Luzz Blade 2 Review: Is This Their Best Gen 4 Paddle Yet?

Luzz has been one of the hottest brands recently. The Inferno and Cannon are super popular power paddles, and they've also got the Tornazo and Glider, which perform well.

Here I have their latest paddle: the Blade 2. The main pitch is that it's a gen 4 paddle with a gen 3 feel.

Let's see if it lives up to that claim.

Intro

My name is Pickle Li. I'm a 5.0 pickleball player and I've reviewed over 50 paddles on this channel. I created MyPickleList, which does community-driven paddle ratings, and there are currently over 900 ratings.

Caveats & Disclosures

Reminder: This is a first impressions review, not a full review.

I played with this for a few days, so I can't speak to long-term durability. That said, it is gen 4, so it shouldn't core crush.

I'll be rating this paddle on MyPickleList at the end of this write-up, so stay tuned for that.

If you decide to buy one — or any Luzz paddle — use code PICKLELI for 15% off at luzzpickleball.com.

Shout out to Luzz for sending this over.

Quick Specs Overview

The Luzz Blade 2 is a 14mm gen 4 paddle. 14mm is on the rarer side — most gen 4 paddles are 16mm.

It also comes with adjustable weights. Since I already mentioned them, I'll get this out of the way: I didn't really like the weights.

• They feel cheap — plastic weights with glue dots to stick them on
• At that point it's not really adjustable; might as well give me lead tape strips
• Each weight is only ~1.5g — it came with four, but you need two to equal one 3g lead tape strip
• Not durable — I lost one mid-session and had no clue where it went, so I pulled the other off to stay balanced

Nice idea, just too low quality. If you're going to glue dots on, just give me lead tape.

• My sample weight: 7.9 oz

On-Court First Impressions

Pop

I'd say the Blade 2 is on the poppier side. This is marketed as an all-court paddle, and I didn't really have issues with counters — enough pop there. Overall a more pop-forward paddle.

Control & Feel

Compared to the Inferno, this pops off the face faster, perhaps due to the thickness. Because it's more all-court in nature, control wasn't too bad.

Your balls will still pop a little more like a power paddle, so resets run a bit higher — but if you play with power paddles a lot, it's probably familiar territory.

Sweet spot: My biggest complaint. Felt about average for a good paddle and left me wanting more. Could be the elongated shape — I'm more of a hybrid/widebody guy — or the paddle itself. Maybe the 14mm plays a role too.

Break-in curve: The first couple sessions I didn't really like it. On the third and final day it grew on me and felt more intuitive. Hard to say if that's break-in, getting used to it, or both — I also had a drill session or two in there.

Luzz is notorious for gen 4 paddles breaking in (Inferno, Tornazo, etc.). Maybe at first it was more pop than power, which isn't my preference — but toward the end the pop-to-power ratio felt more balanced, and I played better.

Spin & grit: About average. Grit felt worn down after some use. Spin was fine — nothing bad, nothing crazy. Standard carbon fiber face stuff.

Gen 3 feel claim: I'm a bit confused on this one. I didn't put the Joola Pro IV at the top of my feel rankings — I'd prefer the RPM Q2 over Pro IVs and Pro Vs — so maybe I'm just not the biggest gen 3 feel guy.

That said, the Blade 2 has a different feel than the Inferno — less dwelly, more responsive off the face. I wouldn't call those traits "gen 3" by default (RPMs are significantly softer than Joolas, for example).

It's more poppy and responsive than the Inferno, but not as hollow as a Boomstik or RPM Q2. If that is what you mean by gen 3 feel, then maybe they hit the target. It's different from other gen 4 paddles — just not sure I'd sell it as great gen 3 feel.

Power

I started off thinking this was all-court, which is what they advertised. At first that felt true — maybe why I didn't love it early, since it's very pop-centric.

It probably broke in and picked up power over time, which made it more enjoyable — kind of like the Tornazo when I first tried it.

• Before break-in: all-court / all-court leaning power
• After break-in: all-court leaning power → low-tier power

Toward the end, everything felt like it had enough power — especially with how much pop it has.

Verdict & MyPickleList

MyPickleList is a site I built for community-driven paddle ratings — a quick way to see how a paddle stacks up without watching a full review. We have 250+ members and 900+ ratings; more ratings make it better, so please join if you haven't.

If you're in the Atlanta area, Premier Racquet Sports in Dunwoody is running $20 gift cards when you rate and comment on 5 paddles on the site.

Back to the paddle.

After the first two sessions I didn't like the Blade 2 much, but it grew on me toward the end. It kind of sucks that gen 4 Luzz paddles seem to have a break-in period — at least the general consensus — but it is what it is.

The sweet spot didn't impress me, which is probably the main knock. It did come with weights to help, but they were too light and low quality — I'd have preferred lead tape.

• Initial rating: probably a 6 or 7 (with some weight setups)
• After break-in: 7, maybe 8 — even after a weight fell off and I was basically back to stock form

Rating: 7/10

If I were to use it, I'd add lead tape in an optimal setup to help the sweet spot. Other than that, it gives nice aggressiveness with pop that isn't so much that everything sails out.

Good fit if you like pop-forward paddles that aren't top-tier power. Gen 4 durability is a plus if you care about that.

The Blade 2 has a unique feel for gen 4 — it doesn't really fit the soft/dense side, the Infernos/Locos, or the Boomstiks/RPM Q2s. Maybe that is a more gen 3 feel. I just don't think that feel is necessarily more desirable than the paddles I mentioned — but if that's what you like, you may have found your gen 4 paddle with gen 3 feel.

Thanks for reading. Join the MyPickleList community on site and Discord — we talk paddles, gear, and pickleball tips daily. If you caught this as a video too, like and subscribe there; it helps a lot. See you next time.

Shop Luzz paddles → (code PICKLELI, 15% off)