Meepo: Shadow Blade or Blink Dagger, which do you prefer?

Recently I've fooled around with Shadow Blade over the usual Blink Dagger as a utility item on Meepo and fell in love with it. It has nice synergy with BoT while providing an eject button which Blink Dagger lacks.

So now I'm wondering what other Meepo players prefer and why.

it costs 850 gold more and works somehow differently. I still think blink+poof combo is owning.

Actually, it kinda depends on personal preference. Blink Dagger is instantaneous and better for initiation, but cannot be used for escaping during teamfights. Shadow Blade on the other hand can be used for escaping the main Meepo and does not require 'fast hands' to initiate properly but is easily countered by detection and is slower than a Blink Dagger. Since, I'm not a Meepo player myself, I'll leave it to the best Meepo players to decide which is better.

Neither.I just rush Aghanim's Scepter.

Agreed. It should usually be the first major item on Meepo.

Aghs isn't the only item you buy on Meepo. For initiation, he's asking which either Blink or Shadow Blade. And even at that, should buy Mek before Aghs honestly.

I would say Blink Dagger, 100%.

Neither of those 2 sir,I don't use an item to initiate with Meepo,I use Meepo himself to initiate.

In my opinion, Agh's is enough for gaining both survivability and more damage, so you don't need a Mekansm first: even according to n0tail from Fnatic who played mid Meepo in a competitive game Aghanim's rush is the best option.

About the initiation tool, I stick to the Blink Dagger because once you understand how to blink-poof you will have no problems in doing it. Also, Shadow Blade is easily counterable and does not always work as an escape mechanism because you have 4 more Meepos on your back.

Hm, I went off topic with my reply. Shadow Blade has certain escape capabilities (though limited because of the 5 Meepos), but like Peppo mentioned, Blink Dagger is not easy to counter except with observer wards to see outside-of-vision blinking attempts.

Well, Aghanim's Scepter can be a double-edged sword on Meepo since adding an extra Meepo clone does require more micromanagement.