can simply walk up to the opponent, stomp through anything, then cancel SPD/super-cancel FAB if he’s blocked. God, I love it when you can grab out of blockstun. Take note that this ability was completely axed in later versions of EX. While he can stomp through, he can’t grab afterwards without letting the oponent out of blockstun.
- Blockstun very short.
In EX, blockstun is much, much shorter than other games.
This means Gief can block something, then SPD quite easily. Example: as colguile pointed out before, Gief can SPD Ken even while blocking Ken’s shoryureppa. Basically, Gief can SPD any super he blocks that isn’t in the air, or a super fireball (like Ryu’s, Kairi, or Akuma’s).
- Super cancel fake-out doesn’t work.
One tactic in EX is the cancel fake-out. Basically, you do a obviously slow-recovery move, then if your opponent tries to hit you during recover you bust out with a super.
This doesn’t work with Gief. Unless he makes a mistake, he can SPD such tricks every time (yes I know that supers have invulnerability frames – I’m talking about Gief SPDing right after blocking an attack, before the super comes out).
- Safe meter build
Gief can safely build meter with the KKK lariat, by simply backing off during the lariat. Also, it’s possible to go from the lariat straight into a super stomping.
The general Gief strat:
Walk toward opponent and SPD. If he tries keep away, sweep him. If he jumps at you, lariat. Build meter with lariat. Once in range, go for the cross-up, then mix it up with more splashes, ticks, SPD, crouching RK, FAB, standing RK. etc. If you have meter stomp your way to victory.
Gief, simply put, rules EX1.
-oOo-
Why Blair is god in EX1. (Unfortunately, I “discovered” Blair late. Unlike Gief, whom I have tested in arcades in 4 countries, I’ve only managed to test Blair on the PS aganst friends. Anyone who disses on Gief and I’ll flame to the ends of the earth. Argue against Blair well and I’ll probably whimper, hide in a corner, and splutter “But, but, but…”:)).
- Best goddamn guard break in all of EX1.
Blair’s GB is “silent”. It’s fast, hard to spot, and doesn’t have audio cues. Words cannot express how powerful this is.
- Best cross up in the game.
Jumping FK! Unlike Gief, who leaves most of his body to be hit with a cross up Body Splash, Blair’s jumping FK doesn’t. For most intents and purposes, the only thing the opponent can do is block and hope he doesn’t get hit.
- Easiest combos (and probably the most damaging, next to Darun) in the game.
They’re easy, what can I say ? The last hit on Blair’s kick super isn’t scaled, which accounts for the massive damage she can dish out.
- Best fake-out character.
Once Blair has meter, she’s unpunishable. She can attack mindlessly, then if you try anything she can super through it. Granted, all the characters in EX can does this, but Blair supers have extremely long invulnerability and move her forward, two reasons why she’s the best faker in the game.
- Speed/footsie.
Blair is fast, and plays footsie extremely well. Given meter, she has the best footsie in the game. She also fast enough to walk forward against some cross-up, then throw.
- Lots of anti-fireball moves.
'Nuff said.
-oOo-
Why Gief rapes Blair:
All of Blair’s advantages are lost to Gief. GB ? SPD on reaction. Cross-up? Lariat. Fake-out? SPD. Footsie ? Only if Blair wants a death wish – crouching RK rules, and without decent anti-air other than her kick super, no way can Blair defend herself after being knocked down. Anti-fireball ? Uhh…
I placed Blair on Gief’s level simply because she spanks everyone else. Against Gief, though…
colguile: Do you have any excels for Kairi in EX2 ?
Bilejester: Area down in the ranks in EX3? Oh yeah… 
I’ve always hated that bitch.
I’ve always hated that bitch.
Of course you have played the game more than me but I still think she is cool. She has that Kickass finger pointing Demon. Too good.