Well, it was a late night, but we did get the Home Run Derby cards and Shohei Ohtani collection reward (plus All-Star Prince Fielder) in MLB The Show 21. The Ohtani card is not technically available yet because you need 46 cards in the collection (and there are only 42 cards available as of now). We will get more All-Star cards following the real All-Star main event, and that number should creep up towards 50 players. At that point, you’ll be able to bypass a couple of cards (and we’re assuming SDS does not release any other retro cards) en route to one of the greatest cards to ever hit MLB The Show.
MLB The Show 21 – Home Run Derby Cards
https://twitter.com/MLBTheShow/status/1414828391660810246?s=20
First up, here are the Home Run Derby cards.
Overall, the Home Run Derby cards are a bit better than expected. I think that many of them will struggle on the higher difficulty levels (as usual), but the power is obvious. The Juan Soto card has quirks for days. The Salvador Perez card has amazing hitting stats (albeit, there is another All-Star Salvador Perez card as well), and Alonso/Mancini are very fine top-end cards for the HR Derby packs.
MLB The Show 21 – Shohei Ohtani Collection
The collection is now up for the All-Star players, and this includes the top reward of a 2021 Shohei Ohtani All-Star card.
It’s a starting pitcher with max power ratings and stuff that you probably are already used to going up against in Diamond Dynasty. Whether you mash against Ohtani or not, he’s still dual-position player, and you’re not going to get a pitcher with 125 power anywhere else in the game. Babe Ruth maybe gets the same treatment at some point this year, but that’s the only potential alternative here at some point down the line. Ohtani is a 1:1 for now, and that makes him the most desirable card in the game right now.
I feel like I need to say more about this card, but really, it’s a 99 overall Shohei Ohtani card. You know it’s going to be great to have and annoying to go up against the rest of the year in DD.
On the road to Shohei Ohtani, there is a Prince Fielder card and a Ryne Sandberg card:
That Fielder card looks very impressive with max power ratings, and so it’s a solid consolation prize en route to Ohtani.
Bottom Line
It’s impossible to believe that Shohei Ohtani card won’t immediately become the most desired card in Diamond Dynasty once it’s technically available. Again, we have to wait until at least Tuesday night before it’s even possible to acquire. In the meantime, you should keep plugging along with Team Affinity Season 3, and maybe just wait to see how many more All-Star cards SDS releases before splurging on the Home Run Derby cards (assuming you don’t just want them because you like them). You won’t need every card to get Ohtani, but we’re still waiting to see if the final number of cards in the collection will be 50 — thus you need 46 of the 50 to get Ohtani — or maybe it’s a little over or under that number.
