Hey all, I’m relatively new to the Street Fighter Scene. I came from the SSBM scene and have found an interest in Street Fighter. I originally started out on Ryu but then moved to Evil Ryu. I really like him, but recently I’ve found myself enjoying Sakura. I really enjoy the aggressive playstyle. She seems to be considered low on the tier list, but some people consider her really good, is she viable enough to do well decent against most of the cast(Keep in mind I come from Super Smash Bros Melee, where mid/low tier characters are mostly utter garbage)?
In AE2012 she was high tier, some considered her even top tier. In ultra some of her tools got nerfed but in return she got some other things as well. She dropped a bit in the tier list, but that’s mostly because other characters that were below her climbed up, where as she pretty much stayed the same. I’d say she’s still viable in this game, she doesn’t really have too many hard match ups and the few hard match ups she does have are very manageable. So if you want to learn her go for it.
Sakura used to be top tier in 2012 (she had a lot of ambiguous and unblockable setups) but is no longer as effective primarily to delay wakeup. She still is a great and viable character but requires strong execution at high level play. The majority of her matchups are favorable or even, with a few unfavorable (but not bad) matchups. Two great and active tournament players to watch are HumanBomb (China) and Alex Myers (USA). HumanBomb has a more footsie oriented Sakura and Alex Myers has a more oki oriented Sakura so you really get a great contrast from watching them.
I play melee as well so I’ll try to compare Sakura to melee the best I can. Sakura in my opinion most closely resembles Roy with Fox’s shine. Roy has similar range to Marth but his sweet spot is in the middle of his sword. Roy can still play an all around game by poking opponents but he gets more mileage out of being closer ranged and pressuring the opponent to create combo opportunities. Sakura is the same way in that she has an all around shoto-like movement (slightly less range) but gets a lot of mileage by pressuring the opponent in the close range instead of the mid range like Ryu. Sakura also hits like a truck and is one of the highest damage output characters in the game. Her combos end in either hard or soft knockdowns which allows for a safe way to apply pressure again.
Roy, however, has a weakness when he’s offstage due to his bad recovery and Sakura shares this same weakness. Sakura’s wakeup options are really limited because the only way she has invincibility on her reversal is when she has 1 ex bar. In addition to that, she needs 2 more for a total of 3/4 ex bars to make it safe if it’s blocked (ex dp xx fadc). Sakura’s ex dp is also very slow (12 frames I believe), so it can be easily safe jumped and baited with a jump. This means that your primary option when being pressured is to block unless you feel like making a read.
I would compare Sakura’s LK tatsu to Fox’s shine because it leaves Sakura at neutral on block so it’s safe on block and allows Sakura to continue pressuring the opponent. It also beats a lot of the opponents options and if it hits, it leads directly into Sakura’s damaging combos (Sakura’s tatsu loop combos). The LK tastu is one of her defining features as well as her very fast normal attacks.
Thanks for the answers guys, they really help. I’ll watch some videos of those players mentioned and keep working on my Sakura as I like her playstyle a lot.
shes a very basic character as in u can get by with very basic knowledge and combos all her combos are pretty much the same across the board save certain exceptions. This is why i like her i can focus on spacing her anti air is super god like so i can use that to keep my oponent from jumping and when the time comes her combos are long flashy but easy to remember. Idk i find my self hitting maybe 4 buttons at most times hp and mk being the two that get used the most. Shes a fantastic character for beginners i find since she incorporates everything you want to learn at a basic level while teaching you whats bad. Here shoryu ouside her ex is not a wake up option so it teaches you to block patiently and find that sweet spot. Her ex dp has tons of invincibility while not having 3f start up. Her tatsu is safe but teaches you to press your buttons efficiently her cr.mk os a great footsies tool. She can fireball if she needs to. She has easy basic setups that dont require a ton of work to set up some dumb gimmick. In other words your in good hands 
welcome to Sakura! Ph yea shes small and adorable so no one has the right to get mad
HumanBomb is from Hong Kong/Australia
Good replys in here, yep shes viable not as good as she once was in previous versions but is still very good, much more balanced.