Last year we got Honus Wagner as the big midsummer collection reward in The Show, and this year we get a 99 overall MVP Mike Trout as the big collection pursuit. You can then Prestige Mike Trout and get one of the most powerful players in Diamond Dynasty.
However, this reward is slightly disappointing to those who have or will complete the 30 Live Series collections. After all, Mike Trout is the most expensive player to grab in that set, and someone like Prime Mickey Mantle is already a good comparison to Trout — just with switch hitting. It also may be an issue with the power creep this year where we already have so many insanely rated players that the grind for this version of Trout does not feel as necessary.
Still, let’s go through the ways to get this card.
New Collections
The new and refined collections can all be found in the collections screen within Diamond Dynasty. You will need to complete 15 various collections to unlock MVP Mike Trout.
There are specific collections tied to a couple of the final rewards for certain collections (Players League, Home Run Derby, Prospect Series), and then a couple nameplates tied to getting 30 Face of the Franchise cards and 30 Future Stars cards. There is one stats grind as well if you have completed five players to Prestige level.
After that, the other collections have basically been expanded from where they were at launch. This means the other new collections for vouchers are:
- 20 Rookies
- 15 Topps Now players
- 16 Prospects cards
- 8 Signature Series players
- 20 All-Stars
- 20 Breakout Series players
- 15 Prime players
- 15 Awards players
- 20 Veterans players
- 15 Monthly Awards players
- 3 cover cards from XP program
- 15 Postseason Series cards
If you are able to pull this off you get 99 Mike Trout, 75,000 stubs and 100K XP.
How Many Collections Can You Do Right Now?
In theory, you can get the 99 Mike Trout right now since you don’t need to do every single collection to get him. Realistically, if you have been doing all the free content drops and have completed all 30 team collections and are at least a diamond on the XP path, you should have somewhere between 9-13 collections you can pull off for free from your collections.
Personally, I have not spent a dime on the game but do have all 30 team collections completed and thus have 10 of these Mike Trout collections completed. I could easily get to 13 if I just buy a couple players, but I’m in no rush as of yet.
What Prices Went Up?
There are a couple clear traffic jams for folks trying to get to 15 collections. Those spots seem to be Postseason players, Awards players, Postseason players, Players League players and Home Run Derby players. You can see some examples of the boosted prices below. These prices make sense because a lot of people are probably just a couple players short of knocking out these specific collections.
That being said, if you can, try to show some patience. If you do the free content drops, you should already essentially be able to complete the Players League without spending any stubs. The Home Run Derby will probably never be cheap, so I would not target that one as of now. But as it relates to things like Postseason, Signature Series, Awards etc. where you probably are a little short right now, of course realize more and more free players will pop up from those categories as the days and weeks go by.
Of course, if you’re very close to being done with Mike Trout already, I understand the appeal of overpaying a bit and getting there. But if you’re not in that area, then just sit tight and keep grinding away. You should be able to get to 15 collections for very cheap as long as you’re playing the game a lot.
Prestige Mike Trout
The Prestige Mike Trout program is slightly different from other Prestige programs. It still involves online stat missions, this one just includes at-bats so you can’t weasel a way to grind it real quick via “gentleman’s agreements” in Events games and the like.
- 250 at bats (+5)
- 137 hits (+10)
- 74 XBH (+10)
- 104 RBIs (+10)
- 110 runs (+10)
You can get a Ducks On The Pond pack at 40 points in the Prestige program for Trout as well.
All in all, perhaps because we all got to speculate about this reward for longer this year the hype ruined the reveal. Again, it’s not like MVP Mike Trout is a bad card or does not fit right in on most teams, it just doesn’t feel like the “grind” to get there will be worth it for some folks. I know I’m in no rush to get him, especially because it feels like I will naturally be able to get him over time — that’s a good thing and a good change to this program over Honus Wagner from last year.
Regardless, Trout is not as exciting to get for those who are probably the most hardcore players because we’ll already have Live Series Trout and a Prime Mickey Mantle. A new player or someone we had not seen before would have probably resonated more with the intended audience.
