Destin's Sakura Advanced Play Guide

[Skatan_Milla]

Demulant is the best Ryu and best player in Germany (I think).

[Destin]

These are my opinions on her changes after having had time to think about them since we got to know what they were. Who knows if they’ll turn true or not, but it is definitely a possibility that they turn out close to this.

Sakura
? Decreased recovery on close MP, at least +5 on hit +2 on block.
- This will give her even stronger pressure, her pressure is already high tier in this version due to her damage and lk shunpu pressure, to have top tier pressure in this game you pretty much need a good divekick. With cl.mp she’ll be able to extend that pressure for a longer period and she’ll have an easier time frame trapping characters. She’ll also be able to pressure characters with a good 3f jab/short more easily instead of going for a cl.hp trade after lk shunpu. She’ll also improve her throw game since she’ll be able to mix up her timing of when the opponent gets out of blockstun more.

? Far.mp is cancelable
- This will help her in a bunch of matchups where c.mk doesn’t work it’s magic. It’ll be able to stuff/whiffpunish pokes that hit from the middle to the upper part of her body and it’ll lead into shooken, so the damage potential against those pokes just skyrocketed from 70 to 450.

? Improved hitboxes on far mk
*- The only logical change I can see this move getting is a better anti-air hitbox, which will make it easier to anti-air opponents trying to jump in on her outside of her c.hp range. However the change may also give her a stronger poke in footsies since they said they removed the hitbox on her standing foot if I remember correctly, so this poke seems like it can be thrown out pretty much whenever against characters that rely heavily on low pokes, such as Ryu. In Super st.mk combos into c.mk x hp sho on counter hit, but we can always hope for a frame buff as well.
*
? Recovery time on her Hadoken reduced, the more you charge it the faster it will recover.
(Right now all are all -7 on block, so we can expect the changes on charged hado to be clearly noticable.)
- Faster recovery on her hadoken is great in so many ways. In super c.mk x hado is, by some characters, punishable on block by them jumping after c.mk and punishing hadoken during recovery. With the reduced recovery c.mk x hadoken might become safe against that. That opens up more use of c.mk x charge hado, which in turn will give her stronger pressure/ways to get in from mid range. Faster recovery on charge hado also means more possibilities for applying meaty lv2/lv3 hadokens on knockdown.

? Air Shunpu juggles multiple times in the air
*- The way air shunpu works now is that sometimes when you want to get in the opponent jumps at the same time, which results in them eating air shunpu since the correct timing to get the strongest hitbox against people trying to anti-air you also happens to be the correct timing for beating people out of the air as well. In AE you’ll score more damage during these instances, and maybe even be able to juggle into u2 depending on what hit animation they’ve given it. As long as it doesn’t send them full screen away, which in its own way is good, her okizeme afterwards will be improved either way.
*
? Improved backdash
- Right now backdashing with Sakura is forbidden in 95% of the cases due to it being slow and grounded for a large amount of its frames. So for her this buff does matter, unlike other characters like Chun/Dhalsim/Ibuki who were already airborne for a large period of their backdash frames. For example of you try to backdash out of Rufus divekick pressure now you’ll eat a combo, in AE you will just get air reset.

? Other various adjustments on making hitboxes bigger, damage, and recovery done to make her stronger.

• While being the most ambiguous change it’s also the one which has the potential to carry the most weight. Sakura getting improved hitboxes, damage and recovery to moves that weren’t even mentioned above? In my opinion she already has very good hitboxes on most of her moves and specials so if some of them get improved just a bit then they’ll all of a sudden become really strong normals/specials. Her damage is already around top3 in the game with her fadc combos, so getting improved damage at this point is kind of ridiculous, she might become the character with the biggest LOL-factor at landing a hit, kind of how Honda is right now. Getting improved recovery on moves also means you’ll be less negative on block, so aside from cl.mp she might get to work with a bunch of new moves in her pressure, or moves that are very unsafe atm (cl.hp, c.hp, cl.hk) might become more safe. Changing properties on several different moves on Sakura can easily get out of hand quick due to how strong she already is upclose with her damage and pressure, so this change really is the most interesting to me.

For my 2 cents, what seems neat is making far mk a better poke, that could help with some holes in her poke game, making far mp cancelable into shou will also be useful.

I think the fireball change could be VERY important depending on how much they decrease the recovery. Right now, very quick players can reaction jump punish fireballs (character dependent). It is probably the worst fireball in the game. If you take the recovery down to a point where it is unsafe to reaction jump the fireball, I will be a happy man. Also, if you decrease the recovery enough, it may make it unsafe to blindly focus backdash the fireball! Even if that isn’t the case, at least you get ground for it.

I think the close mp will find it’s way into combos and perhaps for CH frame traps and such, that will be neat I guess. Right now though she gets so much crazy advantage off so many moves I rarely find myself hurting for hit confirms (well back when I played). At best her hit confirm combo damage could go up by around 40, which is fairly significant. I think it looks cool though, that is important!

The changes to hitboxes all around though, this will make or break the character. She has always lived off her far hk in previous games, which she can’t really do right now. If they are going to treat her like a character with a fireball, she needs a useable fireball. If they are going to treat her like a character without one, she needs good pokes. In SF there is usually some balance, either you have good fireballs, a good way to get around fireballs, or fantastic pokes. She has none of these, so she kinda dies. I would like to see them fix her the poke route, although giving her a barely serviceable fireball would be pretty rad too.

[glenburg89]

Hey Destin,
Thanks for the guide!
I admit, I was guilty of a lot of the mistakes you mentioned in the guide.lol.
I need to become a disciplined Sakura player!

[BranGor]

Are the BnB comboes in this thread up to date? Looking to pick up Sak.

[larg0]

yeesssh srk is such a mess to navigate! There needs to be an AE board for all the speculative stuff >_<

I got some protips for sakura…maybe people use these already, I dunno, I havent hit the forums in a loong time.

Meaty light tatsu - sooo good to do after a knockdown, provided you’ve trained your opponent to not spam reversal. If they block it, you’ve got a cr.HP frame trap. If they crouch tech (and boy, do they) you got a counterhit EZ link to cr. HP XX EX tatsu -> mixup

not really a protip, but every time I play against a remotely competent sak in a mirror match, they have NO IDEA how to get out of their own mixup. If they’re going for an aggressive reset, BE MASHING DP. If you stuff the first attempt at a reset, it gets a lot harder for sak to mix it up.

also

SAVE THE DASH UNDER!!
don’t do the dash under reset the first chance you get, sheesh. That dashunder has saved my ass and given me the advantage more times than I can count. Don’t give away your best tricks from the start!

If you’re getting zoned/outpoked, you need to get creative. Use lk tatsu for ground spacing (keep this in mind when trapped in the corner!!!). Even MK and HK can be good for spacing if you can get them in blockstun, but it’s easier to punish on reaction.

The regular otoshi isn’t garbage either! Well kind of. But if you’re getting out-poked, do a big block-stun chain to push em back a ways. When you think they’re gonna start poking at your feet, normal otoshi and fuck em up!! I’ve seen this work the best against sweepy akuma. You can also space from fullscreen with the regular otoshi…it’s not much, but if you’re sakura and are getting locked down with pokes, you need to start thinking outside the box, cuz her bread and butter moveset just aint enough.

[Uno_Ken]

Good write up, but you talked too much about yourself in your post, gets kind of annoying. No one cares if your execution is good or bad or if you’re ugly, we’re just here to read about Sakura.

[Destin]

Good write up, but you talked too much about yourself in your post, gets kind of annoying. No one cares if your execution is good or bad or if you’re ugly, we’re just here to read about Sakura.

I wrote stream of conscious, it’s the only way I would have possibly had the motivation to write all that. You can always read someone else’s advanced strategy guide, but I rather enjoyed the voice I used to write it.

[Uno_Ken]

Fair enough, point taken

[mzr30]

[media=youtube]KqC3VAaicPs[/media]

Blockstring Combos

1. Cr.LK~ Cr.LP~ Cr.LK~ H.Shouoken: Dmg-167/Stun-280
2. Cr.LK~ LP~ Cr.LK~ H.Shouoken: Dmg-172/Stun-280
3. Cr.LK~ Cr.LP~ Cr.HP~ H.Shouoken: Dmg-223/Stun-336
4. Cr.LK~ LP~ Cr.HP~ H.Shouoken: Dmg-228/Stun-336
5. Cr.LK~ Cr.LP~ Cr.HP~ EX.Shunpukyaku: Dmg-234/Stun-336
6. Cr.LK~ LP~ Cr.HP~ EX.Shunpukyaku: Dmg-239/Stun-336
7. Cr.LK~ Cr.LP~ LP~ Cr.MK~ H.Shouoken: Dmg-195/Stun-330
8. Cr.LK~ Cl.HP~ L.Shunpu~ LK~ H.Shouoken: Dmg-272/Stun-405
9. Cr.LK~ Cl.HP~ L.Shunpu~ LK~ EX.Shunpu~ SakuraOtoshi 2nd: Dmg-229/Stun-432
   (SakuraOtoshi 2nd attack~ Full Charged Hadoken~ psychological Fight)
   safe charged hadoken moves~
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od4sSk4r2Ic

Usable Combos

1. J.HK~ Cl.MK~ L.Shunpu~ Cl.HP~ L.Shunpu~ Cr.HP~ H.Shouoken: Dmg-414/Stun-664
2. J.HK~ Cl.MK~ L.Shunpu~ Cl.HP~ L.Shunpu~ Cr.HP~ EX.Shunpu~ SakuraOtoshi 2nd: Dmg-415/Stun-663
3. FA.lev2~ L.shunpu~ Cl.HP~ L.shunpu~ LP~ Cr.MK~ H.Shouoken: Dmg-313/Stun-449
4. FA.lev2~ L.shunpu~ Cl.HP~ L.shunpu~ Cr.HP~ EX.Shunpu~ SakuraOtoshi 2nd: Dmg-335/Stun-513
5. FA.lev2~ L.shunpu~ Cl.HP~ L.shunpu~ Cr.HP~ H.Shouoken: Dmg-334/Stun-514
6. Cr.MK~ H.Shouoken~ EX.FADC(Cancling 3rd attack)~ Cl.HP~ H.Shouoken: Dmg-353/Stun-446
7. Cr.MK~ H.Shouoken~ EX.FADC(Cancling 3rd attack)~ Cl.HP~ EX.Shunpu~ SakuraOtoshi 2nd: Dmg-364/Stun-460
8. Cr.MK~ EX.Shouoken~ EX.FADC(Cancling 5th attack)~ Cl.HP~ H.Shouoken: Dmg-378/Stun-476
9. Cr.MK~ EX.Shouoken~ EX.FADC(Cancling 5th attack)~ Cl.HP~ EX.Shunpu~ SakuraOtoshi 2nd: Dmg-389/Stun-490

[Mak0t0]

Hiya, I’ve been picking up Sakura bit by bit. I have a small contribution to make.

On some of the larger characters like Sagat, you are able to do cl.mk - lk tatsu - cl.hp - lk tatsu - c.hp - ex tatsu. I find that combo easier than doing the 2x c.hp since the cl.hp comes out in 3 frames as opposed to the c.hp which comes out in 4, it makes the link easier. Also cl.mk - lk tatsu keeps you close enough for cl.hp

I’m going to start working on plinking tonight, I’ve been attempting to teach myself the combos with the strict timing hopefully plinking will make it easier on me. There is a tournament this weekend I’m going to bring her out for.

[hehwat]

Hiya, I’ve been picking up Sakura bit by bit. I have a small contribution to make.

On some of the larger characters like Sagat, you are able to do cl.mk - lk tatsu - cl.hp - lk tatsu - c.hp - ex tatsu. I find that combo easier than doing the 2x c.hp since the cl.hp comes out in 3 frames as opposed to the c.hp which comes out in 4, it makes the link easier. Also cl.mk - lk tatsu keeps you close enough for cl.hp

I’m going to start working on plinking tonight, I’ve been attempting to teach myself the combos with the strict timing hopefully plinking will make it easier on me. There is a tournament this weekend I’m going to bring her out for.

i think that works on nearly every1 lol

[Mak0t0]

Glad to hear that, I didn’t have a chance to try that out against every character. Managed to get plinking her combos down within 5 min of trying.

I do have a question though, I can FADC her fireball fire a combo (big whoop, not going to use it) but I’m trying to FADC her Shouken, and is there a specific hit I need to do it on to make sure I can connect the close s.hp for the B&B combo?

[Fergus2k8]

Welcome Makoto! Nice to see a new face around here

For EX Shouken, this is a 3f link to St.hp, you fadc on the 3rd hit of the 2nd “loop” and fadc into st.hp

For HP Shouken, this is quite tough, it’s a 1f link and you have to do the fadc as accurate as you can into st.hp

For the focusing, I do forward hold focus forward, I believe this gives Sakura the opportunity to do the 1f link in the first place, for ex shouken, it just makes it a lot easier.

Learn how to plink if you haven’t already, it’s extremely useful, it may seem daunting at first, but it’s worth learning in the long run

[Mak0t0]

Welcome Makoto! Nice to see a new face around here

For EX Shouken, this is a 3f link to St.hp, you fadc on the 3rd hit of the 2nd “loop” and fadc into st.hp

For HP Shouken, this is quite tough, it’s a 1f link and you have to do the fadc as accurate as you can into st.hp

For the focusing, I do forward hold focus forward, I believe this gives Sakura the opportunity to do the 1f link in the first place, for ex shouken, it just makes it a lot easier.

Learn how to plink if you haven’t already, it’s extremely useful, it may seem daunting at first, but it’s worth learning in the long run

Thanks, I just picked up plinking the other night working on her tatsu loop combos. I started out doing it with the strict timing, but plinking that makes it more forgiving.

I had a feeling that I was missing something, thanks for the help. I just edited my question a second ago, right now the only way I’ve been able to start the tatsu pressure is off a wakeup with using meaty attacks but that wont work too well against characters with good reversals. Any advice there.

[Destin]

Sakura has extended tatsu combos against many characters. For example, against Yun/Yang, I believe she can tatsu, cl.hp, tatsu, cl.hp, tatsu, cr. Hp, tatsu, cr.hp, tatsu, crouch mk, hp shou. One rep of that loop might be out, I don’t recall too much. Problem is it’s different for every character, the maximum combo. If someone wants to write it all up I would be happy to append it with credit, but there are probably better threads for that.

[Mak0t0]

Sakura has extended tatsu combos against many characters. For example, against Yun/Yang, I believe she can tatsu, cl.hp, tatsu, cl.hp, tatsu, cr. Hp, tatsu, cr.hp, tatsu, crouch mk, hp shou. One rep of that loop might be out, I don’t recall too much. Problem is it’s different for every character, the maximum combo. If someone wants to write it all up I would be happy to append it with credit, but there are probably better threads for that.

That is a long combo, I’ll work on that character specific ones later. At the moment I’m more concerned about just coming up with good punishes that I can use against everyone.

How can you link c.mk off a tatsu, startup for that is 5 frames and tatsu is only +4 on hit?

[Destin]

In that specific spacing of that combo, you hit on frame 2 of your tatsu, giving you +5.

[Deebs]

Not sure if you can do 2 cl. Hps. You can do cl mk > cl mk > cr hp > cr hp > cr mk though. That definitely works on yun. And there’s a thread for character specific combos.

[PointBreak91]

Wow, just from reading through all that 1st post, I had no idea stand fierce was so good. I’m gonna start spamming it out, or maybe hit it after blocked low shorts, to set up counter hits like in Alpha games. Makes me think of Cammy actually, in CvS2 lol

[Fergus2k8]

This guide is really really outdated, I wouldn’t take all of it revelant to now.