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I think Riot is prepared to wage war on the TCG market. The product placement here is wild, you know they’re serious.
IMO they’re aiming for the #1 TCG spot and I think they’re gonna pull it off.
Do not underestimate the marketing power of this multi billion dollar studio!
Regardless of my criticisms, Riftbound is so great.
I know some of you just think I’m just a scalping investment jester goon 😂, but I do actually like the IP, the community, and the products too. I believe a lot in what is being built here.
Long live Riftbound forever. ✌️
Mail day
$5k for sig Ahri, $1k for Chinese Arcane box
Probably the best deal I have ever gotten so far, the Ahri is only slightly off center and within 60/40 threshold
I was thinking about why I felt this way when making the quoted post and I narrowed it down. This is my final critique post on Radiance.
Want to clarify btw that this set can still do well and it’s very early into set release, but anyway:
1. A lot of people are annoyed that Alt Art Seraphine ON is CN exclusive. It is indisputably the biggest chase of Radiance. The Jay Chou Master Yi is also CN exclusive. But removing the biggest chase was a big fumble for English Radiance IMO. The JC Master Yi I can live without, but it does look cool, and it would have been sick for English Radiance buyers to have a raffle opportunity as well. Some people have said these decisions make them feel like English consumers do not matter as much compared to China consumers which I don’t think was the intended messaging from Riot for doing this but that is how some are seeing it.
2. Packed Amphitheater 🤪 not gonna go into this too much, I have talked about it a lot already, it just doesn’t compare to UR Baron Nashor, PA doesn’t feel “ultimate” per se.
3. Not directly related but it’s adjacent, I do not understand why the Nexus Night Lulu was not full art. While NN Lulu is not a part of Radiance boosters, no NN Lulu full art makes me moody towards Radiance 🤪
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Then there’s the other popular grievances I’ve seen which are:
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4. KDA SPs are not as high quality as the Crystal Rose SPs. But also, a lot of people felt that the KDAs should’ve been the ONs for this set, not Heartsteel. I guess Heartsteel is not as popular as a boy band which doesn’t have as much wide scale appeal (specifically it doesn’t appeal as much to a straight male audience which is probably the biggest demographic of most games). I personally think the Heartsteel ONs are fun but I recognize I am just one guy with an opinion. 😂
5. A lot of the playables this set seem to have not been slotted correctly with some exceptions (Riven signature gear was slotted correctly one could argue because of how good it is while the other playables of the set such as green Riven are commons which means people don’t have to rip a ton of packs to get them). This is great for player UX which I think is important but it does come at the expense of how many boxes players are willing to rip to get what they need.
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I think that sums it up but other than that, my only other qualm is not understanding why the Jarvan ON has blue hair 😭 what is the lore reasoning behind this?!
Anyway, we’ll see how the market adjusts based on tournament performances as well as how willing collectors are to buy the showcases.
For the record, if this set is a flop, it’s not the end of the world. Literally every TCG has had a flop set including MTG, Pokemon, OP, etc.
But yeah, I am not an authority, this is just my opinion and sometimes I can sound overly dramatic. Don’t take what I say too seriously.
Just going to clarify that there are many awesome single cards as far as art is concerned in this set that are still worth checking out. I personally love Mordekaiser as well as other overnumbers and alt arts. I like the alt runes as well.
I’ll write a general review of Radiance later from a collector standpoint. Jury is still out on playables but most people think the playables are primarily commons and not epic rares which means players aren’t all that interested in ripping a ton of boxes either because they generally get everything they need within a box or so. The definitive outlier for this is Riven’s Signature gear which is like $50 a piece, Riven is looking insanely strong.
Recent sig sales for Radiance.
People seem to really like Seraphine, Evelynn, Riven, Mordekaiser, and Ziggs.
It’s obvious that male pop groups appeal more to younger women, you need not look further than BTS to know this.
That said, I see Heartsteel as a fun homage to boy bands, not something to be taken seriously. I am not personally into boy bands, but I can still appreciate Heartsteel as a homage. TD and Pentakill would definitely be a more popular choice for the straight male crowd though, it’s true.
FWIW, I am so straight that even parallel lines get jealous.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the market feels about this set long term, as well as Radiance as a whole.
I honestly think the Heartsteel ONs are awesome. Cool homage to boy bands and all-male pop groups, it’s very on-theme for Radiance. It’s not meant to be taken super seriously, it’s just really fun.
I went ahead and purchased a full set of Heartsteel sig ONs. NFA. 🤪
I was thinking about this sale today and wondering why it was kinda low
There are a lot of possibilities for why it ended up being an underperforming auction but I think a big reason is because Beckett certification lookup is down. You literally can’t verify most RB BGS slabs atm. So bidders likely are being cautious of BGS slabs until beckett cert lookup is fully back online.
So if you have a BGS slab you are thinking of putting up for auction, might want to consider waiting for cert lookup…
