Sunday, October 11, 2015

Box Break: 2015-16 Upper Deck MVP

I went to the pharmacy last night and as I purchased my meds, I walked around to see if they were also selling hockey cards, because this is the time of year where they might. And lo and behold, in the electronics section, sandwiched between alarm clocks and photo albums was a tiny stack of Upper Deck's 2015-16 MVP blaster boxes, which this year contain 24 packs (20+4, they say) instead of the 12 (10+2) of years past.
So I grabbed one, and this is what I came up with the following:
Total price: $30 for 120 cards

Rookie cards: these four (Nick Shore, Stefan Noesen and Mackenzie Skapski), one of which is also a Silver Script insert (Luke Witkowski):
Silver Scripts: these two additional ones of Tomas Plekanec and Derek Stepan, plus one of Jiri Hudler:
An insert I'd never seen from UD, NHL Territories: this one featuring Brandon Dubinsky, which is as dark as a Black Diamond card:
Retired: one card of Hall Of Fame goaltender Terry Sawchuk:
Montréal Canadiens (my home team): 5: the above-mentioned Plekanec Silver Script, plus these four (Plekanec's regular-issue card, new captain Max Pacioretty, Brendan Gallagher and David Desharnais):
 Here is what the backs look like:
All told, it's a similar-looking set from that of last year, which is a good thing, particularly if they plan on having it keep its identity as they do with Black Diamond or Victory; they once again left the facsimile autographs to the Silver Script and Gold Script (numbered /100) inserts and concentrated on showing action shots of players where their complete silhouette shows up on the card, give or take a pair of skates.

I was also happy that the Checklist cards use a different picture from the player's regular-issue card; case in point, Jonathan Drouin:
Once again, I didn't get an autograph nor a jersey insert card, but I did get over 100 decent-looking pseudo-classic cards that I can eventually get signed or trade away.

I'm not sure if it's me getting old or if my expectations are lowered from last year, but I'll give this set a 7/10.

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