With 2020-21 Series 2, Upper Deck brings it back again for another great hockey card set. The photography of the base set and the variety found in the inserts solidifies Upper Deck as one of my favorite “flagship” products from the last couple years!
The Breakdown
Following the pattern of the last few years, the 2020-21 Series 2 base set includes 250 cards and picks up where Series 1 left off. The first 200 of Series 2 are made of of veterans (251-450), and 451-500 are the always popular short printed Young Guns cards. Young Guns fall in about 1 in 4 packs or 6 per hobby box. In my writeup of Series 1, I talked about how I love the photography in this set. The same words ring true for S2. Action photos, unique candid shots, and some of the first pictures of rookies in their pro uniforms are all appealing aspects of the set.
The new prospects to chase in this release appear to be Kirill Kaprizov and Tim Stutzle. Series 1 Young Gun Darling, Alexis Lafreniere, does have a few inserts to chase. He can be found in the Dazzlers, Fluorescence, Portraits, and Rookie Breakout checklists.
Upper Deck really stepped up their game with the inserts this year. They have a retro 90s vibe that I’m really digging! Let’s take a closer look at the lineup.
The “Glamour Shots” Portraits set continues for another 50 cards, and this time they are all rookies. Next up is 50 more cards in the Dazzlers set. As I said in the S1 write up, I typically don’t care for “patterned background” cards, but I do like these. The player is over top of a metallic blue background that really seems to come alive as you rotate the card. The Dazzlers name is in neon pink at the bottom of the card. I’m a big fan. There are also, Green, Orange, and Pink parallels with varying levels of scarcity.
The Box Filler set is one of the more limited inserts, with cards falling in only 1:288 packs. The six card Day with the Cup set is even more limited with odds ranging from 1:1000 hobby packs to 1:2,500 retail packs!
The traditional Canvas parallel run extends from C121 all the way to C270 in Series 2 and includes vets, Young Guns, Program of Excellence, and Retired Stars. There are are variety of other sets unique to retail packaging. There are also two more “limited” inserts to find including the Rookie Breakouts which are numbered to only /100 and the 46 card Fluorescence set which comes in 1:144 hobby packs.
Finally, in what serves as both a Series 2 insert and an update set for a previous release, O-Pee-Chee Update cards are frequently found inside S2 packs. Since O-Pee-Chee is released so early in the season, they don’t have much rookie content, so that is where this update comes into play. 50 more cards are added to the checklist through the Series 2 insert.
Hits are not a major focus of the product, but there are a variety of autographs and relics included. It seems autographs only fall in one or two boxes per hobby case. Relic cards are more common.
My Box Break
I opened one hobby box which was provided from Chris Carlin at Upper Deck for this review. Thanks again for providing the opportunity to open and cover this release!
The cards pretty much fell according to stated pack odds. There weren’t really any huge rookies in my box, however i did land a some of the more rare versions of some cards! I got a Brett Connolly French base parallel which fall 1:30 packs, a Red O-Pee-Chee Update of rookie Steven Lorentz which falls 1:600 hobby packs, and a Dual Rookie Materials card of Nick Robertson and Timothy Liljegren of my Toronto Maple Leafs which falls 1:576 packs!
Wrapping it Up
Overall, I really like this product. The base checklist covers a wide variety of players, and the short printed nature of the Young Guns make a challenging but attainable set build. The inserts are creative and fun, and even cross product lines which is kind of cool. With Hockey continuing to be a more affordable trading card option, I think picking up some 2020-21 Upper Deck Series 2 is a great choice.