The biggest difference of these two blades, is placement of Aramid-Carbon.
Viscaria is placed on right after surface wood while, ALC is placed between 2nd & center wood.
As a developer or tester of blades, these two aspects are quite important.
Current trend is however having AC (Aramid-Carbon) after surface layer of wood.
While it is true that where the carbon is in the ply construction is one of the big differences, the top ply wood is just as important. The top ply of a Viscaria is Koto which is on the hard side and it has already been said that this gives a crisp and more direct feel. While the top ply of the Innerforce is Limba which is much softer gives more dwell time spin and control but is not as fast.
Another thing that is misleading in the above statement is the simple note that "the current trend" is to have the carbon under the top ply.
This is not simply "the current trend." Probably the word you were looking for is TRADITIONAL. Directly below the top ply is the traditional placement for the composite ply.
Most composite blades since they started making blades with composite materials, had the composite ply just below the top ply. So it has nothing to do with some current trend.
In fact, Butterfly was trying to be innovative by making the composite ply deeper in the blade. Hence the name Innerforce. So, putting the composite ply deeper could actually be called a "current trend" but it still would not help us understand the benefits of each placement of the composite ply.
When the composite ply is closer to the surface, the composite ply affects touch, feel, impact and shot quality on hard and soft contact. This is better for big shots and makes the touch of short game harder which simply means the player has to have better touch and feel to use a TRADITIONAL composite blade and maintain control in the short game. The composite material closer to the surface also makes it harder to feel the ball as it cuts down vibration more.
When the composite material is deeper, the composite material does not come into play and help the player on lighter touch shots. So the blade plays more like an all wood blade closer to the table and in fact feels more like an all wood blade. There is much more feeling. But the tradeoff is that there is much less pace and power on closer to the table play. But, once you have dropped back to mid-distance and are taking bigger swings with more impact, the composite ply kicks in and the blade plays faster, than close to the table. Not as fast as a traditional composite blade. But faster than it played closer to the table.
So a traditional composite blade is for someone who wants the extra power of the composite and is okay sacrificing the feel, touch and control of an all wood blade for that extra power. And a blade like the Innerforce with the composite ply deeper is for a player who wants a blade that feels and performs like an Off- all wood blade close to the table but has some of the extra kick and juice of a composite blade on the bigger shots, bigger impacts and from further back.
Sent from Inside The Chamber of Secrets by Patronus