Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha/Sakura

Introduction

The crowd-pleaser. You probably put on EX Plus Alpha to play Sakura.

EXA Sak is a meter monster. She supercharges her vortex with a one-bar Raging Demon that's a coinflip in the corner, abuses some of the best cancelable pokes in the game, and can make any metered reversal safe with a DHC to Shinkuu Hadouken.

She runs in a lower gear overall than Alpha 2, but benefits hugely from EXA's removal of ground recovery and new combo structure. She can also DP from fullscreen!

The Basics

Love thy normals.

Both of Sak's jumping lights are stunningly active, and let her apply a brutal mixup after any air to air: Demon or Meaty. Don't sleep on Sakura's Raging Demon. Costing only one bar, there isn't much risk associated with chucking one into your blockstrings. 214LK leaves both players point blank and nearly even. MP OS Throw or a cheeky Demon keep Sakura's offense utterly suffocating.

2MP is among the fastest mediums in SFEX, and it's a free link to 2MK xx Tatsu. You should be pressing this all the time.

You can kara cancel normals into Guard Break if they're pressed within 1 frame of each other. Sakura can plink 2MP~2LK+2LP to nearly double its range.

• Sakura can't easily confirm from lights in SFEX, but all of her buttons have a place in the ground game. 5LK is stupid fast, and can beat Guard Breaks on reaction.

• All non-ranbu demons in SFEX grant a soft corner. Once the attack lands the animation actually pulls the opponent out of the corner, allowing for a post Super 50/50.

• Off an anti air Guard Break, every raging demon in the game can hit for a juggle with a just frame input. Brutally tough and not very rewarding, but it'll burn down the venue if you land it in bracket.

• Fireball sucks.

Moves List

Normals Moves

Sakura Jime When close, b / f + MP / HP

Sailor Shoot When close, b / f + MK / HK

Special Moves

Hadou Ken qcf + P (press P,P to increase size)

Shou'ou Ken f,d,df + P

Shunpuu Kyaku qcb + K

Chouhatsu LK,LK,b,LP,HP

Super Moves

Shinkuu Hadou Ken qcf,qcf + P

Haru Ichiban qcb,qcb + K

Midare Zakura qcf,d,df + K

Shun Goku Satsu LP,LP,f,LK,HP

Advanced Strategy

1 Hadou Ken

 2  Shou'ou Ken
 3  Shunpuu Kyaku
 4  Shinkuu Hadou Ken
 5  Midare Zakura
 6  Haru Ichiban
 7  Shun Goku Satsu
 8  c MP, c MK
 9  c HP, Hadou Ken
10  j HK, c MK, Shunpuu Kyaku
11  j HK, s LK, Shou'ou Ken
12  j HK, s HK, Shinkuu Hadou Ken
13  j HP, c HP, Hadou Ken, Shinkuu Hadou Ken
14  j HP, c HP, Hadou Ken, Haru Ichiban, Midare Zakura, Shinkuu Hadou
    Ken
15  j MK, c LK, c LK, c LK, Shou'ou Ken, Midare Zakura, Haru Ichiban
16  j HP, c MP, c MK, Shunpuu Kyaku, Midare Zakura

Match-Ups

Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha