The base set grew from 300 cards in 2021 to 400 this year. There are 300 cards of NFL veterans, with 90 rookie base cards and 10 short-printed rookies.
A blaster box contains six packs, with 11 cards to a pack.
The blaster I bought had 46 base cards and seven rookies (cards numbered 300 or higher). Also, there were Xtra Points premium green parallel cards of Devin Singletary and the Broncos’ Justin Simmons, numbered to 249.
The design follows the pattern of Prestige from the past two years and is buoyed by some excellent action photography. The blurred background effect also works well for the veterans. For rookies, a solid color is used as the background behind the player.
None of the rookies were short-printed.
A full bleed would have worked nicely, for example.
There is a subtle use of foil that is effective. The Prestige logo is stamped in the upper left-hand corner of the card in silver, while the player’s name is in silver foil block letters at the bottom. The team logo is at the bottom left-hand corner of the card, and while tasteful, the box surrounding it could have been smaller.
Again, to devote more space to the action shot.
Honestly, it’s not a terrible design, but I guess I am more of a minimal list.
The card backs feature a horizontally cropped version of the front photo. The cards also use one of the NFL team’s primary colors for highlighting purposes. That includes two banner-like lines at the top of the card.
As promised on the blaster box, there were Xtra Points Diamond parallels, with one per pack. Two were rookies (DaMarvin Leal and Phidarian Mathis) and one was a Pro Football Hall of Famer (John Elway). The player’s name and the Prestige logo are stamped in gold foil, and when you tilt the card it gives off a nice look.
The blaster I opened had three different types of inserts.
Living Legends is a 30-card subset that relies heavily on foil. As the name implies, the subjects depicted are NFL greats (or near greats).They are very shiny cards, and I pulled two of them — Shannon Sharpe and DeMarcus Ware.
The Highlight Reel insert has 20 cards, and I pulled Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Overall, not a bad set. The blaster gives the set collector plenty to work with, and the Diamond parallels are a definite plus. The overall design could have been better, but that is a matter of taste; I prefer more traditional designs.