Street Fighter 6/Zangief/Introduction

Introduction

A colossal wrestler nicknamed the Red Cyclone. Zangief is dedicated to physical improvement and instructing his students.

Zangief is the original big-body grappler character, and acts as a lumbering monster who utilizes his size and long reach to intimidate the opponent into sitting still, before opening them back up with one of his many command grabs.

Zangief's plan is very simple: Play the throw game. Gief's huge size allows him to poke at longer distances than most of the cast, making it difficult for them to respond to his advance without surrendering space or committing to a high-risk option. 5MP, 5HP, 5LP, and 5MK can wear down the opponent while he looks for an opening. When the opportunity arises, Zangief lurches forward and grabs his opponent with the signature Screw Piledriver. This command grab has completely absurd range, is incredibly fast, and deals monstrous damage on hit. SPD has the potential to instantly turn the tide of a match and sets up the remainder of the Zangief's gameplan.

From here, Zangief continues to approach his opponent, moving between safer options and risker options to capitalize on the mistakes of his opponents. Zangief has dozens of ways to set up tick throws and punish poor decision making. He also has a bunch of unique tools for hard reads, like Siberian Express. Additionally, Zangief's signature Lariat allows him to become projectile invulnerable for a while, giving him the ability to punish fireballs thrown from too close. Coupled with his solid pokes, Zangief's tools make him a midrange menace who is well-equipped to muscle his opponent to the corner, where his offense becomes all the more terrifying.

While Zangief's offense is effective, he is notably not a vortex-style character like some other famous grapplers. Every time Gief uses Screw Piledriver, he sends the opponent nearly fullscreen and must take a big risk to keep the momentum going. Zangief is notably weak to keepaway, and in general must play very patiently. There are many strong zoners on the SF6 roster, which can make his life quite difficult. Even still, a good Zangief player is more than capable of overcoming his bad matchups compared to previous games. Choosing to stick with the Red Cyclone will let you live the wrestler power fantasy of your dreams while terrifying your opponents into submission.

Pick if you like:

Avoid if you dislike:

Big Body: A larger than average healthpool with big buttons to control neutral and some sprinkled in armor Pressure Dilemma: Extremely complimentary strike/throw in which the strike removes drive making you want to parry it and a scary grab that makes you want to jump Scoops: The best command grab in the game that is fast, damaging, and long ranged A loyal fan base: The best defensive tool in the game once you've got three super bars He's a well read man: Huge damage for making the right reads with his great punish tools

Big Problems: Slow and committal movement/approach options Defensive Woes: Sluggish anti-airs and limited reversal options before you have three super bars Focused Tools: A kit dedicated to grappling with little flexibility Drive Hungry: Needing drive to convert and cover his inherent weaknesses

Classic & Modern Versions Comparison

List of differences with Modern Zangief

Missing Normals	Standing Medium Kick (5MK) Standing Heavy Kick (5HK) Crouching Medium Kick (2MK) Jumping Light Punch (j.LP) Jumping Medium Punch (j.MP) Jumping Heavy Punch (j.HP)
Missing Command Normals	Smetana Dropkick (3HK)
Shortcut-Only Specials	N/A
Assist Combos	A[L~L~L]: 2LK ~ 5LP ~ OD Lariat (hold forward for consistency) Burnout: 2LK ~ 5LP ~ Lariat (will drop if started beyond point blank) On Block: stops at 5LP A[M~M~M]: 2MP ~ OD Lariat ~ SA2 On Block: stops at OD Lariat Burnout: 2MP ~ Lariat (can whiff at max 2MP range even when holding forward) A[H~H~H]: 6HP ~ OD Lariat ~ SA3 On Block: stops at OD Lariat Burnout: 6HP ~ Lariat
Miscellaneous Changes	Modern Zangief has access to instant SA3, allowing for punishes and use in neutral that would otherwise be extremely difficult. Modern Input SA1 is coded to have lower base damage than the classic input (2625 vs 3500) even before the usual 80% Modern scaling is applied, making it much weaker as a reaction anti-air and even hurting its damage in highly scaled combos.

Zangief loses access to some of his best neutral tools with Modern, 5MK and 2MK, both very valuable pokes with huge range while being relatively safe against Drive Impact. He also loses 5HK which typically grants high-damage Punish Counter combos like PC 5HK, 3MP > SA1 or PC 5HK, 3MP, OD Borscht Dynamite.

3HK, which is a situationally useful low/throw invincible option, is gone. j.HP has been gutted in favor of going all-in on his normally difficult Borscht Dynamite (360K) aerial grab with its Modern one-button input.

Generally, Modern Zangief has lost a lot of his important long-range kicks for the sake of his inputs being made considerably easier for his rewarding specials. One-button inputs have made his anti-air with SA1 and Borscht Dynamite (360K), which are very rare to see, much more consistent and common. SA3 can be done without a jump and can be more easily mashed through the opponent's blockstrings, allowing him to use it in more situations at the cost of some of its insane damage. H Screw Piledriver can be done more easily without the fear of accidentally missing, though the Classic input is required to perform the longer range Light/Medium SPD. OD Screw Piledriver with its Modern input is a much bigger threat, allowing Zangief to walk up and scoop the opponent with ease, potentially even in whiff punish scenarios.

As a character with notoriously difficult inputs, Modern can curb some of the frustrations of playing Zangief normally, while also creating new ones due to the removal of important tools.