Super Viscaria? Thoughts on the Butterfly Viscaria Super ALC Blade
01 Foreword
Butterfly’s major 2022 new release — the Viscaria Super ALC — was scheduled to launch on March 1. This move was bound to cause a stir. Some players were curious and excited; others were skeptical and dismissive. And plenty of enthusiastic folks had already sent me questions. Without further ado, here are my thoughts and projections on the “Super Viscaria” — it may take some careful reading to follow, but I’m confident you’ll come away with something useful.
02 Heavier and More Powerful
New vs. old Viscaria data comparison:
Viscaria: Rebound characteristic 11.8 / Vibration characteristic 10.3 / Thickness 5.8mm / Weight 86g (shakehand)
Viscaria Super ALC: Rebound characteristic 12.1 / Vibration characteristic 10.1 / Thickness 5.7mm / Weight 89g (shakehand)
03 On Price
Market expectations:
This is a standard market-release product — not a special edition or limited run. The official suggested retail price is 1,980 RMB. Following Butterfly’s typical 75% pricing principle, the actual selling price is expected to be around 1,485 RMB. Initial stock will be limited, so there will likely be some price premium before supply stabilizes. My estimate puts the market price somewhere between 1,500 and 1,700 RMB. There isn’t much room for the blade to appreciate in value, so I’d advise any unscrupulous scalpers looking to flip it to save themselves the trouble.
04 What the Community Thinks
Butterfly has ZLC, Super ZLC, and ALC — but never had a Super ALC. That gap has existed for a long time. Before the Super Viscaria was announced, many players were already hoping for a Super ALC blade, yet Butterfly never went down that road.
(1) Some argued that a Super ALC would probably end up feeling similar to a ZLC anyway, so there was no point in making one.
(2) Others said that the ALC construction itself tends toward crisp, snappy hitting while ZLC is more flexible, and Super ZLC remains somewhat controllable. Adding more material to ALC would only make it springier and harder to control — not appealing. They weren’t optimistic.
05 My Thinking
Personally, I’ve always held a positive view on this. Butterfly loves to iterate on its own lineup — they already made Super ZLC, so of course they’d want to develop a Super ALC eventually. It was always a matter of when, not if.
The technical obstacle was physics: more carbon fiber content inevitably increases the blade’s elasticity, and greater elasticity also increases vibration, which changes the feel. The original Viscaria is already quite lively for many club players and not the easiest to control. Blindly adding material without a proper solution would simply make it uncontrollable.
One reasonable approach is to use a limba (linden) face layer as a buffer — for example, the domestically produced Lei Shen 81 Special uses outer Super ALC plus limba, and the Yula Scepter also adopts super-fiber plus limba to maintain high power while adding arc protection.
06 Further Thinking
But Butterfly couldn’t take that route. Their design brief was: top players want the Viscaria to hit harder without changing the feel of the blade. Switching to a limba face would mean it’s no longer a Viscaria — they were committed to keeping the koto face and only changing the inner layers. Through extensive adjustment of fiber-to-carbon ratios and weave patterns, Butterfly ultimately succeeded in developing a Super ALC that retains the ALC’s flexibility and usability while incorporating more fiber content.
Note: By the law of conservation, you can’t only gain elasticity without any trade-off, so the Super Viscaria’s vibration characteristic will change somewhat — though the overall feel should remain close to the original, since the addition is arylate fiber rather than raw carbon.
Final Thoughts
Performance prediction: “Players who tested it reported that the hitting feel is similar to the Viscaria, but with noticeably more power.” I trust the official assessment more than any speculation. My one hope is that it improves on the slight woodenness some players feel on the forehand side.
Who it’s for: Intermediate to advanced club players and professional players.
Looking ahead: Will other Super ALC blades follow? Absolutely. If even the most powerful Viscaria can be made in a Super ALC version, then the softer Zhang Jike Super ALC, Lin Gaoyuan Super ALC, and even inner-carbon Tomokazu Super ALC will all happen in time.
Super ALC is here to stay — the Viscaria Super ALC is just the beginning. Butterfly loves to iterate, and we’ll see more.