Digital Card Central

Well, the regular season is over, and that means that many of the cards you have in your collection are no longer playable. Although there are many reasons not to go dumping all of them quite yet, there are similar reason to make some serious trades in the meantime.

Looking Ahead

First off, let me start that it is highly unlikely that 2014 cards will be playable in 2015. This means that it is in your best interest to maximize the cards you have. If you can find someone who will trade you playoff bound cards for cards that are no longer playable, there are two things to consider.

The first of these things is very important – set building. Many of the rare insert cards have season long chases tied to them, and that means the cards will maintain value until those awards are paid out.

The second is rarity of the card, especially for cards that are below 100 count. Rarity still drives value, and with people who are team and player collectors out there, the demand can be there for cards that will no longer score.

Yesterday afternoon, Huddle announced the playoff format, which will include the top 32 users in season long leaderboard scoring and the 32 team champions for the year. If you are outside of this format, dont fret, as I am sure there will be a lot of reason to remain active in the points chase. Things like Throwdowns and other playoff fun are destined to be in place, and that gives you reason to keep playing.

Trading for Boosts

Non-playoff boosts are rough, especially if they are high scoring and low rarity that you gave up a lot to get. But, that personal attachment should not be holding you back from getting rid of them.

If you have non-playoff cards that have not yet paid out in their rewards, you are approaching your last opportunity to maintain value in their demand. Keep that in mind as you are looking to pick up some boosts.

Also keep in mind that we have YET to see what the playoff cards look like, both in terms of boosts and in terms of roster. There is a high probability that playoff cards will be insanely high boosted cards, and that could impact the value of the other cards that are currently available.

Its almost in your best interest to wait to see what happens over the next few days as we approach the wild card round.

High Value Inserts

Sigs, Editor’s choice, Golden Moments and other high value inserts should remain pretty valuable as mentioned above. Many people are still looking to complete sets and solidify lineups, and sigs are going to be a very big part of that.

Sets like the 12 days of Huddle have yet to pay out, which means that those cards will still be valuable until after that reward happens. Its not worth it to dump your sigs without getting something of nice value back.

Playoff Time is High Noon

When the season is over like it is, players start coming out of the woodwork to compete. If you remember last year, there were so many people playing along for the post season that the servers crashed for the beginning part of each game. For the people who are in the main matches, you know they will be gunning for the bigger cards. Dont hesitate to cash in if they make some big offers, but dont mistake need for generosity. Just a word of advice in that respect, as you should not try to take advantage of these situations. There are a lot of players out there that will have no issue accepting the windfall without a peep.

I am sad that the regular season is over, especially because my team is out of it. But this is the most wonderful time of year for a huddle fan. Releases will be nuts, and things are going to get crazy. Be prepared!

With the recent sig chase for the 12 Days of Huddle promotion, I noticed something that is definitely worth everyone’s consideration as they open packs to complete the set. We have all trained ourselves to look at player quality as the prime derivative for which we determine whether we want to open the packs, but I dont think it is that simple when you consider the difficulty of pulling any particular card.

This conditioning isnt shocking at all, as it is clear that player quality drives a lot of what we do in huddle. But there is a rarely considered element at play that should impact your decision to open a pack or look to other means for acquiring a card.

Im going to use the 12 Days of Huddle as a representation of my explanation, as it is the easiest to use.  Topps has also been abundantly clear as to what is going down, but I rarely see people reviewing these things before diving into the pack store.

Low Card Count vs High Odds

There are a lot of inserts that are released in Huddle, many of which have ever dwindling card counts. We would expect lower card count cards to be tough pulls all around, but it is in your best interest to study JUST how tough that pull will be. Just because there are two 100 count holiday sigs, does not mean that both are the same ease in which to pull from packs. That’s also not saying that a 150 card count release will be easier to pull either.

For example: Jamaal Charles 150 count holiday sig was as difficult to pull at 1:100  packs as the two lower count Brown and Thomas at 100 copies. Jeremy Maclin was 1:90 packs despite being at 200 copies, where Teddy Bridgewater (also 200 count) was 1:50 packs if memory serves correctly.

An even better example: Jags vs Titans sage boosts were all 100 copy cards, but all had different odds. Scobee was the toughest pull at 1:100 packs, whereas Marcedes Lewis was the easiest at 1:60 packs. All the same card count – different odds. Scobee therefore is the hardest to pull.

What Does This Mean?

The only thing it means is that you need to pay attention. You need to read the articles, and make a determination of difficulty if you have limited funds in which to spend. These articles are deliberately detailed so that there are no questions in the methods of constructing each release.

It also means that a tougher cards to pull may have a different value than the ones that are easier to pull – at least at first. If it is a harder card to acquire, it means that there will be less supply to go around.

Similarly, cards like the Peyton Manning boost sig at 1:500 yellow packs is going to be an impossible card to get, especially when you consider how few people will be opening those due to the cost.

Other Considerations

It behooves every user to familiarize themselves with each type of release. If you are going to be spending your coins, you need to be able to know what you are getting yourself into. Huddle has done a great job in providing resources as a guide, but its up to us to do the homework.

If you are not reading the article in full, you are really doing yourself a disservice. Odds are provided to showcase exactly how much you should expect to spend with each release, and limited funds may prevent you from going in guns blazing.

Hopefully this post serves as a helpful reminder.

Since the beginning of the season, Huddle has instituted a format that I have become absolutely enthralled with. Instead of competing in a week long chase for the top spot, Throwdown becomes a way for users to compete in a one day league, akin to the new rage created by a bunch of different new Fantasy Football sites. Although there is a cost to play, there are reasons why it can be more profitable than playing in the week long chase. If you can do both, even better.

Each nationally televised game on Thursday and Monday have a throwdown attached, so be ready around 12pm to see what is going on with each game.

Understanding the Format

Each throwdown has three tiers. Gold costs 25k coins and is the high rollers bracket for lack of a better term. It also has the biggest prize. Silver costs 5k, and offers coin rewards, as does Bronze at 500 coins.

My advice is to play according to your collection strength. Unless you have the card collection to score over 100k-150k points in one night, DO NOT PLAY GOLD. It took over 175k points to finish top five last night. There are no coin rewards for finishing in the top 10 or top 100, and to get in the top 5, you have to have a collection that is among the best in the game (in terms of boosts and top point scoring cards).

Silver is still HIGHLY competitive, because unlike Gold, the coin rewards extend into the top 100 to get a nice return on your buy in. Because 100 people rarely play this bracket, its a no brainer to try if you have the coins. To get the really nice payout, you have to finish top 5 though, which is tough without scoring at least 100k points for the night.

Bronze is much easier to have success in, but because the buy in is so cheap, it gets a lot of players who are like “meh, why not?” Finishing in the top 10 can be a feat, but at 500 coins for a ticket, its not like you are losing your house.

As the article mentions, do not buy more than one ticket, and the last one you buy is the tier you will be competing in. You cannot compete in more than one tier. You also DO NOT need to play the ticket in your starting lineup to be considered for the prize.

Live standings can be found when you click on the little flag at the bottom, and then select leaderboard from the top menu that says “fan feed.” If you go all the way to the right, you can see where you are finishing.

Strategy to Win

In the top two tiers, it helps tremendously to chase down as many game boosts as you can. Now that they have switched to 9x, they have become even more valuable than they already were. In a pinch, go after the RBs and the WRs first, as the QBs can still be outscored pretty easily by the people they throw to. On a long TD, the gold WR will outscore the high boost QBs, from what my understanding is.

Once you have your cards, set your lineup at least an hour before the game starts, this is very important. I usually pick my 5-6 best cards from each team and load them in, with a focus on RBs and QBs that I know will be the people that get points on the first drive. RBs will get the first play of the game 75% of the time, so take that into consideration, and it will save you some VERY valuable plays.

To win you will have to play along with the game live. There is no other way around it. Huddle functions on NFL API stream, which is about 2 plays behind live. This means you can wait for the play to happen before substituting guys. Do not make instant switches or you will likely miss out on points. Wait for the points to accumulate and then make the switch.

If you have a ton of cards for the top point scorers, make sure to use your plays wisely. On plays less than 5 yards, you might want to consider skipping the switch unless you dont have many cards you are going to play live. All long plays should start with your WRs being loaded in, prior to loading in your QBs. Make sure to switch out guys on all turnovers – interceptions for QBs and Fumbles for everyone.

Future Strategy

I always play two weeks in advance in trading for teams in the throwdown. The day before and day of, everyone will be scrambling to get cards for their lineup, so you dont want to have to overpay.

I would chase the cards in this order:

• WR – Top potential for point scorers in any single game, interchangable with RB depending on talent level
• RB – RB carries across the league have reduced, unless your name starts with D and ends with emarco Murray. More RB by committee means less points for backs. Guys like Charles and Bell catch passes too, which makes them more important.
• QB – These cards can be good to fill holes if you cant fill your lineup with WR or RBs
• TE – Depends on the guy, as we know Gronk and Jimmy Graham can still catch a huge amount of passes.

Chase your cards like a fantasy owner would. Who has the most potential to get A) a ton of yards and B) score TDs.

If you have any more questions on Throwdown formats, let me know.