All clone combos work on males and females - the height restriction on females is just weirder. They can't be too high /or/ too low. Sometimes I'll find the sweet spot 9/10 times in training mode, and other times it's much less consistent. Generally speaking, when the chips are down, I favour spending the meter on MB Ice Ball.
This combo works - b2, b2, 1, d1, b12~clone has been my BnB since before the patch anyway. You can also do b2, b2, 1, 1, d1, b12 which buys even more time, and may be useful if you've set the clone after a NJK knockdown.
b2, 242, 1, b12 also works - buying the most time, but doing the least damage. At the end of the day, the most important thing is just finding a way to consistently get your hard knockdown and clone out. A couple percentage points here or there don't mean much if you aren't hitting the combo consistently, so just do what works for you.