Interestingly, SL is better than glide in terms of survivability.
Umm... I tested out to see if Mk's ^B was any better than Mk jumping into a glide. In terms of survivability yes the ^B is better, but only by a 2% difference from what I got. So overall, I don't think it really matters about which one you use. However, if people use tap jump or if they DI'd close to the ceiling, I probably wouldn't use the ^B but rather, people should use Mk's jump into a glide instead. However if you aren't close to the ceiling, by all means use the ^B. But remember: if you use the ^B to cancel air momentum, your chances of returning to the stage are limited because you can't use any jumps until you land and you're limited to using 1 attack to protect yourself. If you use the Jump + glide however, you won't be limited as you won't go into a fall special if you cancel your glide. Once Mk is at 116%, use the ^B. However, if it's 118% or higher, you'll be screwed either way unless is you use >B.
I guess a way to sum up this up is that canceling air momentum more easily comes a cost of losing a variation of ways to return to the stage much more easily and more smoothly.
Imagine if he didn't start angling the glide downwards.
This is true. People, DON'T ANGLE YOUR GLIDE TRAJECTORY IF YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO CANCEL AIR MOMENTUM! OTHERWISE, YOU'LL GET KO'D IF YOU DO SO! Well not literally, but it'll be easier for Mk to get KO'd from his opponent at higher %'s. This will occur if you angle Mk's glide while at the same time, you are trying to cancel Mk's air momentum. Either if you are using his ^B or jump + glide to cancel air momentum, it'll still have the same result so DON'T ANGLE IT! Until Meta Knight starts gliding fowards, don't angle the trajectory your glide. This is because it pushes Meta Knight back slightly. Once he starts moving foward, THEN YOU CAN ANGLE YOUR GLIDE TRAJECTORY!
Question.... won't you have to jump first before gliding?
For the Jump + Glide, first initiate a Uair then press and hold X (That's my jump button.) to jump and then glide immediately after jumping once. FYI, this will cause Mk to jump ONCE then glide. If you are asking about the ^B, Mk does a glide AUTOMATICALLY after he finishes the attack.
