Double Team

Double Team (Japanese: Shadow Clone - かげぶんしん, Kage Bunshin) is Lucario's Down Special Move. When used, Lucario enters a defensive tai chi-like stance. If it is attacked during this stance, it will teleport behind the attacker, then counterstrike with a sliding kick for moderate damage and surprisingly high knockback, which is even greater after Lucario has taken damage.

Overview

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. There is some kind of lag after doing the attack in midair. Double Team has a longer length than Marth's and Ike's Counter, but does more damage and knockback if it is pulled off. In fact, Double Team is the strongest counterattack in the game. One of the most interesting features of Double Team is its damageable area elimination: if Lucario is hit during a Double Team and goes into the counter strike, Lucario will not have a damageable area until it completes the counter attack, which means that Lucario can't be hit, grabbed, or even caught in a Final Smash by anyone or anything. Double Team also reduces Lucario's falling speed for a minor duration. This move is rather easy to dodge, as it is possible to air dodge or shield the attack when Lucario disappears. It also has some invincibility frames to it when activated. The initial damage is 7%, and at 165% (where it caps) is 15%.

Note that Lucario actually strikes the location around where it was hit, just like Counter does. As such, 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 his counter attack.

When Double Team is used, Lucario adopts a defensive stance.

If Lucario is hit while in this stance...

...he will counter-attack.

Lucario's Special Moves
	Brawl	3DS/Wii U	Ultimate
Standard Special	Aura Sphere
Side Special	Force Palm
Up Special	Extreme Speed
Down Special	Double Team
Final Smash	Aura Storm	Mega Evolution	Aura Storm

Origin

In the Pokémon games, Double Team is a move that raises the chance of an opponent's attack missing.

Reverse Double Team

It is possible to pull off a "reverse" Double Team where Lucario attacks from the front. After using Double Team, simply hold the joystick in the direction wished 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.

Trivia

• With precise timing, Lucario's Double Team can activate Marth's Counter.
• Lucario quietly says "It's over" whenever Double Team is successfully activated, 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. Regardless, this phrase is available in the "Sound Room."
  • Oddly enough Lucario says "Es ist noch nicht vorbei" if the language is set to German and "Esto no ha acabado" to Spanish, which translates to "It's not over yet" and "This is not over" respectively, the exact opposite of its English line, possily meaning that the line was wrongly translated to English.
• If Lucario uses Double Team with a Pikmin attached to it and attacking, the Pikmin will "vanish" with Lucario.