Butterfly Viscaria

I think that Viscaria Super ALC is even faster.

The very best of all the alc blade out there. Simply no replacement for this legendary blade. My blade is 89g. I prefer this over my tbs and tb alc. It's just better at everything by a small margin, just got that edge. Very crisp on all shots .has slight softer feel but still medium hard. definitely more precise feel of catching the ball on every loop. Hence high dwell. Throw is also medium to high similar to tbs may be better. Tb alc has slightly lower throw than viscaria and tbs with the same rubber test. Viscaria for me is worth every penny. It is just amazing perfect for close to middle attacking topspin players. It surely shows why so many pros use this.

I have been using this base for more than six months, and am very pleased with it. I do not plan to change it to another in the near future, because I can comfortably make a top spin, block, roll, torsion, and even lower baptism with the help of tensors.
I can say for sure that it is not for beginners, because fast enough, but suitable for confident amateurs who prefer to constantly attack.
The base goes well with most rubbers, or rather, I have not yet found a rubber that would play poorly on it, even Chinese rubber)

Mine's at 86 grams.

One of my favorite blades.
It's build is very smart. The koto outer ply is hard and crispy, sort of 'insulating' the rest of the blade from ball impact and vibration, so weak shots are short (serves are especially easy to keep short and spinny, as well as short returns).

It synergises extremely well with soft and medium-hard rubbers too (for example, T05 which is most commonly used with it), making those ultra spinny on serves especially, because it's relative stiffness/hardness helps you maximize the effect of those rubbers.

The grip on the Viscaria is the most comfortable of any blade I've held except the LSW. Pretty much the same. The handle fills the hand perfectly and allows for a solid grip without any effort, and the way the wings are made allow you to hold it further up if you want without the blade digging into your hand.
A solid comfortable grip also allows for easier topspins.

The blade is relatively hard and stiff. Much more so than most wood blades and limba/ayous type blades. It's solidity helps you maximize the effect of the rubbers, providing a more stable counter-force to the ball so it can sink deeper into the sponge, which is why people are impressed with it's spin capabilities (this is the main factor here. Not flex or softness, since it doesn't have much of either compared to most blades).


All in all, one of the best blades in the world and the one most commonly used (by a huge margin) by professionals as well.

I've been using the viscaria for 4 1/2 years now. This week I used my old infinity Vps v again, and when switching back to my viscaria I could really feel the difference. I'm using tenergy 64 on it.

Speed: This blade has a high base speed, but still very controllable.

Serves: If you practice your serves a bit you'll be able to get them short without a problem.

Receives: now this is the only problem that I have. This is probably more due to the tenergies I'm using than the blade itself.

Open ups: since the ball releases very fast you don't get as much dwell as you'd get with an allwood blade. It's still enough to play with a lot of spin.

Topspin: Now this is where the blade really excels. You can play topspins without any problem. The crisp feeling adds a really nice touch to them. Especially in games where you sometimes have to play when being in a suboptimal position, the blade still performed well and gives enough speed.

Backhand: I personally don't like the fast rebound on the backhand. A fast backhand topspin without hesitation works better than trying to guide the ball to the other side.

Conclusion: The viscaria is a blade that doesn't have any weaknesses. It doesn't help you at generating more spin like an allwood would do, but it does everything that your skill allows you to do. This is a fast blade designed for all out attackers. If you pass up more than one opportunity to attack then this blade isn't for you. Playing the first one with a lot of spin and following up with full power is the best feeling that you can get with this blade. The change between spin and the crisp second ball is extremely good.

An amazing blade for mid distance loopers. Great speed, control, consistency, power, and flex: this blade can do it all with no significant weaknesses. Looping, flicks, blocks, flat hits, and short game can all be played extremely well with this blade.

Butterfly ALC blades are all great, but the handle and slight head heaviness of this blade just make this perfect for me. The only time I wouldn't recommend this blade is if you are a total beginner still learning the basic strokes and then you would be better served with a 5 Ply wood like a Nittaku Acoustic or Violin. An all time classic blade for offensive players!

Switching from the Boll ALC the Viscaria is exactly what i had hoped for. A carbon blade with a woody feel. Not too fast and not too slow either.. The viscaria will play passive if you are applying the passive game and if you are going for heavy loops it will facilitate in that too. Overall it is a do-it-all wood. Flex is decent for a carbon blade. You feel that vibration when playing this blade which is excellent if you are looking for ball feel.
Using Yasaka Rakza 7 on the forehand (max) and T80 (2.1) on the backhand. Has served me quite well so far, no complaints whatsoever.

Butterfly Viscaria Blade
Weight: 90g
Thickness: 5.8mm
Type: Carbon OFF
Composition: 7 ply (Koto, ALC, Limba, Kiri, Limba, ALC, Koto)
Rubbers used with blade: Tenergy 05

What’s going on guys, a month ago I attended the England vs Greece European Qualifying match and caught up with world top 50 player Liam Pitchford. Before the match I got some time with Liam to review the Butterfly Viscaria blade which Liam uses as his blade of choice. The Viscaria has been a very popular blade for a long time, and was made even more famous after London 2012 Olympic Champion Zhang Jike started using it.


Written Review:

The blade sits well in the hand and comes in the standard Butterfly packaging.
The Viscaria is one of first blades that made use of Aralyte Carbon or ALC for short, and has a composition of Koto, ALC, Limba, Kiri, Limba, ALC, Koto.



As such the composition and thickness is exactly the same as the timo boll ALC, with the only difference between the two being the handle and wings of the blade as seen in the photo below:



The wings and the handle on the viscaria are thicker than the Boll ALC. This influences the vibration and sound of the blade which adds a touch more feedback and slightly softer feel than the Boll ALC does.

If we compare the Viscaria construction to the new Tiago Apolonia ZLC, the viscaria uses koto, a harder wood, as the outer layer. This produces a harder impact and makes the blade more stiff than the Apolonia which uses a Limba layer as the outer wood, which is softer creating a softer impact and gives the blade more flex.

The Viscaria blade weighs 90 grams and has a thickness of 5.8mm.



Myself and Liam both use the Viscaria in the review using Butterfly Tenergy 05 Rubbers on both sides of the blade.

Topspin

My first impressions with the Viscaria blade was that it felt extremely well balanced and that the feeling was exceptional. The Viscaria is a topspin machine and I could feel the crisp large sweet spot right away. As with all the reviews I do with pro’s, it took a little time getting used to the sheer spin and speed that Liam could develop, however with the Viscaria It was less of a learning curve due to the great control and touch this blade gives you.

Liam combines the forehand and backhand topspin with supreme quality. The viscaria’s medium hardness gave me good control whilst also being very responsive and direct when blocking back the shots.

Plastic Ball

Liam talks about why he moved to the Viscaria. The reason behind his move to the Viscaria blade was due to the new plastic ball having less spin and speed. He felt the Viscaria gave more spin and zip to his play.

Backhand flicks

When asking Liam what he liked about the Viscaria he noted that it was excellent in the backhand flick department, you can see in the review Liam was able to impart a lot of spin and speed onto the ball whilst maintaining a high level of safety.

Spin - Forehand and backhand open ups

Once liam got in with spin I had absolutely no chance winning the point. The blades dwell really grabs the ball well, producing vast amounts of spin. The advantage with the viscaria is its balance between spinning the ball and playing strong on the 5th and 7th ball attacks.

Counters

I gave my best to put as much spin on the ball as possible however the sheer speed of Liam’s counter topspin is insane, once he made the right contact and timing it was almost impossible for me to return. The ball zips off the Viscaria at a tremendous rate but gives just enough dwell time to make counter topspins consistent.

Touch play

When touching the ball short the viscaria gives you a lot of feedback but not so much that it is overly responsive and uncontrollable and has a nice balance between the two.

Service and return

Service and return is perhaps the most challenging element of the game and the blade performed well in this area. You don't particularly get a lot of dwell time when serving but the blades feeling makes up for this. Here are some examples of serves where we were able to produce a lot of rotation on the ball forcing service return errors from each other.

Top to top

The Arylate carbon in the Viscaria means you can get high end speed but with enough Flex to produce a medium high throw angle increasing the margin for error. Speed wise it is feels just a touch slower than a Timo Boll ALC but slightly faster than the, recently reviewed, Tiago Apolonia ZLC.


Conclusion

We would like to thank Liam Pitchford for his time in helping us review this blade, a fantastic player and a pleasure to play against. The Butterfly Viscaria blade is one of the most popular blades of all time for a reason and after reviewing it, it became clear. The use of Arylate Carbon fibers has been a huge success for Butterfly since it was first used with the Viscarias release in 1993. It is extremely well balanced and provides great feeling and responsiveness. The Viscaria boasts a large sweetspot so almost wherever the ball makes contact with the blade you get a consistent response with good speed.

The dwell time gives you a greater margin for error which helps on producing spin than a more direct blade like the Butterfly T5000 model for example. Due to its high responsiveness and speed, we would recommend the Viscaria to experienced players that want a great, fast offensive, carbon blade.

The blades strengths lie particularly when playing fast aggressive shots and from mid distance to the table where you get to make use of its speed and trajectory.

Players that might not suit this blade are players that prefer a soft touch and less responsiveness. Or for those who prefer an all round or moderately offensive blade which the Viscaria definitely isn't.

After almost 24 years of its initial release the Viscaria is still a popular choice amongst pro players, which is miraculous considering the tech now involved in modern sports equipment. Especially in table tennis where there are now dozens of different materials and compositions used in the blade market.
The Viscaria really is, an all time classic.

Hello My name is Jose and I currently have a usatt rating of 896, have become a equipment junkie in the past year since I started to play table tennis. i have used several blades in the past, from balsa carbo x5, primorac, stiga all around evolution but now I think I found the blade I like the most "so far" and its the viscaria blade, i currently have Nitakku fast arc C-1 on the forehand and tenergy 64 on the backhand. I will change the forehand rubber to tenergy 05 in 2 months. so far I've enjoyed the blade with this combo. fast enough for me, I like the control. i wish it had a little more pop because i like to hit far from the table. Good for serving short serves. excellent for blocking on the backhand. As i improve i will write another review on the blade.

Having used this blade since September, coming from a Timo Boll ALC, my experience is very similar - the blade has a slightly softer feel despite the same composition, and has a more rounded flared handle.

Composition: Koto - ALC - Limba - Kiri (supposedly balsa?) - Limba - ALC - Koto

The blade is perfect for the plastic ball, using Tenergy 05 and 64 it pairs very well, and has many gears (i.e. speed but necessary touch when needed). Backhand touch play and pushes sometimes tend to drift long, most likely due to Tenergy 64, but overall there is no need for a faster blade unless you are a hitter/blocker or an extremely high level player, especially when using Tenergy (or Evo/Bluefire series).

The only downside is the slightly muted feedback - the minimal vibration will definitely hinder amateur/intermediate players with a lack of touch - all wood is more suited until you have great touch and service receive.

Overall, this is a 5* blade and has been my blade of choice for over 6 months.