It's true, it tricks the AI a bit, they usually just walk into it when you stay back! It's almost as if you create a death zone around you. It's just all about the timing, I usually do it from uppercut to left swing as I've noticed that it is both easy to use and very damaging if done right.
Uppercuts in general are a great way to start a feint; you can go any direction you want with the followup, and usually it also fools the AI into attacking - bam, thigh slash with RTL or headshot with LTR.
More effective than that (but more timing reliant) is stab-to-swing feint however. Usually when you start with a stab and then switch to a RTL, I have a lot of success scoring good body hits. Side-to-side feints usually tend to result in the AI just backing off with the current version, or trying to catch you on the break. I should probably do a video covering these at some point, in more detail and more to the point. I mean you can see all of the techniques in my videos right now, but they're random and a bit here and there.