Hello there.
Today I will talk about the new card Yaba's Pickle. Honestly, I haven't been active enough lately to know how they came up with the name, but I am all for it. They went with the meme route with underlying tones and that makes it more fun; and Yaba's Pickle is also a very fun card.
First, let's go over the card. It is a 4 cost, common, neutral monster. That in itself makes it a card that can be used in a lot of matches. It goes under restricting ruleset like Little League and Rise of the Commons, although it gets affected by the Taking Sides ruleset where no neutrals are available. I think its main purpose is as a front tank. The level 1 card is already serviceable with its 1 armor for extra survivability. Level 3 and 5, where it gets Dodge and Shield respectively, really ramps up its tankiness.
Level 8 is when it gets Slow, and having a team wide debuff really amps up its value. Yaba's Pickle is a bit slow with 2 speed, so the Slow can help it even the playing field, and work well with the Dodge to increase miss chance. Finally, Level 10 is when it gets Heal. Even with just 7 HP, unless the opponent brings a lot of magic attacks, they might have difficulty taking down Yaba's Pickle. This is why I think Yaba's Pickle shines in the Counterspell and Lost Magic ruleset. It also isn't bad in Equalizer ruleset for the heal.
Overall, I think they did a great job in the abilities it gets, and when it gets it. Dodge early on makes it valuable in Bronze. The Shield makes it serviceable in Silver. Slow makes it a good secondary tank in Gold. Heal makes it viable in Diamond and up. Let's not forget that it doesn't have an attack, and can be given Weapons Training. As a neutral, it can be very versatile in a lot of scenarios.
Looking at the shop page, it would seem like getting a max pickle might be difficult, and for whales only. They took a Snapshot of all accounts last June 17, and based off of their staked SPS then, they can only buy a specific number of Pickle cards. The ratio was 1000 staked SPS per 1 Yaba's Pickle card. With my 25k staked, I can only buy 25, which is a far cry from the 400 needed to max it. Anyone with less than 400k SPS staked won't have enough available to buy.
For people like us, there is still hope. Looking at the market, Yaba's Pickle is selling for less than 150 DEC. Almost 50 DEC less than in the Shop. For those wondering why this is and why people would be selling at a loss. I think these are whales that are trying to get Gold Foil and Black Foil copies. If you buy from the shop, there is a 2 percent chance to get a Gold Foil, and a 0.02 percent chance for a Black Foil. I think the whales are selling their Regular Foils at a loss to get more funds to buy from the Shop.
I think this makes it better for all, since players like me can get the card cheaper, and Whales can continue rerolling for GF and BF. There is an argument if it is better to just buy from the market and not from the Shop to save, or if it is worth it to gamble for GF or BF. To that I say you should weigh both sides and decide for yourself.
What's nice though is that getting Yaba's Pickle isn't only limited to this General Sale and secondary market. The team decided to mix it up with different promos as well. The General sale is Phase 1, there will be a Phase 2 to get Gold Foil Arcane cards. These are rarer than the usual Gold Foil ones, and only 50 will be given out. These will require Fortune Tickets crafted by land owners and are sold on the market. I'm really liking how they integrate more things to land, and to incentivize players to get their own.
Then there is the Phase 3 where players can get Black Foil Arcane cards via auction. This time they will need Auction Marks which are also crafted by land owners, to get a chance to get one of 20 BF Arcane cards. It says there that it will use proxy style bidding and max bids might not be enough. I'm guessing once you put in a max bid for that day, you can't change it anymore, and there might not be any chance for snipes.
There are some questions like, are auction marks consumed once a player wins, or can they bid multiple times with just one mark. Is there a deadline for each day or can one 'snipe' by only bidding near the end. I'm guessing we'll know more about it as we get closer to the actual auction.
The previous auction reached high amounts, but that was a legendary card. Yaba's Pickle is common, so it will be interesting to see how it compares. Card strength wise, it is really good for a common card, but isn't as strong as legendary cards. I think it will definitely be lower than Heloise even though the collection value should be higher [Yaba's name is here, and meme potential].
I had a lot of fun checking the prices last auction, so I will be looking forward to this one too. There are less cards available, so I'm not ruling out any surprise bids yet. I'm just a krill, so I probably won't be joining Phase 2 and 3, but I will definitely by enjoying it from the sidelines.
Overall I think the team did a great job and hit this promo/event out of the park. The card is worth it, there is a lot of history and memes, and there is a lot for everyone to enjoy. For those taking chances on the GF, BF, and Phase 2-3, good luck and I hope you get great results.
That is it for my Yaba's Pickle card and event review. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions for improvement. And as always, these are Not Financial Advice, and Do Your Own Research.
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