I was writing up a sorcerer villain and was looking at the shades spell. It functions like shadow conjuration except for it can be used to cast higher level spell. My question is can you uses this and other shadow spells to cast metamagic versions of the spell. For example could I use greater shadow evocation to cast a intensified, elemental, heightened fireball?
No. You get the base spell. If you want a metamagic version you have to apply it to the actual shadow spell.