WIP
Highlight me with @SUPARNOVAX for match up notes to include in the corresponding discussion.
Once again
RISK VS REWARD
you take heavy risks for no reward while Zangeif does huge amounts of damage on no risk, this is a 0/10 you lose everytime.
Also his jab is faster than everything you’ve got, and has an invincible grab if you wanted to go up close, an impossible match up
that’s the spirit. that’s the type of attitude that will win you games
Zangief isn’t that scary in here. You can beat his wake up moves except super and pretty much pressure him like anybody else. Just gotta be flinchy.
I am also struggling with this matchup. No special move you have that applies any pressure to him is safe from SPD punish. He can just sit on his big Russian ass and wait for you to kill yourself.
For me this match up works like SF4 honda, the one that gets the first hit get a fucking huge advantage. Played about 20 matches with a friend that is trying to main him. This is still first week stuff, and I might be very wrong, but in my opinion this might be 6-4 or 7-3 Zangief in the future.
Zangief can anti-air you for free if you jump from medium-short range with either his elbow (cr.HP) or light punch, if you get in crossup range, you’re going to get hit by footsies/SPDs, also he will air-SPD you.
But he doesn’t have a “stuffs everything” footsie tool like st.MP in SF4, he’ll try to get close with:
[list]
[] Armored st.HP which you can outpoke with your st.HP or V-skill reflect if you’re close. If he charges it fully, it’s safe on block.
[] st.MK which you can whiff punish with your st.MK
[] knee hammer (guile’s bazooka knee), which is -3 on block +3 on hit, but this is just to get in SPD range and grab you. You have enough time to whiff punish it if you’re not sleeping.
[] cr.LP which is a bitch, and I don’t know how to beat it, maybe st.LP.
[/list]
Lariat is a joke, punish that shit with anything, especially psycho axe.
cr.lk, cr.lp xx lp.blast leaves you safe from SPD’s, forget that you have Scissor kicks, or only hit them max distance (but this is still kinda risky, they can just absorb the hit with v-skill and SPD you).
Headpress is very risky, he’ll air-SPD it on the way. If he blocks and you don’t go back he’ll air-SPD you for free. Maybe you can screw up his input by going behind him.
Zangief has a hard time getting in, cr.HP beats or trades with every jump-in he has, Blast covers long distance jump-ins.
If he does his full V-trigger to suck you in, alpha counter it.
If you get knocked down, pray.
I feel like this is a more manageable matchup than it was in USF4. His SPD now has 5 frame startup, so he can no longer use it effectively as a defensive tool, except for the EX version which is invincible. My method is to use MP Psycho Blast a lot as a poke to chip him down. Psycho axe is nice too. If he starts charging HP, doing raw LP Psycho Inferno will beat it out with the multiple hits.
Never thought about that. Good tip.
Zangief doesn’t feel scary unless he knocks you down. You can back roll and avoid some of his oki setups and it goes both ways. But Zangief also can’t push buttons on wake up, you need to create situations to crush throw techs and just lay mad damage on him.
regarding this particular idea: If its a matchup where I do not have to fear reversal pressure, what typical setups should I go for to keep pressure? Jump in j HP to st HK/throw frame trap, meaty crouching button, teleport left/right shenanigans with v trigger? i can often get my opponent to the corner but when i’m there i struggle to keep pressure on their wake up
You can do that??
*mind blown
It never occured ot me you could v-reversal his v-trigger. I can do that, like, on any of the hits?
To me right now the match up is all about staying out of sweep range, punishing jump-ins with cr.HP and throwing lots of random Blasts. Taking risks to get damage mostly isn’t worth it as that has put me quite often in a situation where I’d get knocked down by Gief and then he does what he wants. The match up feels a lot better to me than in 4. Jump-ins are much easier to handle and we got more tools than just s.HK.
You can do it even when it doesn’t hit, if you’re holding back while he sucks you in, you can alpha-counter it.
It’s also the only way to “punish” him when he does all the hits.
Can you cleanly Vskill his trigger? Or do the multiple hits fuck it up? It has a weird hitbox after all, so maybe there’s a range to sneak that in?
After some review I’ve decided fuck this character, I’m rushing his ass down. I ain’t got no fireballs neither, you wanna flex? Get grabbed. You wanna jab? Eat the blast. You wanna Fierce? Hold these scissors, fam. Get up in his ass and push buttons.
If you want to play the ranged game with him still, then at least change the momentum up with this once in a while to make sure he isn’t timing your buttons.
Yeah I feel like in the neutral it’s not bad at all and he’s susceptible to the same kind of defense as a lot of characters that don’t have an uppercut or fully invincible reversal.
You can wiff punish his charged s.HP easily with s.HP xx HK SK.
I was getting bodied by zangief last night until started playing lame. Stay in HP range, lots of counter pokes. jLK to anti air (works even on late reaction) MK stuffs a lot of moves. I only HK scissors from decent range in reaction to his movement. Sliding works too as a surprise to check running away. Unfortunately I don’t enjoy playing bison like this. You can’t take initiative you can only punish zangief approach.
Any tips against a defensive Zangief? I feel scared to press any buttons when I play against Zangief. And his 50/50 makes me throw the stick out of the window. How can I get in on him when he’s just waiting there?