TL;DR Zangief is widely considered the quintessential grappler in Street Fighter, offering a traditional grappling experience with strong command grabs. However, other characters like Abigail and Mika also provide unique grappling styles that might appeal to different players.
Zangief: The Quintessential Grappler
Zangief is often recognized as the archetypal grappler in Street Fighter, known for his powerful command grabs and ability to put opponents in difficult situations once he gets close [1:2]
[5:1]. His gameplay revolves around getting in close and using his grabs effectively, making him a favorite among players who enjoy traditional grappler mechanics
[1:3].
Abigail: Hybrid Grappler
While not a pure grappler, Abigail offers a mix of grappling and brawler elements. He has damaging grabs but relies less on them compared to Zangief [1:1]
[5:3]. Abigail's large size and powerful moves make him a formidable opponent, though his command grabs are not central to his strategy
[1:2]. Some players appreciate his versatility and consider him a top-tier character
[2:2].
Mika: Versatile Grappler
Mika is another popular grappler choice, known for her mix-up potential and corner pressure [2:4]. She uses a combination of meaty buttons and command grabs to keep opponents guessing, and her V-System provides additional tools for controlling the match
[1:3]. Despite some nerfs over time, she remains a viable option for players looking for a dynamic grappling experience
[2:3].
Laura: Modern Grappler
Laura represents a more modern approach to grappling, blending command grabs with projectile setups for mix-ups [1:3]. Her ability to control space and create unpredictable situations makes her a strong contender in competitive play
[2:1]. Laura's success in tournaments highlights her effectiveness when played skillfully
[2:6].
Considerations Beyond Gameplay
When choosing a grappler in Street Fighter 6, it's important to consider personal preferences regarding gameplay style, design, and personality. While Zangief is the classic choice, characters like Abigail, Mika, and Laura offer diverse experiences that cater to different player tastes [5:5]. Exploring each character's strengths and weaknesses can help determine which grappler best suits your playstyle.
Want to jump back in and I think I want to play a grappler. I have been playing Potemkin in GG AC+R and I just want to learn more grapplers. I'm also a big fan of Vice and Shermie in KOF, RAAM in KI, Kanji in P4A/P4AU, and Z Broly in DBFZ, if that helps narrow it down at all.
If you want the most grappler of all, then go Zangief. He's quite good, but has a few bad matchups.
Abigail is less focused on grabs (though he still has just as damaging grabs, just with less range), but he's allround better, probably top 10.
As a grappler player myself, I play both, both are really fun to play.
The issue I find with Zangief is that some matchups just make you want to kill yourself (G Menat, Dhalsim), whereas with Abigail, you always feel like you have a shot
Alex, Zangief, Mika, Laura, and Abigal to an extent are grapplers. But they are all different types of grapplers. Alex has decent pokes and buttons that he can mix in with his far reaching command grab. Zangief is a traditional grappler. He gets in and puts his opponents in the blender. Mika uses a mixture of her meaty buttons and commands grabs to mix her opponents up. She can get easy air resets in the corner which can lead to pretty hard to guess situations. Laura uses her fire ball and command grabs for mixup oki and other crazy setups. Abigal has very big limbs and can get very scary once he gets his opponent in the corner. He can use his run to pressure and scary opponents into making bad choices which he can capitalize off of. There's also G who is more of a rushdown than a grappler but a lot of his pressure revolves around his command grab which allows him to get a full combo off of it.
if you want slow: gief, alex, abigail
faster: mika, laura
Birdie is on the list as well.
Depends what you mean by grappler. The only “real” grapplers, those being characters who are really based on their command grabs, are Zangief and R. Mika. But, if you expand that to characters who have a scary command grab and are a big body, then the best one is probably Abigail. Although, after recent buffs, Alex is pretty good, too.
I just got into fighting games almost 3 weeks ago and have been watching and playing every chance I get.
I was just wondering why I don’t see grapplers at the top end of play?
There is. The Capcom Cup champion (before COVID) plays Laura. He does a lot of work with Laura - though he does play Poison too for certain MUs.
Mika certainly had a long time in the sun as a great character in this game (even if now that time is gone). Abigail could have once been considered a grappler, maybe - though it's a bit of a stretch now with how nerfed his cmd grab is.
You're probably talking about Zangief. Capcom hates Zangief. There are a few loyalists like Itazan (who also plays Abigail)... but Gief is that mid-tier character who gets hard nerfed every patch and with every game mechanic they add, never receiving any meaningful buffs. They hate him, and further, a lot of players hate Gief too. Im in a lot of the twitch.tv chats about the game and when discussing the nerfs most people say "he deserves it - fuck Gief". Top players tend to look at Gief and say "he's just dumb" - like he doesn't fit the game and shouldn't be in it. Capcom seems to affirm this feeling with their own decisions - they really really don't want him to be any good.
It might be because being beat by Gief kinda feels like BS. You guess wrong twice and boom you're dead. Of course nobody wants to talk about the fact the Gief player has to saunter across the screen with dat walkspeed and a godawful 25 fr dash to get in. Not to mention Urien or G puts you in the exact same "guess wrong twice and you lose" predicament, just it's not as dramatic as getting SPD looped is. When you get hit by an Aegis setup you say "aight" - when you get H SPD'd for the second time you say "this is unfair". Reason being you could have done a lot of things to get out of SPD, whereas Aegis you pretty much just make like 5 guesses in a row and if you get hit, you get hit, and you don't honestly expect "well I'll get all 5 guesses right". Because the SPDs make players feel more stupid/like they made a mistake - it's just one single guess you have to make right, so making it wrong is heartbreaking - so then the anger towards Gief is much higher. Projection, basically.
So yeah - nerfs then that he constantly receives make him not so good for the highest levels.
You know what now that you mention it I do feel a difference when I play a Zangief like I’m terrified to get near him it makes it feel like a different game compared to the others.
That said said there’s something I love about grapplers in general I can’t shake
Honestly try Mika. She might not be topping tournaments anymore but she has more than enough grappler shenanigans at her disposal. VT2 is very interesting. Even VS2 is fun. She gets around the screen pretty well, but still is a command grab character with a terrifying corner game (literally MORE terrifying than Gief's, honestly - you aren't getting sideswitched by Gief in the corner - Mika you can and will). Her V system is intuitive and easy-to-use. Her command grabs are the easier inputs. If your opponent isn't absolute "on it" at all times, you can get in really quick and easy.
I'm guessing that OP hasn't really watched much "high end play" recently as the last few CPTs and Red Bull Kumite had plenty of grapplers.
Yeah and the other thing is a lot of chars have a command grab in the game, esp if you count V Trigger (which gives Cody and Rog one, for example, depending which VT you choose). You can actually do some major grappling w all kinds of diff characters
The thing is it is very dependant on each patch/season.
IMO, the only true grapplers, Mika and Zangief are in a bad spot at high level play, mainly because they used to be good and have been nerfed, both directly and indirectly for quite some time. V-Shift update didn't help either.
Speaking about Zangief (I know less about Mika, since I don't play her) it's not that he's a bad character, it is more that some matchups are really hard, so for pro players, they have to have a secondary to back him up.
Also, there is the fact that hybrid grapplers are just much better allround (like Abigail, Laura, Alex) so many grappler lovers have gravitated towards them. (myself included, I picked up Abigail)
That being said, if you're not top level play, you can totally play Zangief, as long as your training buddies are not a Dhalsim, a G and a Menat :) He was still played recently in Japan CPT by Itazan against Daigo's Guile.
Capcom only seems to favor the hot little grapplers- Laura, Mika, who keep on getting buffed. The big guys - Zangief, Abigail, Birdie, we get nothing but nerfs.
Idom plays laura (a grappler) and he’s considered one of today’s best in street fighter. Check him out if you haven’t already. I recommend his round against mr crimson from like last week
Hmmm so is it just the slower grapplers that tend to be not liked?
I haven’t been playing fighting games for very long but yeah I guess the slower ones tend to be hated on simply Bc 1. They have more health and more importantly 2. It’s kind of annoying to get grabbed 3 times by an attack that eats 25% of your health lol. Personally like grapplers even though I don’t play any
Problem x playes abigail, alex and bison. Itabashi zangief plays only heavy grappelers.. also snakeeyes has a sick gief even though he plays kage more now... also check out sf3 or 4 hugo plays
The first big offline SFV tournament in a long time happened recently in Red Bull Kumite. Both 2nd and 3rd place played grapplers (Laura and Mika), so I'm not sure what you mean when you say they're not at the top. You can definitely do work with grapplers in this game.
If you want to watch an amazing grappler set, please watch Itabashi Zangief vs Daigo at CPT Japan from last month. Fucking amazing Zangief play.
I like stun and I was wondering who is the best at it ?
No one is really the best at it because all Drive Impacts are equally good. Stun can also be avoided pretty easily by jumping, grabbing, etc.
DIs are equally good but some characters are better at chipping away the opponents drive meter than others.
also all characters have different blockstring gaps in their moves when canceled into a drive impact. Manon for instance has only one move that has a gap that isn't grabbable, and it's hard to use in the corner unless you drive rush another move and link into it. Ken and Ryu both have 3+, and those are actually moves you'd want to throw out to pressure someone in the corner. Means that (besides the fact that manon is generally terrible at attacking drive gauge) ken and ryu get more opportunities to stun than manon does.
True
Honda and Marisa. Honda's heavy headbutts eat a full drive bar and push him back far enough that if you block it, its already too late. And his Buttslams take a good chunk too while being +. Marisa's charged heavies and her punch is brutal too.
Rashid has amazing post stun damage if that's what you're looking for. Starting a combo with fully charged ww shot into a wind current buffed od mixer is gorilla damage with ridiculous potential to save or spend meter, sneak a reset in or do whatever you want
Marisa by far. Her attacks shred people's drive bar, and her stun punishes are absurd. Honorable mentions to Honda, Ken, and technically JP's pretty good at it, it's just rarely the best option.
Keep in mind though - no one is actually consistent at it. The only way to get a stun is a drive impact against a wall, and I'm not sure anyone has a drive impact combo that isn't interruptable by a super (or even jumping out/grabbing), so going for it always has inherent risks. The characters that get the most stuns are the ones that do the best attacking of your drive gauge, and then after the opponent is in burn out shit gets weird.
Yeah, if we're talking about who burns people out easiest, it's Marissa. She's designed to shred your drive bar.
Any combo that truly links into DI will “lock”, meaning the DI connects but nothing happens. You can always counter one with super, as the only way to get stun is to have at least a frame where the opponent is actionable
Guile
I was wondering which kickboxer has the best stats when it comes to grappling because I like playing kickboxers but I also like grappling and taking a submission specialist’s approach
OP asking for kickboxers with good grappling so people reply with grapplers with good kickboxing lol
Jose Aldo and Anderson Silva are the best.
Theres also prime Korean zombie, prime cowboy Cerrone, Leon Edwards, Overeem, Eddie Alvarez, Luke Rockhold, Sandhagen.
Featherweight Poirier as well (but not Lightweight Poirier)
Also Fluffy Hernandez is classified as a kickboxer even tho he has better grappling stats
Moicano
He’s classed as a BJJ fighter on the game bro.
Weirdly enough I have great success playing with TJ dillashaw although he’s classed as MMA on UFC 5.
Do Brox has great stand-up kicks and power in his hands and top BJJ
That’s a jiu jitsu fighter with good kickboxing though
REALLY good kickboxing. I love Charles. such a complete fighter to play with
Something about his stand up feels off but I can't put my finger on it
?
Bro that’s what I’m saying lmao
Donald Cerrone alter ego without a doubt. Tall elite kickboxer with very good BJJ and elbows, to me he's like a mix of Dan Hooker and Oliveira
Oddly enough I barely see him being used so maybe I should keep it a secret 😅
I really like him but for me he fells so slow
Alter ego Rockhold
This could be for any reason, gameplay, design, personality, etc?
Abigail is the best boy. He has no faults. He's only a half grappler but he's fully my friend.
Naah, abimagail is not a grappler. People see a big body with a grab, they think grappler, when in fact just having a grab is not enough for a character to be one - the grab must also be a core part of their gameplan. I mean, watch itazan play him, i still remember watching a ~11 minutes long (!) set where he used like one command grab, and even that was a yolo/hard read ex run grab as a reversal.
Yeah, he tends to play it pretty safe, but my strategies tend to use Bay Area Sunrise pretty liberally, though I'm Gold, so I can see that changing, depending. He can be a grappler, he can be a zoner, Depends on your priorities, and I think Itazan doesn't like taking the risk.
His only fault is that he doesn’t have Hugo’s DP from SF4 Omega mode.
true, if abi had a dp it would be at least one option to get him out of a corner.
alex but only in the games he says 'at ease loser'
otherwise its zangief because i want him to hug me (to death)
Poll needs more El Fuerte.
I miss him 😂
Alex for me.
Still can't get over how they butchered his stance on V.
Yeah that was weird.
Zangief, is THE grappler. Also, best chest hair in the whole SF universe
Physically its clear that jjt is below ja kyung and the other crazy guy in fc3. And i wouldnt be surprised if his technique was also worse than them so its entirely possible just beat him really really quickly and dont hug him in the midst of a life or death.
It isnt unclear, jjt is the only one who is described as having reached a level of strength that goes beyond a human
After his fight with the sewer monster and the steroids sociopath guy he clearly isn't the pinnacle in terms of might. His technique and body give him more tools to work with though as well as his reflexes.
And yet Maria and the fight class 3 students would likely still body him with relative ease
I just don't want him to get permanent or irreversible damage to his body, physical brain or mental state.
I think you may be a bit late 😂.
Wdym??? He may get a little silly sometimes but Jiu Jitae is still in there!💯😁
jitae é o goat, não tem jeito
Oneshot him and pray he doesn’t awaken again 😭✌️
Oh he's awakening again
I don't care about who is the strongest, but in my eyes, these guys have the best grappling performance
Jack never really sold me as a grappler
Jack grapples a lot these panels alone are only from Rahen
Alright got me there. Haven't read the baki manga only watched the anime and had only his fight against Ali Jr in mind
And a lot from the same chapter lmao, pickles ate a lot..
Its gonna sound weird but i don't like Jurota being considered for the tiltle of the best grappler. His only really good grappling skill is of course his throws, those are really really good im not denying that but think about it:
Would a Kaolan whose strikes are all mediocre other than his Jabs wich are perfect be called "the best striker"?
I don't think so
Not really comparable though. You’re comparing literally one technique to a plethora of different throws that he has incorporated his “swing”into.
I do agree that I wish he’d use more ground fightinf though since his time training would’ve been when Jūdō had a lot of Ne-waza in it.
Yeah my example is a bit off
My personal top 5 SF6 players in the world are:
Honourable mentions: Nuckledu, Kakeru, Valmaster and EndingWalker.
This isn't based on any quantifiable data, just personal opinion based on the tournaments and matches I've watched. Who would you put in your top 5?
Easily Angry Bird, Punk is 2nd.
It feels like AB just has a combo for every niche situation, very flashy and aggressive playstyle which is fun to watch and to try and emulate.
Punk has INSANE footsies. I don't see other pros whiff punishing with sweep like Punk does, it's very impressive.
Why didn't punk main Luke or Chunli? Don't they get better reward off good footsies than Cammy?
Cammy is a solid option for someone with good footies. Big buttons and they come out fast, great for whiff punishing.
I'm not Punk but if I had to guess why her specifically, it's prob a feel thing. Cammy is just who he clicks with the most outta the current roster.
I agree with all your points.
AB has the most fun to watch Ken in all of SF6 IMO and Punk's footsie game is immaculate.
Daigo Zangief
MenaRD BigBird
As a Marisa Main bigbird but MenaRD with Blanka is so fun to watch
I was so sad when I thought BigBird had dropped Marisa for Rashid entirely but so happy when he busted the Marisa back out in SFL and started fucking people up again
I think SFL was filmed in one go months ago...
hotdog29
I refuse to elaborate
Round start gazelle step dash up grab works for me a surprising amount of times.
See this dude gets it
Nuh uh
I'm literally a ky main this guy gets fucking charge stun edge off ANY throw anywhere on screen and gets reversal safe autotimed +5 5k in the corner.
Sol bad guy
nah sin is bottom 5 rn so he cant be a strive grappler if he was a grappler hed be t5 everypatch no matter what nerfs he gets
-guy who's only ever played guilty gear strive after season 4
um sctuslly i tried playing before slayer came out i just quite kept quiting cause slayer was actual cancer of the earth and ranked was ass so it just didnt stick.
now tho im basically a intermediate pro level casual
old person yelling at clouds
His dead beat plain chicken dad:
I thought about this question while reminiscing over an older match I had online in SF4 over a decade ago. I was ten sheets to the wind, howling drunk and loosing several matches, when I decided to switch up my tactics and use Camy as a main.
My wins suddenly started becoming more frequent. It’s as though her speedy move set allowed compensation in the wake of my slow reaction time.
marisa, do some insane unhinged shit and hope it hits - win the round in 3 touches
No wonder I main Marissa, I’m always impressed I can manage wins three sheets to the wind
I just got 10-1'd by a Marissa in BH lol pain
Honda. Mash hands/headbutt/stomp.
Modern Honda or Gief is objectively the right answer
Your timing is automatically less predictable when you're sloshed, improving your conversion rate by 30%
Honda is my sleepy main. I get off night shift at like 6am and I wanna stay up for at least an hour. I can literally sleep my way through most fights with him.
Any answer that isn't Jamie is objectively wrong.
Not only do your drinks finally carry over in between rounds, they carry over in between whole ass games
Lloooollllll good shit
You can't just palm what about neutch?
Best grappler in street fighter 6
Key Considerations for Grapplers in Street Fighter 6:
Character Strengths: Grapplers excel in close-range combat and can deal significant damage through throws and command grabs. Look for characters with strong mix-up potential and good mobility to close the gap.
Command Grabs: Effective grapplers have powerful command grabs that can punish opponents for blocking or make them hesitant to engage.
Combo Potential: Consider characters that can link their throws into combos for maximum damage output.
Defensive Options: A good grappler should also have solid defensive tools to withstand pressure and create opportunities to initiate their offense.
Matchup Knowledge: Understanding how your grappler fares against other character types (zoning, rushdown, etc.) can greatly influence your effectiveness in matches.
Recommendation:
Zangief is often regarded as one of the best grapplers in Street Fighter 6. He has powerful command grabs, strong damage output, and can effectively punish opponents who try to zone him out. His ability to absorb hits and retaliate makes him a formidable choice for players who enjoy a grappling playstyle.
Marisa is another strong contender, offering a unique blend of grappling and zoning capabilities, making her versatile in various matchups.
Ultimately, the best grappler for you will depend on your playstyle and comfort with the character's mechanics. Experiment with different grapplers to find the one that suits you best!
Get more comprehensive results summarized by our most cutting edge AI model. Plus deep Youtube search.