Welcome to Week 3 of my Sorare journey. When we last cyber spoke, I was Dabbling in the Market, getting a feel purchasing new NFT player cards to add to my collection. However, I was doing it without a real goal other than to get acquainted with the mechanism and gain a feel for how buying a player card may go when I have a better idea of what I'm doing. I placed a few bids, then received the alert someone bid more. In a few instances, I upped the bid, but mostly let it go.
I did, however, delve deeper into the Sorare MLB platform and picked up a few things. That said, I'm still in the embryonic stage, so I'm sure I'll continue to edify myself on the nuances of the game.
My focus was learning how to enter higher level tournaments. Currently, I am only eligible to compete in Common All-Star tourneys. The next step is Limited tournaments, requiring seven Limited cards to enter.
How does one acquire Limited cards? I'm glad you asked.
The first way is being awarded a Limited card for a high finish in a Common All Star tournament. Unfortunately, I'm at a disadvantage since I've only been playing for a couple of weeks. An important point I learned was the cards gain experience the more they are entered into competitions. More experience results in more points. That is, the same Limited card generates a different number of points based on the level of experience for each. I'm matched up against thousands of others with cards gaining experience since July when the game was unveiled.
Last week, I mentioned the cards carry over to the 2023 season. However, the experience levels all drop to the minimum, so everyone is back to a level playing field. Yay. I'm looking forward to the challenge of building a competitive team and being awarded Limited cards, and not just those of the Common All-Star variety I am currently accumulating.
That said, I'm impatient. I want to play in Limited tournaments next spring, concurrently while I'm still grinding my way in via Common All-Star play. Plus, it will take awhile to win seven Limited cards, but if I have collected ample via another pathway, they can fortify my seven-card Limited collection and help me do better in Limited tournaments.
That brings us to another method of acquiring Limited cards, the bidding process alluded to earlier. I've opted to call on my baseball acumen to take a more Moneyball approach.
It was time to jump back into the market, this time with a plan. I placed bids on Vaughn Grissom, Spencer Torkelson, Corbin Carroll, Sean Manaea and Jose Berrios cards. Grissom and Carroll really didn't fit the plan, but it doesn't cost anything to bid, and you miss all bids you don't make, or something like that.
From this set of bidding, I acquired a Manaea card. Even if he rebounds, he'll likely never miss ample bats to be a fantasy, or Sorare ace, but he should be viable at home. Remember the schedule is more balanced next season so a start or two against the Dodgers will be replaced by one facing a lesser lineup.
It should be clarified that most of the auctions last a few days, so I'm referring to when a bunch of them end. I'm sure there are those practicing sniping (waiting until just before the auction closes to raise the bid). At some point, I'll do the same, but for now I'm fine with hoping my last bid makes it through.
Still, I shuffled the timing with my next set of bids, placing them early Tuesday evening. The targets were Jeremy Pena, Jarred Kelenic, Pablo Lopez and Bobby Witt Jr. cards, figuring I had the best chance at a Kelenic card. Though, I'm glad someone outbid me for Kelenic since the active lineup only has one outfielder and Kelenic may have potential, but I'm not comfortable with him in my Limited lineup for Opening Day next season. I was pleasantly surprised when receiving the email that my Pablo Lopez card bid was not topped. Pena and Witt were beaten almost immediately.
My next set of bids were placed on Wednesday morning with the cards of Lucas Giolito, Jonathan India, Alex Verdugo, Bryan Reynolds and Ketel Marte in my crosshairs. India, Verdugo and Reynolds don't exactly fit the profile, but I see them as promising athletes and the auctions were ending within the hour. Long-time followers of my traditional fantasy work know why I bid on Marte's card; he's a good luck charm.
Well, hopefully Marte carries some of that Zola magic as that's my third Limited card. To be honest, it's more than just a goofy crush, he's coming off a down year and is playing on a team whose overall production is on the upswing. Plus, it helps that the Marte card can be slotted at infield or outfield, especially when using a lineup with only seven cards, at least to start.
