I have had a number of MCP balls.  My favorite for wet/dry house playing the track area is a Desert Tank and I have over 150+ games on it with no appreciable degradation. 

Since MCP balls in general display less back end reaction I believe you won't see the less total hook of MCP balls vs. reactive. 

In general, I'd say Motiv balls have more longevity than many other ball manufactures. 

My blitz never lost hook. But it cracked last month, so they still have some of the same issues

Light thread jacking here…

I just logged in to make a post asking how these microcell balls compare to traditional urethane in terms of reaction. I’ve been eyeing a blue tank, but purple hammer and pitch black are still *chef’s kiss.*

I don't feel that Motiv has a ball that truly competes with either of these two. Staffers will claim otherwise of course

Urethane balls have been around for so long, and gone through different stages in development, I think people get confused by the term.

I've thrown so many of these, Natural, Natural Pear, Super Natural, Blue Hammer, Crow, Pitch Black, Purple hammer, Badger Infused, Covert Tank, Blue Tank, Fever Pitch, Boo-yah Pro.

1) Original urethane from 1980's - I guess this is "traditional" urethane. Goes straight

2) Second generation: updated urethane - Storm's natural line, Blue Hammer re-release. More kick than 80's urethane, but still straight for dry or short oil only.Yes, these are dry lane balls.

3) Third generation: Pitch Black, Purple Hammer, Fast Pitch. Significantly stronger than  previous urethane. No longer suitable for dry lanes. Best on short oil.

4) Forth generation of "urethane" like balls. As strong as reactive. For control in oil. Nothing like previous generations of urethane. Rubicon UC3, Zen U, Motiv MCP balls. Boo-yah Pro. Not for short oil only anymore! For control on a variety of lane conditions. Boo-hay Pro was like some super urethane thing - came out at wrong time and totally under the radar. Just a matter of time b/f Storm brought out more like it, with better timing and publicity.

A Motiv MCP is very different from Pitch Black. Not replaceable with MCP. If you want a Pitch Black reaction, you have to buy a Pitch Black. I've thrown Pitch Black and 2 MCP balls. They are nothing like each other.

People need to stop lumping all these ball together. It's like saying all solid reactive balls are the same.

Don't log in here that often these days so little late to this topic.

IMO the Microcell balls keep evolving, the early ones would lane shine within 5 games (covert, blitz, desert), the Blue was a little bit better, but still would get shiny pretty quickly. The Carbide is another step up but still seems to shine up a little faster than reactive stuff.

Now that's lane shine, what I see from that is at fresh surface the MCP balls are like the "urethane" balls where they hook a million when freshly sanded, then level off pretty quickly.

I've found on all the generations of Microcell balls i'm preferring the reaction of them with a fresh surface, so I tend to scuff mine pretty regularly. As far as actual death, I'm not seeing a ton of difference relative to reactive where you can't get them back similar to new strength, but they seem to be a little bit higher maintenance.