
The design is slightly more ornate than in previous years, particularly in how the card front is framed. The main image for this year’s set is not blended into the borders with a feathering effect, but rather use framing to contain the main art work.
Unlike the 2018 set, this year’s set centers the player’s name underneath the artwork in a turquoise, ribbon-like nameplate. The letters in the player’s name are all the same size; last year, the player’s last name was larger. The distinctive GQ logo is positioned directly above the player’s name, shifting from the left side of the card, while the left and right bottom corners feature the team logo and the player’s position, respectively.
The artwork is detailed and very attractive.

What is nice about the card back design is that there is a lot of open space; Topps does not try to crowd too many elements, and that makes for a much cleaner presentation.
The base set has 300 cards, plus 20 short prints of retired players. The short prints will fall one to a hobby box but can also be found in blaster box. A blaster box contains seven packs, with six cards to a pack. In addition, blasters have a special five-card set of parallels that have green borders.
If you buy a hobby box, there will be a chance to score other parallels, including missing nameplates, indigo (numbered to 250), hobby exclusive black & white (50), red (10) and black (1/1). The base set also will have short-printed cards and black 1/1 parallels that feature former major-league greats.

I did not pull any autographs. So, there were 39 base cards (although one was a double), a short print of Jackie Robinson, the pack of five special parallels, and two inserts.
The inserts I pulled were a Fortune Teller card of Rays’ left-hander Blake Snell. The card back makes a prediction about some feat the player might achieve during the 2019 season. In Snell’s case, Topps believes the 2018 American League Cy Young Award winner will throw a no-hitter. That would make him the second Tampa Bay player to turn the trick; Matt Garza tossed a no-no in 2010. There are 20 different mini-cards in this subset.
The other insert came from the 25-card Tarot of the Diamond subset — a Two of Wands card of Boston’s Xander Bogaerts. The date of issue for the card in Roman numerals in the top left-hand corner is a nice touch.
The Gypsy Queen set has its good points — nice design, excellent artwork and a clean look. If you’re buying retail, don’t expect too many hot cards, but if you are set builder, this could be the way to go.