Sakura is a pain match up (generally considered even or slightly in Saks favor, but def an annoying one as she forces Cody to play really out of his comfort zone until he gets her in the corner and frankly her buttons beat most of Cody’s in both speed, hitbox, and in the case of her c.MK, reach.)
So I’m looking into some anti sakura tech, I’m sure some of this has been found before but I might have something new. Anything I find I’ll post here.
If Sakura is far LK - LK Tatsu pressuring you, it is possible to do c.MK between the s.LK and the LK Tatsu. Depending on the spacing you’ll either beat the Tatsu or go under it (and potentially put Sakura in the corner). In addition it is possible to Zonk between the LK and the Tatsu but if you guess wrong and she doesn’t Tatsu that is a full punish whereas depending on the spacing for your slide and her far LK you might be only -3 or 4 which is a much tighter punish than -8 given her 3-4F normals.
Whenever possible try and stand block the Tatsu after a frame trap/block string. Due to Cody’s hurtbox width while crouching vs standing some combos will drop out that would have worked if he still crouching. For example if Sakura does c.LK - c.LP - c.MK - LK Tatsu and you block everything except the LK Tatsu while crouching and then stand up the Tatsu will whiff allowing you to punish.
c.MK beats her best jump ins and her NJ.HK shenanigans as well. Which is good because they pretty much beat or trade with Cody’s other anti airs (far HP loses unless done early then it trades. Far HK same thing. B.MP is timing specific for AA fj.HP but generally beats fj.HK cleanly. Close LP loses to everything, HK Ruffian trades with most of her stuff unless you counterhit.)
Against far spaced LK Tatsus you can actually do b.MP and beat em out of the air.
