The only reason to worry about 214 combo starter in Ninjutsu is only if you are at point blank in the corner, once you get the corner advantage, you can take full advantage of the variation and stay on distance where your d4 hits at max range, and F2 hits always from the priority normals and be safe (disjointed hitbox) to avoid all trades.
To answer myri's questions, i assume a lot of ppl here play mostly online, so their main feedback is that B32F2 is not punishable on block, well, every character with an 11f mid advancing normal will always punish it if they lab up a bit, its not really that dificult tbh, specially when they can use fast advancing specials as reversals
Watch this video, as off like, after 3 games, i think i pretty much got the timing down and i never actually labbed how to punish this and kept trying whenever Smith used on me.
To cover this, instead of doing B32F2 against those players if you don't have a good base for mixing it up, use B121 instead, which deals chip as well and has pushback and its only -1 on block, most ppl will always block low first against scorpion, in order to open this ppl up, you need to be good at delaying B3 and throw ppl out when they think a B3 is coming, and when they think a throw is coming you should be ready for F2 on their whiff.
F2 and B2 can be made safe due the push back, the trick is to hit just the tip of the second blade, everytime you get a max range d4 on hit, it puts them on range where F2 is safe on block.
If you have amazing reactions, you will be able to use more than just B2 for anti-airing full screen, and you will use to whiff punish normals midscreen where F2 and s3 and d4 cannot reach.
Your stagger theory is actually fine, just add this to the mixup:
1. ppl blocking plus pressure is always trying to poke out so:
Throw ppl a lot with scorpion, guaranteed 12% damage can always stack if they're respecting mixups with fuzzy guards trying to figure it out oh/lows on which way to block.
Also s1 is a good poking tool that is +1 on block and you can use it to harass ppl from distances nearly the same as 21 but with the chance to stay out and whiff punish or go in and throw them it keeps them in check.
2. out of tps on hit, you can do more than just B32F2, or F42 for oh/low
Besides throws and full chips with b121 you can also , walk in slowly as if you're willing to throw, its like a give away thing, and when they think "i'm going to poke now to avoid the throws" its usually around the time their hit stun from the telepot passes and they've already checked that you didn't throw them, use B12~ex TP and catch ppl trying to poke out, its on the first video, and is something i personally use a lot to kill poking mashers in this game.
