Reviews by SilentRain

EDIT: After 6 months of further use I have to make a new assessment about this rubber

In a nutshell, this is exactly like T64 but different enough to make a distinct difference unlike the G-1 and T05 comparison. Its faster, less bouncy, less spinny , significantly less dwell time and less control, but more feel and insensitive to spin.

EDIT 2: I notice some quality control issues after a talking to a chap of mine. He complained about the lack of speed with this rubber and sure enough after i tested it, it was slow and controllable unlike the one i had which was too fast. As if by fate, my Hong Kong friend told me his mates had the same issue. One said it was too quick while another said it was slow. I personally enjoyed the slow version of the rubber but unless u can tell the future, you probably cant tell which version you will be getting. You've been warned.

Pro
Not sensitive to spin. This makes blocking very good.
You can feel the ball and tell where it hits the rubber, you cant find this in ternergy
Its very direct so you can control the trajectory well but the dwell time might be an issue

Cons
its not very spinny. Its very fast but a simple counterhit will put the ball right back at you
Its very fast with less dwell which makes flicking and looping underspin very very hard as the rubber is not tacky so it has very little grip to generate spin and the significantly small dwell time means your margin of error is very small as you have to be very quick.
Its hard to keep it short. I find it more effective to chop it deep for heavy spin than trying to touch it in short.

Conclusion
This is like a weaker version of T64. I honestly would use T64 anyday for BH unless it doesnt synergise well with your blade. This is why i tried this rubber as T64 was just too hard to keep the ball on the table while putting pressure on my opponent with JM ZLC. Fastarc S1 solved this problem due to it being less bouncy. However the small dwell and small gripiness makes it hard to perform advance spin based techniques such as flicking and looping underspin. Therefore I would not use this rubber as a T64 replacement as you really only can block and counterhit which may not be enough if your opponent is very skilled.

My favorite FH rubber atm

Analogy
1: Like H3 neo boosted but faster and with less spin
2: Like T05 but spinnier, more feel and less catapult effect hence slower but more control

Pros:
1. Insensitive to incoming spin so its good close to table and short play and blocking (push, touch, flick etc)
2. Good dwell and control
3. Just the right amount of tackiness. Serves and loops are very spinny but not so much that you require alot of effort to impart speed on shots (Like H3)
4. Great feel. You can tell if you've done something wrong and the amount of spin. Allowing for adjustments next shot and for development of technique if it is not perfect

Cons
1. Pricy like T05 (but the 1.8mm is often on clearance sale which significantly reduces the price)
2. Not so good for pro players with 100% perfect technique as you require good technique for good shots and this margin of error is small

Neutral points (Good or bad depending on your POV/ level/ style/ demograph )
1. No bouncy/catapult effect like T05. Meaning less speed and kill potential but more control and no need to worry about loops overshooting table even with ZLC close to table
2. Not as easy to find compared to other top tier rubbers
3. Like H3, it teaches you how to properly loop backspin via great feeling of the topsheet. It rewards proper technique and punishes improper/half ass loops.
Good for developing/ pseudo advance players. Bad for pro players who can do this with every rubber as the margin of error is small and not beneficial in match play

Conclusion
Great rubber for intermediate to advance level players who want something like T05 but less speed more control and is useful for developing technique (particularly loops)

This is a fantastic rubber for both FH/BH. Ill say BH is better.

Pros
Control and blocking is great. Short game is excellent and flicks/punches are easy. Serves are spinny and shots are powerful and fast

Cons.
Despite being the softest in the evolution series, it feels more like medium.
Its slightly more difficult to lift underspin as the topsheet is not as grippy for the loops. But easily adjusted and is easy after that. Just need more effort
Loses power after mid and far distance. This is due to medium throw angle and diffulty of lifting

Conclusion
Great close to the table rubber especially for the BH. lacks power in mid-long distance even with JM ZLC. Great for punching and flicks as well.

Edited after 1 year of use

This rubber is amazing. It has great feel and high throw but it lands as the end of the table instead of being near to the net. The top sheet has some kind of special tech that is similar to rasant grip but better and more consistent. It doesnt feel tacky at all but it has all the good properties of a tacky rubber and non of the cons. But this means that its not 100% the same as a chinese rubber. Sponge is medium and its very direct

This rubber is spinny, fast but not too fast and controllable and not as hard and has great feel. An analogy would be the speed and power of T05, control,dwell and feel of Xiom vega europe and spin of neo H3. Its not as good as its comparison counterpart but thats the price for having everything

This is a very good BH rubber but its hard to use as a FH rubber if you play close/mid distance dues to the high throw and long trajectory as the ball will often overshoot even with perfect technique. Its amazing if you play far distance but that comes at a price as well and not many people play far.

This rubber is good for BH flicks and looping underspin as the tackiness makes it easy to generate enough spin to counter the backspin and the dwell time is sufficiently long so you will not feel that the ball leaves the blade too quick (It has longer dwell than T05 and 64, almost as long as Xiom vega Euro, If this is too quick then you're not ready for this type of rubber). Furthermore, the path trajectory (High throw and lands end table) helps increase margin of error on BH techniques which are more compact compared to FH, but this has the opposite effect on the FH side as balls tend to overshoot if you are not careful.

I must however stress that this rubber plays and feels weird with celluloid balls. The ball bounces slightly off and the sound is very unpleasent. But since plastic balls are in play now, this point is fairly mute unless you play celloliud as you're a recreational player instead of a competitor player.

It is also fairly sensitive to spin so its not easy to punch through spin unless the ball is short and high and passive blocking is slightly challenging but not overly hard. Active blocking is fine. I think this is due to the tackiness of the rubber. This sensitivity to incoming spin also means you have to be careful when receiving serve, you have to spin everything unless its a no spin serve, in short, good touch is required. It is however easy to keep the ball low and short when receiving as long as you receive the ball correctly.

Conclusion: Outsanding rubber for BH but not so good on Fh. Its very spinny and controllable with enough speed for kill potential. Its sensitive to incoming spin so good touch is required. Some skill required to use this rubber well, stay away if you like to slap and punch balls.

FYI, the picture is old. It now looks like JM SZLC but with white lines instead of yellow. Its also 5+2 ply unlike the description which gives 3+2. This blade has great feel and feedback as the ZLC flexes and transmit vibration of the ball well, the top ply is also limba which helps. Looping is great as the ZLC flexes and provides dwell time but the ball will travel fast once it leaves the blade so you have the best of both worlds. Seems to compliment a chinese full arm style loop but europeon style works but not as well. You do have to come forward more and hit the ball slightly to the side which makes looping backspin on the BH tricky. Definately more suitable for 1 wing loopers who step around on the BH side.Punching and flicking is surprisingly great even against backspin. Counterlooping is amazing as the soft wood and ZLC will negate some spin and power from your opponents loop, this increases your margin of error. Throw angle is abit low but that could be due to my rubbers which also have low throw. Touch is controllable once you know the treshold of force that causes the zlc to flex. Any force below this treshold will cause the blade to play like an all wood blade. The treshold is quite low so be careful if you have bad touch. Similar to touch, the serve is tricky as sometimes you will engage the carbon and sometimes you dont. Due to the nature of serving, its harder to control when and where the the ZLC comes into play but with practice I'm sure this wont be an issue.

Overall a great blade. I like to refer it as the ZLC version of Viscaria. I believe anyone who can control ALC can control ZLC with practice and vice versa, the only reason you want to choose ZLC is for the playstyle it supports which is does for me.