Introduction

Sakura has an unusual interest in street fighting. Most high school girls don't walk down the street looking to pick a fight, but ever since her run-in with three college men, she has sought to take her revenge.

Sakura is very high in the tier list, and for a good reason, being right there with Gief in the high tier group, right under the big 4. She is very difficult to fight, and one knockdown can win her the round. While not extremely damaging, she has some great tools that give her the ability to win against a lot of characters. Her main goal should be to get close to her opponent and use her punch throw to set up her most damaging mixups. Her quick walk speed and good grounded normals give her some tools that can allow her to do just that with smart play.

Pros:

Very good pokes
Builds meter fast
Awesome cross-up
Damaging combos
BnB leads to free cross up
Punch throw leads to free cross up
Only character who can (easily) combo after a overhead
Can rape anyone with 1 knockdown

Cons:

Can be hard to get in
No reversal outside cc/super
Has problems getting in on top 4

Moves List

Normal Moves

STANDING

- Very good poke, with good frame advantage and cant be ducked by most characters, annoying poke tool up close.

- Very good poke, with good frameadvantage and priority, use to stuff attacks like you would shotos c.mp.

- great range and cancellable, good poke canceled into fireball or hk hurricane.

- good range, mainly used to combo into hp shou’oken.

- Very very good anti-air, not used as much as c.fp. Very good angle to it, similar to Adon’s df+mk.

- Sakura’s main poke, good range, priority. Very very abusable

CROUCHING

cr.- normal low jab, nothing too special about it.

cr.- ugly looking attack that usually beats low hits, but not much use other than that, all her other normals are better.

cr.- A great anti-air, that beats damn near anything. On the ground can be cancelled.

cr.- Her best normal up close, leading to her BnB and tick throws. I hate this move

cr.- Decent range, good priority.

cr.- Her sweep, not the best recovery, good range.

JUMPING Jumping (Neutral jump)

nj.-

nj.- great air-to-air, on the same level of greatness as Rolento’s j.lp

nj.- Very good air-to-ground move with alot of priority when out.

nj.-

Jumping (Diagonal jump)

dj.-

dj.- great air-to-air, on the same level of greatness as Rolento’s j.lp

dj.- Very good air-to-ground move with alot of priority when out.

dj.- great air-to-air and great ranged jump in.

dj.- her cross-up. Uber good, and can hit either in front or behind evne though you are crossing your oppenent up. Such as bs move, abuse it.

dj.- Great angled jump in.

Command Moves

Command normals

+- Flower Kick. Best overhead in the game. Great range and frame advantage allowing for combos after, does not even have to be meaty, but does have to be point blank, very good when done after a cross-up.

Normal Throws

/+ - The only throw you should be using. This throw does decent damage and allows for a perfect cross-up. Forget kick throw exists.

/+ -

Alpha Counters

+- She does a lp dp, nothing special.

+- Does her sweep.

Special Moves

+- Hadou Ken. Very good zoning tool from afar. Release speed isnt great, recovery is good. This move can be charged by pressing punch, which also builds more meter. The best way to use the charge variation is as anti air, normally in fireball fights. The fully charged version had a huge hitbox, so if you expect them to jump, charge then release. At worst the hadouken will trade, and does good damage. Kara-cancel c.fp into this for meter.

+- Shou'ou Ken. Her main combo move, and should only be used for that. Lp is not anti-air despite its looks, and all versions are like negative 8 billion frames on block.

+- Shunpuu Kyaku. Different than other shotos, she actually travels in a arc, going higher and farther the stronger the button pressed. Hk is the most useful version, going over fireballs and giving great frame advantage on block. Lk and mk can be cc’d or hit on block pretty easily. Be careful when using hk, since it can be cc’d when they have meter (or ac’d).

Super Combos

+- Shinkuu Hadou Ken. Pretty much worthless super. Not safe on block, weak damage. Yes it can anti-air for 3 hits, but thats meter you could have used for a anti-air custom.

+- Haru Ichiban. Her spinning kick super. Instant low, and put opponent in blockstun after super is over, letting you continue the pressure. Can be comboed into, good damage.

+- Midare Zakura. Her shoryureppa type super. Nice damage on this, and worth comboing into at lvl 3. Lvl 1 does good damage, but not so much more than her BnB to be worth it, but still, I aint mad if ya do.

Combos

Cr.LK x2,s.LK, HP SOK

F+MK,link cr.LK,HP SOK

Cr.HP,HP SOK or Lvl3 H.Ichiban

f+mk, link c.lk xx hurricane super

The Basics

Advanced Strategy

Custom Combos

Lv1:

[CC]c.HK,HK SK,HP SOK[/CC]

[CC]c.HK,HP SOKx2[/CC]

Lv3:

[CC]c.HK,HK SK,HP SOK,MK SK,HP SOK[/CC]

[CC]c.HK,HP SOK,LK SKx2,HP SOKx2[/CC]

[CC]s.MP,HP SOKx3[/CC]

Match-ups

Vs. Adon:

Vs. Akuma:

Vs. Birdie:

Vs. Charlie:

Vs. Chun-Li:

Vs. Dan:

Vs. Dhalsim:

Vs. Gen:

Vs. Guy:

Vs. Ken:

Vs. M. Bison (dictator):

Vs. Rolento:

Vs. Rose:

Vs. Ryu:

Vs. Sagat:

Vs. Sakura (self):

Vs. Sodom:

Vs. Zangief

**Street Fighter Alpha 2**
Characters
Adon - Akuma - Birdie - Charlie - Chun-Li - Dan - Dhalsim - Evil Ryu - Gen - Guy - Ken - M.Bison - Rolento - Rose - Ryu - Sagat - Sakura - Sodom - Zangief