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 gameplan is very simple- use his arsenal of good pokes, like 5MP, 5HP, 5LP, and 5MK to wear down the opponent while slowly approaching them. 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 poke assault without committing to a high-risk option. Once the opponent has been conditioned to sit still, 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 capatilize 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. As well, Zangief's signature Lariat allows him to become projectile invulnerable for a while, giving him the ability to deal with fireballs somewhat. All of this, combined with his solid pokes, makes Zangief into a midrange menace.
While Zangief is a perfectly effective character, he is notably not a vortex character like some other famous grapplers. Every time Gief uses Screw Piledriver, he sends the opponent nearly fullscreen and must play neutral all over again. In general, 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 difficult. Even still, a good Zangief player is more than capable of overcoming his bad matchups. Choosing to stick with the Red Cyclone will let you live the wrestler powerfantasy of your dreams while terrifying your opponents into submission.
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Weaknesses
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- Incredible Burst Damage: Zangief is infamous for his ability to steal rounds off of a single, well-placed special move. His Screw Piledriver is the best command grab in the game with outstanding damage, and the OD version deals more damage than some supers. Opponents must be wary if they are close to Zangief.
- Punishing Mixups: True to his earlier appearances, Zangief inherits a timeless, devastating strike/throw game. Once he's in, Zangief's opponents gamble with their lives.
- Strong Abare: Zangief's long-ranged light normals and incredible LP SPD range make it difficult and risky for opponents to shimmy him. Moreover, his 5LP and 2LP are uniquely plus on block, allowing him to immediately set up a tick throw after a successful mash.
- 720 Threat: With a full super meter, Zangief becomes an absolute nightmare on defense. Unlike every other reversal in the game, Bolshoi Storm Buster can neither be blocked nor avoided on reaction, forcing opponents to preemptively jump or backdash during their own offense to avoid getting scooped.
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- Stiff Neutral: In exchange for his high health, Zangief is slowest character in the game and relies on hard reads to secure knockdowns. He also lacks options to outright punish things like fireballs, instead being forced to weather the storm with Drive Parry or use riskier options like jumping or Level 2.
- Slow Anti-Airs: Zangief suffers from a lack of quick anti-air and anti-crossup options. While his 2HP and Lariat deal solid damage on hit, they have poor startup and whiff recovery while providing underwhelming okizeme. Both also struggle against crossups.
- Limited Okizeme: Although Zangief's mixups are very rewarding in terms of damage, they also create a lot of distance between him and his opponent. This makes him struggle to maintain advantage and forces him to spend meter on Drive Rush and/or OD Lariat to continue his turn when possible.
- Expensive Reversals: Zangief's Level 1 can't be used as a reversal as it only hits airborne opponents. Level 2 works, but is too slow to punish most light normals. Zangief only gets a good reversal when he has full super meter.
- Poor Conversion Ability: Zangief can struggle to convert strikes into meaningful advantage outside of punishment scenarios due to his increased pushback on lights, poor linking ability, few strike special moves, and awkward supers.
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