This section shows some non-combo, non-setup ways to mess with your opponent on your offensive turn.
Brave Counter is the safest defensive option the game provides. Many players treat it as a sort of get-out-of-jail-free card against any sort of offense, and will press it at any chance they get. Grimnir can feast on players that play like this! He has several ways to bait out brave counter for a full combo.
An extremely intentional BC bait: 8U (delay) 2U. The 2U hits the opponent for a full combo. If you don't delay enough, you'll get hit by the BC, but if you delay too much you can potentially lose to 2H antiair. There's no universal timing - it depends on when your opponent presses the BC. Practice it in training mode. On block you're usually still standing on a seal and can threaten to continue offense.
A way to make use of the tornado oki on the other page: if your opponent BCs the tornado and you jump, their BC will whiff and you get a full punish. You're safe to everything except reversal, and can threaten to continue offense on block with your remaining seals.
A safer way to use the tornado oki: set EX tornado, then spotdodge. If you block your opponent's BC here they're safe, but for some reason if you spotdodge their BC the tornado eats their soul and you get a full combo. The big downside of this setup is that it spends your tornado cooldown, which you'd usually rather hold onto to extend your offense.
Spotdodging as early as possible leaves you plus, but delayed BCs will punish you. You can delay the spotdodge slightly to beat more BC timings, but you'll no longer be plus.
Grimnir is minus on blocked seal dash, but if he's still standing on another seal he can threaten a frametrap with it. The reward on hit is obscene so many opponents will opt to skip the RPS by just pressing brave counter on block (even though they're minus!). This is a funky situational BC bait you can do against such opponents. If they block it you're minus for real, but that's just your cue to BC them back >:D
You might think this seal setup is contrived and impractical, but it's really only as impractical as you make it: if you try for it, setting up a row of grounded seals like this is a very viable strategy in many matchups.
You may already know that a safejump is a jump-in on the opponent's wakeup which is safe to reversals. It's a strong way to get plus frames and snowball your offense. But what's stopping someone from just *not* doing the jump-in, landing, and going for a low, or throw, or something nefarious? It's called "fuzzy mashing" and it's something you should learn to do!
In this video I have Djeeta configured to press jab at a specific timing such that she can both block my jump-in and beat me if I land to press a button. You should practice this timing yourself because it's good in most matchups. Many of your opponents will be doing this too. Against most characters it's actually 100% safe. But a chosen few have the ability to beat fuzzy mash! In this section we're going to look at a few of Grimnir's ways.
On seal safejumps you can use your two top seals to kill people fuzzy mashing jab, throw, raw BC, roll, and most other options. On block you're minus but still standing on seals so it isn't safe for the opponent to press, and most opponents won't be ready to press anyway because they were expecting a safejump.
In general baiting fuzzy mash will lose to reversals, but this particular one actually sneaks behind many DPs (mostly the ones that look like Gran) and lets you get a full punish.
Similar to the above - this will beat people pressing jab, throw, and raw BC. Notably loses to roll. Situation on block is matchup-specific but again, most people won't be ready and will just let you get away with the j.L.
The ground seal here is 22[L] (the held version). If you don't hold, you won't be able to use it after a forward jump, so in general, when setting a seal in the corner, you should use the hold input.
Note that this option only gives a combo on hit if you have a seal to cancel into. To get the combo, you need to let all the hits of airball resolve and *then* do the seal dash.
Beats everything except reversal and roll. The big limitation is that you often won't have the cooldown (airball shares cooldown with kick, which you probably just used in your seal setup combo). It's also lower reward on hit, though still decent.
Borderline knowledge-check but people that don't play this character are not going to know whether or not your setup is an empty low. If they try to fuzzy mash and you're plus on landing then obviously they die.
Video is just one example. Empty lows have a dedicated page here.
Grimnir's L, H, and U kicks are always minus, but the framedata on his M kick varies based on distance travelled. At close ranges it's punishable. At max range it's actually +4! If you see your opponent existing at M kick range, you can "skip neutral" by zooming in with this.
Your opponent is standing fullscreen and you're tired of playing neutral? Press U kick to try and get lucky. On hit you're sending the opponent a whole additional screen away. On block you're minus but safe (assuming they're not in the corner) - they'll take their turn back with a button, then you can *immediately* BC to kick them away. Now they're in the corner and you're Grimnir.
Savvy opponents will run up to you and jab (safe to BC) / throw (can't be BCed) so this isn't a perfect strategy, but it's still pretty effective. In fact, this general "offensive" use of BC is a good strategy to commit to heart - putting your opponent in the corner and taking your turn on offense is very often worth the one crystal.
Opponent's pressing a lot of fireballs? Press U fireball to try and get lucky. At long ranges it combos into U kick on hit. If they spotdodge we're down 50 meter and pretty sad, but Grimnir builds meter very quickly so it's not that big a deal in the end. Against characters with slower fireballs you can even do this on reaction to guarantee the punish.
You're minus, but the opponent can't safely take their turn back on reaction - they have to guess that you're setting a seal. If they try to react and close the gap with 66L, you can counterpoke them with f.L > 623L or f.M > 623L for a full combo. Don't get predictable with pressing seal - mix in up or forward tornado to condition them into rolling. If you cancel into seal and they roll, you get a full punish.
A way to use the seals you just set up in a productive way. Seal dash is minus, but if you're standing on another seal you can frametrap by delaying the cancel into another seal dash. On hit the opponent dies. On block you're only -2. (This is your cue to BC the opponent into the corner.)
Actually a fundamental cornerstone of Grimnir's neutral gameplan, so maybe this isn't the section for it, but it's also extremely belligerent so actually it *is* the section for it. Jump and do a seal dash as close to the ground as possible. If you catch the opponent doing something, they die. There's a lot of counterplay to this, but the list of people that actually employ any of it is depressingly small. If you do this enough you can condition your opponent to try and antiair you, which Grimnir has an infinite number of ways to bait.
Much more situational than the previous option - the seal configuration for this is pretty specific. If you pay attention you'll see it come up occasionally off of 22H. Unreactable crossup that gives a full combo on hit. If your opponent commits to something, or if they just aren't holding the block button, this kills them for it. The horizontal airdash will also dodge many reversals.
Post-buff, j.214M has become an extremely belligerent option on both offense and defense. For example, most of the cast's 66L > 2M will whiff on jump. Against characters with mediocre midscreen oki/offense your backjump will either dodge their 66L or at worst they just get an uncomboable air hit out of it.
For offense: one thing Grimnir sometimes struggles with is approaching someone that is in the corner. He wants to be point-blank to force his busted strike/throw game, but his low access to plusframes can make it difficult to actually close the gap. Enter offensive j.214M: if you think your opponent is going to mash on your approach, just go over it and eat their soul. If you're standing on a seal after this also gives you a full combo.
Note that on block you're minus; this is why you jump *back* and press j.214M, because it leaves you awkwardly spaced after such that the opponent can't easily take their turn back.
Oh no! You've jumped forward, but your opponent is crouching menacingly and you have no seals to bait the antiair! Guess it's all over... unless?
j.214U is an absolutely obscene air-to-ground special that devours literally every non-invincible antiair in the game. It's also really fast and punishes most lows if you jump them on prediction. And it's also an excellent air-to-air - beats every other air button and special in the game. Pay attention to who lands first on block: if you land first, you're +6; if your opponent lands first, you're -3.
Some notes: if the opponent reacts and spotdodges, you're minus and sometimes even punishable. Also, due to a change in patch 2.60, your opponent can react and U DP it for free - j.214U is a U skill, so it gives the U DP refund on hit.
The first time you use 66M in a set it's excessively likely to hit. In other words, if you use this to close out a round, it'll almost always work. Can also use it on midscreen oki to kick the opponent closer to the corner. Note that you're betting your firstborn child any time you press this button because you're minus a billion on block.