2017-18 Upper Deck MVP Hockey Box Break

As usual, the first set of the year is one of Upper Deck's most affordable: 2017-18 MVP. I bought a 24-pack blaster box at $30 plus taxes, which comes up to $34.50 Canadian in Montréal - not as good a deal as Panini's old Score sets, but pretty much the best UD can do.

Here's what each foil pack looks like:

I love the colours, I love Alex Ovechkin being on it in the age of Connor McDavid's deserved nods and Sidney Crosby's based-on-hype ones, and I like the overall first impression this gives me.

The 24 packs gave me a total of 120 cards, broken down as such:

87 regular-issue cards (3 doubles: Jack Eichel, Tanner Pearson, Sam Bennett), with the back only showing the last five years of play, regardless of the fact that some players have been around since the 1990s:

There were 2 "Puzzle Back" cards, Matthew Tkachuk and Torey Krug):

2 "Checklist" cards, Crosby and McDavid, in beautiful retro white uniforms:

4 Silver Script cards with fac-simile autographs, of Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie, Alexander Wennberg and Christian Dvorak:

One Gold Script, Loui Eriksson, numbered 23/100:

2 Rookie Cards of players from my local teams, Nikita Scherbak (Montréal Canadiens) and Colin White (Ottawa Senators):

3 Level 1 Access Player Credentials cards, of Eichel, Tuukka Rask and Jaden Schwartz:

... and 16 other players from Canadian teams, which are easier for me to get signed, including two Habs (Tomas Plekanec and captain Max Pacioretty) and four Sens (Mark Stone, Zack Smith, Mike Hoffman and Derick Brassard).

All told, this set keeps the bronze-coloured theme from seasons past in a new design with the three Adidas-like sideways lines and the silver-and-blue icy theme for rookie cards, and the inserts look much nicer than the regular-issue cards.

I expected better from the packaging, but I'll give this set a commendable 7/10.