Blade review: Unicorn Sting

Unicorn Sting

Introduction

Competitive Beyblade is a dynamic world where beybladers have to constantly evolve to gain an edge over their competition. As new and new beyblades are released, new opportunities to outshine the competition emerges. Unicorn Sting has recently emerged as a beyblade shrouded in mystery. It is a beyblade with with a dual sided blade that is designed to serve different purposes. While some might look at it with skepticism and question its viability in the current meta, others might realize the potential with its unique dual sided design which might hold the potential for greatness. However, separating facts from fiction is the purpose of this blog and we (WBO k00mak00ma and WBO Skynet) conducted a series of tests to analyze and dissect Unicorn Sting's performance against current meta favorites to determine if this Unicorn stings or just eats grass on the side.

The jagged aggressive side of Unicorn Sting

the smooth defensive side of Unicorn Sting

Methodology

To dissect Unicorn Sting’s capabilities and to separate hype from reality, we conducted a series of rigorous controlled tests aimed at identifying which bit would be best suited for its unique design. For consistency we chose 9-60 ratchet primarily because when tested by fellow analyst WBO Dan, it has shown to be a very consistent and good ratchet overall (Dan, 2024).

9-60 ratchet

The bits were divided into 3 categories: Aggressive (Flat and Low flat), Balanced (Tapered, Point and High Tapered) and Passive (Needle, Ball, High Needle). We did not include any Gear bits (gear ball, gear point and gear needle) as in our testing, the bits do not seem to perform better than their non gear counterparts (we will upload the review on those bits later). Other notable exclusions were Rush, from aggressive bits, as its performance was similar to Flat albiet with less aggressive movements. Our rationale was that if the hits of Unicorn Sting aren’t capable enough on Flat and Low Flat then it would certainly not be capable enough to survive on Rush. Rush, being an aggressive bit, is also not something that would be used for stamina and the performance of Rush could be similarly evaluated by Point bit. Lastly, we did not include Orb in our testing because I do not own Orb and also its performance is very similar to Ball (originalzankye, 2023).

Results

Aggressive Bits

Flat bit

Unicorn Sting 9-60 Flat (1 win) vs Hells Scythe 9-60 Ball (4 wins)

Unicorn Sting 9-60 Flat (1 win) vs Phoenix Wing 3-60 Rush (4 wins)

Low Flat bit

Unicorn Sting 9-60 Low Flat (0 wins) vs Hells Scythe 9-60 Ball (5 wins)

Unicorn Sting 9-60 Low Flat (0 wins) vs Phoenix Wing 3-60 Rush (5 wins)

Balanced Bits

Tapered bit

Unicorn Sting 9-60 Tapered (2 wins) vs Hells Scythe 9-60 Ball (3 wins)

Unicorn Sting 9-60 Tapered (1 win) vs Phoenix Wing 3-60 Rush (4 wins)

Point bit

Unicorn Sting 9-60 Point (0 wins) vs Hells Scythe 9-60 Ball (5 wins)

Unicorn Sting 9-60 Point (1 win) vs Phoenix Wing 3-60 Rush (4 wins)

Unicorn Sting 9-60 High Tapered (1 win) vs Hells Scythe 9-60 Ball (4 wins)

Unicorn Sting 9-60 High Tapered (1 win) vs Phoenix Wing 3-60 Rush (4 wins)

Passive Bits

Needle bit

Unicorn Sting 9-60 Needle (3 wins) vs Hells Scythe 9-60 Ball (2 wins)

Unicorn Sting 9-60 Needle (1 win) vs Phoenix Wing 3-60 Rush (4 wins)

Ball bit

Unicorn Sting 9-60 Ball (4 wins) vs Hells Scythe 9-60 Ball (1 win)

Unicorn Sting 9-60 Ball (3 wins) vs Phoenix Wing 3-60 Rush (2 wins)

High Needle bit

Unicorn Sting 9-60 High Needle (3 wins) vs Hells Scythe 9-60 Ball (2 wins)

Unicorn Sting 9-60 High Needle (3 wins) vs Phoenix Wing 3-60 Rush (2 wins)

Discussion

As we can observe from the data, Unicorn Sting does not consistently outperform the current standard meta combinations involving Phoenix Wing and Hells Scythe on Ball. It performs decently on Passive bits like Ball and High Needle. However with an increase use of attack focused Phoenix Wing combinations (usually with Point or Rush), it needs to be seen how other defensive blades like Knight Shield and Hells Chain perform on bits like High Needle, Ball or Orb to determine the priority.

On Needle, the reduced surface area makes it very prone to knockouts from attack types while the high height of High Needle makes it very susceptible to bursting from lower height attack combinations with heavy recoil (Dran Dagger, Dran Sword, Shark Edge, Pheonix Wing). While it seems that Unicorn Sting Ball combo wins against Hells Scythe Ball combo, the results are much closer than they look. Unicorn Sting seems to be a high skill blade that needs to deliver hard hits to Hells Scythe in order to drain its stamina in order to win. This is also true for Unicorn Sting on High Needle where it needs to rely on its aggressive side of the blade to hit at a certain angle so it can defeat Hells Scythe Ball combo. 

When evaluating the performance of Blades in the attack domain, there is a pattern that seems to be emerging in Beyblade X. Currently there are Phoenix Wing, Dran Sword, Dran Dagger and Shark Edge that are considered top tier 1 attack performers. Others that are below it include Hells Scythe, Rhino Horn, Knight Lance, Leon Claw and Hells Chain. The reason what sets these tiers apart is the weight and the aggressiveness of the shape. Tier 1 attack blades tend to either be very aggressive (and thus rely on their ability to knock out the opponent Beyblade) or they tend to have a significant weight advantage (and thus rely on their weight to completely bully the opponent). These blades can win fights purely with their hits and are thus mostly seen in aggressive bits like Flat, Rush or low flat. These are sometimes also used with balanced bits like Tapered or Point but they do not need balanced bits. The balance bits merely provide it a little more stamina. Tier 2 attack blades tend to have a slight aggressive shape but lack the weight to really bully other blades. Often, but not always, these are used in counter attack combinations with stamina bits. When used for attack, they are often used with balanced bit like Tapered or Point. Very rarely are these blades found on purely aggressive attack type bits like Flat, Low Flat or Rush as they perform poorly. Unfortunately, Unicorn Sting falls in a tier below. It lacks the weight, and also lacks the shape to provide consistent hits to actually be paired with balanced bits. As a result, it can only be used with passive bits where it can use its unique jagged side design to deliver hard hits against other passive beyblades and smooth defensive side to counter attacks.

To conclude, Unicorn Sting is a mediocre blade with low consistency if paired on any other bit other than passive bits. It seems to be too weak for attack, losing most battles, but shines in counter attack combinations against defensive and attack combinations. As such, this blade is not a competitive must have but rather a supplement to an unorthodox counter attack combo.

References

Dan. (2024, February 7). How Good is Phoenix Wing 9-60GF? - Beyblade Review | BeyBase [Video]. BeyBase. https://beybase.com/bx-23-phoenix-wing-beyblade-review/#9-60-ratchet-review

originalzankye. (2023, October 21). How good is ViperTail in Beyblade X 13+ competitive testings [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuVwW-ho-JU