I don’t think Sakura is my kind of character. Looks like going from cr.MK into h.DP is her go-to tool to open people up by I am laughably bad at cancelling crouching moves into DP moves while playing the neutral game. I can do it in combos just fine but I get all sorts of random stuff when I try it in neutral (fireballs, air fireballs, nothing at all).
Still, the not-jailbait-anymore is a nice distraction until whenever the next character comes around. Or SCV. Whatever happens first.
Did the Sakura s.lk nerf even do anything meaningful? S.lk xx dp still feels pretty much the same…
I decided to woman up and took Sakura to ranked last night.
Lost a lot, got back to bronze ranks but learned a lot. Can’t wait to repeat it tonight and start to win more matches than losing. 
But first I need to either get good at doing dp motion on this square gate or remove it from my stick. 
Yeah it didn’t seem to do much for actual meaties. Probably just helps slightly better in non meaty scenarios.
My thinking also. Once you learn the ranges for it you get to buffer it and save your meter and get more reward. Just there is also merit for using the raw EX SPD which will likely have a bigger hit box (since it’s technically an unblockable attack, not a grab) so you’re more likely to land it just by the size of the hit box.
I talked to someone who said that it might actually be a buff. The active frame that it usually hits on now has more range than the active frame it used to hit on before.
Gonna miss our Alex vs Gief battles.
I will still take Gief out for some lounge battles, but ranked will be exclusively Miss pleated skirt till S4 at least. 
And today, another soul was saved.
You are tempting me to go back to Gief!
But you won’t, because you know better madame.
There’s this one Ryu I keep running into in Casual Matches that plays every game as if it was Grand Finals at EVO and I’m just here pressing buttons with Sakura to cool down after work. We’re pretty much just wasting each other’s time every time the game matches us together but I respect his willpower.
It’s not super important IMO. Important, but not like the main way she opens people up.
Her c.MK is one of her shorter ranged buttons so you have to walk past the range that your longer buttons like s.HP, b+HP, s.LK and s.MK are effective to use it. Which isn’t terribly difficult because her walkspeed is gdlk, but if you’re in c.MK range you had already been in the range for like 4 other buttons before that. She’s not like Karin where you have extra options like buffering it into a safe minus 2 orochi or getting big damage off a double JF Tenko. Outside of V Triggers you mainly are just going to get HP shou which is good, but at best is just going to give you a meaty or throw set up depending on which rise they use.
Opening up people in neutral with her is more about sitting on buffers for b+HP, s.HP and s.LK. s.LK has huge range and 4 frame start up so you can easily clip buttons that are thrown out there and buffer and whiff punish most other buttons pretty easily. If you’re sitting on super and they’re low on health becomes more dangerous as well. s.HP has a solid hit box and is only minus 2 on block with pushback so very safe to fish and learn to hit confirm with. Combos into HP shou from max distance and a bit inside of that you can combo into HK tatsu which will give you standing throw/hit mix up. b+HP good also because 7 frame start up, CC’s and with the buff to HK tatsu, it now combos into HK tatsu on regular hit so you can buffer it nicely.
j.HK is also important as it hits pretty shallow for a jump heavy and takes advantage of slower AA’s pretty easily. Plus catches people being predictable in footsies and leads to big damage/corner carry on hit.
An example of how the number 2 ranked Sak, BreastPantyHip plays her (used to play Cammy)
Lots of fishing with her standing buttons and throws out HK tatsus to fish for hits into standing mix up.
I would suggest using VT1 if you are having issues with c.MK DP. That way once you’re in V Trigger you get c.MK, VT fireball which is plus 1 on block and leads into LK tatsu, EX DP juggle on hit.
I always wonder what people mean when they say people are playing to win evo or whatever. Is there something specific they do to make it seem that way? I prefer people that play to win because that’s how you improve. Unless its just a chill battle lounge or something why wouldn’t you want to people to play to win?
Some people just dont want to deal with a guy that’s using what’s probably his hard main in casuals. They dont want 110 percent effort from the other person. Especially in a game where ranked is pretty active for that purpose. Since there’s no online training mode, casuals are a nice way to kinda just run the motions and pick out opportunities to practice combos and setups on people without all the pressure of accounting for every single move the opponent is doing.
The game now tells you (sometimes) if someone is using their main character in casuals (the announcer literally says it) so you can tell when you’re playing a Trihard Evo top 8er who’s going to pick every perfect box and line in the grid to throw sonic booms and sobat kicks with Guile. While you’re just trying to mess around with Alex or Zeku.
Makes sense
Thanks for the input. HK tatsu seems really good, I’m already abusing the heck out of that move.
I’ve been thinking about Trigger 1 but I win so many games with a cheesy Trigger 2 combo into CA at the moment that I’m having a hard time to convince myself to switch. Might try it out at some point though.
Yeah VT2 makes her s.LK OD and gives her stronger damage dump for comebacks so if you’re already comfortable for that, then you’re good to go. Just if you prefer to have a more buff c.MK that keeps you plus without the execution, VT1 is there for that too.
VT1 fits my play style though because it improves things that are more fun for me. I like having a temporary OG shoto c.MK fireball that stays plus and 2 hit fireballs that you can follow into setups. c.MK EX fireball VTC throw fireball puts them in a nice trap where they have to deal with a mix up basically and she can already dump enough damage and corner carry off her confirms where I’m comfortable with it. Being able to actually get damage off of c.MK, VT fireball helps a lot. Getting out a charged fireball and following it is scary because if it hits you get free juggle state for combos and resets. Plus you can create extended block strings midscreen by dashing and pushing people out of it.
Not losing your minus 2 tatsus is nice also.
This is a pretty good summary of my S3.5 Sakura matches so far:
Yeah you get em pressing buttons on that minus 2 and raise their stun up even further. Then they let you get your turn on the minus 2 for more shenanigans.
So… buttons, hk tatsu.
I know what I will be doing tonight at ranked. 