I need more games from exp. saks,
I’m reime0w on pc.
Don’t try to block/counter on reaction to shennanigans 
As soon as they don’t Otoshi or Ultra you know it’s coming so pick an option and go with it or you can just try to mash out an EX Shou every time
mashing is no good =(
Get good at timing it correctly then
If you want to be defensive your only options are:
A) Keep blocking normally
B) Switch block side for cross-under
C) Jump (vertical)
From what I’ve noticed people tend to be set in their ways. For example 9/10 times I’ll cross under after a s.LP reset. Generalvivi seems to favour vertical jumps on reset and same true for Crazykat when I played him last.
So the first time it happens you pick an option, I like to pick vertical jumping as it gets away from sloppily timed ground shennanigans as well as jumping ones. Observe what they do then the next time pick the option to defend against it.
Of course the good Sakura players will mix it up to keep it random and fresh then it’s all just a big guessing game. I generally don’t as the majority of people I play don’t know how to handle the cross-under trick so I’ll keep abusing it
-tries tatsu link online and gets fadc ultra’d- This.
I get no satisfaction when I win online because I can pretty much only beat people who are also awful at the game. Completely random shit like ultras from across the screen or those akumas who don’t even use air fireballs or try to demon from across the screen, after botching the input 3 times in a row first… Yea, I beat THOSE guys pretty easily, but lose to anyone with a modicum of skill/experience…
Only exception to this is blanka players… a blanka who uses nothing but balls and electricity will beat me everytime, but should they branch out and try to combo or something, I actually stand a chance.
I still feel like I’ve lost, even when I win =\
Heh gotta love those Akuma players who make it blatently obvious they’re trying to attempt Raging Demon. I even played one who tried doing it without meter, I smacked him around a bit until he had meter, waited for it then punished
I taunt them by standing on the other side of the screen mashing lp and lk
I’ve been playing Sakura since launch and it seems like I can’t win against players that actually know the game. Using proper pressure strings/traps when they’re supposed to, and catching me with tick throws particularly on my wakeup.
Not having a <3 Bar wakeup reversal is kind of lame. What exactly do I have to work with other than smelling the tick throw comming.
(Will post videos (hopefully) by next saturday so you can see what I’m working with.
Best response ever.
Luckily since posting on page one a couple of friends bought the game and I got a hrap ex in the meantime so now my winrate is ~53% (against my noobish friends, of course) with me always going random.
Finally managed to get some links down with sak and trials are coming along nicely, the feeling of achievement is definitely there.
Even when I get spanked with Sakura, the few link-combos I get in, the odd round I win, it feels good. She’s just the most fun to use out of the whole cast imo.
Now to go play online and get destroyed by shoryuken-spam. :looney:
I keep on getting crushed by a friend of mine who uses Akuma. Not much anger, I try my best and I feel like Sakura is not the best match-up for Akuma. I simply hate the fact that he dodges somehow every ex-tatsu i get in and, when he doesn’t, I’m not ready to combo on his fall.
i would say sakura has one of the strongest matchups against akuma… otoshi punishes his hadouken keep away game… just gotta time it. her shouoken has so much range you can literally go under air fireballs and nail him on his way down. FA destroys his s.HK combo. his tatsu isnt armor breaking, nor is his shoryuken. his ultra is really retarded easy to punish. and if hes a teleport whore, act like youre coming in but stay far enough so that hell teleport right into a c.mk->shoryuken. i dont really bother with the crossunder mixup on akuma due to that teleport. just go for dmg cause you dont need much to drop him
Well, it punishes the Hados if it is a Ex or the Fire one (the half circle one, don’t know the name), the norma one is too fast on recovery. I hit him only If I anticipate. But that works a lot and I use it.
He uses only the hp. one so, It is not easy. But I can usually dash under it.
I just don’t have the reflexes to do so. I simply block.
Have no idea what a crossunder mixup is
All I know is that he grabs me every damn time he’s done with his tatsumaki. If I block, I get thrown, or maybe i cancel it with mine, but i can’t anticipate him. He simply kicks my butt.
I have a lot of chances to c.HP him when he uses Tatsu or carelessy jumps above me, but I can’t connect anything after that. That’s pretty much one of the few chances I have to beat the crap out of him.
sorry man but sakura v akuma is a terrible matchup for her. he is one of the best zoners and when he gets free wake ups so u gotta guess the teleport. also if he gets u in a corner its an up hill battle to get out of there. i just dont see it as one of her easier matches.
if hes just doing the long range air hadous… then theres no problem getting in his face… its the up close air hadous that let him zone you well. as for regular hadoukens… you deal with em the same way you deal with sagat or ryu… tatsu over them, or FA through them. if hes being a tatsumaki whore, you should c.HP him out of it every single time. dont worry bout comboing more from that because you dont really need to hit akuma much for him to go down
@codallen… what do you mean if he gets you in a corner its tough to get out? his corner moves are no different than any other shoto except for the fact that his moves dont armor break
I can see both sides of the Akuma matchup argument. It’s true that she has a lot of happy tools to beat his moves, but you have to use them successfully an awful lot of times to kill him despite his low stamina.
For example if you shouoken under an air fireball and hit him out of the air then you’re only really going to get one hit which does about the same as a single jab. Then on his wakeup is he going to teleport or not, if so then which way - you have to guess. If you guess right then you can do some good damage, guess wrong and you’re right back at square one.
I think the biggest problem that we as Sakura players have against Akuma is that you have to play completely differently vs him than you do with the rest of the cast. I can’t count the number of times that I’ve painfully worked my way in, scored a combo opportunity, and comboed into EX shunpu out of muscle memory. Fail. (not matchup fail - player fail :shake:)
According to the frame data he’s -9, -8, -1 on block for LK, MK, HK Tatsu respectively. It’s just a bit tricky realising when you’re able to let go of block and punish. Either way a back dash will get you out of both a throw attempt and a SRK. Back dashing after his far s.HK is a good idea too methinks.
Well, I guess I’ll try 
exactly… problem is people try to play him exactly the same… and thats when he becomes a major pain in the ass