I just love this variation over the others because it's the one that's most reflective or her as a character (sais and shit lol). She always struck me as the type of character that just "feeds" off of the opponent's mistakes and impatience, and this variation IMO, does that the best. Low and regular sai zoning creates a low of impatience/running/jumping and if they play it smart by being patient, effective zoning will have net you well over 15% in chip alone and a ton of meter which MOST of not all players now respect an EXroll upclose in which you can run up grab and throw them back to square one. Countless matches I've had, this worked or I was able to just keep backing up to the corner so that I could intentionally swap sides and have them chase me again.
B1/B12 is like her only footsie tool and IMO for that reason, is why I think piercing MIGHT be her best variation. From what's mentioned above, ethereal and ravenous HAVE to be played upclose, with a character that has no true mixups and can be blocked practically all match long just waiting for a mistake. Piercing on the other hand not only has the means to play up close or from full screen, but she actually gains a legitimate footsie tool that its post block options actually give her a fighting chance to even the field. Not to mention its useful as an AA, she gets various restands in this variation, and only falls short of ravenous damage by like 2% at worst