Akuma vs Zangief matchup tips?

[Frits Bricks]

I play Akuma and everytime I play a Zangief I am kinda stumped on what to do. He outranges me with most normals. He can lariat me air hadokens and damage me while doing it.

the only times I've won this matchup is by playing extremely safe baiting jumps so I can anti air and poke with heavy punch.

I feel like this strategy is not effective against Zangief at all atleast not with Akuma.

On top of that as soon as I do get knocked down by Zangief I am stuck in some 50/50 stuff where I have to what he will do.

Does anyone have some tips?

[Murloc]

Take your sweet time on this MU. You play Akuma, so like a couple of grabs from gief and you're going to get blasted hard.

Cr.mk > Fireball at safe distances, also use your fireballs safely.

Play the MU perfect, no mistakes. That's honestly how it is with gief, especially once you get Ex grabbed or heavy grabbed. Scary 50/50's.

As for the fireballs in the air, bait it by jumping at him and doing ex fireball or just popping the air fireball REALLY early when you're at the peak of your jump.

[IITWLLII -ES-]

Originally posted by Debonair Duey:

....
the only times I've won this matchup is by playing extremely safe...

This is often the case in vs Zangief matches, condition your opponent to make mistakes.
Avoid getting cornered, else it's quickly over. Akumas teleport "escapes" will be nearly useless in the corner with Zangiefs long range moves.

As long as Zangief has no meter your can safely bully/pressure him on knockdown and can also apply frame traps at proximity range, his normal command grabs have 5 frames startup.

Alternate your air fireball with the dive kick/demon flip, to change your jump arc/landing position and timing, but don't get too predictable with jumping, especially if your opponent knows how to antiair/air command grab well.

Don't forget that you have a V-Skill, if Zangief becomes predictable with his slow recovery moves, like the armored standing heavy punch (absorb+counter / whiff punish). Using fireballs is dangerous, if Zangief has V-Trigger, especially if you consider the low HP of Akuma.

[Frits Bricks]

thanks for the tips dudes. Extremely helpfull stuff. I kinda forgot about V skill and EX air hadokens etc.

Should mix it up more.

But yes like you said I got pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ with my low health. Knocked me down with a sweep wake up EX spd, again an SPD then I tried to jump away and he did an air spd. That instantly stunned me and he just needed one normal after for a win.

[Zak]

You wanna abuse your standing heavy punch to punish gief when he try to poke, you wan't to condition him into jumping so that you can anti air. You basicly want to stay close enough to whiff punish but far enough not to get grabbed or hit by his heavy punch or lariat. Don't ever let him force you into a corner by moving backward, stay in medium range, use standing heavy punch and anti air.

[Frits Bricks]

Originally posted by Trop:

You wanna abuse your standing heavy punch to punish gief when he try to poke, you wan't to condition him into jumping so that you can anti air. You basicly want to stay close enough to whiff punish but far enough not to get grabbed or hit by his heavy punch or lariat. Don't ever let him force you into a corner by moving backward, stay in medium range, use standing heavy punch and anti air.

hmm yeah thats actually how I won one match against him. He won the set though.

[Zak]

Yeah that matchup is rough if he manage to SPD you once he take a huge chunk of life and force you into a silly 2/3 guessing in his favor. one mistake can cost the round.

[ale]

Demon flip->dive kick avoids the lariat hit box on the peak of the arc
Anti air with the back heavy punch whenever possible and when you do, combo into demon flip palm and dont give up the momentum, this game rewards offense more than defense. once you push zangeif into corner, its actually easier than other characters coz he doesnt have a invincible reversal like EX SRK
As to the air fire ball, i would just recommend not to jump at all, and save the ex fire ball meter for EX srk for when you get mixups by SPD'ed
Heavy punch is also a good answer against his jabs
Throw fireballs at a distance just slightly further from his jabs, and bait his jump in
Neutral jump a lot so he misses his SPD's instead of backdashing, coz he can do a heavy kick and catch your backdash, resulting in a crush counter, while neutral jumps don't.

Thats pretty much my two cents, as long as you keep up the pressure with your grab/demon flip/crouching heavy crush counters, instead of the other way around, you should be able to do it. Akuma is 100% offense, that's why he has low health, dont afraid to yolo EX SRK on wake ups if the opponent never tried to bait out an EX SRK.

Good luck!

[Makaveli]

Don't be scared to light dp as it can beat mistimed meatys and beat SPDS as it has throw invincibility