MLB Showdown Cards

MLB Showdown Shots Friday: Star Cards

I have horrible news for everyone. Not one person brought any fist pumping joy to my heart last Friday. David Ortiz could not earn 400 fist pumps for his 400th career long ball. Joey Bats who is like a son to me, atleast on Fridays, couldn't find the seats. Robinson Cano I feel like homered on every other day. No one could pick a winner for me. No one saw Desmond Jennings hitting 2 home runs. or a pair of home runs from AJ Pierzynski in New York. The Twitter-board remains tied with a 3 way tie for first with 1. The Player-board also has a log jam with three players with 1. Let us celebrate Independence Week by finishing off the extra hot dogs and potatoe salad in the fridge and pick some players who really can put up a firework show. If you want to play for Shots Friday use the Twitter #Shotsfriday or just send your pick to me @mlbshowdownguru . Alright enough about that let us get to the meat of the matter.

We explored different possible strategy card options last time. So why don't we just throw a wrench into the whole thing. Cards were added in the 2001 set that had a unique ability. Most cards were played, took their effect and left. These new ones were cool because they stayed on the players. In the world of Magic the Gathering, another card game made by Wizards of the Coast, This would be known as an Enchant Creature. In MLB Showdown it was just another strategy card. The offensive cards helped batters like Power Hitter and Free Swinger. A pitching card called Flamethrower came out as well. Power Hitter allowed you to discard 2 cards to change a players double to a home run. Which had the ability to be played on Brent Mayne (350pt, 10 on-base, 16-20 double, Catcher +6) to turn him into a bargain basement Mark McGwire at the catcher position. Some will call this broken (I will support them). Others will call it part of the game. Brent Mayne had 38 career long enough balls. Mark McGwire had 34 with Oakland and 24 with the Cardinals in 1997. Flamethrower allowed a player to turn any out into a strike out by discarding a card. This card was used more on players who had small strike outs rather then Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez cards. I love Wizards of the Coast and Magic the Gathering. This had the feel of card game nerds making cards around game mechanics and not mimicking the game it was attempting to portray. We have offered improvements. Merit based leave on the player cards.

I will unvail more as the years go on but for now I will spot light 3 of the more interesting cards. Please make proxies and try them out yourselves in whatever format you enjoy. Please send feed back as well because we are all about improving around here.I am going to tease everyone and save the most anticipated for last. All you Brent Mayne breakers just scroll to the bottom and send me some nasty comment about how my adjustment is stupid. First lets see what Flamethrower turned into. Hmmm what can we do. We want to reward players who do strike people out not players who pitch to contact but are opportunist card players. The new mechanic, “token earning”. Yes this does make it feel more like a card game and less like sports, but it has a feel of “momentum” that sports has. We gave the Intimidator card 2 ways to gain tokens. 1 token for every strike out recorded and 1 for every 1-2-3 inning. 4 tokens for striking out the side in order. Ok so we have gained tokens what does that mean. We gave 5 ways to spend tokens.

1. Remove 1 token: +1 to the next pitch (cheap and useful)
2. Remove 4 tokens: Reroll Out (gb) or Out (fb). (reroll these is a little watered down then change to a strike out. It may even back fire. I like it)
3. Remove 6 tokens: Remove 3 cards from discard pile from the game. Draw a card from the discard pile. (In standard styles this is alright, In Stud games this may be banned or highly useful)
4. Remove 10 tokens: Batter recieves first base on a HBP. This batter gets -2 from all swings for the rest of the game. (lets hear some feed back. I like the idea of putting -2 on swings, counter-stack)
5. Remove 15 tokens: +2 to all pitches this inning and pitcher is no longer tired (keeps the current control he has if tired not the control on card). (The pitching leave on the players have big time bonuses if you have the patience of Job, who knows how they will play out. Feedback).

Okay I get it. The pendulum of power has swung back into the pitchers favor. How about a tool to level the playing field. There is a lot of good speed now in the game. The addition of individual numeric speeds adds a nice touch. Especially for players with +20 speed. So what can we do for these guys. Since speed plays are fewer and further between then pitchers stats we could give them tokens based on some ability they have. We choose Speedster to give 3 tokens to a player speed A. If they are a +20 speed they get 5 tokens. How are we going to spend them?

1. Remove 1 token: Add +2 to the players speed for a single play (useful, but not over powered)
2. Remove 1 token: Make a stolen base attempt. (Milk this one to make the card worth while, steal third)
3. Remove 1 token: go from first to third on a single without a throw. (In-case you do not want to steal)
4. Remove 1 token: to attempt to make a double result a triple against the outfield defense and a roll. (who doesn't like a good triple attempt)
5. On Out (gb) player may remove 5 cards from the discard pile from the game and make the infield defense throw out the player at first base against the speed. All runners advance only 1 base. (Stud games this is going to be tough, standard might as well try every time).

Back you savages. I know what you want. You want to hit home runs. Pick up your card and trot him around the bases. What is the price and how does it work? Alright here it comes new and improved (in my opinion) for the national audience. Power Hitter. We are using tokens and they are... drum roll please... based on the number of Homers on a players chart. Novel idea, the more home runs a player hits the better power hitter he is. 1 token for every home run on the players chart. Slight advantage to players with lower on-base, higher home runs. How do we spend them? How do we get the homers?

1. Remove 2 tokens: Change a double result to a homer result, 1 token if the pitcher is tired (gasp is this a down the middle as well?)
2. Remove 1 token: Change a triple result to a homer result, This may be done for free if the pitcher is tired (Triples too? Maybe I will get less hate comments, not likely)
3. If player homers draw a card from discard pile (rewards and runs)
4. On Out (fb) player may remove 5 cards from game and reroll the swing. (more swings from big hitters, deal Howie)
   
   
   

Remember this game is about having fun. If these cards do not look like fun to you then do not play with them. If they do then please use them. Just for me go take an old Trick Pitch or Rattled you have sitting around and proxy some of these and try them out. We play a 10 card stud league with a 11^th card being your 1 leave on the player. We enjoy that. Experiment my friends and play for the card. 

Friday Shots

Twitter-Board

@Markrom:1

@Kylevanpelt:1
@RuffRidinNole:1

Player-Board

Jay Bruce:1

Adam Dunn:1
Jose Bautista:1