Meta Knight slashes above himself extremely quickly. If the jump button is held or pressed repeatedly while performing it multiple times, Meta Knight can rise in the air a certain distance while attack. It has the shortest ending lag of any aerial in the game, and is one of the fastest attacks in the game. The attack's very low ending lag is part of what gives Meta Knight one of the strongest planking capabilities in the game (using two up aerials and regrabbing the ledge in the shortest time possible provides only 2 frames of vulnerability). It is fast enough to be performed three times in one short hop. Like most of Meta Knight's other moves, it has transcendent priority. Very useful for juggling, and is good for combos; at lower percentages, it can chain into itself easily and lead into other moves such as a neutral aerial. A well-known Meta Knight combo, known as the Rufio, is several rising up aerials followed by a Mach Tornado at the top of the screen, which will usually Star KO the opponent should they fail to escape; this is especially effective against floaty characters, and is able to rack up as much as 50% damage. Due to its extremely short startup and ending lag, large hitbox, combo ability, and rather strong knockback that can potentially KO near the top of the screen at very high percents, it is commonly considered to be the best up aerial in the game.
Because the move can be interrupted before it is autocancellable (the only move in the game that can do so), the player can input an air dodge and replace the attack's landing lag with the much shorter airdodge landing lag. As this is effectively inputting shield to shorten landing lag, it has been said that Meta Knight is capable of L-cancelling in Brawl, jokingly reinforcing his supposed broken-ness.
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Slash
