SDS is wasting no time unleashing some of the all-time DD greats here in Battle Royale Season 8. After BR Season 7 gave us Larry Walker and Johnny Cueto, we’re now getting two true villains in the Flawless pack with Finest Corey Kluber and Postseason Corey Seager. At a glance, my guess is Seager will be favored by a bit because he has diamond fielding to go with the positional flexibility, sweet swing, and impressive attributes. Kluber has a great pitch mix, but his speed differentials may lead to some avoiding him.
Battle Royale Season 8
The new “Flawless” rewards:
To dig a bit deeper, Finest Corey Kluber has a five-pitch mix, and he has 90+ control of everything but the sinker. The speed differentials on his fastballs are not much, so I think that might be the issue. If the cutter came in a bit slower, this would probably be a card everyone would want to use. That said, this is a very good 99 overall, and he has 116 K/9, 106 BB/9, and 114 H/9 to round out a pitcher who has owned DD for long stretches of time in previous games. I think there’s been enough of an influx of interesting pitchers in the Legends Program that Kluber does not get as much hype for that reason as well, but that applies to hitters and pitchers.
With Postseason Corey Seager, this was a card almost everyone used when it came out. It was impossible to deny how dominant the card was and how sweet the swing was that was attached to those ratings. Since he can play SS, 2B, and 3B while having those hitting attributes, I have a hard time believing most people won’t find a spot for him once again. The bonus is the improved fielding that is usually hard to come by with Seager cards. The 47 speed means maybe he ends up at 3B some of the time, and his 70 arm is not great, but you know this card is going to destroy pitchers.
Rewards
- 5 BR – 500 stubs
- 10 BR – 2,500 XP, Bronze BR choice pack (x2)
- Rookie Cedric Mullins
- Rookie Josh Donaldson
- Veteran Brian Roberts
- Rookie Rich Gossage
- 15 BR – 500 stubs
- 20 BR – 2,500 XP, The Show pack (x5)
- 25 BR – Silver BR choice pack
- Rookie Andres Munoz
- Topps Now Bryan Shaw
- Postseason Jorge Posada
- Topps Now Niko Goodrum
- 30 BR – 2,500 XP, Gold BR choice pack
- Topps Now Dylan Carlson
- 2nd Half Heroes Jonathan Villar
- Future Stars Sandy Alcantara
- Topps Now Seth Brown
- 40 BR – 2,500 XP, Silver BR choice pack
- 45 BR – Gold BR choice pack
- 50 BR – 2,500 XP, Headliners Set 31 pack
- 55 BR – 1,500 stubs
- 60 BR – 2,500 XP, Bronze BR choice pack (x2)
- 65 BR – 2,500 XP, Silver BR choice pack
- 70 BR – 2,500 XP, Gold BR choice pack
- 75 BR – 2,500 XP, Headliners Set 32 pack
- 80 BR – 2,500 XP, Silver BR choice pack
- 85 BR – 2,500 XP, Gold BR choice pack
- 90 BR – 5,000 XP, Finest Ryan Howard
We got Shane Victorino in the last BR season, so we stay with the Phillies here with a Finest Ryan Howard. He has maxed out power, and I got to say I enjoy hitting with Howard a ton this year. I hit way too many homers with his bronze card during a prior BR season, and it’s easy to say I should hit plenty more home runs with this version. I don’t think I need to say much about Howard except to point out he has max contact against RHP and much higher contact against LHP than I would expect. It’s hard to see this card not being great, but as always you just have a lot of options at 1B to test out.
- 95 points – 5,000 XP, Rewind BR Flawless choice pack
- 100 points – 10,000 XP, BR Flawless choice pack
- 110 BR – 3,000 stubs, The Show pack (x10)
- 120 BR – Headliners Set 33 pack
- 130 BR – 2,500 XP, The Show pack (x10)
- 140 BR – 3,000 stubs
- 150 BR – 5,000 XP, Ballin’ Is A Habit pack (x5)
Missions
- BR Missions
- Win 1 BR game – 1 point (repeatable)
- Go 12-0 – 20 points (repeatable)
- Win 9+ games in a run – 10 points (repeatable)
- 4,000 PxP in a single BR entry – 10 points
- 20 hits in a single BR entry – 10 points
- 15,000 PxP in BR games – 15 points
- 25,000 PxP in BR games – 15 points
- 100 total bases in BR games – 10 points
- 40 Ks in BR games – 10 points
- Bronze BR-Exclusive Parallel XP Missions
- Tally 350 PxP with Rookie Rich Gossage – 4 points
- Tally 250 PxP with Rookie Josh Donaldson – 4 points
- Tally 250 PxP with Rookie Cedric Mullins – 4 points
- Tally 250 PxP with Veteran Brian Roberts – 4 points
- Silver BR-Exclusive Parallel XP Missions
- Tally 500 PxP with Rookie Andres Munoz – 4 points
- Tally 350 PxP with Postseason Jorge Posada – 4 points
- Tally 500 PxP with Topps Now Bryan Shaw – 4 points
- Tally 350 PxP with Topps Now Niko Goodrum – 4 points
- Gold BR-Exclusive Parallel XP Missions
- Tally 500 PxP with Topps Now Dylan Carlson – 4 points
- Tally 500 PxP with Topps Now Seth Brown – 4 points
- Tally 500 PxP with 2nd Half Heroes Jonathan Villar – 4 points
- Tally 500 PxP with Future Stars Sandy Alcantara – 4 points
Bottom Line
Some of the missions are a little more annoying than usual (get 40 Ks with pitchers), but BR continues to be the easiest online program to finish over the course of a month. If you stick with getting the player-specific missions done and most of the regular missions, the rest will work itself out and you’ll get to 100 points to get the new Flawless pack. This Flawless pack is certainly worth doing, and I don’t think you can miss picking either Finest Corey Kluber or Postseason Corey Seager.
