MLB Showdown Cards

#Shotsfriday

                The game has become a 2 horse race right now. @MLBConnoisseur picked a winner with his lefty hitters against Yankee Stadium. Curtis Granderson gained the 4th long ball of the year for himself but the amazing tenth for The Connoisseur. The only feat that may be as impressive is @TomWyliehart going 6 for 6 in #Shotsfriday picks. He was successful having 2 selections. One of his selections was Curtis Granderson as well keeping the 6 for 6 with 6 different picked players still alive. He added a freebie with Miguel Cabrera. With those picks Granderson ties Dunn with 5 on the player board and @Tomwyliehart has 9. This should be an interesting race to the finish. Make sure to get your own picks in using #Shotsfriday on twitter and earn your own shout out.

                My creative brain has wandered too far down a path it never should have gone down. It is too late to turn back now though. We have tried to re-define strategy cards as many of you know them. We are trying to turn the game away from “+? To swing” domination to more of a quirky situational game. I applaud the initial efforts of the creators because they did so much grunt work to lay down a great foundation for us to build on. I am actually not going to try and take anything away from the current strategy list (I know shocking every other week I am on a crusade against something). This time I would like to add my fourth type of custom strategy card. We have introduced Star Cards, Manager Cards and Stadium Cards already. This one is the most quirky and the most out there of any of those ideas… Weather.

                I can only imagine the instantaneous rebuttals and tilted head, confused looks I am getting right now. I have gave myself plenty of those for this idea already. Trust me the logistics of this is an absolute nightmare. For starters I just mentioned we created Stadium cards. Some stadiums happen to be domes. Domes traditionally have are controlled environments. Easy enough solution there: Add “Weather cards may not be played if this stadium is in play”. That should prevent any Roger’s Center rain outs. The fact that they will be useless against some opponents means they are only valuable in settings with a side-board or heavy discard decks in the eyes of the players who want maximum efficiency from their strategy.

                Second what on earth could weather effect? It obviously has an effect baseball games but how does that translate into Showdown with any level of organization? The truth of the matter is I have absolutely no clue. That will not stop me from throwing out my current cave wall drawings and hoping for some constructive criticisms from you the audience as to how we can get the Sistine Chapel out of this. First the mechanics.

                I propose these will be drawn just like any other strategy card. They then would be played when appropriate. These cards would have very specific activation abilities. The effects of a weather card would be universal. The effects would also be relatively minor. These cards are meant to add a dimension to the game not break the game over their knees.

                First things first, players need to have the ability to clear weather back to a more normal state. Most games are played in sunny or clear environments. For this reason any bad weather has to have the ability to be made back normal so we made…

                Sunny Day and Starry Night both clear the field of all weather and all effects. The only effect they have is the ability to tell if the game is “day” or “night”. This card gives players some control over the weather and keep players from taking over the game completely. Perfect? No but it will solve some problems before they get started. Now let us spice it up a bit.

                Light Drizzle is the first rain card we are going to introduce. The weather changes to Light Drizzle. All runners lose -1 speed as long as it is in play. Each manager may only carry one and may only play one. This limits stacking and keeps it from being too impactful. Now the last weather card for today something that does not involve rain but another element…

                Cold Night is a card for players with a little more foresight. Players have to declare a player “warming up” a full half inning before they enter the game or they are tired. They also can only enter that half inning. Wordy and dicey at best but it is interesting.  We will unveil more later but I think that is interesting enough for now. Throw some wrinkles into the game. 

@Tomwyliehart with Miguel Cabrera 3

@MLBConnossuer with Curtis Granderson 4

@Tomwyliehart with Curtis Granderson 5

Twitter-Board

@MLBCONNOISSEUR:10

@Tomwyliehart:9

@Quicksand3:4

@Markrom:4

@5b_nelson:2
@Eddiezone44:2

@MLBShowdownguru:2

@LU_TX12:1
@Gregleasure:1
@IamPulseivity:1

@RuffRidinNole:1

@Roktikitiki:1

Player-Board
Adam Dunn:5
Curtis Granderson:5

Prince Fielder: 3
Miguel Cabrera:3

Albert Pujols:2

Mark Teixeira:2

Pedro Alvarez:2
Josh Hamilton:2

Michael Morse:2
Mike Trout:2 
Josh Willingham:2
Giancarlo Stanton:2
Brian McCann:1

Jay Bruce:1

Jose Bautista:1 

Robinson Cano:1

Mark Trumbo:1

Hanley Ramirez:1