Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015 Recap – Bounty on Lando, Topps Classic Stormtrooper, Classic Art 2 Klaatu Blue, Join the Empire Modern, New sets Resources and Schematics, Series 2 ESB Illustrated 26-50

I’ll have to be quick with the usual suspects today. There’s something new that deserves some extra attention.

The Bounty today is Lando Calrissian. 3 more weeks left if there are no more variant slow downs.

The third Topps Classic is the Stormtrooper.

The next Classic Art card is Klaatu Blue variant. I wasn’t quite right about the skiff but according to the Wookiepedia he is in charge of skiff maintenance.

The next Modernography card is “Join the Empire.” A cool counterpoint to the “Join the Rebellion” card we got early on.

Series 2 of the Empire Strikes Back – Illustrated dropped today. This time numbers 26-50. The same deal as series one, burn cards for green. Buy credits packs for Reds and get Gray cards 1:1 in the Packs.

Ok, Resource cards and Schematic cards. Star Wars Card Trader has just turned into a farming game and crafting game. I also think we’re starting to see the real potential of the Smuggler’s Den.

If you haven’t gotten it by now, here’s a quick run down of how it works. Find Schematics in the Resource and Schematic packs. Different packs contain different parallels with varying odds. One is limited by card count the rest by time. You’ll find Resource cards in all Resource and Schematic packs. You’ll get basic Resources (1x) 1:1 in each pack. Currently the only Schematic card available is Boba Fett’s ship, Slave 1. But, presumably they’ll be releasing more Schematics over time. In the Smuggler’s Den you can combine a Schematic plus base cards (the level of base card depends on the parallel of the Schematic) and Resource cards. The most rare cards require gold base cards and multiple Resource cards. For example, the Green Slave 1 requires, the Green Schematic, a Gold Jango Fett plus a Gold Boba Fett (young) and 25 each of Computers, Metal, Fuel and Wires Resources.

It’s still to early to say obviously, but I don’t see why you wouldn’t have guilds forming with people assigned to farm resources and others charged with finding Schematics. Also a new trading economy for resources will certainly form. I mean, just because you have a Green Schematic doesn’t mean you can actually turn it into a Completed card. Also, what’s yet to be determined is how many will actually just hold on to their cards without turning them in, a la the Golden Tickets. I’m sure some people will just like to collect the base Resource and Schematic cards themselves. This will probably make the Greens extremely valuable. Out of a 500 count Green Slave 1 Schematics we might see only 1/2 or less get turned into actual Ship cards.

This also puts a lot of pressure on deciding what cards to collect which is, I think, ultimately Topps’ goal with this; to make it impossible for one person to collect everything without trading unless that player is willing to spend A LOT of dough. With over 200 cards in the ESB – Illustrated Series 1 and 2, and needing to collect (1 per pack) 100+ cards to create a completed Slave 1, collecting has become completely crazy. Since the dump of new cards pre-Force Friday, I’ve already resigned myself to a few select series. I’ll probably be collecting even fewer numbers of cards, but just focus on cards that will hold value that I can trade for other cards after their awards have dropped and are less in demand. Vintage has been a good hold in the past, in addition to sets like Nightbrothers, and the rarer versions of Fire Brand and Hoth. Gold base cards are currently quite valuable with all the shredding. Which cards currently out that will be keepers in the future is hard to say. I’m sure there will be a shake out soon, I just hope I’m holding the right ones.