Style: Aerial Rushdown
Most Similar To: C. Viper, Ibuki, Akuma
Strengths: Unmatched air mobility lets her both run away and rush down opponents from multiple aerial angles. She can change her jump arc at will with her double jump and vertical dive kick to avoid anti-airs and find the weak spots in your grounded defense, and convert any hit into a combo. Strong instinct mode which allows for difficult to avoid mixups.
Weaknesses: Her only truly invincible reversal is not an attack, but rather an escape, which can still be punished by a wily attacker, which means Sadira needs to block a meaty attack on her wakeup often. Grounded footsies are not as strong as her air game, so if she's forced to stay on the ground in a matchup, she's likely to struggle. Since she relies so heavily on her jumping attacks, she doesn't have a grounded overhead.
Openers: Blade Demon (shadow OK), Recluse (LK and MK only), Widow's Bite (HP only, shadow OK), Widow's Drop
Blade Demon, a forward-traveling spinning attack, is Sadira's low crush, and it's safe on block, making it her go-to block string move while grounded. Widow's Bite and Widow's Drop are her openers from the air; Widow's Bite throws a diagonally downward projectile which pulls Sadira close on hit or block, and Widow's Drop is her 
+MK vertical dive kick which can transition directly into auto-doubles on hit, but is very unsafe on block. Widow's Bite can be punished on block (including via shadow counters), so mixing it up with LP and MP versions, which do not pull Sadira towards the opponent on contact but rather send her at different angles, is important to keep the opponent tentative.
Recluse is her most damaging linker, but unfortunately it starts up slow, which doesn't allow her many reps during lockouts, but it is more difficult to break as all hits from any Recluse linker come in fast succession during a single backflip. Blade Demon will push the opponent closer to the corner. If you're in instinct mode, you're able to jump cancel your auto-doubles and linkers, which means you can jump cancel and land a tiger kneeA tiger knee motion allows you to perform an aerial special move very quickly after jumping off the ground. Perform the special move's motion while grounded, then immediately input jump + the attack buttons (if your motion is a quarter circle, it helps to continue rolling the joystick to up-forward or up-back, rather than straight up). If your timing is correct, your air special move will come out very close to the ground. version of Widow's Bite mid-combo. HP Widow's Bite will very quickly max your KV, so you're recommended to stick with shadow Widow's Bite in this situation, which does considerably more damage and raises the ender level faster than her only grounded shadow linker, shadow Blade Demon.
Enders: Damage: Shadow Recluse, Launcher: Blade Demon, Exchange Launcher: RecluseSadira's enders are pretty limited. She has no battery ender, which means she has to work for her meter through normal means, and her Blade Demon and Recluse enders both launch the opponent, which allows for similar follow-ups in the air, although Recluse will switch sides. Shadow Recluse is her only damage ender, but it gains the +1 level bonus that shadow enders provide, which means if Sadira chooses to cash out for damage, it's going to hurt a lot. Shadow Recluse is even fast enough to act as an ender for some of Sadira's air combos if she can fall to the ground faster than the opponent.
Instinct Mode: In addition to being able to jump cancel all her grounded normals and special moves, Sadira gets to place visible web traps on the screen by pressing HP+HK. These large traps are just permanent hitboxes that only the opponent can run into, and if they get hit by one, they become ensnared by it, allowing Sadira to combo. If the opponent can avoid the web, it will eventually disappear on its own, but Sadira can only have one web out at a time. The webs cannot be combo broken, and Sadira can immediately place another web once the first one expires. This ability coupled with Sadira's multiple jump arcs and double jumps make her mixup game incredibly strong. Even if you correctly block a web, Sadira will put another one down on top of your body, forcing you to stay in block stun until you finally get opened up. If she knocks you down, she'll place one over your rising body, forcing you to gamble on a reversal or block repeated mixups. Sadira in instinct is very much a set playSet play is used to describe offensive sequences (usually after a knockdown) that have been studied in training mode meticulously and force your opponent to take highly unfavorable risks to avoid. It is the opposite of playing by feel or by instinct; your opponent's tendencies often don't influence the set play's effectiveness, you just do it because you know it works. character, but it is very difficult to escape. As a fun fact, Sadira's instinct mode has been giving the developers fits ever since KI's launch. A combination of Sadira's jump cancels and the unique, unbreakable properties of the web have given Sadira numerous gameplay advantages that the developers have deemed too strong, such as highly damaging unbreakable combos and safe counter breaker attempts. Each patch tries to remove these unintended effects from the game, but who knows, there may be more to find yet!Normals to watch: Sadira's jumping HK is her money maker. It has a very deceptive cross-up hitbox, which makes it difficult to consistently block while Sadira is double-jumping above your head at odd angles. She also has a jumping target combo with LK, MP or LK, MK, both of which must be blocked high, which can be tricky to block correctly when Sadira is throwing in the higher block stun jumping HK or doing an empty jump into a low attack or throw. Widow's Drop (+MK in air) is great for avoiding anti-airs, faking crossups, or punishing throw whiffs, but it has recovery on landing and is unsafe on block. When on the ground, Sadira can pester with a decently long-range crouching MK, or make her hitbox less susceptible to lows with standing LK. Both crouching and standing HP are good at occupying space in front of Sadira.
Specials to watch: Sadira spends a lot of her time throwing out the various strengths of Widow's Bite, her air projectile special. She throws a web projectile at a downward angle towards the opponent, and then continues on her current path with the LP version, flips towards her opponent with the MP version, and pulls herself toward the opponent if the HP version hits or is blocked. When combined with Web Cling, a strictly air mobility special which sends Sadira to the wall behind her and then towards the opponent at various angles, Sadira is extremely difficult to anti-air. She can even do Web Cling and Widow's Bite in the same jump. Heavy Recluse is an upper-body invincible anti-air which allows for an air follow-up, and keep your low pokes in check when Sadira is near you and grounded, since a low crush Blade Demon is likely on its way.
General strategy: Like SFIV's C. Viper, it's difficult to keep Sadira still. She spends more time in the air than any other Killer Instinct character, and why shouldn't she? Using her unique air mobility tools (two separate trajectory-altering special moves, a double jump, and a dive kick) takes some practice, and her instinct mode will require some practice mode time to fully optimize, but her potential is through the roof when mastered. If you find yourself grounded or your air normal blocked, pestering with Blade Demon is probably your best bet. But it's best to find your way back into the air quickly for more mobility or mixups. Sadira has no attacking reversal that can avoid a meaty attack that hits her torso, so she either must try to escape using shadow Web Cling, backdash (both of which can be punished), or block it out. Learning some instinct mode setups is crucial if you want to go far with this character.