I've been switching rubbers on the blade, I've been playing with Rakza Z EH on FH, and a Victas V>15 extra on BH. It's actually quite a good pairing with the blade. The Rakza Z EH has been on my mind ever since it was released but I was always scared of its weight, 53-55g cut is really heavy.
Anyways I glued one on since I find the H8-80 bit soft for this blade. Maybe I mentioned it before during my initial finding. I mainly chose Rakza Z EH since good players in Japan rate it highly and some people on forums really liked it with the seamless balls.
Rakza Z EH:
I usually am really fast to adapt to any rubber, especially on my forehand but the Rakza Z is not so trivial on this blade. Like many say it is not as hard as it is rated. I agree it feels rather supple and soft. But it's not very crisp with my current strokes. I can feel its hardness as it is not so trivial to hit down on the blade. I feel the sponge is very "deep", and the ball can sink a lot, definitely more than with most rubbers. Because of this, I feel like I am rubbing the ball too much and it's not so easy to create high speed and power. I kinda hate this feeling, since I'm putting in ~100% effort and getting 60% output. It should be the other way actually. On my level, it is very important that I maximize my output power as much as possible even from a "weaker" stroke.
But this characteristic has highlighted to me that I need to change my stroke, to add more forward hit motion instead of just rubbing the ball. I did hit some balls like that today and those were absolute demolishing rockets. So I am smiling that the rubber has more potential than I anticipated on the first try. My first impression was that it was slow.
I also need to correct my slow loop with it, I don't feel comfortable yet since the ball either has not enough spin or raises too high. Rakza Z lifts underspin balls very easily, too easily. However, the rubber is very good for loopkills so I can get by with those for now.
Rakza Z EH is really nice in touch play and flicks. I find it easy to keep the ball low to the net or poke it long and sharp.
Countering is great with it as well, I find it easier than D09c, I think the Bluegrip C2 was the best for countering that I have tried, but this is like 90% as easy as with C2 and I think it outputs better quality than C2. D09c and H8-80 for me was quite hard work, I felt I need to have a more open racket angle with them because if I closed too much these rubbers just held the ball for very very long and stretched the rubber too much then they catapulted the ball long. Rakza Z EH is more user-friendly for me.
I also feel like if I hit hard and manage to hit down on the racket both the rubber and the racket eat the ball very well. I need to adjust myself to get this impact more often.
Last but not least it works with the Joola Flash (seamless) ball extremely well. Bluegrip C2, Joola Golden Tango PS, and Dragon Grip neither really take the Flash ball well, they slip a lot. The Rakza Z topsheet never had this issue so far and I wage that it won't in the future either.
Victas V>15 extra:
Oh man, on backhand this rubber is just awesome with this blade. On its package, this rubber has "THE CONCEPT is POWER and SPIN". Yup, they nailed this statement very well. This rubber has insane power and spin. Let me start that it also works extremely well with the seamless ball just as Rakza Z, which is not the case with every rubber. I find grippy BTY rubbers (Dignics, Tenergy, Rozena) suffer with it, but some ESN too especially the newer ones that have some top coating on them. V>15 extra has no issues, that topsheet is probably one of the best I've seen from ESN.
It hugs/bites the ball like nothing else I felt (maybe Mizuno Q5 is close) and once you bite it the rubber is very stretchy and the sponge is also very clicky. It is advertised as a sheet that has 47.5 degree sponge which is aimed at Tenergy sponge hardness, but I think the V>15 extra is softer. Maybe it is at Rozena or T19 hardness, which are both a bit softer than T05. I think this hardness is better with the seamless ball.
Many rubbers haven't got enough power nor spin potential (or catapult) to be a threat from further back from their own power. What do I mean? Well, imagine you're 1.5-2 meters back and you get a dead-floating ball from maybe short pips and you just can't do a meaningful and threatening drive back. Tenergy 05 is pretty good at it, but I know people who like T25fx, Fastarc P-1, Tibhar Aurus etc and if they step back 1.5 meters and if I don't block to them with a bit of speed they cannot hit above the net, since the rubber has no power on its own. V>15 extra has the power while actually being rather insensitive to incoming spin and having very good control over the table. Blocking is a breeze, but that's not even the best part since you can catch balls, and once you do that you can direct anywhere on the table with great speed and spin. Diagonal, parallel, every angle is possible. After 2-3 fast diagonal balls if you can change to a parallel shot with good spin and speed you probably can count a point to yourself. This catching ability is very handy against short pips and long pips players. Not many rubbers can catch empty floating balls so well. The other day I got complaints from pips users that I return balls very softly for them and other times I was ripping very heavy ones. I kinda felt sorry for the guys they were so confused and speechless.
It's super good for banana flicks too since the topsheet hugs the ball well and I don't even need to care about lifting the ball, just to make a fast wrist and elbow snap and the rubber takes care of everything else.
It's very durable too, I have had mine since April, and I've been using it for quite a bit but on some blades I didn't fancy it so much. It didn't change in performance since I got it, and it doesn't shrink like many ESN rubbers. I know a guy who is using the same sheets for 5 years now and the sponge feels just like mine. It truly is a wonderful rubber and I can understand why so many pros use it.