Pyramid Review
Major League Baseball Showdown 2000
Published by Wizards of the Coast
2 40-card Starters for $9.99, 60 card Draft Packs for $8.99, 9 card boosters for $3.25
Because of the popularity of sports cards, the making of a sports related CCG has seemed inevitable since Magic first became a success. But such a combination has never been done successfully, until now. Major League Baseball Showdown 2000 from Wizards of the Coast has the potential to change all that.
There are a number of reasons for this. The marketing power of Wizards will have an impact, of course. But that wouldn't matter if the product wasn't any good. The rules are simple and playable and the cards are well designed. When you open your first starter, you should find an AL and a NL deck each containing a starting pitcher, a complete batting lineup with a DH, one reliever and a bench player. The starting pitchers are fixed, Greg Maddux and David Cone; neither is the best in his league, but it does guarantee at least one good starter for each league. The rest of the players are an assortment from each league. The core mechanic is quite simple. When each player comes to bat, one 20 sided die is rolled twice, once for the pitch and again for the swing. The pitch determines whether the batter or pitcher has the advantage by comparing the result of the die roll plus the pitcher's Control to the hitters On Base number. The results of the at bat are obtained by looking at the swing chart printed on either . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: July 21, 2000
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