Stiga Mantra H

The Mantra H model is a special rubber created with Japanese technology by the Stiga brand. It can be a great choice for intermediate and advanced players.

The rubber is fast enough and slightly sticky and tenacious at a reasonable price. The topsheet is a bit harsh, and the sponge is of medium hardness. I really liked it under the forehand.

I use Stiga Mantra H 2.1mm on my forehand. My blade is Stiga Allround Classic. This setup is perfect. The spin which it generates is awesome.

However, when I use it on a faster blade (Sanwei Fextra), the dwell time was too short. It was too hard to generate spin for me. It has many gears and playing with it is really nice. The throw angle is medium low.

Mantra

Play it on the backhand of Sword Black and Gold Pro. The blade, despite having an ebony outer layer, makes hard rubbers feel softer. Hence, the hardness is rated as medium based on feel. The lack of noticeable tackiness makes it slightly challenging to play slow topspins close to the table, as some force or speed is required to generate decent rotation. However, this contributes to the Mantra’s speed. It’s fast with ample spin on harder hits, making it suitable for serves, blocks, and defending from a distance.

AK 47 Red

The AK 47 Red, priced at 3 - 3.5 times less than the Mantra, feels similar but not identical. I’ve had it for approximately 1.5 - 2 months, and I haven’t encountered any durability issues thus far.

It can work nicely with a compatible blade.

This rubber is excellent for offensive forehand play. However, it is not suitable for backhand strokes. Additionally, it is not effective for spin serves. However, it excels in providing pace and topspin for loops.

I was using Tibhar MX-P before and the Mantra H has the same speed as MX-P. However, the top sheet is different, with more spin and a higher arc.

The catapult effect is very high, which means that I feel like I don’t have much dwell time to put a lot of spin. As a result, the ball leaves the blade fast.

It’s not easy to control. I would rate the control as 8.8 because, for example, when I use Andro Rasanter R47 on the forehand, I am way more accurate than with Mantra.

I am using the Stiga Eternity VPS blade. Maybe the rubber would be better with slower blades.

I was using Tibhar Evolution MX-P then Donic Acuda S1 Turbo before trying Mantra H. I am using it on my FH with Viscaria. After one full session of training my impressions are as follows:

Speed: Mantra H = MX-P > Acuda S1 Turbo (very fast for forehand topspin)
Throw angle: Acuda S1 Turbo > Mantra H > MX-P
Spin: Better than both MX-P & Acuda S1 Turbo (even though the top sheet is not tacky like Chinese rubber, it is very easy to lift backspin with Mantra H)
Touch play: Good
Control: Little bit less control compared to the two rubber before, as I must accurately brush the ball on every stroke (when you hit flat, ball will fly over the table)

I haven’t tried blocking with this rubber (will update later). What I like the most from this rubber are, I can place the ball slightly over the net & deep on opposite table, but still maintain enough topspin for power loop. I think I will stick with it for a while. It’s suite well with my Viscaria.

Durability is an issue, already have a few dent after 2 weeks training, use it 4-5 to a week for 2 hour training.

Update: I tried it on my backhand to increase my power and BH speed (previously using joola Maxxx-P). Control is definitely much less than Maxxx-P, I need to really adjust much touch play. But as I expected it give me more power to BH drive and block and spinny BH loop. It’s indeed increasing my BH attack.

One major flaw of this rubber is durability, played in dusty environment, now it has even more dents (my Maxxx-P is last much more longer in the same environment). I love this rubber for its characteristics but I gonna switch back to Maxxx-P or even tenergy 05, I don’t like to play with dents on my rubber.