C.   Defense:

Applies to gaming too!

It was mentioned by Daigo that to learn a character, its  always paramount to first learn about defense before you learn about offense.  This is because, attacking without knowing your defense game (e.g. how you can  attack without endangering yourself) is extremely difficulty. It’s always  better to learn how to defend yourself first. For Gief, defending is not that different from other  players.

Throw Tech:

With zangief’s C.LK getting nerfed to ~4f startup, his  old way of mashing on his 3f c.lk is gone. If players keep to the old crouch tech method, they may find  themselves getting thrown in situations where they would’ve hit the opponent  with a C.LK or tech in vanilla.. An example is after zangief gets into an air reset, he  lands, taps c.lk against the opponent, the C.LK would come out and the Gief player would get thrown instead as the other player’s grab would throw gief first.

Defensive Tools:

Aside from Lariat, Gief can also use S. Far HK, S.MP, C.MP,  EXGH and even EXSPD as anti air moves.
You need to be able to master these moves to prevent  opponents from getting free jumps at you and to stop opponents from doing  unsafe moves.

  • Anti Air Lariat: Performed by holding crouch and pressing  PPP at the last moment when the opponent is about to land on you. Although Lariat’s effectiveness has greatly diminished  compared to vanilla as Lariat Hitbox is a lot crappier and EXGH does less  damage which means trades aren’t as favorable for Gief. Also some attacks that  are previously lariatable cannot be lariatted in AE. There are TONS, so watch  out for these. An example of unlariatable moves in the game include Far J.HP  from Boxer at the right distance, guy’s elbow drop, and etc the list goes on.Recognize what you can’t lariat, and learn how to block or  AA with other tools.
  • S.Far HK: This is a must learn to hit people who are  neutral jumping, jumping back or jumping forward. The way I try to look out for these stuff besides  noticing the opponent’s obvious patterns, is to get in the right range, wait  for the jumping motion, and just release your kick at the apex of the opponent’s  jump. To do it, it’s most important to pay attention to the range, (e.g.  roughly 3 square range against a neutral jumping opponent), and in what  situations would the opponent tend to jump up (e.g. in the corner).An example set up is close to the corner, after a block  string the opponent is most likely going to jump back, in which case just wait  for the jump and wack him with a heavy kick.
  • S.MP: Some low arcing medium ranged jumps can be AA’ed  or trade with S.MP. This should not be too hard to spot. Otherwise its also  useful for hitting things that are simply just off the ground.An example is that S.MP should be used against vipers  that spam burning kick.
  • C.MP: This move has a great hitbox; it lowers Gief’s hittable box while sticks out an attack hitbox vertically and has long active frames.  It’s really a good anti air against certain types of opponents (e.g. Elf splash or demonflips) but requires good read and reaction since it has a long startup.
  • EX Green Hand: More commonly used for getting past fireballs  and less commonly used as an AA is EX GH. This move is actually really good  against all manners of air attacks that start from a long range jump or is far  away to be hit by Lariat. An example is in Gief vs Gief, a gief attempting to  do early j.mk can simply be AA’ed with a EX greenhand, or a rog doing far  jumping hp, or punishing a Honda doing an early neutral j.HP. Basically if you  do it early enough at the right range, it will hit anybody coming down from a  jump. Timing can be tight for this and it’s a bit difficult to execute as this  is purely reaction based.A simple list of things (not exhaustive) that can be countered  with a reaction EX GH include:
    Hazanshu, Tigerknee, Tatsu (now punishable in AE,  previously it would whiff in vanilla), Fireballs, Abel Axe Kick. Be creative  here, the list just goes on. Basically any moves with a start up time that can  be reacted to can be EX-GH’ed.
  • EX.SPD: This move contains 4 frame invincibility start  up. It can be used to counter a lot of things. E.g. after a knockdown, you can  time and ex-spd a Ryu J.HP safe jump! Recognize where you can use this and  maximize it. This works against meaties as well. In general EX-SPD gives you a  better set up than normal SPDs. Though note that in the initial invincibility  frames, you can be normal thrown out as the grab frame does not come out until  the 4th frame. You can use EX SPD to even throw some uppercuts.
  • SPD/ULTRA1/SUPLEX: Ok basically  with 1 and 2 frame start ups, these moves are obviously great for reversals.  But know that opponents will be baiting for these and beware of the  punishments  that you can receive in  return for whiffing these because the recovery for these moves are substantial.  I’m not saying you should never mash ultras or spds, in fact some games are won  this way even for pros. All I’m saying is that you should not mash them out  WITHOUT A GOOD REASON. If you are going to do it, you better do it for a good  reason. Otherwise even if you are able to land it for the wrong reason , you  are not doing yourself a favor because you are not playing to improve. Though  if you are playing to win, and you land it, then hats off to you because that’s  a different story altogether.Ultra 1 however has other  cool defensive uses, such as reversaling a FADC dash forward.

I recommend all Gief players to watch this video as it  gives you a sense of what the ex greenhand, ex-spd, and whatever else can do.  It’s also full of useful tidbit information on punishing and etc. (Some  practical, some not)