Double Team
Double Team inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.
User	Lucario
Universe	Pokémon
Article on Bulbapedia	Double Team (move)

Double Team (かげぶんしん,Shadow Divide) isLucario'sdown special move. It is acounterattack move.

Overview[edit]

Double Team at max aura.

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 the direction the opponent is facing, in effect striking them from behind, but the direction can be inputted manually by tilting thecontrol stick left or right. InSuper 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 inSuper 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 inSuper 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. InSmash 4 andUltimate, however, Lucario says "Weak!" instead. In Japanese, Lucario says "あまい!" ("Naive!"). InBrawl, Lucario speaks as it's attacking, but inSmash 4 onward, Lucario speaks as it's being attacked.

Double Team attacks moderate damage and surprisingly high knockback, which both scale withAura. inBrawl, it can deal 7% at percents below 20% and at 170% or higher it deals 15%. InSmash 4, it can deal as little as 7.26% at 0%, or as much as 18.7% above 190%. InUltimate, 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 ahurtbox 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.

InBrawl andSmash 4, Double Team has a longer length than Marth's and Ike'sCounter, having the longest counter window inSmash 4 at 35 frames (tied withVision), which also comes out the fastest, at 5 frames (tied withSlip Counter andWitch 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. InUltimate 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.

Instructional quotes[edit]

Smash Bros. DOJO!!		Time Double Team so that an enemy attack connects with you, and Lucario will launch into a counterattack. This attack also receives a boost in strength proportionate to your damage percentage courtesy of Lucario’s Aura ability.
case foldout		Prepare for an incoming attack, and counterattack with a sliding kick if struck.
Move List		Prepares for an incoming attack, and counterattacks with a sliding kick if struck.

Customization[edit]

Special Move customization was added inSuper Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:

1. Double Team	2. Glancing Counter	3. Stunning Double Team
"Prepare for an incoming attack, and counterattack with a sliding kick if struck." "Lets you dodge attacks. Time it right, and you'll counter with a flying kick."	"Dodge to avoid taking damage, and then immediately strike with a strong punch." "Very briefly makes you impossible to hit, then immediately strikes back."	"A counter move that can paralyze your opponent if timed correctly." "A counter move that can paralyse your opponent if timed correctly."

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.

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  Glancing Counter being used inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

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  The aura blast during Glancing Counter.

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  Stunning Double Team being used inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

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  The strike during Stunning Double Team.

Origin[edit]

Double Team in Generation IV.

In thePokémon games,Double Team is a Normal-type status move introduced in Generation I that raisesEvasion 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 theSmash Bros. games, though its counterattack effect resemblesCounter, which can be learned by Lucario. The animation for Double Team inBrawl is similar to the animation in the Pokémon games, notablyPokémon Colosseum orPokémon Battle Revolution.

Double Team is generally banned alongside other methods to increase evasion (such asMinimize) by unofficial tournament circuits using 1 vs 1 Single Battles for its reliance on luck and difficulty to counter reliably—especially when paired withBaton Pass—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 asTangled Feet can, andAcupressure can randomly increase it. Evasion has never been banned in official tournament circuits such as the PokémonVideo Game Championships, and does not see much use due to 2 vs 2 Double Battles being the format (where evasion increasing is very inefficient)

Lucario, like most Pokémon, can learn Double Team in all games it appears in viaTM32 untilPokémon 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".

• 

  Double Team in Generation VII.

Gallery[edit]

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  Double Team inBrawl.

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  Attack portion of the move inBrawl.

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  Lucario's Double Team inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

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  Lucario using Double Team againstIke inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

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  Double Team inSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U.

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  Double Team as shown by the Move List inUltimate.

Names in other languages[edit]

Language	Name
Japanese	かげぶんしん
English	Double Team
French	Reflet
German	Doppelteam
Spanish	Doble Equipo
Italian	Doppioteam
Chinese	影子分身
Korean	그림자분신
Dutch	Dubbelteam
Russian	Двойная Опека

Trivia[edit]

Double Team as a victory pose.

• Double Team can be rather useful inBoss Battles mode to dodge boss attacks. While it isn't guaranteed to hit the boss, it is a quicker way to dodge than aroll,short hoppedair dodge, or just running away, and it has longer duration than asidestep.
• 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 byGreninja in one of itsvictory poses, but it is unable to use the move itself inSmash 4 andUltimate 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 thePokémon series.
• This move can be done on certain Final Smashes like Marth/Lucina'sCritical Hit, although Lucario won't counter the attack.
• If theShadowAssist 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 remainintangible in the mean time.

• Pokémon universe
• Down special moves
• Lucario
• Counterattacks
• Lucario (SSBB)
• Lucario (SSB4)
• Lucario (SSBU)