Why Angle a Shield?

[Artmastercorey]

One thing I always wondered is why angle a sheild up or down? Does anyone ever do this? Isnt a shield suppose to cover the entire character or is this mainly for when your shield is held down too long and shrinks exposing the character some places?

 

[MapleWooD]

For swag obviously.

 

[Meek Moths]

busting out your swag is always important

 

[Dr.Megaman]

For Sweg of course!

 

[GSM_Dren]

One thing I always wondered is why angle a sheild up or down? Does anyone ever do this? Isnt a shield suppose to cover the entire character or is this mainly for when your shield is held down too long and shrinks exposing the character some places?

Not applicable to Yoshi, but for the rest of the cast, yes angling the shield useful. You answered your own question, it's used to cover more area where your opponent is likely to hit you. It does take practice though because it's takes fine motor skill to tilt it slightly in the direction for the most coverage. If you watch higher level play, you'll see how they do it to block incoming attacks that otherwise would've hit non-angled.

 

[GhostUrsa]

It also works for deflecting some ranged attacks into other directions. I'm not sure if it's still in Smash 4 (as I haven't tried reproducing the effect yet), but I remember in other entries being able to deflect Peach's turnips (and rarely Link's bombs if angled right) into the air with my shield sometimes.