Glad to hear that a lot of people like her as much as I do.
Mai is indeed a very solid battery when she's played correctly and she is by far the character I enjoy playing the most since she fits my play style perfectly (Footsie/ runaway/pokes).
I play Mai on point as a battery character (like most people using her), so my mentality when playing her is to maximize damage while using the least meter I can. That said, I'm not a fan of burning 2-3 meters on corner combos when I know my 2nd and 3rd character will use them more efficiently and deal more damage with them (Unless I'm on the verge to OCV, then I don't mind
).
I also use:
cr.B, cr.B, st.A/B as a starter string as it is really easy to confirm a hit (or block) and go from there. From the starter string I either go for
hcf+B off the st.A if I see I'm close enough to the opponent to land it or directly go to
st.B xx st.D which is the easy target combo.
cr.B, cr.B, st.A xx hcf+B is definitely my preferred BnB as it does more damage (only 1 point higher, but still...) and brings the opponent closer to the corner. The only bad thing with this BnB is that the hcf+B sometimes whiffs if you're too far from the opponent and we all know what happens when that move is blocked. So, if I'm unsure about my range, I do the Target Combo BnB for similar damage without the positioning advantage. Also, If I see that my starter string is blocked, I cancel st.A into qcf+A which make the whole thing pretty safe.
When my opponent is backed to the corner, I use the same starter string and If I have some meter to burn I go for:
cr.B, cr.B, st.A xx EX Ryuenbu, C Ryuenbu, C Ryuenbu, Air throw. Only a single meter used for pretty good damage. If I don't want to spend meter but have Drive meter to burn I do:
cr.B, cr.B, st.A xx hcf+A(DC) air qcb.C, C Ryuenbu, Air throw . I believe this one does less damage than the first one, but you save a meter at the expense of a drive meter and a little less damage.