Gief Notes Vol. 1: Fight Approach

As one of the few serious Gief players (only?) posting on SRK, I been forced to figure using the character on my own. I can't really complain though, because in searching for ways to employ top tier techniques with low tier characters, I have to look at the game in a really deep way. This has improved my play with alll of the characters. However, in my opinion, the low tier cast has the ability to be even more dangerous when they are leveled up sufficiently and then sprung onto unsuspecting competition-- no one will have even seen your beast strategies if they don't think your character can hack it at high level play. Case in point: Team Z. Mike Z annihilated people with that squad, because he explored it fully before he took it to comp. He knew how to exploit all the engine glitches (like Guardbreak) that the top tiers can, but he was doing it in new ways that his competition wasn't able to pick up on.

In order to play well with Gief, you've got to take the same approach. First step is to know his arsenal. Obviously, if you've followed him through the series, his main weapon is as its always been-- the 360 SPD. In the Versus series, he's picked up some new tricks as well. His Aerial Russian Slam (623K) is a special, not a super, so you can freely use this non-techable air grab. You'll have to, because Gief is without an effective (in terms of movement) Dash, so the ARS is great for forward progress. He's also got an Iron Body power-up, which is interesting because you can cancel out any hit you take into a 360. It's interesting to mess around with, because no one has explored it fully.

Some of his notable normals are Crouching Jab, which comes out fairly fast, so its a good tick hit into SPD. Jumping LP/LK are good for stuffing tri-jumps early, although you'd have to counter call in anticipation of their rush assist.


Okay, here are a couple archetypal displays of possible Gief gameplans:

Gief as point character:

Start Gief > "soften" them up with wake-up Drivers > Rush when possible > build meter with SJ HP/HK xx 360 or TK Lariat > Safe switch or DHC out > use Gief assist.

Gief as reserve:

Start XX > play as per normal > build meter > use Gief assist > DHC to FAB > finish off remaining characters.

Gief plays well as point if you build him a sufficient team-- you can design a team chemistry that really makes it easy to set up his offense, or a more balanced on to help him with defense and give him a more limited entry point to his rush. However, it should be known that Gief plays equally well (and with the option of a more open gameplan if he is shutdown) as a reserve/assist character. In this way, you can run a team that is based off a core pair (Mag/Psy; Storm/Sent; Strider/Doom; Spidey/Tron; etc) that also likes the long pin that a successful Zangief Lariat assist will earn you. And everybody likes that, so there are a lot of options.