41

NooMiK - Good research, thanks for that.

42

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I definitely have a lot to work on.

43

Has anyone tried doing an EX tasu after c.hp from an anti air?

i have only been able to do it a few times, it may be classified as a juggle,
only the last kick, which knocks them up in the air hits.

but its good for a sakura spike x3 afterwards… or which ever combo u like.

i found it impossible at first, because u are generally blocking down and back…
but just as i do the c.hp i move it forward… then i can do the down back for the
ex tatsu…

can anyone confirm if this is a valid string… or was i just lucky a few times?

44

no
c.hp is not a juggle starter

45

ok, for balrog.

sakuras tatsu is her armor breaker, so use it against his ex dash punches, and just throw it out like crazy in general, its safe, starts her best combos, and like i said before, breaks his ex punches. bait a head but by stopping your block strings early. in my exp. a balrog player will head but after a blocked light tatsu about 80% of the time, and it is easily punishable. stay on top of him with your tatsus and mix it up after a blocked light tatsu. this string works well for me. c.hp xx l.tatsu, lk, ex tatsu, then throw/block/c.hp/jump straight up. this works after a light tatsu if you dont want to finish the string and use EX meter for the setup. above all, stay on him and move in with tatsu’s and not jumps.

hope that helps.

46

Mmm…EX Shunpukyaku is good, yes, but…I wouldn’t throw it out recklessly against Balrog. It is armour breaking, sure, but the timing for that is a bit strict for online since you have to predict when he’ll do an EX punch. Personally, what I like to do is focus through his EX punch (the EX overhead punch is armour breaking though :O), then perform a little string leading into EX Shunpukyaku rather than just using it by itself.

Even though the EX Shunpukyaku is pretty damn safe, Balrog does like to crouch a lot, so if you throw it out too much, you may just whiff over him, lol. I just find that a level 2 FA works really well against Balrog when I play against him, especially when he tries to close the gap with a dashing straight (not sure what the attack is actually called). Also, don’t be afraid to throw those fireballs out to try and bait a straight (since he does get FA properties with it) and try to FA in return to lead into a combo :tup:

Now, this doesn’t work against all Balrog players, but I run into a lot of them that like to start out the match with that straight, so you can either focus through it then with your level 2 FA or just jump in the beginning of the match and do what I do (j.hk -> c.mk -> lk.Shunpukyaku -> c.hp -> hk.Shunpukyaku (or EX into Sakura Otoshi if you have a bar) ). Also, don’t be afraid. That’s one thing you MUST keep in mind, lol.

Balrog is like a wild dog. He can smell fear from you, lol. So, what I generally like to do is bait a headbutt while they are down with a level 2 FADC. By the time they wake up, you have already dashed back and they whiff with the headbutt, leaving them open for another combo.

Now obviously, that’s not going to work against every Balrog player, but it’s just something nice to keep in mind (it has worked quite a few times for me :P). As for Honda, well…not really much advice I can give with this match up, honestly. I just go in hoping for the best out of this one, haha.

What I like to do though is keep my distance for a little bit and wait for a headbutt, but don’t throw a fireball (if you throw one, they will think you are going to throw another, so they won’t do the torpedo or even EX since the fireball will knock him out of it). Just stay back, wait for him to dive in, jump back with j.hk so it connects just as he finishes the animation after missing, then start up your combo. After you knock him down, he’ll probably try to get up with the buttsplash (or whatever it’s called, lol), so you can either focus the first hit (when you’re right in his face and he performs it) and dash forward, THEN counter or you can just dash back and wait for him to whiff and just knock him out of the air with a c.hp and jump in to apply some pressure.

I see a lot of Honda players crouching when they are about to do the headbutt, so if you ever get close to one and you see him crouching, but waiting for a time to do the headbutt, throw out a flower kick for the overhead. Also, don’t be afraid to throw. It could be something simple. Like a j.lk crossup after they get up followed by a couple of pokes to make him think you are going for a string, but stop, then throw, but don’t forget about that headbutt!

I just like being a little risky every now and then because anybody who picks a charge type character will probably think they have you against the ropes since you picked Sakura, so when you play the brave card, it DOES have a chance at throwing off their game and causing them to get a little more aggressive (which is what you want :P), letting you capitalize on their mistakes and punish them. I’m sure quite a few people have thought, “Wtf is he doing?!” when I actually rushdown Gief and throw him instead of stay back and cower in fear, lol. Just try to change your game up a little bit (every charge type player knows how to take you on if you try zoning, and playing defensively while waiting for them to make a mistake, it’s too predictable) and shake them up a little.

Sometimes you just have to go balls to the wall if you want to stand a chance, lol. Don’t be afraid to take risks, but know WHEN to take them. Either way, not sure if this will help, but hopefully it will to some extent :sweat:

47

Not the EX, any Shunpukyaku is armor breaking, and the light one has next to no recovery time.

Even though the EX Shunpukyaku is pretty damn safe, Balrog does like to crouch a lot, so if you throw it out too much, you may just whiff over him, lol. I just find that a level 2 FA works really well against Balrog when I play against him, especially when he tries to close the gap with a dashing straight (not sure what the attack is actually called). Also, don’t be afraid to throw those fireballs out to try and bait a straight (since he does get FA properties with it) and try to FA in return to lead into a combo :tup:
[/quote]

Yeah you don’t want to throw out an EX shunp when you are right on top of him, but after a blocked crouching fierce he will be pushed back far enough for you to not have to worry about it.

Now, this doesn’t work against all Balrog players, but I run into a lot of them that like to start out the match with that straight, so you can either focus through it then with your level 2 FA or just jump in the beginning of the match and do what I do (j.hk -> c.mk -> lk.Shunpukyaku -> c.hp -> hk.Shunpukyaku (or EX into Sakura Otoshi if you have a bar) ). Also, don’t be afraid. That’s one thing you MUST keep in mind, lol.
[/quote]

Truth.

Balrog is like a wild dog. He can smell fear from you, lol. So, what I generally like to do is bait a headbutt while they are down with a level 2 FADC. By the time they wake up, you have already dashed back and they whiff with the headbutt, leaving them open for another combo.
[/quote]

Good Idea.

I just like being a little risky every now and then because anybody who picks a charge type character will probably think they have you against the ropes since you picked Sakura, so when you play the brave card, it DOES have a chance at throwing off their game and causing them to get a little more aggressive (which is what you want :P), letting you capitalize on their mistakes and punish them. I’m sure quite a few people have thought, “Wtf is he doing?!” when I actually rushdown Gief and throw him instead of stay back and cower in fear, lol. Just try to change your game up a little bit (every charge type player knows how to take you on if you try zoning, and playing defensively while waiting for them to make a mistake, it’s too predictable) and shake them up a little.

[/quote]

Works every time. :nunchuck:

48

Is there any way to tell which dash punch Balrog is doing before the punch actually comes out? FA’s great for dealing with those, exempt for me it’s a matter of luck whether he does a punch that I can FA or one that I can’t.

Or, if you can’t tell which punch in time for it to matter, is there a punch that Balrog users use the most or in certain situations? I’d be happy with predicting which punch it’s going to be, if I had some knowledge to base that prediction on…

49

I dont’ know if I’m just real slow but are people really able to throw out a cr. mk and see if it hits, then hit the shouoken? By the time I realize it hits, its already too late to hit the shouoken. Or is it something more by like prediction?

50

I’m no pro by any means but…

I think most people of average reflexes are just throwing the whole thing out (because you have to cancel it pretty fast) just outside of cr. MK range. If it touches them it means it hit them ie. they were walking forward or stuck out a move. If you whiff it, the shouken doesn’t come out. This isn’t my idea though, I read it from someone in one of the Sakura threads, sorry can’t remember who.

There could be some people with godly reflexes who can hit confirm it; I tried it with random block in training mode and it just seems impossible for me to do.

Hope that helps.

51

I didn’t see that before but that makes perfect sense! Thanks, I’ll definitely use that.

52

its not a really hard hit confirm. i am out of practice with it at this point but i had it 90% or so in practice mode for a while.
if i still mained sakura i would just practice it every day for a bit and see if could ingrain it in my soul, if you cant you can always do ghetto subisttutes in tight spots.

53

i think there’s a timing window where you can hitconfirm it if it’s a counterhit, but if it’s a regular hit and you do the motion, it will not come out.

unless i’m confusing it with A3 fireballs

54

You usually do what noomik was saying, but you can also hit confirm it if you are on point. I usually do a bit of both, but I don’t trust my hitconfirm well enough to go for it without 2 stock.

55

Yea I can’t hit confirm it, my reflexes are just to slow. I just don’t want to throw it out though because it is one of the easiest things to punish. I’ll just stick to hurricanes. Thanks guys.

56

Hey everyone,

I was thinking of starting a new thread but this might be more appropriate. I was wondering: is there any SRK vet or whatever working on or planning to work on the Sakura wiki page? It seems that the SF4 character sections are kind of bare, especially the console characters (which is entirely understandable at this early point). But maybe a good Sakura player can set an example by consolidating all the good information discovered in these threads and begin a useful guide for all the new Sakura players.

57

So I’ve been playing around with Sak lately, and I love her combo/stun potential. Getting 400+ damage from one combo, using a single EX stock, makes me love this char.

One question I have for the vets though: What’s the best way to go about actually starting the combos? I’ve been resorting mostly to jump-ins, which get punishing easily, or off of FA’s, which get broken even though hers is super-fast/far. I’m referring to all the lk.tatsu combos, the cr.mp->shoryu is amazing for footsies :smiley:

Thanks for any help

EDIT - Also, any reliable crossups?

58

ambiguous or wakeup crossups are the best time to juice your damage, her most versatile crossup is j.lk, though j.hp works but is very hard to get consistently. getting in w/ sak can be hard vs certain characters so going for a knockdown would seem to be the best way to start.

her easiest non meter using knockdown combp is c.lk xx c.lp xx c.hp xx shoryu/ex tatsu

i got a question. what combo nets sakura the most meter? the combo i use is s.hp xx lk tatsu xx s.lk xx fierce shoryu, but is there better?

59

hello. i am a new sakura player, just trying to pick her up right now. i am practicing some bnb combos, the c.lk, c.lp, c.mk, lk hurricane. i am having a bit of trouble executing this. most of the time, my c.mk doesn’t come out. other times i am too far away from the opponent and the lk hurricane kick doesn’t hit. please help me out.

60

If the c.mk doesn’t come out, you must’ve hit the button too soon. The timing’s tricky.

You have to be pretty close to hit with c.mk, lk.tatsu - especially after doing the light hits beforehand. So I don’t do that combo, actually; I follow up my c.mk’s with sho, unless I know I’m gonna be really close when my c.mk hits. When I want to get into a tatsu combo, I lead into it with c.hp or c.lp, c.hp.