Zangief Strategy/Match-up Thread

I actually just ‘accept it’ and let him combo into it off a sonic boom, I don’t change my gameplan just because he has an ultra - its no where NEAR a game changer. Rufus’s EX Snake strike does more dmg I think and is more frequent.

I think its a timing thing with the headbutt, I’ve lost to other attacks in the air, but its not like my timing was perfect all the time either shrug.

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I was actually thinking this recently, as I always go to it to beat my opponent when he does something in the air on my wake up, and it ALWAYS works

I never got headbutt to work against honda’s nj.hp

normaly NOBODY play Wakeup games with Gief but i meet more and more often guys how try it. Usaly i do my Backdash but im considering maybe its smarty to use Grab/Lariat/EXHand reversals more often. any Suggestions against Chars how hafe the guts to play wakeupgames on Gief instead of Backdashing? (Highlevel Play of cours)

on gief wakeup, i dont think vega (claw)'s instant air jump back fierce is punishable?

I’m sorry, but when you say “c.lariat”, do you mean close lariat or counter lariat? I’m having trouble getting your meaning here. I always think of them as P and K lariats.

none of the above…

C is for crouch… (cookie, and thats good enough for me)

So, crouch, then lariat?

I’m a newbie Gief, so I apologize for the questions being somewhat basic. I guess doing the crouch lariat is better because it lowers the hitbox before tha attack?

Also, when doing c. lariat, is P or K lariat preferable, or is it situational which one you use?

P is always more useful as an anti air, but c. KKK is better for trying to stuff a poke (Sims and Seths particularly) as the KKK lariet is active at giefs feet first.

What Clutch Hugs said

And for cr. Lariat you gotta time is right to make it that useful, wait until they’re like right above your head when crouching (You can feel it out pretty easy and see it in videos)

Sorry for the delay, yeah think of it as Gief has 4 flavors of lariat, PPP, KKK, C.PPP, and C.KKK

Essentially the big difference (ya’ll correct me if I’m wrong)…well imagine this. Picture the old school hitboxes…Gief is crouching, he’s shorter. Ryu does a jumping roundhouse and times it to hit the crouching Gief’s head. WHILE CROUCHING, Gief waits until Ryu’s attacking portion of his hitbox is about to hit Gief’s head, and at the last possible moment, Gief hits PPP. If timed right, the j.rh from Ryu hits the ‘invulnerable’ portion of Gief’s hitbox during the lariat, and Ryu in turn gets smacked by the attacking portion of lariat that covers Gief’s entire top half.

The beauty of the c.lariat - it beats almost all air attacks CLEAN, it creates a ‘pop up’ effect similar to a dragon punch that if need be can be FADC’d into an EXGH, if it trades you still get a free EXGH, and it scores you a knock down. Add it to your repetoire and it allows you to slowly ‘bullyfoot’ or ‘box’ people into a corner - similar to Ryu. Use your various pokes - s.mp of course, s.rh, d/f.rh, etc to pressure your opponent into either jumping, getting hit or walking backwards. If they jump just pop them up, hitt’em with the EXGH and continue marching them into the corner, you essentially own that third of the map thanx to that one move. You still need to be cautious of certain jump attacks as the timing can play havoc on it, but its a very important skill/move to pick up.

side note, I think they took out the ‘trade’ to EXGH for SSF4 :sad: , not sure though…

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Ninja Edit - has anyone tried beating some of the harder to time attacks with c.kkk? Maybe I’ll look into that tonyte…

I heard Ryu can still trade shoryu into super so not all trade juggles have been neutered as was previously thought. I’m hoping Sagat cannot, but Gief’s was never overpowered.

Giefs Trade PPP - EX-Greenhand is a REALY LATE trade

Explanation:
after you trade you need to wait at list some moments and THEN use EX_Greenhand SINCE they only gave both opponents more time to recover from a trade LATE TRADES should still be possible!! sounds confinient doesent it?

Yesterdar i won an online tournament, the final match was against a Blanka and the guy criticized me beacuse i didnt attack a lot. Now the question:

Against Balnka what is best: a patient or a all out attack gief?

Ha ha. Seriously that blanka must be a super scrub. You turtle like a mother f’er vs blanka you cant jump in vs electricity and up ball beats pretty much all your poke/ blankas pokes are better than giefs. Theres some good match up stuff on this thread dont feel like going over it alot but it you were acting like a brick wall that punished all his attacks then you played the matchup right.

Blanka has a ton of stuff that’s punishable. You just have to know when to punish. Any blocked sweep or cr.HP can be punished with lk EXGH. All balls are punishable with kara GH. Electricity just sucks. The reason it’s hard for gief is if the Blanka turtles really hard and plays a really good run away. If he’s constantly attacking you, then it’s real easy to take him down. And best wake up option on Blanka is crossup safe jump knees. Knees will always beat electricity on wake up if you time it right. If they’re smart enough to EX up ball, the safe jump will beat it and you can punish with exgh. A lot of times, you can just walk up and block, they ex up ball, then punish. Then they get scared to up ball on wake up which gives you more options. And cr.lp beats out a lot of Blanka’s pokes, you can buffer that into exgh to get the knock down. Most online Blankas are awful.

Turtle Blanka is painful online, but not bad in person. Online, because of lag - its alot harder to walk foward and block, but in person its alot better…you can bait the shit out of them just by walking up and blocking…as mentioned Blanka has a ton of punishable stuff, so simply baiting his shit, puts him into a bad position.

I still hate the fight though…one of those “I can win it” but its so not fun…like how I felt about the old Gief mirror match, its better for me now since I’ve gone thru this stuff…I actually enjoy it (though I don’t take it seriously), but Blanka, and to a similar extent Cammy are just boring or annoying fights that “I can win”.

I love shoto fihts…I mean they get tedious afterwhile, but aggresive shotos are just fun match ups. I’ve had fun matchups against Bison too, a bit of everything in those fights/match-ups…pokes, wake-up games, etc.

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Who are these online cammys u cant beat with just using crouching lariet and spd. I haven’t run into a good cammy in at least 3 months. Here is how u beat 99% of online cammys they jump at u aa lariet. The cannon drill block and then spd or ultra. Don’t play wake up games. Most online cammys have no clue what footsies even are.

Guys, can you give me some good tips against Honda?

I tried searching but couldn’t find it, so I’ll post my question here:

What do you do against a Ryu that just runs away all the time, zones with fireballs, and then when you get him to the corner he just air hurricane kicks out to the other side. This soon won’t be an issue with ultra 2 in SSF4, but for now its driving me nuts. Psychic headbutts and jumping med punch can stuff it, but most of the time these guys seem to escape, especially if they are good at mixing up between fireballs and jumping hurricane kicks. Is there any more consistent way to keep them from using this jumping hurricane escape from the corner? Any tips on how to combat this would be appreciated.