I agree, the c.mp stuff is icing on the cake. It being +1 essentially gives her the Karin-like medium, medium pressure against most people without a 3 frame jab, and she also has a longer confirm option on hit.
If you get caught walking back or mashing with VT1 up now, it really hurts. That’s strong, and I think with the nerf to VT damage, I would look at VT1 over 2 as well.
Yup. I like getting nice combos after making a throw or button whiff during VT1 now. V Skill cancels sound fun too.
Worth noting now on crouching CH c.mp, Sakura can walk for a frame and land s.mp, b.hp as a link. Pretty sure it only works on crouching CH, but it’s something to think about.
Scratch that, it seems like c.mp pushback on hit on standing is too much to connect s.mp after. Major bumsville. Guess you’ll have to pay attention for the confirm. Can still hit s.lk though.
It works standing in corner, but midscreen you’re better off with c.MP, walk forwrd s.MP, s.LK into MP or EX shou. EX shou gives meaty now (not sure on backrise) so that’s not bad.
Some other random stuff from @Frost for Sak.
In corner -
MP/HP.DP > whiff cr.lp > d/f.hk. Beats both rises
MP/HP.DP > dash > cr.hp xx EX.Hado. Beats both rises.
_Midscreen - _
New! EX.DP > microwalk St.hp confirm into HP.DP
New! EX.DP > microwalk St.hk
EX.Tatsu > dash x2 > St.mp
New Sak b+HP CC combo
https://twitter.com/actualdad420/status/981327272606134272
b+HP now combos on regular hit into HK tatsu. Not sure what change made this work, but now you got 7 frame button that CC’s that you can just OS into a combo that standing 50/50s on regular hit or gives you safe minus on block. s.HP still has a bit more range so I’ll still use that from further distances and doesn’t require you to push backwards on the stick to use it.
These were the changes to b+HP so something must have changed. Maybe stealth change that’s not listed.
Furiko Upper
Expanded the forward hitbox for the first active frame
Moved the hitbox forward for active frame 3F
Active frame 3F will no longer trigger a Crush Counter
Reduced the backwards hurtbox
Happy to see the thread bumpin’ after weeks of virtually nothing. Excited to get some practice in this week to try out all this new tech.
Man, I still hadn’t even mastered the old tech. Being a baddie is rough.
Her HK tatsu starts up 1f faster, all variations of her HP button can combo into it now because of that.
Yeesh, how did I miss that? That’s really good for her; the situation after HK Tatsu is where Sakura is most effective, but the problem was she rarely was able to get into that situation without a good solid whiff punish or CH s.mp. Being able to get that off of regular s.mp and CH c.mp makes it a lot more of a viable situation.
Big time buff.
s.HP was already great for HK Tatsu. I use s.HP probably more than any other Sak player uses it so I was getting HK tatsu off of confirms regularly enough. I definitely wasn’t going to wait till AE.5 to get the most out of the standing mix up from it.
s.HP is about the same range as b+HP and certainly more than s.MP, so its still go to for me even at slightly slower start up. Sak has the walk speed to enforce it. Once you learn to hit confirm it you dont have to whiff punish with it. You can just start putting it out there and counter poking stuff. Especially since it true strings into fireball which is great with VT1 active. It’s harder to use vs big boys like Birdie/Gief/Abi, but against most standard characters it has suitable range for neutral.
Its only minus 2 with pushback so you’re relatively safe if they block it and if you end up committing to the HK tatsu there’s only a small gap to interrupt inbetween and you’re safe minus 2 after that any way.
Or you can play like BreastPantyHip and just throw HK tatsu out raw.
j.HP cross up oki.
https://twitter.com/jav1ts/status/962194037183864833
b+HP CC VTC combo (VT2).
Jump.Hk–>s.Mp–> b.HP–> HK Tatsu will be my go-to combo for Sakura, slightly less damage than Jump.Hk–>s.Mp–> b.HP–> HP DP, but much safer (if you mess up the linkage to DP, you will be punished badly, but HK Tatsu is safe on block) and the HK. Tatsu leaves you with +2 and in throw range, very often you get a throw for free, that’s 278+130=408 damage without spending any meter.
Her V-skill is finally useful. Anti-air C.HP --> V-skill throw or PPP is a very threatening setup. See the demonstration by Breastpantyhip .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmSRIU-oUCw&index=6&list=PLB1OQUaqQlzvXZmHaYT2tQdRaK_RHjpEM&t=34s
Has df.HK any purpose outside giving a good look at her panties?
I don’t use it. With the buff to her b hp not much relevant use for it imo. Way too long start up for a corner meaty when you can use other buttons including c.hp which has like 5 active frames.
C.hp v skill stuff is fun. You can get jabbed or AAd out of it but if they sleep or have slow AAs it’s worth trying
How do people here deal with Akuma as Sakura? He reminds me a bit of the Chun/Menat match I hate so much because he feels like a better version of your own character in almost every aspect. I suppose that’s why Ryu players were so salty during S2.
Akuma I dont think is that bad. Just use walk speed to move up to him and and start pressuring with s.MK and s.LK. Both of those buttons are hard for him to outrange without resorting to fishing with CC’s. His ground fireballs aren’t that oppressive so you can block and neutral jump them down and walk up till you get in range where it’s unsafe for him to throw them. It’s a bit of a struggle with his air fireball and pressure if he gets close, but once I land a hit on him it hurts so bad that it’s pretty comfortable. Cough an EX DP out of him and it can get bad for him pretty fast.
Only characters I currently have problems with are Guile and Menat, but that’s pretty much a given considering you need strong movement and anti projectile options to not have a tough match vs them.
Yeah, air fireball is a pain. Unless you manage to hit him out of it with an EX DP because he comes from the perfect angle there’s not much she can do. I’ve realised I’m not using st.LK as much as I should, maybe that’s the winning button here.
For some reason I don’t have too many problems with Guile so far but I’m used to playing that matchup with Chun and it’s definitely better with Sakura because she can at least pressure properly when she gets in.
For buffs for Sakura:
I think her b+HP should be changed to just HP and s HP should be either f+HP or b+HP. After any grab or knockdown, if Sakura jumps, she has to use j MK because the opponent can walk under to avoid a non-crossup jump-in. So as a result, you as the Sakura player get mixed up: is it b+HP or now the opposite side and you need to do f+HP in your s MP jump-in followup combo.
Not only because of that, though. b+HP is faster than s HP so it hits in v trigger activation combos more easily than s HP. So again you need to be on point and know which side Sakura is on and do b+HP.
Another nice buff could be reduced charge time needed for her 2-hit bigger fireball and maybe more plus after her v skill divekick is blocked.
Capcom, want to make Sakura viable?
Allow c LK, c LK to combo!
It would make Sakura the only character to have the c LK x2 combo in SFVAE. Something… different???
Sakura’s c LK, c LK was definitely her staple combo in most if not all of her past iterations. Especially in SFA2. I didn’t use her in SF4, but I bet c LK x2 was important for her in SF4 too.
Hey guys Don’t really see too many people on this thread much anymore but I love playing sakura so I guess I will add my 2 cents into what I don’t like about her with champion edition
I was really hoping with her v skill one that they would give her more options in the air Like a tatsu or even doing my dive kick even quicker in the air. But the one thing I think she needs the most is the ability to cancel into V trigger from her shoryuken if not from normal at least ex dp cancel into v trigger would be nice.