says
I would recommend all wood.
Samsonov Alpha sgs is the...
Active Member
I think I never posted my review of this on this forum. It's an old review, from a few months after I first found the magic rubber.
Hope it's informative and helpful:
So this is my favorite rubber. I don't hide that I'm "not impartial". It's getting the 10s. So bear with me. I'll try to describe the experience as well.
I compare it directly to the Evolution MS-X, EL-P, Hurricane 3 and Hurricane 3 Neo.
Technical Information:
Price: $15+-, free shipping (ali-express).
Weight: 47g cut. Surprisingly light given its other properties. Note that my blade head is larger than usual, so for you it may well be like.. a gram or two less. Not sure. MUCH lighter than the MS-X, about the same weight as the H3/neo. Given that the Hurricane 8 is said to be very heavy, this is an advantage for the Battle II in comparison to what is probably its direct competition.
Hardness: comes in two flavors, 45 or 47 hardness. HARD. Similar to the H3. Barely yields to finger pressure if at all. No visible pores.
The MS-X is hard sponged but a bit less than this. The EL-P of course is much, much softer.
Tackiness: Much tackier than any H3/Neo I ever used. They can't handle plastic balls at all while this rubber can. The thing though is that other than being very tacky, it's also straight up grippier than the H3/Neos. It feels like a very old school kind of topsheet that's nevertheless very well adapted to the plastic ball.
Consistency/Longevity: I got several sheets of this. Haven't seen one degrade seriously yet and it's been a few months. These tacky hard rubbers can last a LONG LONG time.
Regarding consistency, of course some sheets are slightly tackier than others, but none is less than spectacular. I haven't noticed any real inconsistencies in terms of play, none have bubbled up, none have separated, and none ever flaked away at the edges at all, which happened to me with a lot of ESN rubbers.
In comparison to the DHS rubbers, this is perfect consistency. With H3 Neos, some came out of the wrap nearly untacky, some had the red paint peel off with the upper layer of the topsheet when the packaged covering was removed, etc. Messy.
As a side-note, it'll lose tackiness during the practice so you have to clean it with about 2 little drops of water and dry well. The tackiness will return fully after you rest the rubber a bit. Not sure why it's like that but it's what I've noticed. Perhaps it's because of the humidity at my club (when practicing on my table which is in the back yard there's no such problem. Clean it and it's back to very tacky immediately. Cover it with plastic sheet and within a day it is SUPER tacky. Again, not sure why resting the rubber helps it become tackier. Possibly something to do with thermodynamics entropy laws)
Play Characteristics:
Serve: 10/10
Serves can be very spinny with just a small flick of the wrist. Couldn't get this much out of any other rubber ever. This is very important because you can get a ton of spin with a small movement, which means deception in serve is very easy, and after a certain measure of spin, deception is much more important.. Of course, with faster fuller motion it also serves spinnier than the MX-S and H3 because it can grab the plastic ball better and is non tensor so it's a lot easier to put a lot of oomph into the ball while keeping it short. Since it grabs the ball you can manage contact with a lot less forward momentum because the tackiness will pull the ball forward.
Serve Receive: 10/10
Nothing unpredictable here. A hard sponge ultra tacky rubber will always be the best for serve receive in my opinion. No catapult like the ESN rubbers so you can easily place it where you want with very little fear of error if you read the serve right.
Makes it very easy to return it with lots of backspin to wherever you want because you engage mostly the tackiness of the topsheet and none of the sponge (which is too hard for that).
Also very easy to do a brush return where you add to the spin already on the ball. It will not shoot out as it may do with a rubber that grabs the ball less.
Perfect.
Topspin 9.5
Tested to see by having a blade with Battle II on one side and the H3Neo on the other.
Behavior is very similar to H3, meaning that the ball flies almost straight (slight curve) over the net and then plunges nearly straight down by the opponents table edge.
Very hard shots were less spinny than the MS-X, but this rubber is better for spinning closer to the table and over the table. And in non-top-power shots it was spinnier than the MS-X. I'd say the two are comparable but have different strengths.
Battle II is definitely best suited to a player that stays closer to the table and has body speed.
Block: 9
In my opinion a little less controlled than the H3, but it's good. It won't shoot off like in the ESNs, so it will generally be a slower block but this is good, because it lets you control the speed and placement more easily. It's still not a slow rubber by any means, it offers a very good compromise. I wouldn't say it's a rubber made for blocking though. Not as consistent as other hard rubbers.
I'd rate the MX-S a solid 10 in blocking, in comparison.
Speed: 8.5
Ok, this was a surprise (I think anyone who uses this rubber will very surprised at its speed in comparison to traditional chinese rubbers, although if you're used to ESN it might be very slow for you).
I think there is some kind of catapult built into it, but it only activates when you hit quite hard and straight. I can't attribute it to the hard sponge because it's MUCH faster than the Hurricanes when you hit the ball directly with force, but is also simply faster in general. It's fast enough to use it effectively as a backhand rubber, which is very hard to do with the hurricanes. Of course, it's not ideal for that though. I tried it a few times and because of my technique I could not get enough speed out of it for backhand, so I use a dedicated speed rubber (Palio AK47)
So yeah, smashes are good, drives are very fast but similarly to the H3s you still need a bit of a brushing motion to get the most out of it. Slightly different stroke than the ESN rubbers. In straight forward shots it's nearly as fast as the MX-S/EL-P, considerably faster than the H3s. I rate it 9 when it may deserve.. like. 8.8(?) because of the surprise factor. It really feels like a modern rubber dressed up like an old one.
Conclusion:
Great rubber. Easily one of my favorites. It seems to do everything well and make everything easy.
It's fast-ish but without tensor/catapult unpredictability, it's extremely spinny with barely a touch, its the absolute best at serves and serve receive (which is my favorite part of the game really), and to top it off, you can get like 3-4 of these for the price of one butterfly rubber.
You need a lot of strength and technique to get good spin and speed out of it, but it has a higher ceiling than any ESN rubber I've known.
Update:
I scratched my rubber on the table edge today so I finally went fukit and ordered the provincial version. Will review when I get it
Hope it's informative and helpful:
So this is my favorite rubber. I don't hide that I'm "not impartial". It's getting the 10s. So bear with me. I'll try to describe the experience as well.
I compare it directly to the Evolution MS-X, EL-P, Hurricane 3 and Hurricane 3 Neo.
Technical Information:
Price: $15+-, free shipping (ali-express).
Weight: 47g cut. Surprisingly light given its other properties. Note that my blade head is larger than usual, so for you it may well be like.. a gram or two less. Not sure. MUCH lighter than the MS-X, about the same weight as the H3/neo. Given that the Hurricane 8 is said to be very heavy, this is an advantage for the Battle II in comparison to what is probably its direct competition.
Hardness: comes in two flavors, 45 or 47 hardness. HARD. Similar to the H3. Barely yields to finger pressure if at all. No visible pores.
The MS-X is hard sponged but a bit less than this. The EL-P of course is much, much softer.
Tackiness: Much tackier than any H3/Neo I ever used. They can't handle plastic balls at all while this rubber can. The thing though is that other than being very tacky, it's also straight up grippier than the H3/Neos. It feels like a very old school kind of topsheet that's nevertheless very well adapted to the plastic ball.
Consistency/Longevity: I got several sheets of this. Haven't seen one degrade seriously yet and it's been a few months. These tacky hard rubbers can last a LONG LONG time.
Regarding consistency, of course some sheets are slightly tackier than others, but none is less than spectacular. I haven't noticed any real inconsistencies in terms of play, none have bubbled up, none have separated, and none ever flaked away at the edges at all, which happened to me with a lot of ESN rubbers.
In comparison to the DHS rubbers, this is perfect consistency. With H3 Neos, some came out of the wrap nearly untacky, some had the red paint peel off with the upper layer of the topsheet when the packaged covering was removed, etc. Messy.
As a side-note, it'll lose tackiness during the practice so you have to clean it with about 2 little drops of water and dry well. The tackiness will return fully after you rest the rubber a bit. Not sure why it's like that but it's what I've noticed. Perhaps it's because of the humidity at my club (when practicing on my table which is in the back yard there's no such problem. Clean it and it's back to very tacky immediately. Cover it with plastic sheet and within a day it is SUPER tacky. Again, not sure why resting the rubber helps it become tackier. Possibly something to do with thermodynamics entropy laws)
Play Characteristics:
Serve: 10/10
Serves can be very spinny with just a small flick of the wrist. Couldn't get this much out of any other rubber ever. This is very important because you can get a ton of spin with a small movement, which means deception in serve is very easy, and after a certain measure of spin, deception is much more important.. Of course, with faster fuller motion it also serves spinnier than the MX-S and H3 because it can grab the plastic ball better and is non tensor so it's a lot easier to put a lot of oomph into the ball while keeping it short. Since it grabs the ball you can manage contact with a lot less forward momentum because the tackiness will pull the ball forward.
Serve Receive: 10/10
Nothing unpredictable here. A hard sponge ultra tacky rubber will always be the best for serve receive in my opinion. No catapult like the ESN rubbers so you can easily place it where you want with very little fear of error if you read the serve right.
Makes it very easy to return it with lots of backspin to wherever you want because you engage mostly the tackiness of the topsheet and none of the sponge (which is too hard for that).
Also very easy to do a brush return where you add to the spin already on the ball. It will not shoot out as it may do with a rubber that grabs the ball less.
Perfect.
Topspin 9.5
Tested to see by having a blade with Battle II on one side and the H3Neo on the other.
Behavior is very similar to H3, meaning that the ball flies almost straight (slight curve) over the net and then plunges nearly straight down by the opponents table edge.
Very hard shots were less spinny than the MS-X, but this rubber is better for spinning closer to the table and over the table. And in non-top-power shots it was spinnier than the MS-X. I'd say the two are comparable but have different strengths.
Battle II is definitely best suited to a player that stays closer to the table and has body speed.
Block: 9
In my opinion a little less controlled than the H3, but it's good. It won't shoot off like in the ESNs, so it will generally be a slower block but this is good, because it lets you control the speed and placement more easily. It's still not a slow rubber by any means, it offers a very good compromise. I wouldn't say it's a rubber made for blocking though. Not as consistent as other hard rubbers.
I'd rate the MX-S a solid 10 in blocking, in comparison.
Speed: 8.5
Ok, this was a surprise (I think anyone who uses this rubber will very surprised at its speed in comparison to traditional chinese rubbers, although if you're used to ESN it might be very slow for you).
I think there is some kind of catapult built into it, but it only activates when you hit quite hard and straight. I can't attribute it to the hard sponge because it's MUCH faster than the Hurricanes when you hit the ball directly with force, but is also simply faster in general. It's fast enough to use it effectively as a backhand rubber, which is very hard to do with the hurricanes. Of course, it's not ideal for that though. I tried it a few times and because of my technique I could not get enough speed out of it for backhand, so I use a dedicated speed rubber (Palio AK47)
So yeah, smashes are good, drives are very fast but similarly to the H3s you still need a bit of a brushing motion to get the most out of it. Slightly different stroke than the ESN rubbers. In straight forward shots it's nearly as fast as the MX-S/EL-P, considerably faster than the H3s. I rate it 9 when it may deserve.. like. 8.8(?) because of the surprise factor. It really feels like a modern rubber dressed up like an old one.
Conclusion:
Great rubber. Easily one of my favorites. It seems to do everything well and make everything easy.
It's fast-ish but without tensor/catapult unpredictability, it's extremely spinny with barely a touch, its the absolute best at serves and serve receive (which is my favorite part of the game really), and to top it off, you can get like 3-4 of these for the price of one butterfly rubber.
You need a lot of strength and technique to get good spin and speed out of it, but it has a higher ceiling than any ESN rubber I've known.
Update:
I scratched my rubber on the table edge today so I finally went fukit and ordered the provincial version. Will review when I get it
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