Nagare_Ryouma: He should be able to work those same Mindgames with Faster Step + Air throw, though. (Step -> SAB), (Step, 2nd Step to catch the back roll -> SAB), (Step, Autoguard SAB) (Step, Hyperhop Air throw), etc... Could probably even (Step -> Counter Hit CD -> Neomax!), lol.
mAsTarOth: Everyone wants every character to be a jack of all trades, but we already have 2 grapplers in the game with easy-AA DP grapples. I think Clark's buffs and use of Gattling prove that he's the "Fight on the ground, by my rules" grappler of the game, so he actually has very generous anti-air options already. Jet Upper, Hop Air throw, Vulcan Punches, and EX Gattling, and even his Neomax can be used as an AA...
So I agree with your summaries a lot. If a person liked "X" element with a character in the past, XIII makes it so there's PROBABLY a character out there that HAS that element, if you're willing to learn someone new.
I really like this myself. It makes each character worth playing.
bigvador:
Yeah, the grab potion is the regular SAB, but the "autoguard" has to be counted as "Start Up" on the move too. 1 frame grabs in KoF are grabs that are instantly active (1 frame of startup), after activation, that can punish faster than any other move. Weak SAB isn't that by definition. It's a slow-to-start grab. It's use is totally different.
It's like Vice's old "Blackend" throw, which had non of the bonuses of 1 frame throws (couldn't be combo'd into, wasn't fast enough to use VS 1-frame punish situations), but it's slow start up had invincibility, allowing you to use it as a wakeup, reversal, anti-rushdown tool, a throw that could actually work in blockstrings (since it's startup took longer, they could recover from hitstun just as the "grapple" happened), etc. It makes me very happy to use Clark and Vice together, since they both have elements of something I loved in each character, back in past games.
Also, SAB is so unique to Clark, that he even has a DM & EXDM Version of it, and a special followup from the normal one. Plus with his console version of the move, he gets Super cancel after the EX version. Argentine Back Breakers are Clarks SPECIALITY. They're his very reason for existing in this game. I'm a bit sad he lost the unique poses in the DM version, but anyway...
It's the same reason, say, Mature doesn't have "Decide" anymore; the move has been made into a cornerstone of Vice's gameplay, and has been left out from Mature, to increase character uniqueness.
Ralf is a pure puncher in this game. He punches explosions out the ground, he punches people on the ground while mounting them, he has the most powerful punch in existance as a DM, he has a punch autoguard counter, and he can link his Punch special moves together in a way unlike anyone else... a SAB would totally go aganist everything else he has. The only thing that was unique about Ralf's SAB before (the fact it had autoguard) has now been given to Clark too!
If they were to give Ralf a command throw / command unblockable like Robert's in the future, I'd either like to see it be more punching (Like Kevin Ryan's gutpunch grapple), or a return of his old Northern Lights throw.
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Back to Clark, though; I do think people are kinda sleeping on his Air Throw, and on the use of Death Lake Driver to end his ground combos. I look forward to seeing (and using) him more properly and well-rounded once the console version hits!