Strategy
Zangief is the quintessential grappler character. He's slow and struggles to get in, but once he gets in and gets that command grab he can rob entire rounds. His defense is very poor, but his pokes are pretty good, boasting an extremely long ranged jab, versatile armor, a far reaching stand heavy punch and a stand medium punch that's great for whiff punishing. Combined with his strong antiair game (mostly with lariat, but occasionally with airgrab), he can successfully wall some characters out without even needing to use his command grab. His light and medium command grabs have very high range, but give weak okizeme, it's his heavy and EX command grabs that really get the mixup started, leaving him +2 after a forward dash. Don't get too greedy, though; they're extremely punishable on whiff, and playing slowly can often be the move with Gief. His V skill one and V trigger one are almost always preferred, both of them helping him in neutral and giving him more answers to fireballs. Although one of his combos might not do much damage, anything that gives oki can set up the Gief Vortex and make the situation a lot more dire for the opponent. VT1 helps with this a lot more than VT2. Getting and holding the life lead is very important, especially considering his ability to slow down the round and wall the opponent out. HIs defense is very poor, though. He has no 3 frame normal, and nothing that gives him a defensive edge over other characters, apart from his high health. Tread carefully.
V-System
V-Reversal
Short 12f ranged strike that can be used to relieve pressure.
V-Skill 1
Zangief flexes his muscles up and turns red taking half grey life damage. While in this state, he can tank up to 4 hits utilizing his given armor (2 stationary, 2 when moving). He can walk forward, but not backward. Holding the buttons while stationary eventually leads to a flex attack. You can release one of the buttons so that he is stationary without flexing. By releasing the buttons when marching, Zangief flexes his muscles and hits the opponent. This VS is a very important for Zangief, as it allows him to slowly approach more safely. He can still be grabbed out of this state, so it's more useful in neutral than it is on defense. He can cancel into a back dash while in this state, too. V-Skill 1 flex is important as the hit naturally allows you to hit confirm into V-Trigger 1.
V-Skill 2
Zangief flexes, similar to his VS1, but instead of moving, he stands in place and charges up a kick. The charge has one hit of armor. You can dash cancel the charge if you don't feel it's a good time to use it. By releasing the buttons, Zangief kicks the opponent. You're +2 on hit, meaning you get a link to crouch jab on counter hit, or buffer into a super. after a connect, you are close enough for an SPD mixup. If fully charged, which takes about a second, the kick will cause a guard break if blocked and a wall bounce if it hits. The wall bounce puts the opponent in a juggle state, but there are very few things you can do for a combo. You can activate VT off of the kick, but this generally won't get you much. Although this V skill sees a lot less use than his VS1, it allows you to get in to reach your opponent where v-skill 1 is slower to do. In some ways it has replaced the banishing flat.
V-Trigger 1
Zangief's VT1 is 3 bars, and has him turning into a cyclone. The activation has an initial hit that sucks the opponent in or adds on hits if you hold the buttons down (the latter uses up all of your meter). It naturally connects off medium counter hits, natural heavy standing or crouch HP, V-skill 1 flex, or lariat (close). After that, pressing HP+HK again will make Zangief spin as he did before. All of his normals can tack on this V Trigger ability. This takes up 1/3 of your gauge. By holding it, you can use 2/3, or even your entire gauge in one go. Consider it VT1A, B, or C. Version A you're minus on block, but version B or C uses makes it safer. Version B On hit is good for damage extensions and you get two shots at most. Version C you only get one use and it is preferable not to use it during VT1 install due to V-Trigger damage scaling. VT1C leaves the opponent in a juggle state for specific follow ups (jumping command fierce splash, standing command fierce headbutt, standing command knee, lariat, or any air spd). This VT is very vital to Zangief's game plan, and helps him get in more and make more guesses, even if he has to use the entire gauge in one go. That single guess could make the difference in a game, so be careful how you go about utilizing this VT. Not only are all versions projectile proof, this VT also grants additional V-Skill 1 armour (up to 100 hits) but the flex punch no longer cancels into VT1ABC. In theory this grants you more opportunity to resist more hits, giving you more openings to perform an spd or combo into your VT1. VT1 loses most of its abilities off lariat except to make a blocked attempt more safe. Unlike the VT1 startup, lariat can only combo point blank raw against a cornered opponent into VT1B or VT1C. It won't work on Blanka and probably others.
V-Trigger 2
Zangief's VT2 is 2 bars, and makes the scariest part about him even scarier by increasing the damage to his SPD by 120 damage each. Whiffing it takes up 1/2 of your gauge, while landing it uses the entire gauge. You can perform a combo friendly version that can be cancelled into from normals, but this only does 80 Extra.png damage as opposed to 120. All it does is increase your SPD damage, but the fear this can put into the opponent can be exponential. While the moves he can cancel from are the same, his activation routes are very different from VT1 due to a much more traditional install on VT2. For example, St.Hp activate leads to a combo on hit and a bunch of plus frames on block, and lariat -> activate can lead to another lariat or an airgrab, although the airgrab uses the whole V trigger for a scaled combo. VT2 may be activated in a crouching position for a different install animation. This VT is accompanied by an announcer who is part of the sound effects volume. Zangief gains a different phrase depending on the spd strength he lands or combos into. That includes air spd (excluding combo from neutral jump headbutt). The announcer also sports VT2 activation phrases, whiffed spd phrases, connected VT2 spds, and round finishers by VT2 spd, both ground and air.
