As lab monsters continue to experiment with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, yet another weird Brawl hangover has found to still exist in the game. Called ‘Shadow I-Frames’, these instances of brief intangibility happen when a special move transitions from the air to the ground on a specific frame. If timed correctly, players can avoid being hit on landing, but the number of moves these Shadow I-Frames exist with is painfully short.
Previously observed in Brawl with Donkey Kong’s up B, Shadow I-Frames only occur when a special move has unique grounded and aerial properties. In Smash 4, characters like Shulk and Little Mac have moves which are capable of activating Shadow I-Frames, but only Shulk can really apply them in a match. In a lengthy video created by Paradigm and Erico and with the help of the Shulk Discord, they show how Shulk players can use the Shadow I-Frames of his aerial Vision Counter to create interesting baits.
If Shulk players land on exactly the eighth frame of Shulk’s aerial Vision Counter, the Shadow I-Frames will persist for the rest of the move’s animation. This creates situations where Shulk players either bait players into activating the counter, or cause them to throw out a punishable move, as they do not realisze the Shulk is currently intangible. Do note that while the first usage of this can result in up to a second of intangibility, Shulk’s counter does depreciate in length the more you use it, so the I-Frames won’t last as long.
Source: Paradigm & Erico