How Good is B-189 Guilty Longinus Karma Metal Destroy-2? (Beyblade Review)

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B-189 Guilty Longinus Karma Metal Destroy-2 by Takara-Tomy has been a long awaited release for attack type Beyblade enthusiasts.

Looking at the incredible mark Beyblade Burst Sparking’s B-168 Rage Longinus Destroy Dash 3A left on the meta well over a year ago, Guilty Longinus has a lot of expectations to live up to. 

Read on to find out what you need to know about this release, and whether those expectations end up being met!

Note from Blader Kei: This article was written in collaboration with WBO user Dan. Huge thank you to Dan for reaching out and helping to make this happen!

All tests in this review were conducted in the Burst BeyStadium Standard Type.

Finally, if you buy something through some of the links on this post, you won’t pay any extra, but I’ll get a small commission. This helps me keep things running. Thanks for your support!

Product Details

• Brand: TAKARA-TOMY
• Product Code: B-189
• Product Contents:
  • Guilty Longinus Karma Metal Destroy-2
  • L Gear
• System: Dynamite Battle Layer System
• Series: Beyblade Burst Dynamite Battle

Part Weights

These are simply the weights of the Guilty Longinus Karma Metal Destroy-2 in our possession, and these numbers tend to vary slightly between individual Beyblades. The one you have may be slightly heavier or lighter depending on a variety of factors.

• Guilty Blade: 17.05g
• Longinus Dynamite Core: 10.17g
• Karma Disk (4 Stars): 29.22g
• Metal Destroy Driver: 8.91g
• 2 Armor: 13.62g
• L Gear: 15.47g

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How good is the Guilty Blade for Attack type Beyblades?

Easily the most hyped up release since it’s announcement, to many the Guilty Blade was destined to surpass the Rage Ring and usher in its own era of dominance.

As of late Rage, typically paired with the 3A Chassis, has begun to show its age. With the advent of Beyblade Burst Dynamite Battle’s new Layer system, all the pressure is on Guilty to pick up the slack. Does it live up to fan expectations? 

Is the Guilty Blade Better Than The Rage Ring? 

To compare just how well Guilty fits into the current meta, we decided to compare it to its predecessor, and see if it really is the upgrade we had hoped for. First up is the matchup with the Vanish Blade.

Almost immediately after its release in B-185, the Vanish Blade earned its title as a deceptively defensive Blade because it could more than adequately keep attack type combos using the Rage Ring at bay. Vanish became the bane of Rage’s existence on nearly any Driver, even relatively weak-springed options, thanks to the later-released Bahamut Dynamite Core.

Rage Ring vs. Vanish Blade Benchmark Testing

Here is our Rage testing benchmark, using the most prominent and frequent Rage attack type combo to date: Rage Helios II (Metal Chip Core) Xtreme’ 3A.

Needless to say, not much has changed, Rage lacks just a bit of oomph to translate big hits into knock-outs, often enough falling just a centimeter or two short of pocketing Vanish. 

Guilty Blade vs. Vanish Blade Testing

Here is how Guilty stacks up, on the following, mostly stock, attack type combo: Guilty Longinus Karma Xtreme’-2.

We picked this combo because it uses mostly-unique parts that will not see a whole lot of overlap in multi-Beyblade formats like WBO Deck Format, Pick 3, Choose 1 Format, or 3on3 Format, and it is also the most easily accessible pure attack type combo that can be made with Guilty Longinus. 

The Guilty Blade’s performance is nearly 20% better against Vanish compared to Rage, which is no easy feat.

Part of the reason could be that not only is it a bit heavier than Rage, but Guilty’s marginally more exposed contact points may allow for that previously mentioned oomph Rage seemed to be missing.

Guilty Blade vs. Other Top Tier Combos Testing

This isn’t the whole story though. While the Vanish Blade may be Rage’s most notorious counter matchup, we’ve gone and tested a few other potential combos. These are ones you could easily come across in a tournament setting because of their potency.

What we also noticed, before we get to the remaining comparisons, was that Guilty was actually able to Burst Finish Beyblades running the Bahamut Dynamite Core at times, which is an incredible testament to its Smash Attack.

While it may not have happened frequently enough to rely upon in battle, it definitely should make Bladers second guess their previously untouchable but easily burstable Drivers. Bahamut may not be enough to save your Bearing anymore.

The Astral Blade is easily Rage’s most favoured matchup of the current competitive Dynamite Blades, so while it may seem lackluster that Guilty wasn’t performing head and shoulders above Rage (primarily because the lower contact point of the 3A Chassis works wonders against Astral), it isn’t anything to scoff at when you consider how much better Guilty is compared to Rage in the Vanish matchup.

In this matchup the most important thing we noticed was that Rage was much more frequently knocked-out by Devil Valkyrie on the awoken Rise Driver. Guilty was far and away better at actually staying inside the stadium, as almost all of its losses came via out-spin rather than being knocked-out by Devil Valkyrie.

This matchup definitely seems like it can go either way for both Guilty and Rage, but contrary to the results, the Guilty Blade feels a bit more favoured than the Rage Ring here.

The reason being that while Rage netted an extra point over Guilty (1 more KO/20), it was also certainly going to lose by out-spin to Savior Spriggan. If Rage didn’t get a knock-out, there was nothing it could do, Savior could destabilize it from below and get a couple extra rotations over Rage. 

Against Guilty this still occurred, but there were moments where Guilty simply hit too hard for Savior to clinch victory right at the end. In some matches (2/9 battles that weren’t resolved by knock-outs) Savior was too depleted of its stamina after taking hits from Guilty to have any gas left in its tank to destabilize and win. For this reason, while Rage and Guilty are more or less dead even in this borderline unfavourable matchup, Guilty’s ability to at times secure an out-spin can make all the difference in-tournament.

Our penultimate comparison is a generic yet risky right-spin Stamina combo: Devil (F Gear) Valkyrie Over Bearing-0. It is risky because you’re essentially betting on running into only stamina type combos, and against a rubber-based attacker you have a chance of being Burst Finished with high frequency.

Here we decided to switch up the Guilty combo to be the following: Guilty Bahamut Giga Metal Xtreme-2. The rationale for using Bahamut, Giga, and the Metal Xtreme Driver over the previous combo is to show the variability in Guilty combinations.

The rationale for ten matches was simple, Guilty mopped the floor with Devil (F Gear) Valkyrie Over Bearing-0.

GBH.Gg.X’-2 bursted Dv(F)VL.Ov.Br-0 a total of 7 times, and didn’t give it any time to breathe, to continue would be cruel. For Rage, instead of doing 20 full rounds, we did 10 to keep it uniform with Guilty, as well as put the pressure on Rage to perform with only a handful of rounds. Unfortunately, Rage was out-spun quite frequently (half the time), and only managed to Burst Finish twice.

In drawn out matches it would get to the halfway point of the Valkyrie Dynamite Core’s teeth before running out of steam. This is a testament to just how much more powerful the Guilty Blade is in terms of raw Smash Attack than Rage.

The last matchup we have is the head-to-head, which was unfortunately incredibly one-sided. Here we compare a volatile and nearly unpredictable matchup of Rage Helios II Xtreme’ 3A against Guilty Bahamut Giga Metal Xtreme-2. 

The problem with this matchup for Rage is, similar to Valkyrie, it is easily destabilized by Guilty and given a premature death. Out of the 15 victories earned by Guilty, 7 of them were through Out-Spin rather than Knock-Out. 

The Verdict: The Guilty Blade is better than the Rage Ring

While most of its matches are actually fairly comparable to Rage 3A, we are going to have to say Guilty is an overall better Blade at this point. Here’s why:

1. It completely turns the Vanish Blade counter matchup on its head
2. It provides similar quality for other matchups
3. It Burst Finishes more.
4. It in general is able to hold its own a lot better.
5. Access to the Bahamut Core is also a bit of an understated value. It enables you to run heavier Metal Drivers to increase diversity in your Deck without harming other Dynamite Cores.

The Rage Ring is by no means bad, and it would be incorrect to simply relegate it to being outclassed, but Guilty is just that little bit better where if you had to choose one for your Deck, it would probably be wiser to go with Guilty. It can do all the same things Rage can to the same degree of effectiveness, or sometimes better, without being demolished by Vanish. 

Perhaps this is a testament to how well designed Rage is, but Guilty does not make it completely obsolete; it just provides us with a safer and stronger alternative with access to unique DB parts.

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How is the Longinus Dynamite Core different from others?

Longinus is the second heaviest Dynamite Core

The Longinus Dynamite Core clocks in at just over 10 grams, putting it roughly 0.5g shy of the current heaviest Dynamite Core: Perseus.

The Longinus Dynamite Core has strong burst resistance

Longinus features two very prominent teeth that throughout our entire testing with the Xtreme Dash Driver did not click even a single time (that is about 200 individual battles)! The first tooth is definitely the more prominent of the two, and while it doesn’t make something like the Bearing Driver immune to bursting, it provides some serious resistance.

With a Dash Driver or even a normal Driver of slightly weaker tensile strength, Longinus can certainly be trusted to prevent errant bursts.

Because of its exceptional weight and sturdy teeth, it is definitely possible that the Longinus Dynamite Core finds use in left-spin Stamina combos, freeing up the Bahamut Dynamite Core. 

While its teeth are not quite strong enough to completely prevent Bearing from bursting against attack type combos, there is definitely a case to be made for its use to reserve Bahamut for Bearing or Metal Drivers. It’s heavier than both the Fafnir Dynamite Core and Spriggan Dynamite Core, two other left-spin alternatives, and certainly Burst resistant enough to deserve consideration.

How frequently do low burst resistance Drivers burst when using the Longinus Dynamite Core?

To get an idea of how frequently you could expect something as frail as the Bearing Driver to Burst using the Longinus Dynamite Core, we decided to do a test with two high recoil Blades. This is not definitive, but gives you an idea of the worst-case scenarios.

What this shows isn’t that there is any efficacy in using Longinus with Bearing, but instead that Longinus is strong enough to withstand being bursted on Bearing ~40% of the time during long high-recoil battles.

Naturally, on something like Xtreme’, Bearing would have no hope against Guilty with this setup. On a Driver you should be using Longinus with, Burst resistance will be quite high.

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Is the Karma Disk good?

Is The Karma Disk Good For Attack Type Combos?

While the Karma Disk looks ferocious, it seems to be all bark.

It makes a fine-enough Disc for Attack combos, but that isn’t a particularly high bar. For a Disk to stand out in the Beyblade metagame, it has to perform well in endurance battles or have a unique interaction that no other Disc has. Unfortunately, the Karma Disk seems to fall short in both departments.

No Driver thus far is tall enough to make use of Karma’s design to either:

1. Have the luxury of full underside Blade exposure to produce Force Smash or
2. Use Karma’s protrusions to reduce the opponent’s RPM.

Because of this, the latter option to stand-out is not applicable. We can’t use Karma’s sharp design to any effect yet, though perhaps with a ridiculously tall Driver (that’s not the Shot Driver), this could change.

The closest current Driver is the Quattro Driver, which in certain matchups against particularly short opponents, does provide enough height for direct contact with Karma.

It should be noted that in some specific instances Karma will be able to dent opposing Blades. So if you intend to create setups utilizing this Disc as the primary contact point, remember this.

Is The Karma Disk Good For Stamina Type Combos?

So, how does it do compared to two major stamina type Disk staples? Not so great:

It was a wash, we had to call it at 10 matches for both the Over Disk and Giga Disk.

Matches came out closer than one might expect, but this is likely to do with the fact we’ve chosen the most poorly balanced Discs against a fully balanced combo using the Karma Disk. Both Giga and Over were 1 star, and it was evident in the battles that they began to wobble a little prematurely.

The biggest difference was that not only could both Giga and Over topple over slightly without immediately stopping, thanks to their smooth designs, but also that even a 4 Star Karma Disk has a bit of stability issues.

You can tell on the Xtend Plus Driver that it tends to be more aggressive because of Karma’s design and also a bit less secure. So while both Giga and Over would wobble sooner than Karma would, Karma would lose balance and die much, much faster than either of the other options. Probably to no one’s surprise, Karma isn’t quite cut out for Stamina matches despite its small size. 

Since we couldn’t technically rule out that Xtend+’s short height was having a disproportionately negative impact on Karma’s performance (since it is edged), we also tried it on the Mobius Driver, where there is zero chance of toppling. Pure endurance with little Life After Death coming into play.

In this matchup things got significantly more interesting, Karma had more of a fighting chance, but not to a degree where it could be considered viable.

There were a few rounds against both the Over Disk and Giga Disk where Karma snatched victory from the jaws of defeat – by a rotation or two at most. Overall, though, 1 Star Giga and Over won not only with much more frequency, but more convincingly, often out-spinning it by multiple rotations or continuing to spin around the dead Karma.

In Giga’s case, the potential Karma victories were actually somewhat tighter, leading to 2 draws where no victor could be called without some form of video replay. Unfortunately, even on taller stamina Drivers it seems that a well balanced Karma cannot take on even single-star established stamina Disk.

In general, a similar phenomena was observed in the Mobius matches where the Karma Disk simply stops spinning fast. There is a transitory period between wobbling, toppling, and a complete lack of spinning – Karma goes through it much faster than either Over or Giga, in large part due to its aggressive shape.

The Verdict: The Karma Disk is usable, but Giga, Over, and Tapered are better

Because Karma doesn’t stand out in stamina battles, has middling weight, and its innate design can’t be used for many unique and meaningful interactions, its primary purpose at this point is to be a filler attack type combo Disk to free up options like the Giga Disk, Tapered Disk, or Over Disk.

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Is the Metal Destroy Driver competitive?

Destroy’ clocks in at around 6.8g whereas the Metal Destroy Driver is in the 8.91g ballpark – a full 2.1g heavier, but does that make it better?

Metal Destroy Wears Down Teeth, Limiting Its Potential Usage Scenarios

Unfortunately, it is well known that Metal Drivers tend to wear down the teeth of Beyblade Burst tops in all seasons at an incredible pace, meaning that unless you want to replace your valuable parts frequently, these kinds of Drivers are reserved for very specific setups. Such setups include the Bahamut Dynamite Core and to a lesser extent Beyblade Burst Sparking combos that can take advantage of Chassis’. 

Despite the added weight, the Metal Destroy Driver provides little more than Destroy’ with the added burden of requiring very particular parts. Had its patterning differed, or its extra weight been more meaningful, perhaps there would be a reason to run the Bahamut core just for this Driver. 

Comparing Stock Guilty Longinus to Stock Rage Longinus

For those curious about whether B-189 Guilty Longinus Karma Metal Destroy-2 would be the out-of-box powerhouse B-168 Rage Longinus Destroy Dash 3A was, MDs is likely the weakest link here.

Not only would it promote increased wear on the Longinus Dynamite Core compared to a Dash Driver, but the Guilty Blade’s design relies on unfaltering speed as well as traction. Without hitting hard and fast, Guilty will have a very hard time securing knock-outs or out-spins in the same way Rage could in its heyday. These two issues are so egregious that it is recommended to not use Guilty Longinus stock. 

To substantiate these claims, here is the previously Guilty-favoured matchup, but this time with MDs in place of X’:

The Verdict: Metal Destroy Is Competitive Because It’s Destroy, But It Has Flaws 

Overall, Metal Destroy is best strictly on the Bahamut Dynamite Core for Dynamite Beyblades, Beyblade Burst Sparking combinations with Chassis’, or left untouched. It gives you little added benefit over Destroy’, performing basically identically, yet wears down your Beyblade’s teeth faster. On top of that, it isn’t well-suited to the Guilty Blade.

For this reason, we can’t really recommend it unless you:

1. Really like the Destroy Dash Driver.
2. Want the slight weight boost (which may be more useful in a format where the Destroy line of Drivers is more relevant in the metagame).
3. Are prepared to replace parts which have their teeth quickly worn by the Metal Destroy Driver.

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Do Armors like 2 have any effect on Beyblade combos? 

The 2 Armor weighs nearly 14g, similar to just about every other Armor thus far, not a whole lot heavier or lighter.

Armor variation affects Beyblade combos to a very small, but not insignificant degree. Given how each Armor is hovering around the 13-14g mark, their distinguishing feature is how those grams are distributed.

In the case of the 2 Armor, the weight is not distributed evenly but instead on opposite sides, where the “arrows” are. This isn’t necessarily bad, and is likely recommended for Blades that have similar distribution (on opposite sides, like the Guilty Blade does). For Stamina types, though, it may be more suitable to use an Armor like the 0 Armor which has weight more evenly spread around it.

If you have a Blade you think would benefit from opposite weight distribution, then 2 may be a good choice.

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Should you buy the B-189 Guilty Longinus Karma Metal Destroy-2?

If you are an avid Attack player then B-189 Guilty Longinus Karma Metal Destroy-2 is simply not worth missing out on, especially if you are a fan of Rage Longinus.

Parts Summary

Guilty Blade

The Guilty Blade bolsters Smash Attack equivalent to the Savior Blade, a decent matchup spread against most competitive options, without a fatal weakness to the Vanish Blade or anything else for that matter. Essentially, it is exactly what one could expect: the Rage of the Beyblade Burst Dynamite Battle era. 

Longinus Dynamite Core

The hefty Longinus Dynamite Core overall has great Burst resistance (still a league below the likes of Bahamut) and can serve as a solid left-spin version of the Perseus Dynamite Core.

Karma Disk

The Karma Disk is a great choice to free up a Disc option in Deck Format, but its below average weight and aggressive shape makes it a third-string option behind options like the Giga Disk and Over Disk in most situations.

Metal Destroy Driver & 2 Armor

The Metal Destroy Driver and 2 Armor aren’t particularly useful, though. 2 has become a fairly common Armor, with B-189 being the sixth individual release featuring it. Metal Destroy is unfortunately not meaningfully different from its Dash counterpart, and the design itself isn’t so good as to warrant running two Destroys, like X’ and MX would be. 

Because at least half of this release varies from “good” to “excellent”, we can’t find a reason to not recommend this release!

B-189 Guilty Longinus Karma Metal Destroy-2 is a quality addition to any Blader’s competitive collection.

Final Score: 7.5/10

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What do you think of Guilty Longinus Karma Metal Destroy-2? Comment below!

If you’re thinking of picking up B-189 Guilty Longinus Karma Metal Destroy-2 and have any questions, feel free to ask below and I’ll do my best to answer.

And if you’ve already picked it up, I’d love to hear about your thoughts and testing experiences with it. What combinations do you like to use with the parts of B-189 Guilty Longinus Karma Metal Destroy-2?

This release also came packed with Dynamite Belial’s final upgrade: the L Gear. We didn’t get a chance to dive into it for this review, so we’d love to hear about your experiences with it: Do you like what the L Gear brings to the table? Has Perfect Belial been worth the wait?

By the way, if you’re interested you can find the complete round-by-round breakdown for most of the test results in this article here.

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