Zangief Fluidity Teams

Classic Fighting Games Marvel VS Capcom 2
1

Post your Zangief teams here (and how to use them).
I play Zangief(ground)/Cable(AA)/Sentinel(ground).

If the opponent is either cable, storm, magneto then I will not play zangief on point. Instead I will choose to transform Zangief to Mechagief and try to dhc or switch to cable. I find using cable, with a Mechagief and Sentinel assist, much easier against those 3 gief annihilating chars.

This team is very similiar to team scrub except it eliminates the main threats that scrub encounters being MSP and team Matrix.

I try to keep the opponent grounded with drones while using fdf HK “flying move” and proceed to tick throw into SPD or pulling off the final atomic buster.
There isn’t many team combos from this team. I normally play each character as if they were playing solo and use the assits to counter the opponents assist or angle options ex.magneto=gief/drones, capcom=gief ect.
Input would be great…

2

Hey DPossum, I started using Zangief more in the last couple of days. I used to use his ground assist (after turning him into mech zangief), with cable , then doing tiger knee hyper viper beam, because one of my friends at the arcade played pretty good with the gief (ground), cable (AA) and storm( proj.) team. After a while though I stopped using gorund assist because people saw it coming sometimes and ran away and used beam supers to punish him. I started using him recetly with the throw assist (in mech mode of course). It is a nice assist to use if the point character can cross the other fighter up, I love using it because it is unblockable. For example, Storm is so quick, one of the things I do when fighting with her, is jump and airdash past the opponent and call gief and his (unblockable) throw grabs them from behind. I also do that with collosus (and commando), jump and dash over , cross up with capcom or collossus AA, for good damage, and the colossus AA combos into hailstorm. If you cross em up and gief grabs them its a free launcher and air combo for storm. I use gief throw assist instead of rogue throw because it does more damage(20 points on average stamina character), it gives you more time to get over there and launch them because when he slams them they bounce off the floor putting them in perfect position for launcher, AHVB or beam super or almost anything else. Also, when in mech mode, its better than reg. mode not only cuz hes unstoppable, but also because he seems to go farther, more range on the throw (maybe cuz hes moving slower). Ive crossed up this one guy i was playing(he had rushdown magneto) with tron bonne, gief grabbed them, then i did the qcf+jab capture move, and captured him and dashed over for a free lunch rush super. Ive been experimenting alot with diff. teams, but right now I think my best team is commando (AA) , Zangief(throw) and Storm. Either cable or commando will work because they both have some sick guarbreaks when used with gief. It’s easy. With commando I do jumping fierce when they are coming in, while calling mecha gief. They block the fierce and fall right into giefs arms for the unblockable throw, then I do the captain sword, and since it causes flying screen, I OTG them with crouching fierce or roundhouse, while calling gief again, and he grabs them, then I do cap. sword or cap. storm super. It’s great to do this because the damage resets after the gief throw (it’s like a trab). Also with Cable you can do an easier gurabreak than his usual one by jumping and hitting fierce while up close to them so that the actual gun will hit them, while calling gief, they’ll land right there for the unblockable throw and then you can do AHVB X 2 or 3. You can also tick a throw if you’re up in their face with cable. Shoot the gun once, while you are close enough that the gun itself actually hits them.If they block it, it pins them down/ keeps em in block stun) While shooting the gun call gief and they can’t get out of block stun quick enough and he’ll grab them.

If you’re good with metal wolverine, try this startegy i was trying out. call mech gief while up near them, then do the beserker teleport (qcb +P). Wolvie appears on the other side of them crossing them up, while gief grabs em from behind , leading to a free air combo for you . You can use this strat with wolvie and use him to get free air combos and use the meter for a meter hog like cable, who can be the third guy on the team. The only thing to watch out for when using gief throw is when you play those pesky sentinels that fly around, they are going to be all scared and fly around whenever you try to use gief throw assist. Thats why you need AA assist (commando preferably cuz it hurts and it goes straight up all the way) to keep sentinel out of the sky, then you can use storm to cross em up while using gief assist. Also I’ve used gief as a “bodyguard” before. Once I was playing a guy with top tier team he had magneto and used the sentinel drones assists. He was on the other side of the screen doing EM disruptor and drones assist. I called gief and he was in front of commando, who was on point. He took all three hits from the drones, and kept going (cuz he was in mech mode) as soon as I called him I did captain sword super it really did good damage on the sentinel who was assisting (while he was taunting) and magneto. you can also you this strategy to do AHVB on someone. Also, I’ve suprised people with DHC final atomic buster. Once I had collossus I did his power dive super and I DHC’ed into FAB while he was all the way past the top of the screen, the guy i was playing had no time to react, and I pulled off the FAB super. Also try this start with megaman and someone. DO a chipping super with bad recovery (like bb hood’s super) DHC into beat plane super with megaman, try to chipe me and keep em on the ground in block stun by shooting the missiles and bombs and before it ends DHC into FAB. Since beat plane keeps em up in block stun, they cant jump out of the way, so you get lots of chip damage, plus the FAB which does pretty good damage. That’s all I got now Dpossum. its good to see others do play with gief.

3

Thank you for that inspiring post, seriously.
One thing that you take must think about when choosing gief is whether or not you plan on using him as an assist or a point character. I see that you use him as an assist much more than a character (which is fine), but it’s nice to have a team that the option whether or not to use him is still there.
I found Zangief/Cable/Colossus a great team before team Santhrax tore it apart. I used colossus to rush in by TK air charge and then combo’ing into Zangief ground assist and then df FK cancels into power dive=easy and SAFE damage because if gief gets blocked simply hop over the char to cross up perhaps into ac.
I also enjoyed this team because whether I was using cable or colossus on point. I always had the option of SJ over my opponent and randomly call out a powerdive or AHVB and immediately cancel into FAB (WHICH amazingly catches people instantly). This team simply has a hard time vs team santhrax and matrix which is why I swayed from it. However, using storm with gief was never something that I thought of doing. I sorta have this half-ass belief that cable+gief is the most benefitial god character that benefits from using gief. I’m going to test this out by using Gief/Cable/Storm. I’ve never seen a team with Cable and Storm. Can’t hurt to be the first eh? :slight_smile:

4

Oh btw, Ill E …If you want to use zangief’s grab assist. I wouldn’t recommend using gief at all. Instead try this team -Rogue/Storm/Tbonne. This team allows much more unblockables than gief. Zangief also shouldn’t be using meter. He already has 50 percent comboes without using specials mainly comboes from launchers and SPDs.

5

Hey D possum, i didn’t really know about the zangief 50 percent combos. Can you list some of them? I know the SPD does pretty good damage but i don’t know his combos. What’s the timing on the SPD in air combos? Also, my friend who used cable/storm/ zangief did the zangief air trick to get meter. You know, superjump with zangief and keep whiffing SPDs, that can get meter like crazy, and you can just block if they try to jump up and beam you, or you can grab em with SPD if they get too close. then he used that meter for cable. (call ground assist, juggles opponent/opponents assist character, then ahvbX3). he also used storm to gain meter for cable sometimes. About rogue throw assist, I prefer gief’s because it’s unstoppable when in mech mode, it goes farther and you can use him as a “shield”, For example if they keep shooting projectiles/calling assists characters from across the screen , you can call gief and he takes the hit, then do ahvb or any beam super to punish them.rogue can be hit out of her assist but mech gief can’t. Also his throw does more damage (hers does tiny damage and it doesn’t steal their powers which is the main benefit of the move), gives u more time to get in position to launch and he has better stamina, but you’re right she’s a better/ faster character on point, i don’t really know how to use her though. Once I used her throw assist and comboed into jin’s blodia vulcan and into his saotome cyclone, the vulcan is easier though because it covers the whole screen. I’ve tried comboing venom web after rogue throw but it doesnt work because he throw has a wierd angle when she releases them, they go behind the point character and the are like right there near the ground. Try this team if you’re good with storm/bonne/rogue, try storm, jin (AA), rogue (not only is jin’s anti air assist invincible when it starts up, but did you know that jin’s anti air COMBOS into hailstorm? I was playin’ somebody good the other day and and called jin blodia dynamite AA assist and right when i called him I did hailstorm,and it comboed on their point character into hailstorm. one more thing, what is team matrix? i know santhrax is storm, capcom and sent but i don’t know matrix.

6

more gief questions

Hey D possum, i didn’t really know about the zangief 50 percent combos. Can you list some of them? I know the SPD does pretty good damage but i don’t know his combos. What’s the timing on the SPD in air combos? Also, my friend who used cable/storm/ zangief did the zangief air trick to get meter. You know, superjump with zangief and keep whiffing SPDs, that can get meter like crazy, and you can just block if they try to jump up and beam you, or you can grab em with SPD if they get too close. then he used that meter for cable. (call ground assist, juggles opponent/opponents assist character, then ahvbX3). he also used storm to gain meter for cable sometimes. About rogue throw assist, I prefer gief’s because it’s unstoppable when in mech mode, it goes farther and you can use him as a “shield”, For example if they keep shooting projectiles/calling assists characters from across the screen , you can call gief and he takes the hit, then do ahvb or any beam super to punish them.rogue can be hit out of her assist but mech gief can’t. Also his throw does more damage (hers does tiny damage and it doesn’t steal their powers which is the main benefit of the move), gives u more time to get in position to launch and he has better stamina, but you’re right she’s a better/ faster character on point, i don’t really know how to use her though. Once I used her throw assist and comboed into jin’s blodia vulcan and into his saotome cyclone, the vulcan is easier though because it covers the whole screen. I’ve tried comboing venom web after rogue throw but it doesnt work because he throw has a wierd angle when she releases them, they go behind the point character and the are like right there near the ground. Try this team if you’re good with storm/bonne/rogue, try storm, jin (AA), rogue (not only is jin’s anti air assist invincible when it starts up, but did you know that jin’s anti air COMBOS into hailstorm? I was playin’ somebody good the other day and and called jin blodia dynamite AA assist and right when i called him I did hailstorm,and it comboed on their point character into hailstorm. one more thing, what is team matrix? i know santhrax is storm, capcom and sent but i don’t know matrix.

7

Matrix=Storm, Sentinel, Cyclops
Gief= blah launch lp mini pause lk then spd=heavy damage
or 2 c.lk into HP orb then spd or clp(tick) into spd.
another= clk into HK then fdf lk =knocks down.
And giefs grab assist will not touch any of the top 4. So that seems useless to me. At least rogue is invincible in some of her starting frames that in which also leads to hailstorm.

With Storms variety type, Zangief can do a russian slam (HK) while calling storm to crossup, have them block a hit, or get sent up into the air. Every option allows them to be ticked or directly setup for an on command flying power bomb. To play zangief, you almost always want an assist that allows this type of power. Gives zangief some control.

8

Just out of humor, I picked up some useful tips from a gamefaq player (was looking for name of a move) :).
-Vs. Cable-
People are usually pissed off to no end by Cable’s 2Px5, beam, beam, super combo, but Zangief can be Cable’s worst NIGHTMARE! Super jump over ANY AND EVERY projectile
and drop the elbow on his candy ass, then slam him around like
there’s no tomorrow! Any people who know about Cable’s cheap tricks know why it’s a relief to have one zoner that can kick the crap outta him.

and…-Vs. Blackheart-
For some reason, Zangief seems to have an easy time matching power with the
big guys that are often more powerful than himself. The biggest thing to look
out for is his energy pillar attacks and his VERY powerful supers. Other than
that, he should be a pretty easy ride.
also…-Vs. Strider-
He’s not the cheap-ass comboer he once was, but he still has to try and do
run-in combos, so catch him there. Nothing else is needed.
MZ notes: One of the simpler fights.
Notice: Ouroborus Not really that effective anymore (YAY!)
again…-Vs. Storm-
Stupid typhoons. Up close, Storm has zero ground game whatsoever, and she
can’t block flying, so stay right up in here face. The one thing you should
really watch out for is her “Lightening Storm” attack. Don’t try to attack her
during it, just block (and push-block, so you can stay close), and respond.

Funny to see this game go back a few years.

9

That’s wierd huh?

I mean, Grief isn’t the strongest at all, but its like he uses their momentum against them. And why did they weaken Strider’s ground combos?

I just realized I may be considered average compared to the people on this site but:
I usually go Grief(always with the gold teeth!), Jugg and Strider. But now that Strider is different I may use Iron man, Jin, Venom or Omega Red as the 3rd guy.

10

Ehh, Kalis…Could you contribute to the thread by describing how you would use this character setup “I usually go Grief(always with the gold teeth!), Jugg and Strider. But now that Strider is different I may use Iron man, Jin, Venom or Omega Red as the 3rd guy”

11

my “murder sentinal” team: MZ, Juggernaught, Hulk. Sentinal hanging back in corner trying to zone MZ, triple super. the end.

12

Yeah.

Alright but it doens’t really matter now(visit my thread to find out why).

I use Gief(throw mode) to fight using his flying or blue hand to get in the person’s face. I bring Jugg out when they get close(dash mode). With Jugg, I try to connect a punch and then super. With Strider, I just play.

Jugg, Hulk, Strider:
First Jugg’s super, then strider’s grab super, then Hulk’s Gamma rock( while they are in the air).

13

I use gief , i usually try to maintain pressure with cross up body splashes and if they try to out prioritize that cross up knee drops.

the timing for the spd isnt’ too hard what i do is:

launch, c. lp, c. mp super jump lk, slow mp, wait a little spd.

It’s best to wait a little bit for some reason the mp seems to put them in a throwable state where they can’t hit you… i have yet to be hit out of a spd in my air comboes.

His 50-60% is the above combo but you start off with a body splash or knee drop… the splash does more damage however.

There is also another option I use

end a air combo with a neutral HP

the closer to the ground you are when you do this the better, it sends them straight down.

You have 3 options before you even hit the ground

  1. HOLD BACK , most times gief will fall out of range, that means he will dash in… since the opponent was knocked straight down however he will do his DASH and it will grab them and i then suggest doing kick throw unless you called a assist before hand and can incorporate it for more damage.

  2. Neutral or hold back a tiny bit… you will land a character space or two away then SPD them when they get up and show off the huge range.

  3. the best option… HOLD FOWARD. You will land RIGHT ON TOP OF THEM and have a good ammount of time before they wake up, you can try to do whatever from there, tick… straight throw… air throw… there isn’t enough time to do a meaty cross up but you can get started on it and a neat trick is when you are doing a cross up put in the SPD command and he will turn around and do the air to ground SPD.

choice ticks:

c. lp (remember this gives you frame advantage and you can always cancel out of it) … spd or air throw or jump up spd … the lk version of his air throw seems to have alot more priority than hk version when used at the correct distance.

cross up splash, df+hp (launcher) wait SPD … i always do the HP SPD btw but i dont’ know about others

c. light attack, c. middle kick, HP GLOWING FIST into SPD

any air lariat that’s close to the ground (around normal jump height) that connects > Get close to where they will land and FAB it will grab them and they usually cannot get out (they get put in a freaky hit stun and for the most part can’t attack you on the way down for a long time) but air lariat is a SLOW move so don’t just throw it out set up into it if you can.

in the beginning of the match vs. magneto or other pixies that will try to hit you low… try this out:

Switch Trick KK lariat xxxx FAB (the kk lariat hits too high to hit him)

remember 2 things…

1: SPD Is waaaaaaaaay too slow in this game, it must be 5 frames at least or something compared to the cvs2 1 frame spd

2: the air spd can catch grounded opponents so Tigerkneed SPD that’s close to the ground (press punch a little late to tiger knee it) will catch both grounded and air opponents and you can do alot of interesting grab set ups with air to ground SPDS.

also gief hates mashers , it’s not a bad idea to team gief up with psylocke so you can call her sometimes if you anticipate that they will mash… so you can get some free comboes in.

Personally I don’t have a definitive team yet but one character is pretty much a staple on my team and that is SENT-G

I use air throws to get around and against storm who random hails i use LK Air throw, you get half way across the screen and have good recovery along with it.

I personally try to play gief patiently, try to block whatever they throw at you (tri jumps are hard but you have to learn to block them sooner or later)

try to keep up pressure with splashes and cross ups + assists… if they don;'t fall for it fine… but eventually they might and if they get too comfortable blocking and you feel lucky… throw.

Also try to air throw after you hit a SPD or throw that throws them across the screen (so you can try to get in on them) if they begin to roll try staying on the other side of the screen (don’t air throw) SPD again when they wake up… it seems to work very well.

Overall gief is hard to use, his splash is low priority and he dies horribly to run away unless you can air throw storm (don’t try for air to air spds too much… much too slow especially when people in air to air confrontations tend to use shorts.

Don’t forget that gief’s lariats still have their funky properties along with the glowing fist.

KK lariat goes over low attacks

Lariat goes through projectiles (some exceptions) that are not above his arms

the sad thing is storm’s projectile does hit him anyways but i’m sure mag’s em disruptor does not… i’ll have to run tests to see what he goes through and what he doesn’t but i’m sure it’s useful.

keep in mind this is ground version only, air version doesn’t have any of the sf2 properties.

14

thanks for the info higher jin.

i got some other questions,
like:
are all of gief’s air command attacks overheads? im talkin about the knee drop(down+lk), the body splash, and the elbow drop (which im pretty sure is an overhead). the priority for the knee drop looks pretty good.

also can you explain the KK lariat more? what i understood was that it goes through low attacks, so it makes you invincible to low attacks, is that right? and its also quicker than PP lariat, but lasts shorter, thats what i noticed.

also if you want to punish an assist you can do PP lariat XX FAB dhc proton cannon or hailstorm or drones, the lariat juggles em and the supers hit em before they reach the ground because they are instant DHCs.

also, cant the fdf+k move be used to do other stuff. you can do either a PP lariat or KK lariat or any of his air punches or kicks. and also i noticed that his dash can be canceled into either lariat, even though his dash is really more of a grab.

and higher jin, do you know about how viscant used gief to win the MvC championship. i heard about something viscant used thats called “triple option” with gief, do you know what that is?

15

Um yea the 4th hit of gief’s lariat creats dead weight ala psylocke aaa and it’s good to dhc out of… one of the best things if you team him up with juggs (not a great idea) is to do the lariat dhc or when he’s about to toss him up on for the last pile driver in the FAB to dhc into juggs because it won’t connect otherwise if you wait until gief turns red and pile drives him (it’s the same damage, if you dhc out of the last pile driver he doesn’t give you that damage anyways)

His elbow drop sadly is not a overhead, i’ve tested it and the computer can block it crouching however all his other air attacks are overheads.

You can cancel his dash into anything at any time it just happens to be a throw.

His KK lariat does last shorter and it is invincible to certain low attacks, with his lariats they only have VERY SPECIFIC counter uses and i suggest you test them out before trying them out in a real match… some things i’ve noticed is that if you hit gief’s head with a projectile it will hit him out of PP lariat… he also gets hit by storms qcf + k and he isn’t immune to tronne V either… however he is immune to uni beam, optic blast, em disrupter and prolly sent’s c. beam however all diagnal projectiles (akuma’s air projectile and such, even psylocke’s qcf+ lp on the ground) will hit him … the lariat’s have very specific uses because they are only useful against certain things and you have to plan well ahead before you decide to try to use one.

DP+K is for mobility, Short version seems to have massive priority while HK version is more about getting around… also use short version if you are feeling lucky to bait out a ahvb unless they psychically do it you will most likely recover before they hit you… also against random hail storms use short version it’s very unlikely that they will nail you before you recover.

You can also use the Knee drop as a tick throw set up at times although it’s up to you whether you think it’s a good idea to try that since if it connects you could’ve gotten a big combo ending in a air spd out of it.

One thing i haven’te tested on a player yet , yet seems to be very good is his dash.

a decent tick is c. lp, dash immediately… the reason it’s better than the bear grab is that you can cancel out of it at any time into block or whatever so in essense it’s free throw attempts … you can even call a assist and maybe go for a air throw if you think they’ll try to jump out… the only trade off is that you don’t have the hyper armor of the bear grab (not too useful anyways) but the dash into kick throw does more damage (if you mash kick throw when you grab them)

Another crazy thing is that his DF+K throw (nut grab) does more damage than a SPD when mashed properly… it can prolly be mashed for more but i’ve gotten 48 damage out of it and unmashed it does 32 damage.

Remember to try to go for a OTG in the corner after just about any of his throws.

another neat thing is call psylocke assist + up close qcb+lp

and a tip for doing a spd in a air combo: It’s better to do it late than to try to do it as soon as they fall out of hit stun.

I’m thinking my gief team will have to do with psylocke because of the fact that she can punish mashers so well…

if you have any more questions just post up.

edit: and the viscant thing, all i know is that mecha gief was really good against pixies and triple option is probably ground throw, air throw, and low attack/any attack (basically he got to choose from 3 good options and you had to guess i’m not really sure if air throw is one of them…).

I’ll see if i can find out.

16

I was playing against the cpu and Zangief did a hyper lariat how do you do this hyper ? and no it wasnt a hyper combination.

17

Assist 1 + Assist 2 … that is the only way you can do it the cpu may have done it with only 1 level.

there is also siberian blizzard

you do it in mecha zangief mode

it’s 360 + 2 kicks

18

ok thx for the tip. :pleased:

19

i dont like the hyper lariat cuz it has a dumb property where it knocks them down after only the 3rd or 4th hit and when they get up gief taunts them and they retaliate with a super. however, sometimes i turn into mech zangief and if they try to do a super because he cant block, i do thc with proton cannon+ gief+sentinel.
also, higher jin, did you know you can otg the siberian blizzard off of a standing/crouching lk? from what i can tell, the super looks like its an instant startup super, cuz it comes out so quick (like juggs headcrush). can you confirm that? if it is, it would be useful cuz u can dhc into hailstorm and it will connect.

20

i wouldn’t recommend turning into mecha zangief at all

i also wouldnt’ recomment trying to use that super… how are you goign to trick your opponent into gettting hit by something that will let them be hit by that?

as far as i know it’s instant start up and his FAB is aswell.

90% of the time just dont’ turn into mecha gief it just isnt’ smart becaue most of the teams used today have ways of chopping off the screen or getting damage into you somehow… there are just very few choice situations where it might be a good idea and even then it’s iffy (most of which are 1 on 1 situations and not against sent, cable, storm or at times even amgs since he still can temptest you and do some damage… and gief needs to get close anyways if they have assist that will be hell and any damage you get out of it prolly wont’ be worth it.)