It's still negative on block so yes however at the right distance you can wiff it on purpose to lead into the mixup.  This is good because people will try to punish the wiff so you trade with the side uninterrupted heavy 

I have seen lots of people saying it does, and lots of people saying it doesn't. I personally think that a lot of people may have misinterpreted the patch notes. Has anyone actually tested this to confirm what is really the case here?

Does the Kensei swift strike (side dash) attack guarantee a free guardbreak when blocked in latest patch?