Are Finest Cards meant to be the....finest cards?
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@Teak2112_MLBTS said in Are Finest Cards meant to be the....finest cards?:
Finest cards are meant to celebrate the best players of 2025.
And the Popular switch hitting players.
Ian Happ hit .243. The second lowest BA average among the Cubs regulars.
He was 5th on the team in HRs
He was 4th in RBIs
8th in OPS
6th in WARFor that effort he gets the 9th best overall card in the game and the 8th overall in my Offensive rankings.
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A 4 WAR is worthy of a finest for sure, but yeah...guys like Happ should be nowhere near the top 10 offensive cards.
I really hope SDS dials things back a bit next year. .243 hitters should not be anywhere near max contact.
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Ian Happ
Willie Castro
Ben Zobrist -
Putting the "Finest" cards (except for Cal and JRam) in your lineup will just make you miss all the monsters that you were playing with.
This game needs to take a lesson from role playing game progressionsystems - there are many ways to make every new reward be actually a reward (like, actually useful)...instead of 99 percent of the rewards being fodder
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There are other ways to play than with god squads that make these guys useful to that player base (e.g. themes).
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Sure, you can form themes, but why isnt that promoted by the game at all? Why do you have to do a make-believe mode to use stuff? Make the strength of your god squad depend on how strong your theme teams are.
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@rubicante23_PSN said in Are Finest Cards meant to be the....finest cards?:
Putting the "Finest" cards (except for Cal and JRam) in your lineup will just make you miss all the monsters that you were playing with.
This game needs to take a lesson from role playing game progressionsystems - there are many ways to make every new reward be actually a reward (like, actually useful)...instead of 99 percent of the rewards being fodder
What Roleplaying games are you playing? It does not matter if we are talking Skyrim, Diablo, The Outer Worlds 2 (which I am currently playing), Baldurs Gate 3 or any number of others, 90% plus of the loot that drops is fodder (common gear vs legendary, drops for different classes, drops for different weapon types, drops for different damage types). Games like Path Of Exile or Last Epoch have loot filters so that you can make it so you don't even have to see all of the fodder that drops because there is so much of it.
The problem is in the expectations of those who believe that SDS can drop 66 Finest cards and make them all be equal or better than the cards that came before. 30 of those cards have a different purpose since they are captains. With the addition of Sonny Gray (as much as I dislike that choice personally) my Adam Wainwright HRDX card is now a
118 CON R
123 CON L
122 POW R
116 PWR L
93 VIS
123 CLTSo while Sonny Gray does not make anyone's God Squad, he does make my Cardinals Theme team better. I spend the majority of time playing with my Cardinals Theme team.
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@Dolenz_PSN so do what I said - make the strength of your God team depend on the strength of your theme team.
This way, you need the theme cards to build your best team.
Its really not hard to build an iterative system like this.
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Oh, and 8 of the top 24 overall position player cards based on Attributes are 2025 Finest cards, which actually is a pretty good percentage
Meta Player Team Position B/T Series 111.7 Elly De La Cruz CIN SS S/R Milestone 111.25 Mickey Mantle NYY CF S/R Milestone 110.1 Byron Buxton MIN CF R/R Milestone 110.05 Cal Raleigh SEA C S/R 2025 Finest 109.3 Mike Trout LAA CF R/R Milestone 108.8 Aaron Judge NYY RF R/R 2025 Postseason 108.75 Ketel Marte ARI 2B S/R Spooky 108.35 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. TOR 1B R/R 2025 Postseason 108.25 Ian Happ CHC LF S/R 2025 Finest 107.65 Bobby Witt Jr. KC SS R/R 2025 Finest 107.3 Andrew McCutchen PIT CF R/R Finest 106.65 Honus Wagner PIT SS R/R Hall of Fame 106.5 Cody Bellinger NYY LF L/L 2025 Finest 106.5 Corbin Carroll ARI RF L/L 2025 Finest 106.5 Julio RodrĂguez SEA CF R/R 2025 Postseason 106.3 Chipper Jones ATL 3B S/R Milestone 106.25 Buck O'Neil FA 1B R/R The Negro Leagues 106.2 Jose Bautista TOR RF R/R Finest 106.15 JosĂ© RamĂrez CLE 3B S/R 2025 Finest 106.1 Buck Leonard FA 1B L/L The Negro Leagues 105.95 Jasson DomĂnguez NYY LF S/R Spooky 105.8 Jakob Marsee MIA CF L/L Spotlight 105.6 Ken Griffey Jr. SEA CF L/L Spotlight 105.55 Juan Soto NYM RF L/L 2025 Finest 105.55 Trea Turner PHI SS R/R 2025 Finest -
I hear this all the time - a salary cap mode. This is a cool idea, but if SDS fully transformed competitive play into something like this - 90% of the community would most likely abandon ship. This is Diamond Dynasty for a reason. While it’s established by real-life events, it isn’t implemented in that way. For example, Ian Happ had a good enough season to earn a Finest card. Did he deserve the insane stats he got? No, but this is DD for a reason. Why not give random guys some love and juice them. This is a baseball fantasy team mode, not a realistic sim. SDS has the leverage here because there aren’t necessarily any rules. Nobody’s forcing anybody to like the cards. Nobody’s forcing anyone to use god squads. I love theme teams even though I use my god squad 95% of the time. You can be good and use a cute little theme team. That’s the good thing about Diamond Dynasty. There are no “meta” cards. Sure, there are cards that are in another league of influence in the game, but you don’t have to use them to be competitive of that’s what you’re striving for.
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@xRatedGProdigyx_PSN As someone with well over 100 P5 cards, believe me when I say i'm not one to use the same cards repeatedly.
I was just expecting better from these cards.
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@NotesOfJohn_PSN said in Are Finest Cards meant to be the....finest cards?:
@xRatedGProdigyx_PSN As someone with well over 100 P5 cards, believe me when I say i'm not one to use the same cards repeatedly.
I was just expecting better from these cards.
How? If they're not switch hitters with maxed contact/clutch and 100+ vision or outlier pitchers with 90+ control then they're probably not outdoing the meta guys.
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@xRatedGProdigyx_PSN How did I think they'd be better? Well, having as good or better attributes than cards released weeks ago would be a start.
Some of these cards wouldn't make most people's best four or five squads, let alone their god squads.
Radical concept, but if you're playing all year to achieve Finest vouchers, the resultant players should be the best of the best.
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@NotesOfJohn_PSN said in Are Finest Cards meant to be the....finest cards?:
@xRatedGProdigyx_PSN How did I think they'd be better? Well, having as good or better attributes than cards released weeks ago would be a start.
Some of these cards wouldn't make most people's best four or five squads, let alone their god squads.
Radical concept, but if you're playing all year to achieve Finest vouchers, the resultant players should be the best of the best.
JRam Finest is arguably best 3b in game, god squad worthy
Cal Raleigh is arguably best offensive catcher in the game with solid d, god squad worthy
Ian Happ is among best LF in the game, god squad worthy.
Trea Turner SS is god squad worthy, especially on higher levels with his vision. Bobby Witt is solid, Francisco Lindor is a switch hitter with a fan-favorite swing, and Colson Montgomery has big power.
Kyle Schwarber is a solid DH.
Cody Bellinger at 1B is a fan favorite with stacked #s.
You make 2/3 of a god squad lineup with those guys.
Are they just supposed to give everyone 125 con, 125 pow, 125 vis, and 99 spd?
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@xRatedGProdigyx_PSN said in Are Finest Cards meant to be the....finest cards?:
JRam Finest is arguably best 3b in game, god squad worthy
Did you forget about Chipper Jones?
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@Talkingben9558_XBL said in Are Finest Cards meant to be the....finest cards?:
@xRatedGProdigyx_PSN said in Are Finest Cards meant to be the....finest cards?:
JRam Finest is arguably best 3b in game, god squad worthy
Did you forget about Chipper Jones?
Nope I didn't forget...:-D
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But it doesn't need to be a "salary cap mode" - some cards can be obviously better, but if you need the build and use the lower cards in order to make them better, you have a system where everything works together. (Use the lower cards, form theme teams, and that IN TURN improves your best players).
Right now, nothing works together - you've just got 13 spots and 5 pitchers to fill, and that's it.
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@xRatedGProdigyx_PSN
Then stop disrespecting him. Have you had a look at their stats side by side? Dont tell me Jram has a better swing, Chipper's is amazing. And Chipper can also play left field! What more do you want from him? Not to mention Chipper is 500,000 stubs cheaper -
@Talkingben9558_XBL said in Are Finest Cards meant to be the....finest cards?:
@xRatedGProdigyx_PSN
Then stop disrespecting him. Have you had a look at their stats side by side? Dont tell me Jram has a better swing, Chipper's is amazing. And Chipper can also play left field! What more do you want from him? Not to mention Chipper is 500,000 stubs cheaperJRam better
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Just looking at the attributes (ignoring the intangible "swing" preference) it is pretty much a coin flip when comparing all aspects of the card.
3B - Top 5 by Meta Score Rank OVR Player Team Series Meta 1 99 Chipper Jones ATL Milestone 106.3 2 99 JosĂ© RamĂrez CLE 2025 Finest 106.15 3 99 David Wright NYM Signature 105.4 4 99 Nolan Arenado COL Finest 105.2 5 99 Ernie Clement TOR 2025 Postseason 104.05Just looking at the offensive attributes the top 5 3B are:
Rank OVR Player Team Series Bats Meta Offensive Meta 1 99 Junior Caminero TB 2025 Finest R 101.4 120.6 2 99 Harmon Killebrew MIN Spooky R 99.9 119.4 3 99 Chipper Jones ATL Milestone S 106.3 118.34 4 99 Nolan Arenado COL Finest R 105.2 115.82 5 99 JosĂ© RamĂrez CLE 2025 Finest S 106.15 115.7And a direct comparison
