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: 9-80

Weight: 6.8g

• Design: 9-80 is a ratchet that has 9 sides and a tall height, the contact areas for the ratchet are 9 filled-out points.

• Stamina: It is as good as 5-80 and good compared to other other ratchets.

• Burst Resistance: It has the best resistance as it is incredibly hard to hit being small and rounded off.

Weakness:

• Tall Height: It is important to note that being tall in the case of 9-80 does not mean pure weakness however it means to be careful how you launch. 

Bit: Gear Needle

Weight: 2g

• Design: Gear Needle is a Beyblade X bit with low burst resistance and a large gear cone shape with a tiny sphere like bottom. 

Strengths:

• Counter Movement: Due to the very nature of design the bit is focused on counter attack or counter defense where it will focus on the Xtreme Line and you will have a bit that won't go with out a fight. 

• Xtreme Dash: If launched correctly similar to a point Gear Needle is specialized in Xtreme Dash due to the nature of the gears.

• Stamina Destablizer: While not good at specifically Defense Gear Needle has the property to be able to destablize other opponents and push back in counter movement.

Weaknesses:

• KO Risk: Due to shape not being something that can really grip the stadium it can easily be KO'd costing you big points.

• Gimmick failure?: Since the bit has low burst resistance and it is focused on fast movement it forces this bit to just die easily to Burst Finish and not be as consistent as you want.  Despite being a defense bit most of the use come at some wacky stamina hybrid combo where it can sometimes help beat a lot of stuff via destabilization but it is far too inconsistent. 

Gameplan:

• Somewhat tilted angle shoot and throw: To maximize the effectiveness of this Bit, you can employ a slight angle and throw the Beyblade on the opposing side from where you launch. This is to avoid knockouts and to conserve stamina. 

• Be aware of the top corners on the opposite side of where the Xtreme Finish is: Aim to try to KO with your movement.

• Needs a STRONG shoot to be consistent.