Digital Card Central

As we have seen with Bunt and Huddle this year, there is a lot of ways to supplement daily coin bonuses without buying in. One of those is to buy with real money, and the other is to pick up cards in packs/trades that have coin awards attached to them. These “coin cards” can range from minor inserts to major sigs, and all of them have a different behavior in the economy.

Cards Only Valuable Because of the Reward

There are groups of cards that have no real play value and no real collection value, but have huge coin bonuses attached to them that make them very much worth acquiring. The best cards like this are ones that can provide a big award with a collection of just one card, most notably the Rising Stars or Monday Night series. Although there are season long chases that also contribute to value in some cases, there are also a lot of reasons why the coin reward is the only thing making them worth the chase.

Around week 3 or 4, Huddle started tying these boosted award payouts to cards to help spur a need to pick them up. These awards are worth the trouble, as they can usually get you a few packs worth of cards. That is big, and very welcome. I am all for it, regardless of the frenzy it causes.

Advice: If you want the card because its your team or your favorite player, WAIT UNTIL AFTER THE AWARD. The card’s value will plummet and should be easy to trade for.

Cards Valuable With or Without Reward

In recent weeks, we have seen Milestone cards and sigs also carry similarly big awards, which is an awesome added perk to include for cards that are already valuable. People will want these cards even without a reward, and its great to see that they are carrying through with the big bonuses.

Although it does add some extra chase to the card, it isnt so much so that you cant overcome it with a few extra inserts in trade. If you are in the market to trade for sigs, you likely have enough to make up the difference caused by the added coin bonus. Not a big deal at all.

The Milestone cards are a new add to Huddle this year, and for those team collectors, they bring a need to collect them all. We are going to see a lot of them, because the NFL has many records that can be broken any given week. The bonus attached to them make them very valuable.

Advice: If you are in the market for one of these cards, you will have to give up more. Not only are the cards boosted for play, but the coins make them a tough get.

Set Cards Valuable Because of a Collection Reward Bonus

We are starting to see more sets being released, but not as much chase because of the need to pick up all the boosts. This makes some of the set cards extremely valuable because of how few people might be opening those packs. Many of the sets can carry big reward cards and coin bonuses, which make them even more worth picking up as a result. It creates a situation where everyone is fighting over a small pool of cards, which is a very good thing for value.

The boost cards fall within this category for a few reasons. First, they have the reward card at 5.5x play, which means that even the worst card in the collection is going to take a lot. The added 15k coins only sweetens the pot further. Be careful in giving up the house, because some of the boosts are not worth their weight after the reward goes out.

Advice: Set collecting is a tough go sometimes, and though its a lot of fun, it can cost a lot. Be conscious of what you are giving up to get each card. I have learned the hard way.

I really think that after a period of questioning the plan for Huddle in 2014 with the boosts, things are starting to settle down. The chase element of all these cards adds a lot of wealth to the game, and when there is more wealth, there are more cards in circulation. I like this a lot.

I play for points, and with the advent of the boost culture, one group of cards still remains VERY valuable. The normal golds score at 2x what a common base card scores at, Black at 3x, Purple at 3.5x and Orange at a mammoth 5x. This means for a points player, the orange boosts are insanely important. But which are the ones to chase?

Demarco Murray

Collection value:
Play value:
Count: 258

There is a reason Murray has a black, purple and now orange boost. The guy not only plays for the most popular team in the game, but he also is on a record pace. Although he may not have had the big weeks here and there to get him into the BoH cards, he has scored consistently across the board. I would chase this one 10 out of 10 times. At 258 copies, he is going to take a lot.

Cam Newton

Collection value:
Play value:
Count: 250

QBs that also rush for yards and TDs are very important, because you know that they will score more than just on the yardage for passing. Newton hasnt turned the ball over much, and has played some really nice games after a slower start. He is a popular player, so people will want him.

Matt Ryan

Collection value: 
Play value:
Count: 283

After people started realizing that collecting the BB was a worthwhile venture, the card counts started to creep up. Ryan is a good one to have, especially because his average TD pass is over 35 yards or something crazy like that. His weapons are too good to pass up and he doesnt turn the ball over.

Matthew Stafford

Collection value:
Play value: 
Count: 280

Although the Lions are having a great year, the Defense is actually a bigger reason why. Stafford hasnt played terrible, but he also isnt having the season that someone like Manning is having. I think he is definitely worth picking up because they will play well, but only 7TDs with 4 picks is not on that elite level.

Brandon Marshall

Collection value:
Play value:
Count: 256

Marshall is a popular player, but he isnt that big play type of guy that is going to score from 80 yards out. He is the prototypical yardage and reception machine, and does catch some shorter TD passes in dramatic fashion. Nice card, but he isnt going to be like Julio Jones can be.

Andy Dalton

Collection value:
Play value:
Count: 271

The Bengals have played well, but I cant shake the feeling that Dalton is a below average QB. His stats say that he isnt, but he doesnt have that wow factor like we see with Luck or guys like that. He can also throw his fair share of picks, so watch out.

Calvin Johnson

Collection value:
Play value:
Count: 429

Something odd happened with Megatron and the count looks to be awfully high. Either way, he is a good play once he is healthy and eaily one of the most popular players in the game. This will be an easier get if the count stays where it is, but its still worth picking up.

Emmanuel Sanders

Collection value:
Play value:
Count: 121

I am not sure why Emmanuel Sanders gets the love he does over someone like Demaryius Thomas, but he has a purple and an orange boost at this point. He hasnt performed all that exceptionally, but he always has the potential to burn the defense for a long TD. At 121 copies, he is going to be the rarest non-throwdown orange boost there is.

With the growing need to keep track of cards for rewards, I have been working extensively to build a sorted checklist that allows you to keep track of your stuff. This checklist not only includes all the Black and Purple Boosts, but also the weekly inserts that have season long rewards attached to them.

The first tab at the bottom is all about the black and purple boosts, as well as their reward Oranges that have been delivered to date. This is updated with each new release and also displays my perception of a value indicator for how those cards may be traded on the game. I realize that some of the cards at a 5 are not comparable to other 5s within the game, but its hard to have a scale that represents everything with the wide range of collectablity. Some are extremely rare and carry value above and beyond their points potential.

The second tab is all about the weekly inserts, to help you keep track of the cards within each set. I did my best to represent value, but like mentioned above, its hard to make it work right. Please let me know if I have made any errors and I will fix immediately.

Hope this is helpful for you all, please do your best to provide feedback and let me know how it can be made better.

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Since day one in the new era of Bunt and Huddle, I have always found a lot of fun in chasing down the team sets of base that unlock the rewards given out for completion. Not only is it fun, but it can be extremely challenging. Its easy to find an extreme sense of accomplishment when you complete every set that is available. So, the question is, what is the best way to do it?

Start at the Bottom

One thing that many people miss is that you need to keep at least one copy of every card to get every award. You cant unlock the green award without having all the whites PLUS the greens. This means that you shouldnt try to collect one color at a time, and trade off your singles to get the rest of the cards in the set. You will not be able to claim all the rewards. Instead, I would start by collecting one level at a time, and using your daily, weekly and points chase coin bonuses to buy more packs.

You will also need to trade, and its also likely that you will end up getting duplicates that can help fill out your checklist. Blind trades (random user trades from the master card sheet) are good for lower level base cards, because in all likelihood, many people have multiple copies to trade.

Here is the issue. Because the boosts have become the lifeblood of the trading economy, and those packs only have silver and golds in them, the red, green, and white base cards are in shorter supply than before. So many people are avoiding the other packs in the store that the cards are becoming rarer by the day.

Its also important to understand that there are multiple series to collect. Because players in series two like Carlos Hyde and Antonio Brown werent released at the same time, there will be less of them, and therefore more valuable (see the article in the news feed for the list of players in Series 2).

Lastly, its not essential that you go by team, but more by how many cards you can obtain in each trade. Going by team makes it easier to keep track of awards, but it can also be a million times more tedious.

Choose Your Packs Wisely

If you are looking to build sets, you will need to focus on getting the most cards for your money. I said that the boost packs do not have much value in that respect, but the silvers and golds can be traded down for multiple set cards from lower levels.

Secondarily, its vital that you use your coins to best give yourself the ability to not only compete in the points chase, but also in the set collection game. You dont want to handicap yourself in the points chase, because it will limit your coin rewards at the beginning of the week. Playing a long and finishing high gets you A LOT of coins to use in buying more packs.

Trading

Be aware that its hard to get someone to trade a single card away. If someone only has one copy, check the rest of their cards. If its clear they arent a set collector, they might give you a more fair trade on a 1:1 type of deal. If they have a lot of the set base cards, and you are asking for a single, YOU will have to overpay. You should offer multiple cards they dont have to offset the loss of a single they do own, and you shouldnt be surprised if they turn down what you think is a great offer.

Blind trading makes this situation inevitable, which is why I always overpay in every blind trade I do. Its part of how it works.

Rewards 

There are currently rewards for all action shots and all head shot cards in the game. Because some of the action shot cards have a zero card counts, those awards are impossible to get. I would focus as much energy as possible on the head shot team set awards. Here are the payouts:

• Complete Team Set – WHITE: 500 coins
• Complete Team Set – GREEN: 750 coins
• Complete Team Set – RED: 1000 coins
• Complete Team Set – SILVER: 1250 coins
• Complete Team Set – GOLD: 1500 coins

A team set is every card for that team on the sheet for both series 1 and 2. Just chase down every card, and you get the award. Again, you will need to have complete sets of the previous levels to unlock the new awards.

Tonight is going to be a great game, and just like last week, here is your exclusive sneak peak on the lineup of game only boosts! The twist tonight is that with all the 3x boosts coming out, all cards will be 5x! Nice.

Check back as more sneak peaks will be available throughout the season thanks to the huddle team!

Andrew Luck – Colts 5x

Could there not be a better matchup for a thursday game? Great QB against a great defense. Luck has been performing quite well against some top teams including the Ravens, so im interested to see how he shakes out. Even though he was just a BB, he is definitely worth chasing as a 5x.

Verdict: Vital Piece

Ahmad Bradshaw – Colts 5x

Bradshaw has only a BB as of right now and is the leading rusher on the team. He is a great candidate to get the nod for tonight’s roster of boosts, and I think he could do well as a change of pace from Richardson. Although Houston has a great reputation as a defense, they actually rank 24th against the run in the league. Interesting.

Verdict: Worth picking up

Arian Foster – Texans 5x

Despite injuries holding him back, he has put up the best numbers of anyone on the Houston Offense. Great potential to carve up Indy’s defense, which is giving up an average of over 4.5 yards per rushing play.

Verdict: Vital Piece

Ryan Fitzpatrick – Texans 5x

With Hopkins already a permanent black boost, this is a good card to use, especially one who has no other cards in the game. Although his stats havent been amazing, he does have potential to score some points. Having this as a 2x until he gets a card is a good thing as well.

Verdict: Low priority

My Honorable Mentions:

DeAndre Hopkins – I understand a recent 3x boost makes it tough to give this to him, but he has had a nice start to the season. He is looking better by the week.

TY Hilton – Hilton is one of the more underrated WR in the game, but he either has a great game or is a ghost. Not enough people really know who he is.

Reggie Wayne – The elder statesman of the Colts has had a drop off for the last few years. Interesting to see if he can pick it up for the rest of the season.