Missions yes or no?

[stan-theman]

Every year I wonder should you do missions or not.Seems like unless you are holding one of the top cards for a mission to finish costs more than reward is worth.What are your thoughts.Thanks

[LeeD]

As the missions get older, the cost of completion (usually) drops dramatically, and the combination of selling the topper(s) and potential for pulling a great card out of the reward packs often outweighs the cost of completion. See Baseball Reference for an example. Lots of pack rewards, including Diamond and Perfect, plus saleable Perfect toppers which are also good cards in the lower-level leagues (Bronze and below).

Pack Rewards missions with Standard and Silver pack rewards almost inevitably end up as self-funding, by which I mean the value of the reward packs exceeds the minimal cost of completion (which is often a few hundred points months after mission drop).

Those are two examples, from high potential to low. Of course, the downside to completing missions is locked cards which could otherwise be sold. As an FTP player, I tend to sell high during the flurry over new missions (cards are overpriced) and then reacquire them later, either through pulls or purchases. A few weeks is often long enough to see prices drop from ridiculous to reasonable. For an extreme example, remember the Silver DeGrom card that was selling for hundreds of thousands when the 101 Pedro mission dropped? L10 is currently 218, which is about 1/1000th of what it cost right after it came out.

Bottom line: everyone who isn't just buying the latest cards with cash infusions needs pack pulls, and at least a decent number of them Diamond and Perfect packs, to keep up. Unless you're dedicating enough time to win big in tournaments and perfect drafts, the only way to acquire them consistently is to follow the mission streams or buy them (and buying them is a poor strategy, with the exception of some Spotlight packs). Twitch will get you up to ten per day (occasionally more), but they're Standards and Silvers. That means, maybe, a once-a-month surprise, which is not going to get anyone into the top leagues.

[Leo_The_Lip]

I've found this year to be more interesint and rewarding than the previous 3 seasons. I complainsed about the Jack Morris card blocking the Ellite missions. I was set to Fork it for the year, then one day Morris turned up in a pack--Ding! Ding! Ding!

the remaining missions rattled off and the rewards from those missions completed other missions. Fun times!

[Hawkwing7423]

Originally Posted by LeeD

As the missions get older, the cost of completion (usually) drops dramatically, and the combination of selling the topper(s) and potential for pulling a great card out of the reward packs often outweighs the cost of completion. See Baseball Reference for an example. Lots of pack rewards, including Diamond and Perfect, plus saleable Perfect toppers which are also good cards in the lower-level leagues (Bronze and below).

Pack Rewards missions with Standard and Silver pack rewards almost inevitably end up as self-funding, by which I mean the value of the reward packs exceeds the minimal cost of completion (which is often a few hundred points months after mission drop).

Those are two examples, from high potential to low. Of course, the downside to completing missions is locked cards which could otherwise be sold. As an FTP player, I tend to sell high during the flurry over new missions (cards are overpriced) and then reacquire them later, either through pulls or purchases. A few weeks is often long enough to see prices drop from ridiculous to reasonable. For an extreme example, remember the Silver DeGrom card that was selling for hundreds of thousands when the 101 Pedro mission dropped? L10 is currently 218, which is about 1/1000th of what it cost right after it came out.

Bottom line: everyone who isn't just buying the latest cards with cash infusions needs pack pulls, and at least a decent number of them Diamond and Perfect packs, to keep up. Unless you're dedicating enough time to win big in tournaments and perfect drafts, the only way to acquire them consistently is to follow the mission streams or buy them (and buying them is a poor strategy, with the exception of some Spotlight packs). Twitch will get you up to ten per day (occasionally more), but they're Standards and Silvers. That means, maybe, a once-a-month surprise, which is not going to get anyone into the top leagues.

I can buy into your strategy, but how do you handle all the tournament cards? Do you buy tournament cards with your profits from this strategy to complete tournament missions?

(The tournaments look challenging to me and I don't expect I'd be good a those, especially with the combinator focus.)

Most of the missions I've been stuck on (Sandy Koufax, Babe Ruth 102, Alex Rodriguez), it's the very high cost of diamond tournament cards that keep me stuck.

[daves]

You should do the missions to obtain the proper toppers.

There are some missions that are not needed if you already obtained the topper, such as the CC mission.

[LeeD]

Originally Posted by Hawkwing7423

I can buy into your strategy, but how do you handle all the tournament cards? Do you buy tournament cards with your profits from this strategy to complete tournament missions?

(The tournaments look challenging to me and I don't expect I'd be good a those, especially with the combinator focus.)

Most of the missions I've been stuck on (Sandy Koufax, Babe Ruth 102, Alex Rodriguez), it's the very high cost of diamond tournament cards that keep me stuck.

I've won some Diamond tournament cards, mostly from the daily lives before they changed the formats, but they're a tough nut to crack. Even if you win some of them, it's unlikely that you'll have all the ones you need for a particular mission. I've spent upwards of 200,000 on some tournament cards, probably topped out by the 103 Carlton at around 260,000. For those, I try to get Perfects that can fill a spot on the league roster (Carlton is the team's top reliever) or complete multiple missions (Roman Anthony was one, costing close to 200,000).

I'm OK with prices like that if the rewards are worthwhile (Carlton completed It's a Wonderful Gibson, so I also got that card). What drives me crazy is spending nearly 100,000 on Diamond cards that get me a third of the way there and have no real value in themselves.

It usually becomes cheaper to buy the topper for many of these missions. The 101 Babe and the Koufax are examples, and neither of them is top-notch at this point anyway. It's sometimes worth it to complete the mission anyway, open the packs (usually Perfects or Rainbows), and then sell the topper. I completed the All-Perfect To All A Good Night mission by selling off the Betts, Crews, and Burnes toppers plus Ty Cobb. Zobrist replaced Betts at second base, Mantle completed two missions and took over in center field, and the All-Perfect pack got me 104 Arenado plus enough sale points to pick up Pudge Rodriguez and Dinelson Lamet, who's very similar to Burnes and also nearly completed another mission (Sample Studs).

Yes, this is all very confusing, and I'm sure I'm not alone when I feel like a hamster chasing a peanut. That's the wonderful world of Perfect Team...

but we're only three weeks away from the simple pleasure of spending 1000-2000 points on a live Silver to complete one of only 50 or so missions. Yay!?!?!?