Double Team

Double Team (, Shadow Divide) is Lucario's down special move. It is a counterattack move.

Overview
Lucario takes a defensive tai chi-like stance. If it is attacked during this stance, it will teleport, then strike with a sliding kick. The default direction for the kick is behind the opponent, but the direction can be inputted manually by tilting the control stick left or right. In Super Smash Bros. 4, the counterattack portion of Double Team has an aesthetic change where Lucario leans away from the direction he is facing, as well as making the attack resemble more of a flying kick. While in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Double Team’s animation has completely changed with Lucario standing upright with its left leg raised while holding a pose. It then pulls its right paw back while holding its martial arts-like stance. Lucario quietly says "It's over" whenever Double Team is successfully activated in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but this phrase is barely recognizable by many players due to many other sound effects and music unless one plays the game in high-definition volume settings. In Smash 4 and Ultimate, however, Lucario says "Weak!" instead. In Japanese, Lucario says "" ("Naive!"). In Brawl, Lucario speaks as it's attacking, but in Smash 4 onward, Lucario speaks as it's being attacked.

Double Team attacks moderate damage and surprisingly high knockback, which both scale with Aura. in Brawl, it can deal 7% at percents below 20% and at 170% or higher it deals 15%. In Smash 4, it can deal as little as 7.26% at 0%, or as much as 18.7% above 190%. In Ultimate, it does 8.25% at 0% and up to 20.875% at 190%. If Lucario successfully counters with Double Team near an edge, it may teleport above the ledge and fall downwards as it unsuccessfully attacks, making recovery difficult. Lucario also deceptively strikes the location around where it was hit, just like a typical Counter. If Double Team is used on a ranged attack or an attack that causes its user to move quickly (Spin Dash, Rollout, etc.), Lucario will most likely miss with its counter attack. However, if a projectile is countered within a certain distance from the owner, Lucario will target the owner regardless of position on-screen. Lucario can also counter a projectile to launch in a desired direction by tilting the control stick to get either in or out of a scenario and surprise the opponent, as well as a situational recovery option. Additionally, if Lucario is hit during a Double Team and goes into the counter strike, Lucario will not have a hurtbox until it completes the counter attack, which can be exploited to avoid otherwise guaranteed damage. Double Team also reduces Lucario's falling speed for a minor duration. A major flaw of this move is that it is rather easy to dodge, as it is possible to air dodge or shield the attack when Lucario disappears. This can put Lucario at a disadvantage due to its long endlag.

In Brawl and Smash 4, Double Team has a longer length than Marth's and Ike's Counter, having the longest counter window in Smash 4 at 35 frames (tied with Vision), which also comes out the fastest, at 5 frames (tied with Slip Counter and Witch Time). To compensate, it has the longest overall animation for a counter, being over 40 frames long after the counter frames. It is notably different in that it does not change power depending on the countered move; rather, it does a constant attack no matter what moves it counters. Its intangibility lasts until the counter frames end, leaving him unaffected even by attacks that cannot be countered, such as grabs and Final Smashes. In Ultimate however, Double Team’s active frames were significantly shortened from frames 5-39 to 5-24 which results in Lucario having one of the shortest frame windows for a counter, which was compensated by increased damage and measures to avoid the counterattack portion missing the opponent..

Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:


 * 1) Double Team: Default.
 * 2) Glancing Counter: Deals less damage and knockback, but allows the move to produce a hitbox even if Lucario is not hit by an opponent.
 * 3) Stunning Double Team: Replaces the dive kick with Lucario teleporting around the same spot, dealing electric damage and stunning opponents at the end of the move.

Origin
In the Pokémon games, is a Normal-type status move introduced in Generation I that raises  by one stage, making it more likely for attacks to miss the user, and can be stacked for more boosts. The move does not act like a counterattack like it does in the Smash Bros. games, though the Double Team user striking second can be seen as such. The animation for Double Team in Brawl is similar to the animation in the Pokémon games, notably ' or '.

Double Team is generally banned alongside by unofficial tournament circuits using s for its reliance on luck and difficulty to counter reliably—especially when paired with —making Evasion very infamous among players. Since its introduction, despite repeated nerfs to the Evasion stat, no other moves have been able to directly boost Evasion without Z-Crystals, though abilities such as can, and  can randomly increase it. Evasion has never been banned in official tournament circuits such as the Pokémon, and does not see much use due to the use of s.

Lucario, like most Pokémon, can learn Double Team in all games it appears in via until Pokémon Sword and Shield. The Japanese name of the move contains the term "bunshin" (分身 or 分進), with the former meaning "other self/clone", and the latter meaning to "divide and/or advance".

Trivia

 * Double Team can be rather useful in Boss Battles mode to dodge boss attacks. While it isn't guaranteed to hit the boss, it is a quicker way to dodge than a roll, short hopped air dodge, or just running away, and it has longer duration than a sidestep.
 * It is possible to pull off a "reverse" Double Team where Lucario attacks from the front. After using Double Team, simply hold the control stick or d-pad in the direction the player wishes to attack from. Advantages of pulling off a "reverse" Double Team include allowing Lucario to initiate combos and even wall-cling without the use of a second jump. A video showing this can be seen here.
 * Lucario's Double Team attack is slow enough that other characters with a counter can strike back with their own counter, given the correct circumstances.
 * If Lucario uses Double Team with a Pikmin attached to it and attacking, the Pikmin will briefly "vanish" with Lucario.
 * This move is also used by Greninja in one of its victory poses, but it is unable to use the move itself in Smash 4 and Ultimate during gameplay.
 * Interestingly, the victory pose bears more of a resemblance to the original move than Lucario's does, as Double Team is not naturally a counterattack in the Pokémon series.
 * This move can be done on certain Final Smashes like Marth/Lucina's Critical Hit, although Lucario won't counter the attack.
 * If the Shadow Assist Trophy freezes Lucario while performing Double Team, the counter hitbox will remain active and trigger if hit. Though the Double Team visual effect will trigger as normal, Lucario will not attack until being unfrozen, but will remain intangible in the mean time.