Strategies
General
Learn how to use the "Shouoken". This attack can block most projectile moves, and can be used in the air.
Her air hurricane kick does lots of damage (15 pts per hit), similar to the other shotos, and changes her jump arc. Incorporate it in her air combos and jump ins whenever you can.
Team Building
Sakura works best on point supported by assists, partially because her assists are not great. She can also function just fine in the second slot to save up meter for Dark Sakura.
Supers
Her supers in normal form are solid. The hadoken super is a good anti air as it has a fast startup. You can pair it with a good DHC to get around 50% damage off of an anti air. It's safe on block if the opponent blocks it in the air. A strange property of this super is that if another super flash occurs while she is performing the super, whether it be from your own DHC or the opponent's super, she will throw the remaining fireballs all at once. This means you cannot escape punishment by DHC if the opponent punishes the hadoken super with their own super.
After her kick super connects fully, you can block or attack on the way down and the opponent cannot roll out of the way. A well timed j.HK can meaty their anti air attempt, but be wary of anti air assists. The last hit of the super does a lot of damage when unscaled by the rest of the super, so finding DHCs that allow the super to connect as high up as possible can give the super a damage boost.
Her autocombo super is pretty bad, as it has long startup and is hard to combo into. If you manage to land it, DHCing out of it during the autocombo will leave the opponent in an extended amount of hitstun, allowing any DHC you can think of to hit.
Dark Sakura
Dark Sakura is very good and can do tons of damage with her Hadouken super. However, getting three levels without dying is a problem for her. If you want to build levels to become Evil, sj rh xx Shunpuu Kyaku works pretty well and is hard to catch. Dark Sakura and normal Sakura have the same normals, walk speed, damage, and health, but there are a few differences in her special moves.
-Her dashes become more like Akuma's dashes, and are faster than her normal form's dashes.
-Shouoken has its input changed to f,d,df+P and loses its projectile shield on the ground. Sakura will always perform the uppercut at the end on hit or whiff, making it very unsafe. Overall, its inferior to normal Sakura's.
-Hadoken has its input changed to qcf+P and now travels straight on the ground. In the air, both versions travel faster and further than normal Sakura's, and cause flying screen when used in an air combo.
-She gets a better version of Akuma's teleport, as it has no startup or recovery. You can loop it to run away.
-She loses her upwards hadoken super and gains a new horizontal hadoken super. This super does lots of damage, especially to assists, is mashable, and can OTG.
-Her old qcf+PP super is now qcf+KK
-She gets raging demon, but you'd much rather spend the bar on her hadoken super as comboing into that super does about the same damage as a raging demon, except it costs only one bar.
Advanced Strategy
Infinite and Juggles
Infinite: (corner only)
You need an assist to set this infinite up in most cases. Some good assists to set it up include: Gambit-A, Rouge-Y, Akuma-Y, Ken-Y, Zangief-A, Psylocke-A, and other assists that juggle at a low height. Having an assist that sets up low juggles with Sakura will greatly increase her combo options and damage.
[j.lp > j.mk > j.hp xx qcb hk] xN
You can end this infinite with qcb pp or launch. This infinite is similar to Ken's infinite, but is kind of tricky to keep up. You can do different variations to adjust height and spacing. They will be numbered for future reference.
[1] j.lk xx qcb lk (2 hits)
[2] j.lk > j.mk xx qcb lk (2 hits)
[3] j.lp > j.hp xx qcb hk
[4] j.lp > j.mp > j.hp xx qcb hk
[5] j.lk > j.hk > qcb lk (2 hits)
[6] j.lk > j.mk > j.hp xx qcb lk
[7] j. qcb lk (2 hits)
[1] is useful for bringing them up from a low height to a higher one. [2] can be done to bring them up from an even lower height. Conversely, [3] brings them lower. [4] can be looped when they are at a high height, but whiffs if they are too low.
You can use variations of the infinite to do extended juggles and even infinites midscreen. How long you can combo depends heavily on the character size and weight, but you can usually end in launch or super regardless. Figuring out how long you can juggle each character is important because if you carry them to the corner you can continue with the corner infinite.
[5] or [6] can loop giant characters (Sentinel, Blackheart, Juggernaut, Hulk) mid screen with the option to launch with dash df.hk or super with qcb pp. [1] can usually be looped two times on midsize to large characters before ending in qcb pp. Smaller mid size characters you can only do [1] on once before you have to continue to [6] or launch. Certain characters require [7] in order to adjust them to the proper height before you can continue with [1] or [6]. Smaller characters are the most difficult to juggle, and you are best off launching in most cases.
It cannot be understated how good the infinite and juggle combos are for Sakura. Since they use her air tatsu these combos will do lots of damage, easily more than 60% on average defense characters. therefore, playing her with assists that help her set it up is key.
Dark Sakura Transformation
There is one way you can set up Sakura's infinite solo: Spend 3 bars and transform to dark Sakura mid combo!
cr.lp xx qcb lp xx rdp lk, j.lk > j.mk xx qcb lk [j.lp > j.mk > j.hp xx qcb hk] xN
This combo has very tight timing and is unlikely to be performed in a match situation. The key is to cancel the hadoken before she shouts out the move's name. You can also combo after the transform with a df.hk. Some other things you can do with the transformation is dhc out of it or even use it as a guard break in the corner with qcb hp xx rdp lk.
