Street Fighter EX's coinflip character might be among the most balanced and honest there is. In what has seemingly become a real 3D game overnight, Zangief's Lariat beats many setups '''clean.''' Even when 'Gief wakes up BACKWARDS, Kara 2LK~PPP Option Selects a low profile normal and one of the fattest anti-airs in the game. Consistent, easy, and with other quirks of his kit, AA Lariat is an infamous party starter.
* By pressing three buttons, Zangief shoves that setplay nerd into a locker and drags SFEX back to reality. Despite having '''zero''' invulnerability, Lariat is easily a frontrunning anti-air in EXA.
* '''SPD doesn't have a whiff animation.'''
* Not everyone in SFEX has a Level 3 Super... Zangief does. Cosmic Buster is the most damaging move in the game.
* Super Stomping is Zangief's only other meter dump: A looping ranbu that can tick into 720 on block or be repped for gargantuan damage.
=Normals=
=Normals=
Revision as of 23:02, 5 July 2025
Introduction
In the rapidly evolving, two-man Street Fighter EX1 Metagame, Zangief might be just the hero we need.
"Competitive" (hahaha) SFEX is quickly becoming a setplay arms race. It was (re?)discovered earlier this year (2024) that any Super Move that caused a sideswitch could set up unblockable meaties. Early setups were so strong and counterplay so inconsistent-- EXA could've been the first Street Fighter game in history where it's players soft banned Ryu.
Now it's been a few months. Within EXA's small scene, most of the roster can consistently set up utterly inane two touch sequences. With a little lab time, the top tiers can take a round with one. Even with the game set to best of five rounds, EXA is becoming more explosive by the day.