The gief match isn’t in her favor but its definitely beatable. Just dont just blindly throw out tatsu thats an spd and space your jump ins. The jump in hp stuffs that lariat and cr hp stops jump ins. Keep U2 on and you should be good…
is the match up 6-4 gief?
It’s at least 6-4, it’s obviously a lot easier in AE because of the EX GH nerf. In Vanilla, it must have been sooo shit, I didn’t play Vanilla so I wouldn’t know.
That and sagat are what really drove me away from vanilla…oh and my data kept getting corrupted so i always had to go and re earn sakura every like 2 weeks >=\
Haha yeah, whenever Vanilla is popped on in casuals, I’m just there with a sadface trying to select the blacked out Sakura.
Yeah =\ it’s why i really stopped playing sf4 i hated having to reearn her over and over again. It’s like okay time to play online today, my ps3 “Your sf4 data is corrupted, start a new one?” FUCK YOU!
great sakura counters to dives
Rose & Seth match ups what do you guys think…
Seth is pretty much rape or get raped. If the Seth is good, it’s very very difficult for Sakura. After DP fadc, hold up, a lot of Seths like to do DP fadc SPD.
Cr.hping his divekick is very risky business, you could eat a CH combo if you mistime it.
I don’t really know what else I can add to this matchup tbh.
For Rose, after her spiral, do st.lk and bait for CH into cr.mk xx DP
Again, a good Rose will pose many problems for Sakura as it’s difficult to get an opening on a good Rose.
I think Rose’s cr.hp is easy to empty jump, so empty jump and then whiff punish it.
You can throw a fireball and ex otoshi their reflect, would only work once or twice, but it’ll get them to stop reflecting.
That’s all the info I can think off top of my head,
yeah i hate the rose match an seth is a problem cuz i barely fight him…
Seth’s options, when he gets in, is a problem. Mixup your escape options. N. jump will get close fierce. Jumping back will get caught by dp (have to check this). Seth can OS sweep Sakura’s horrible backdash etc. And you can just block (and hope not to eat an SPD). There aren’t options that beat everything you have so it’s a matter of reading/outguessing and dealing out massive damage when you get the chance.
Rose is annoying too (good rose players that is). I don’t beat Rose consistently but I think you gotta press buttons and try to punish random slides and cr. mp. Also, showing that you can punish bad drills is important. Does OS sweep punish her back dash? Not sure. Maybe OS St. HK?
OS sweep doesn’t work on her backdash.
What sort of strats should i employ on cody, makoto, rufus and of course oni.
I’ve had trouble with cody in the past. I think it’s the lack of blocking when i was first startin sakura. Anything you find useful that works on the cody?
Rufus is an issue for my main since his dive kicks let him in. How do you guys usually keep him out if you’re sitting on the life lead?
Makoto just rapes me, i dunno. I think it’s my lack of experience against her, but she rushes me down and bulldozes me, i’m so helpless in this match up.
Tomorrow i’m headed to a small tourney and one of the better players in my area is an oni player. What should i know about the fight that could give me an edge?
Thanks again ya’ll!
I’m probably not the best to reply you Juri_kills_friend! But eh i’ll try to share that little bit of knowledge i’ve earned on those matchups.
Cody: Meh his frametraps are a pain in the a*s … try to not let him put too much pressure on you. Zone him and build some meter for some ex shouo and cancel if needed. He is pretty “free” on wake up so try to harass him once you get the knockdown. Can probably punish rockthrow with an ex otoshi but its really not awesome and if its a half decent cody it wont work more than once or twice a match.
Makoto: God that AE boosted makoto hurts. Zone her as much as you can careful once she’s half screen … that dash is scary. Keep the jumping to a minimum … all her jumpin normals beat sakura’s. She’s pretty free on wakeup … just dont jump on her or you’ll eat one or two fukiage. Just go for meaty LK tatsu … if it hits dont forget to go for the full loop for max damage. And check what ultra shes using. Ultra 2 is probably one of the fastest in the game and she can punish sak’s hadokens from midscreen with it.
Oni: cant give much advice here havent met yet a good one. Most of them just try to brainfuck me with that demonslash … If you see ex slash coming spam cr lp or something or you’ll eat free ultra 
Ok I’ll try my best here
Cody (I play with our Irish decent Cody a lot)
Forward throw, hold up forward, and tatsu on landing, it will hit him in front and you will land behind him,
Cr.mk and cr.hk beats his st.hk
You can either zone or rushdown Cody, his defense is bad and he is affected badly by zoning, just don’t go too happy with the fireballs or you’ll beat ex slide
Cr.lp ~ U1 on his wakeup point blank will beat all of his options except for wakeup ultra
When he frame traps you, know his patterns and when to EX DP
Don’t jump on him, his b+mp is very good and HK Ruffian Kick will catch you from further range
Makoto (I play with V-Ryu sometimes)
It’s risky for Makoto to dash, cr.mk xx DP a lot but be aware that her HK axe kick can beat this and you’ll be on the ground for Makoto
Be careful applying pressure up close as her ex karakusa will grab you up
I don’t think Makoto has any answer to meaty tatsu, it will hit her if she backdashes
If Makoto has U2, be extremely careful with your fireballs as it is easy to react to Sakura’s fireballs
Avoid jumping on Makoto, her DP leads to 340ish damage (Around that)
Jump in attack OS DP will catch her backdash, if she focuses backdash on wakeup and you hit her with a jump in , do reaction MP DP to it, it should catch it
You can choose to zone or rushdown Makoto here, I think it’s better to rush her down
It’s all about reading the Makoto player’s patterns here really
Rufus (Very little experience here)
His ex messiah kick, the last hit will whiff on Sakura if he does it point blank
Use cr.lp + cr.lk ~ cr.hp OS during his pressure
Oni (Very little experience as well)
Block his crossup slashes 
His fireball has bad recovery on it, ex otoshi on reaction
His U1 is safe on block, don’t try to punish it
That’s all I can think off my head, if I know anymore, I’ll add to it. Hope this helps and I hope it’s accurate as well lol
c.mp is actually really effective vs seth’s divekick. c.hp i don’t recommend because it’s too slow, you simply can’t afford to toss out a move with such huge recovery against a guy who can change his jump so drastically. c.mp has a hitbox that defends sakura from that stupid divekick and recovers much faster. Seth vs Sakura is very much a touch-of-death match, so you need to be absolutely sure that you’re the one who doesn’t open himself up
vs rose, chill the fuck out and play as slow and as carefully as possible. once you get a knockdown you can put the hurt on, make sure to OS her stupid backdash. play like a coward until you get a knockdown, then MAKE SURE your oki game is tight and you get the max damage you can get off your combos, cuz you probably won’t get that many opportunities. it’s a bad matchup, but not as bad as, say, chun
You know i fought a cody last night and still get beaten. I mean i did alright and employed some of the suggestions here, but that fight. Urgh. I need to figure out how to start playing some mind games after a hard knock down. This player i played was good. he knew how to play every character, so when i jumped in to begin a safe jump he’d walk forward a bit and make me whiff the jump. I think i’m doing it too late =o because i should be locking him down after a hard knock down, unless cody has a faster wake up speed. I mean i won a set against him, but i am far from being a decent sakura XD. she needs some more work before i use her at SB.
I fought a makoto too, guy was alright. I won. I’m just scared of her rush down, i dunno why. He won the first round rushing down so i turned i put out a lot of meaty cr.mk but couldn’t get srk to come out, only hado.
Also, i know yang is going poof in 2012 but…HOW DO I FIGHT HIM!!! I just got nuked yesterday night against a yang player who won the small tourney. It was tough, to say the least
sakura vs chun li is hard any tip?
this matchup is indeed very hard, but you do have some tools. when you’re against any of the footsie characters in this game (vega, rose, chun, fei to an extent) you really need to understand your opponent’s options. when you’re both at neutral space, chun’s go-to poke is s.mp, which she can use to lead into any number of things and provides really strong pressure. fortunately, this is a normal that sakura has an answer for. your c.mk will stuff it, but not on reaction (it’s too quick, at least I can’t do it on reaction lol), so you need to be confident and make the read. catching her pokes with c.mk xx shou is gonna be a ground game staple for you because it scores a knockdown, or gives you the option to fadc when you seriously need more damage right this very moment. if you can make her think twice about leaning on s.mp all day long, the match will open up a bit, because you can jump over and punish her sweep (use j.hk for the gigantic downward hitbox), or open her up to focus attacks as she moves to using beefier but more punishable moves like s.fp.
budget your meter very very carefully - this is a matchup where sakura will need to stage a big fuckin’ comeback off one mistake, so make sure that in critical situations you have 3 bars. off hit-confirms do some strong loops that end in shou rather than ex tatsu. a lot of chun’s close-up pressure game revolves around frame traps that have very bad whiff recovery, so ex dp if your friend. chun also has a series of difficult links so make her pay for missing 'em. a good chun will respect your damage and play very carefully, so you have to as well.
…and i still have no idea how to safejump EX SBK, but if you block it, just sweep her. doing c.mk xx shou too early will make chun air reset and your shou hits nothing 
beyond that, here’s some basics because idkwtf your skill level/familiarity with chun is like
- block hazanshu. it’s slow! do not let her tick hazanshu and get away with it. if it’s cl.rh xx lk hazanshu, block it. if it’s far s.mp xx hk hazanshu, c.fp her in the snapper.
- don’t throw fireballs from under 3/4 screen. your recovery is balls terrible for level 1 fireballs and she will totally punish you. sakura’s fireballs especially are really easy to react to.
- pick U1. if you don’t know the timing, go fuckin’ learn it. every time i see a sakura with U2 in a matchup where she needs damage above all else, i shed a tear. the difference is enormous.
- if you do pick U1, try to use focus xx backdash to fill up your ultra meter. it does significantly more damage when the meter is all the way full, so when it is, use a nice succinct combo so it scales down as little as possible. you oughtta be getting 550+ damage on a full U1 combo, before low-life scaling (that is, characters taking less damage the lower life they have, this is independent of combo scaling and seems like lots of people don’t know this O_O).
- don’t fuckin’ hit buttons when chun is up in your grill doin’ stuff. be patient, find a safe way out, and get back to that range on your own terms. unless that button is ex dp fadc, and you have made a well-educated read. this includes OS throw tech!!
fuckin’ chun.
seriously though, it’s a shitty matchup but if you can find a good chun to run sets with, do it as much as you can. it’ll teach you a lot about the pressure game, and baiting unsafe reversals. a good chun is gonna make you look like a clown until you settle down and start playing with your brain