NBA 2K18's MyTeam: Week 10

Amethyst cards are emerging from their yearly hibernation in MyTeam.

Mostly this is due to the Premium Packs, which are loaded with more and more high-rated talent each week. This week is no different with the Milestones Pack.

Here you’ll find players like Hal Greer, who recorded seven straight seasons of at least 20 points per game, or (the completion reward) Kevin Garnett, who scored his 25,000th career point as a Boston Celtic on the way to winning an NBA Championship.

The old saying “a rising tide lifts all boats” comes to mind. Except with the auction house, it’s more like “a rising tide leaves older boats behind.” As higher-rated cards are released, older ruby and sapphire cards begin to drop in value. In the screen grab above, you can see that snatching up a ruby Isiah Thomas would cost you a mere 25K MT right now.

And this card literally just came out.

A couple of weeks ago, a ruby top-50 NBA player (if you don’t agree, or maybe you’re too young to remember, there’s an official list to back up my claim) would have cost 100K. Not anymore apparently, unless this is just an outlier and prices will skyrocket again soon. Either way, it’s great news for bargain shoppers like myself as there are some older high-value cards I have been wanting that I’ll be searching for presently.

It’s also notable that Carlos Boozer is making his 2K debut. You can find him in the Milestones pack but also in the All-Time and Classic teams via a recent roster update. Good job, 2K!

The ratings of Moments cards are going up as well.

Rubies for Blake Griffin and Russell Westbrook lead the charge in the most recent batch, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of weeks (or possibly days) before we see an amethyst Moments player. But again, older ruby Moments cards are starting to come down, which is nice.

It’s also possible to find amethyst (or higher) cards in Super Max.

Last season’s reward was this amethyst Jason Richardson, who I can attest is a beast. Not because I won him, ohhhhhh no — because I got destroyed by him.

So after getting my historic domination rewards, I dove into season three, round one of Super Max. (My first time online since season one) I played six games, winning three and losing three. Overall, I feel like this was kind of a waste of my time. The games that I won earned me roughly 250 points each, and the games I lost subtracted between 70 to 100 points each. After my six games, I ended up in the sapphire tier (starting from the emerald tier), which netted me 500 MT and no cards. You only win cards by battling your way up to the pink diamond tier, which requires 3,500+ points for a round and 14,000 points for the season.

So at the rate I was going (winning 50% of my games), it would have taken me about 25 games to earn the player reward for round one (a ruby George McGinnis). That isn’t very exciting due to the gluttony of awesome power forwards I had from historic domination. And I don’t even want to do the math to see what it would take to earn the overall season reward (a diamond Alonzo Mourning), as I’m sure it would depress me.

I won’t argue for lesser penalties for losing games, as I’m sure a lot of people enjoy the high stakes for online play, especially since the obvious solution to my problem is just to become a better 2K player. This is a valid point, because as I’m looking at the leaderboard, people who are winning 75% to 80% of their games are already well on their way to the rewards.

But I’d rather not keep grinding online because (for me, at least) it’s just not very fun.

Yes, I got angry and quit a couple of games, so I got this delightful message.

One game I was getting blown out at halftime by a far superior player (who had the above Jason Richardson card), and I decided it wasn’t worth my time to continue. A second one I was lagged out, I guess by internet issues? I don’t really know, but my Google Fiber would surely disagree. And that was actually a competitive game so I wasn’t very pleased. Then the third game I straight-up quit before it even started because I saw I was playing against a guy or gal who had a ruby Reggie Theus (from the Matchup Nightmare collection), amethyst Tracy McGrady (Swingmen collection), amethyst Ron Artest and, finally, the pre-order bonus Shaq and D-Wade cards.

I’d had enough at that point, so I retired (dishonorably, I know) from Super Max season three.

Obviously losing sucks, but even the three games I won weren’t very fun. None of them made it to the final buzzer, as in each instance my opponent quit before the 4th quarter. One was a blowout in my favor, but the other two were reasonably close, so I can only assume they lagged out or were just as frustrated as I was with some of the gameplay issues, so they simply took their ball and went home.

I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s worth saying again — offline gameplay is fantastic. Crisp and fun and rewarding. Online, however… 🙁

Obviously a lot of people are really into it and having success, so I ask you fine ladies and gentlemen, what’s your secret? Are you playing the same way you do offline, or is there a different strategy? (I’ve seen some people do interesting things online, like playing five-out with Lebron at point guard.) How about the lag issue? Are you doing something in particular to combat that? (Specifically for me, shooting while online has quite a learning curve, and defense is next to impossible.) Are there coaching settings that are maybe helpful? Or am I just unfortunately not very good unless I’m playing against the computer? (Which is quite possible.)

Please let me know as I’m genuinely curious, and thanks in advance for your feedback!