Sakura Strategy and Match-up Thread (2.0)

Yeah but that leaves you in the corner, so it’s less favorable. I remember seeing a setup vs Balrog that was perhaps 3x Otoshi, then mk tatsu puts you back out of the corner close enough to cr.lp (I think…?). EX headbutt isn’t a great reversal though, you’re more likely to see ex dash from them than headbutt.

That is very true and I’ve noticed that about myself that I’ll put myself in the corner just to get some more damage. Since I’ve noticed it, I’m doing it less and less but the I know when I have momentum going and I’ve successfully made them afraid to press buttons I’ll do the lk.tatsu cross over and usually grab or cr. short into something. I’m more cautious around dp characters because you can almost always anticipate a random dp to get you off of them.

in regards to the headbutt or ex dash, you can almost always anticipate it based on how much meter they have or if they have a fully stocked ultra. One of the balrog players I play against semi-regularly has kind of a formulaic approach so this may be just specific to him.

Yeah I’ve been able to play Keno several times and it’s tough but once you get a knockdown, you can sorta run a train on him. If you make him scared to ex straight with throws then you can start doing empty jump crossups and other things that make charge characters sad. EX headbutt is more of a desperation thing unless the balrog player just isn’t very good since you can normally whiff a low and recover and not get hit.

Looking for some matchup advice for any of these characters if possible:

Oni, Adon, Guy, Yun, Viper, Rufus, Balrog, Chun & Dhalsim

Bisons ex.pshyco can be punished if you do a safe jump and do a true string like c.lk, c.lp, c.lp and block if he does ex.pshyco then you can do reversal hp.shouoken to punish him
or do
c.lk, c.lk, c.lk, c.lk
or
c.lk c.lp c.lp st.lk(the one i like) and you can punish with hp.shouoken fadc xx cl.hp combo

When you say punish with hp shouoken, do you mean raw hp shouoken?

yes raw but only after that true string cause it will space you out too the correct space to reach his ex.pshyco with a reversal hp.shouoken

Thanks for the tip, this local Bison has been murdering me with EX psychos out of my strings

umm… what’s a true string? I know block string, is true sting the same thing?

A true block string is a string that the opponent can not mash reversal out of.

Having lots of trouble against Rufus & Chun these 2 characters are not very common in my region.

Rufus just bullies me with his divekick pressure and Chun beats me with her pokes and is very hard to get in on she beats Sak in air and on the ground.

tell me bout it, those 2 are by far the most annoying character next to el fuete.

The cr.hp crouch tech does wonders against rufus, just don’t mash it out without thinking or you’ll eat a frame trap. But even then, if the rufus just mindlessly throws out divekicks, cr.hp crouch tech will beat it every single time. Also if you crouch near him on wake up you can make ex messiah go over him. I think there’s a setup somewhere, but can’t remember what it was exactly, it was something like cr.mp lk tatsu, cr.hp lk tatsu.

Against chun, not really sure, I tend to just look for patterns and try and find my way in that way. You can focus hazanshu and some of her pokes if she’s predictable with them, also if you hit her in the middle you can actually beat ex sbk with one of your jump ins, but I wouldn’t rely on it too much unless you can do it perfectly every single time.

Focus is very strong against Chun earlier in rounds before she has meter. Her two most dangerous neutral options are sweep and hazanshu, FA blows up both if you stand just outside of her sweep range. Once she has super or U1 you have to be a bit more careful about it when she’s downbacking.

Chun-Li is my absolute worst matchup. I don’t think I’ve ever played one game against her without getting frustrated. Honestly, though, that might be because I play way different online vs. local. Online = no hadokens. Offline = I’m Guile in makeup.

Chun is a hard match up if you try to play footsies, I look for that knockdown and then just abuse her on wake up. Crossups, fake crossups, empty jump ins. You can also abuse your lk tatsu as well.

Also we should update the OP to have the names outside of the spoiler. And the Cammy match up needs to be updated in my opinion. If you safe jump her, her reversal options may whiff (depending on what kind of safe jump) and you need to dash cr.mk xx dp in order to reach and punish her. You can also forward focus attack dash (forward dash most of the time) out of her cannon spike pressure (throw + focus attack + dash is a godlike os against her). Also if you see her go for an cannon spike/ex cannon spike on your wakeup, you can input a reversal U2 KKK for a free punish.

against bison, after lk tatsu, is there nothing i can do about bison cr.lk? It beats out everything sak does clean except for ex sho.

(I’m guessing your timing the tatsu to beat ex psycho, meaning it’s timed VERY late)Frame perfect, you can s.hp or cr.lk and both will trade. Never should you ex uppercut at all against Bison. He has no moves (with the exception of a whiffed cr.hp or a far rh) that grants such a big time frame to input such a move, given it’s slow startup vs. his faster moves.

I mean on block. For example, i go for st.jab -> st.fp counterhit setup, and if he doesnt crouchtech and just blocks, if i go into a blocked lk tatsu and he blocks it, it seems no matter what i do next, cr.lk beats it all. If i just block, im giving bison the door to start his SK pressure, or he can just throw me. Neutral jump doesnt realy work either as short catches your jump frames sometimes, or even worst he can st.hk.

I EX uppercut when i KNOW hes gonna press a button right there and it wins due to invincibility.

if you’re timing it properly you can do close fp xx lk tatsu, if he does c.lk the close fp will trade and you can OS ultra 1 into that. Here is a video that explains how that works.