We all know that Topps Huddle is in go big or go home mode right now, and for the most part, I am loving every minute of it. We are getting some really awesome cards on the sheet, and I think its a really good idea that they are trying to turn some heads. Some of it did go a lot too far, but ill get to that.

SR Calvin Johnson Teal and Black Boost 3x

Collectability (Teal): Extreme+
Collectability (Black): Extreme
Playability:

You know its a big week when I dont lead with the sig. These two cards are immediately the most playable in the game with Megatron’s performance on Monday Night. Even though its unlikely that he will have those types of games every time, he is too good a player not to put this at the top of the list. Now, with the added bonus of coins for performance during the Lions game this week, and the Teal just became a juggernaut to pick up. So much so, that there is no card or combination of cards in huddle that can be traded in value. Maybe if you were to trade multiples of the two 2014 sigs, you could pry one away. Other than that, good luck. After the game, the value will come down, but not by much withonly 10 teal boosts out there.

SR Aaron Rodgers Signature Series

Collectability: Extreme
Playability:

At 300 copies, Rodgers is less rare than Lynch, but arguably more popular of a player in Green Bay. Having two HUGE sigs to start off the year is a great thing, a la Trout and Jeter in Bunt, although I dont think the rarity is quite on THAT level. These will still be very valuable cards as the season goes on, and I expect 300 is going to be on the lower end of the counts for sigs. I would pick one up while you can. I opened a ton of signature packs (rarity odds are better) and managed to pull on with the last pack of the bundle. Not bad!

Game Boost 10x and 5x Cards – Thursday Throwdown

Collectability (Yesterday): Extreme
Collectability (Ongoing): Strong
Playability (Yesterday):
Playability (Ongoing):

Bottom line, this was a terrible idea in my opinion. Having 10x boosts in a pack that costs 7k, along side 5x boosts with 300 copies is just way too much. Im all for adding more powerful boosts to the game, but they have to be crazy pulls like the Black Boosts, and they cant be made available after everyone has already spent the day trading for the contest. People throw around the word Greed, but I dont look at it that way. I dont think its the right word. Topps needs to make money for the app to run, and I am okay with them offering chase cards. However, the messaging and methods have to provide an equitable opportunity for the people to play, and they have to keep the economy and stat sheet in mind. This is a year changing release for 1 night, and that doesnt bode well for the people who will be working hard all season.

Releasing 160 10x boosts could potentially skew the stat sheets all year, and if someone were to put together enough of the big boosts, they could seal the win for the whole season in week 2. Scary thing is, a few people did. The champion of the million coin challenge put together a team that scored close to what I scored all of week 1 in one game. He gets 1M coins to continue his dominance, and a permanent 5x boost. It would be fine to give something out like that if he didnt get to keep the 100k points that were generated by the boost cards as well. In fact, 3 new people jumped from the middle part of the rankings to the top five because of these cards. I dont like that.

In the future, I hope that we can have another 1 day league like this with more card/coin prizes for the top performers. Making this a regular thing would be great, but I think there has to be more opportunity for ROI for people that buy in. Last night only 263 people got a ticket, which is a smaller market than I expected, but also an opportunity to create competition among the pay to play buyers. They will not continue to play if they will need to go up against unfair advantages that were not announced from the beginning of the release. If Huddle is going to expect us to buy in with 10k, they need to have it fully baked and transparent from the start. Part of the problem was that the game boosts were never talked about until the pack hit the store.

NOTE: There was a change overnight that dropped players from points, but we have yet to see what the explanation is. I was ranked #32 when I went to bed, and woke up #15. Not sure what happened or if it is permanent. At this point we have to be conscious that it will be fixed until we get notice that it is not going to change.