Blade: Sphinx Cowl

Weight: 32.6g (LOW END) - 33.1g (HIGH END)

• Design: Sphinx Cowl is a 9-sided blade with a jagged shape, designed to deflect opponents from any angle.

• Gimmick Barrage Defense: The blade’s design focuses on deflecting attacks from various angles.

• Attack vs. Attack (AVA): Sphinx Cowl can be explosive in AVA matchups, but it lacks stamina. It performs decently against other attackers, but its effectiveness is limited by its stamina. 

• Attack vs. Defense/Stamina: When used with a 70-height setup, Sphinx Cowl can be an effective aggressive attacker, capable of KOing or depleting the stamina of opponents. 

• Stamina/Defense: On stamina or defense combinations, Sphinx Cowl is subpar. Its lack of stamina often results in losing points via being out-spun or a spin finish.

Strengths:

• Strong Impact: The unique jagged shape of Sphinx Cowl can deliver powerful blows, repelling opponents effectively.

Weaknesses:

• Gap: Like any blade with a gap, Sphinx Cowl is more vulnerable to Burst. It’s recommended to be cautious with your launch and use it at a 70-height setup.

Overall:  Sphinx Cowl is a welcome addition to any collection. While it’s not a top-tier blade, it has potential with the right 70-height setups and aggressive bits. However, it requires further support from additional 70-height releases and bits to become more relevant in competitive play.

Gameplan: Sphinx Cowl with low-height setups paired with aggressive bits that have stamina, such as High Taper on a 60-height ratchet.

Combos:

Attack: Sphinx Cowl 3-60/9-60 HT

Ratchet: 4-80

Weight:

• Design: 4-80 is a ratchet that has 4 sides and a low height, the contact areas for the ratchet are 4 small points.

• No real difference in consistent stamina: There doesn't seem to be a significant difference in stamina performance between the three-sided and four-sided versions of the Ratchet. 

Strengths: 

Weakness:

• Four sides with smaller hit points: The Ratchet has four sides with small square contact points compared to a three-sided design. Despite having smaller hit points than three sides it actually makes it easier to hit since it is not as rounded off meshed onto the ratchet.

• Tall Height: It is one of the tallest height ratchets, not only that but since the 4 points are easier to Burst than 3 sides you are extremely vulnerable losing via burst. 

Bit: High Taper

Weight: 2.2g

• Design: HighTaper is a Bit that features high Burst resistance and features a semi flat with a indent on the bottom and a taller height than regular Taper.

Strengths:

• Great mixed stamina and attack bit for Beyblade X: The HighTaper Bit is similar to Flat where the design of this Bit is a semi flat. So while it is still able to be used for attack getting that aggressive movement, you have greatly improved stamina compared to regular flat. 

• Uses the Xtreme Dash gimmick easily: The Bit works well with the Xtreme Dash performance tip, allowing for high speed and KO potential.

• Able to pick up somewhat strong speeds and KO: The Bit excels in achieving somewhat high rotational speeds, making it proficient at knocking out opponents from the stadium.

• Burst Resistance: Due to being a Bit with a 80 Stats in Burst resistance this makes this bit great  to use due to minimal Burst risk.

Weaknesses:

• Worse Stamina than regular Taper: HighTaper more or less has the same use as Taper due to the fact it has a higher center of gravity forcing it to be more aggressive.

• Mixed attack potential: Taper can have the reverse issue of Flat, while Flat can kinda fail for stamina performance, Taper can kinda fail for attack performance. It requires a good shoot to make it get to very similar performance to Flat when Blader is optimizing for shoot. This is both a pro and a con, you get the benefit of more controlled stamina but less use of pure attack.

• Vulnerability to self-KO: If the Bit is hard-launched and catches the stadium path, it can self-KO, which is a potential weakness. Control and technique are important when using this Bit.

Gameplan:

• Flat launch or a somewhat tilted angle shoot: To maximize the effectiveness of this Bit, you can employ a flat launch or a slight angle to utilize the stadium's gimmicks and aim for knockouts.