Introduction

Saki will cut you.

Saki is a simple character with a simple gameplan: make you explode. Sporting solid aerial normals and a HK button that almost plays footsies for you, Saki is able to turn a good number of errant pokes she'll land during neutral into incredible damage with her supers, leading to combos that often deal upwards of 50% damage in one shot. This simplicity is both a blessing and a curse, however -- her lack of solid pokes not attached to the HK button leaves her ground game feeling fairly linear, and her reliance on two-bar combo conversions for her damage makes resource management a very important question for her.


Pros	Cons
Simple and easy to pick up Solid pokes thanks to solid air buttons and a godlike HK button on the ground Frankly ridiculous damage with conversions into super	Neutral is somewhat linear, thanks to the HK button being your most valuable button on the ground Inconsistent defensive options Exceptionally meter hungry

Movelist

st.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
A short swipe, shares a similar animation to Tetsu. As a poke it's a bit slow but it has a blindingly fast chain into stLK.

st.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
A turning low kick. It looks like an obvious standing low, but this is still a mid strike. No links or chains but the range is silly for a stLK.

st.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
A two hit strike combination. The range on the second hit is good, but it takes significant time starting up. Is special cancelable so you can convert off either hit.

st.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
THE Saki button. A quick crescent kick that has not only has a very good horizontal hitbox, but also covers a significant amount of vertical space. It might not be reliable for deeper jump ins, but on a more shallow aerial approach this can and will deflect the opponent. It is also special cancellable.

cl.

File:AVG2 Saki clHK.jpg

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
A vertical launcher, gives you a juggle combo afterwards due to being special cancelable.

cr.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid	8	-	-	-
[Obligatory dated What Are Those joke] not too fast, but links into itself and chains into crLK or hell, it is special cancelable by itself. Lots of utility.

cr.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Low	6	-	-	-
Faster than crLP, is actually a low, and most importantly chains into crHK for a knockdown.

cr.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
A special cancelable downward swipe, important for being her OTG pickup inot HP Tetsu.

cr.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Low	4	-	-	-
A beefy sweep, great range, but holy crap is that startup fast.

j.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	High		-	-	-
A downward jab, chains into stHP and stHK. Can hit a standing opponent while rising.

j.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	High	4	-	-	-
Also can hit a standing opponent while rising and has good horizontal range. Chains into stHP and stHK. When done as a neutral jump it is not active for very long, but when done as a diagonal jump it's dummy active.

j.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	High	9	-	-	-
A big ol double handed swipe.

j.

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	High		-	-	-
A roundhouse kick that covers tons of space and, most most importantly, is active for approximately 4 years. Like most attacks bound to Saki's HK button, it rules.

Command Moves

+

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
A quick chop that (thankfully) doesn't hit overhead. Doesn't have good range, but is probably her fastest normal.

+

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	Mid		-	-	-
A midrange elbow strike, looks like it should hit overhead but is just a mid.

+

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
-	High	18	-	-	-
A forward step kick. A very strong poke that rounds out her powerful options off of the HK button. Slow startup but will hit from downtown, which is wild because it chains into stHP and clHK.

Target Combos
st.LP > st.LK
f+LP > st.LK > st.LP > (st.HP > st.HK) or (st.HK > st.HP)
f+HK > st.HP/st.HK
st.HK > f+HP > st.HK
cr.LP > (st.LP) > cr.LK
cr.LK > cr.HK

j.LP/LK > j.HP/HK

Guard Cancels
LP: f+A
LK: cl.HK
HP: LP Ren (hcb,f+LP)
HK: LP Sen (dp+LP)

Saki's best guard cancel is her HP guard cancel, since it's her command grab. When activated outside of grab range, Saki will simply maintain her blocking animation while becoming briefly invincible. This can lead to larger punishes that can potentially make up for the meter spent on the guard cancel.

Special Moves

Tetsu

+

Version	Guard	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
	Mid	-	-	-
A dashing claw swipe attack that's mostly used in combos due to its lack of safety on block.
	Mid	-	-	-
The preferred version of Tetsu, moves her more forward and does more damage. You will use this as OTG pickups and confirms into Mizuchi.
+	Mid	-	-	-
The EX version has invincibility until the first active frame, making it usable on defense.
+	Mid	-	-	-
SECRET: Same number of hits and damage as the HP version, but with the screen freeze and invincibility properties of the EX version. Is also a good deal safer than all other versions of the move, but it can't be cancelled into and it won't come out if you're in range for Ren or have meter for an EX Tetsu.

Ryou

+

Version	Guard	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
	Mid	-	-	-
An advancing flip kick kind of move. Good horizontal range, and it becomes invincible to lows from frame 1. Due to all the time Saki spends airborne during this move's animation, it can be difficult to punish, but the risk/reward ratio on this move doesn't lend itself to just throwing it out in neutral.
	Mid	-	-	-
Same amount of hits, but goes further.
+	Mid	-	-	-
The EX version does more damage, and is a fantastic juggle combo ender.
+ or	Mid	-	-	-
SECRET: A lot like EX Ryou, but with the exception that it has a much higher hit count and a low damage scaling value, which leads to it dealing dino damage -- in particular the LP+HP+HK version. It's very risky to throw out, but if you can manage to get all the hits, it'll be worth the effort.

Sen

+

Version	Guard	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
	Mid, High	-	-	-
A two-hit special that looks a lot like an autocombo of st.LP into f+HP, except it knocks down. The second hit is an overhead, and it's only slightly minus on block, which makes it hard to punish outside of fast EX specials or supers. That said, it's got pretty short range, so it's hard to use in neutral.
	Mid, High	-	-	-
The HP version hits four times compared to the LP version's two hits, so the HP version is mostly used for super cancels on the third hit

Shoku

+

Version	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
	Mid	12	-	-	-
Upkick special move. Has no horizontal range, slow startup, and a pretty poor hitbox in general, relegating its use mostly to situational combos. It is invincible until active, which is a long time but...too long of a time thanks to the startup.
	Mid	15	-	-	-
Even more startup, but hits three times.
+	Mid		-	-	-
The EX version is much more useful on defense and even on offense, thanks to its 0F startup after superflash. If you catch someone out of the air with this, you can link a second EX Shoku afterwards.

Ren

cl.

+

Version	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
	N/A	1	-	-	-
A command grab, something that doesn't go unappreciated. All have 1F startup with no whiff animation (though you'll often whiff Tetsu, which isn't exactly ideal), with each version dealing different amounts of damage.
	N/A	1	-	-	-
A little more damage, but no additional range. Seeing how the startup is the same it's best to go for this.
+	N/A	1	-	-	-
Big ol damage, but still no range increase. Being able to throw someone for 25% health isnt something to sneeze at, but with how meter hungry Saki is she can find better uses for it elsewhere.

Super Moves

Houmura

+

(Air OK)

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
	Mid		-	-	-
Saki jumps into the air before throwing out a massive pillar of fire a few steps in front of her. This super can also be performed in the air, where it becomes significantly faster on startup. The pillar is air-unblockable and deals a ton of damage, so while this super isn't used as often as Mizuchi, it's still useful in certain juggle combos as well as the occasional anti-air.

Mizuchi

+

Damage	Guard	Startup	Active	Recovery	FrameAdv
	Mid		-	-	-
A flipkick that leads into a devastating follow up hit. The final hit of this super deals fixed damage, and is the primary reason why Saki's damage is as high as it is. Only used in combos, but is incredible for that purpose.

Strategy

Saki can get a lot of mileage out of just using her buttons to control neutral. On the ground, she can use far HK, cr.HK and f+HK to control the ground, while j.LK, j.HK and (again) far HK can swat people out of the air. With meter on deck, Saki can very easily blow people up for trying to stuff her aerial approaches -- conditioning them with aerial chains from jump-ins with j.LK can lead to you baiting and punishing potential anti-air attempts with Homura. This is much the same for people who try to approach by air blocking as well, since both far HK and Homura can beat those options. Once you've established yourself up close, you can run a pretty basic (but very scary) mixup between cr.LK > cr.HK hit confirms and your normal throw -- in either case, cashing your mixup out into HP Tetsu xx Mizuchi will deal around 50% damage to the opponent. However, it's important to be mindful of your meter, since Saki's primary defensive option is EX Shoku -- useful, to be sure, owing to its 0F startup after flash, but it does mean that you'll have to frequently be making decisions about how to use your meter, so try to be judicious when the necessity arises.

Combos

Basic Combos
Depending on the character and screen position, sometimes Tetsu will only hit once, which can make the super cancel more awkward to perform. In many cases you'll accidentally get EX Ryou instead of Mizuchi, which is still pretty decent damage.

cr.LK > cr.HK xx HP Tetsu (xx Mizuchi)

far HK, cr.HK xx HP Tetsu (xx Mizuchi)
cr.LP(x1~2), cr.HK xx HP Tetsu (xx Mizuchi)
Yes, those are links.

Anti-Air Combos
st.HK xx HP Tetsu (xx Mizuchi)
j.LK > j.HK, land j.LK > j.HK, EX Ryou/xx Homura
j.LK > j.HK, land f+HK > cl.HK xx Homura

Throw Combo
Throw > cr.HP xx HP Tetsu (xx Mizuchi)

Game Navigation

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