Stiga Genesis 2 M rubber reviews

Stiga Genesis 2 M
Weight: 70 grams uncut
Speed: OFF+
Spin: Extremely high

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPqzKXCNzzY

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The Genesis 2 M is the upgraded version of the previous Genesis M. The new rubber has a non shiny texture on the surface of its topsheet whether it’s the red or black version. I have tried the Genesis 1 M about 2 years ago and there are things that I thought the rubber needs in order for it to cope up with the increasing demands for better rubbers against polyballs. The first Genesis rubbers, both the S and M versions, are already spinny and also provide good amount of power but as the game further evolves, I thought that the Genesis 1 rubbers have more room for improvement. The sponge is rated medium but when I press against it with my fingers, it is like a medium hard rubber ranging from 45 to 47 degrees hardness if you are comparing it to a German rubber. Out of the box, the Genesis 2 M is semi-tacky after you remove the plastic and clean the topsheet, the tackiness almost goes away. The rubber is very grippy and retains some tackiness after you have to initially clean it with water. The black rubber is still tackier than the red one and also feels a bit harder than the black.

I have to be honest, I wanted the Genesis 1 M before to be a bit more bouncy and has more spin than it was originally intended before. Stiga said they have made improvements with the Genesis 2 M and I can agree with it after testing the newest version. I tested the both the Genesis 1 and 2 M versions as a fh-bh rubber on the Xu Xin Dynasty blade. To be honest, even if I am a long time Hurricane 3 user, I liked the Genesis 2 M better on the Xu Xin blade because the Hurricane 3 did not feel right. I would attribute it probably with the bad quality I have gotten from a bad batch.

There is a significant increase on the speed of the Genesis 2 M over the Genesis 1 M. It is hard to quantify but probably about 10-15% increase in speed. It is not much of a jump for the speed but you can actually feel the increase. The sponge is more reactive to the incoming ball whereas with the older version there is some loss of power when you drive the ball. The red version was a bit faster and felt harder. I tried using the red both as a backhand and forehand rubber for rallies or drills with forehand drives and it performs better in speedy shots. The black one on a personal note seems to be a better driving rubber when you use it in the forehand. I would attribute this to the fact that the black rubber is a bit softer compared to the red one and also has more tack. There is also an increase with smashing or loop drives on the new one since the throw is a little bit higher.

Now comes looping – this is the one that I like most with the Genesis 2 M since I felt that the arc is abit higher than the original Genesis 1 M. The spin is very obvious that it has more spin to offer. If the speed increase can be felt a little, the spin on the other hand can be felt at first contact with the ball. Playmates of mine said that the spin in my loops are almost as spinny compared to using a tacky rubber but with the Genesis 2 M offering more power on shots. The Genesis 2 M does not discriminate on the kind of underspin balls that it can loop. It is impressive enough to loop the balls above the table on the rise/while the ball is rising after the bounce. This is my main qualification on a personal note if a rubber is good enough to give you a fast and spinny loop if it can do the type of loop timing mostly observed when attacking half long serves that can double bounce if not received and anticipated properly.

It is also excellent for drop shots and flicks in which a Chinese rubber is expected to excel but minus the sensitivity since it does not feel as tacky as its counterparts. Blocking is really good especially with the red version on the backhand since it feels as if it is a semi-tacky Japanese rubber. I suspect if they release a hard version of the sponge, say the hardness of Mantra H, this would be your perfect all out attacking rubber. For now, everybody will love this new version since it offers a lot. It is also the spiniest rubber from Stiga surpassing the original one. Also, the control is very high that this can be good enough for intermediate level at max thickness because it is not as fast as the Mantra M or any other rubber on its class. Overall, this is another high quality and high performance rubber from Stiga that is excellent for almost all types of play and levels.
 
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Good to know that you will review this rubber and also and also the S version. There aren't many reviews of them yet, and you always do great reviews.
 
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I'm more interested in genesis 2 soft, would like a full review
 
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Cool. I've been wondering about this and if I remember someone said it's what Dan uses, so I'm curious why
Dan doesn't use this despite it saying in his signature or whatever you call it that he uses a carbonado 145 with genesis s rubbers he uses an infinity with T05 I have seen his bat when he played British league
 
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Cool. I've been wondering about this and if I remember someone said it's what Dan uses, so I'm curious why

I would be extremely surprised if Dan used Genesis 2 S as it's quite a lot slower than Genesis 2 M.

2 S is a quite weird rubber as it's got a tacky top sheet with a quite soft sponge. I used 2 M for about 4 months on my normal setup and it was great but way too spin sensitive for me. I accidentally came across a sheet of 2 S extremely cheap which I slapped onto my defensive blade which I use when I mess around with LP. I'm no ace but I'm finding 2 S quite tricky to handle. The short game is quite bouncy and looping from distance requires some serious effort (probably comes down to my poor technique combined with a DEF blade).
 
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I would be extremely surprised if Dan used Genesis 2 S as it's quite a lot slower than Genesis 2 M.

2 S is a quite weird rubber as it's got a tacky top sheet with a quite soft sponge. I used 2 M for about 4 months on my normal setup and it was great but way too spin sensitive for me. I accidentally came across a sheet of 2 S extremely cheap which I slapped onto my defensive blade which I use when I mess around with LP. I'm no ace but I'm finding 2 S quite tricky to handle. The short game is quite bouncy and looping from distance requires some serious effort (probably comes down to my poor technique combined with a DEF blade).

Can compare to Rakza7 soft?
 
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Can compare to Rakza7 soft?

Have never tried it sorry.

Mantra S is a whole lot faster than both Genesis 2 M & S if you're not playing with a Chinese brush-loop-everything style. The Genesis 2 rubbers are clearly manufactured by DHS and are a bit like a Chinese tacky rubber with a different kind of sponge. I would much rather pick one of the Tibhar K1 rubbers if I would want a hybrid tacky rubber.
 
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Have never tried it sorry.

Mantra S is a whole lot faster than both Genesis 2 M & S if you're not playing with a Chinese brush-loop-everything style. The Genesis 2 rubbers are clearly manufactured by DHS and are a bit like a Chinese tacky rubber with a different kind of sponge. I would much rather pick one of the Tibhar K1 rubbers if I would want a hybrid tacky rubber.

I'm just wondering about light and superspinny rubbers for backhand. Is it light btw? the genesis 2 s
 
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So I’ve actually purchased one of those to replace a rakza 7 on my forehand (my ocd really doesn’t go well with having a full stiga setup except for my fh rubber - and yeah I know it’s quit silly, but I guess that’s just how I’m wired ^^)

will need to review it when my current rakza sheet dies :)
 
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bought the soft version myself. Mixed feelings.
Hats off to Stiga for the topsheet. This is probably the 1st time ever Stiga has actually made a spinny rubber. It's got so much grip it's almost hurricane-3 like (even feels like H3 when pressing it). It's not as tacky as H3 which also suits my preference(at its current state without boosting) as shots ain't too dead under softer impacts.
Speed under hard shots however was disappointment. To put it in contrast, my Genesis ii S on my rocket blade is much slower than an Airoc M on another Stiga Carbo 7.6 which i came across lately (my blade is much faster than the Carbo and I don't even consider Airoc as very fast rubber), regardless of what types of topspin strokes/flat hits I tried executing. It could be i came across a bad sheet or poor techniques but still my sheet just isn't suited for hard topspins (without boosting at least) and i hope the M version would actually have a supportive sponge to allow for more aggressive shots (as yogi classified its speed as OFF+).

I'll stop here and wait for yogi's review.
 
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to my utmost surprise my Genesis ii S has become much faster after it's broken in. The difference is pretty far apart, from once it was much slower than my forehand Jupiter 2 to now it becomes considerably faster instead.
I didn't expect this as even H3s don't behave like that after that initial excessive tacky layers worn off. Anyway now it plays comfortably on my backhand.
 
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