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Theme Week: Completed Set Week - 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen - Dealing Aces Insert Set

While I am still working on the 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen base set, I can now say that I have officially completed the Dealing Aces insert set thanks to Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders.

Dennis sent me the final two cards that I needed for this twenty card insert set (CC Sabathia and Clayton Kershaw were the final two cards that I was missing).

Alpha:

This set is numbered by a letter system (as opposed to actual numbers) which I hate.  However, going alphabetically it's Adam Wainwright's AW "number" that gets the first spot in the set.

Omega:

The set concludes with Yu Darvish ("number" YG).

Card design:

The set is called "Dealing Aces" and the card design works well within that motif.  I particularly like the fact that all four suits are included in the set (clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades) and that the colors (red or black) correctly line up with the suit (black for clubs/spades, red for diamonds/hearts).  I'm not sure how Topps decided which player will get which suit (no obvious pattern jumped out at me) but that's perfectly fine.

Other:

For a basic insert set, this one is done quite well.  In fact, for all the insert sets out there dealing with star pitchers, this is probably one of my favorites - quite likely because of my love of playing games as well as my love of baseball.  This set is a nice hybrid of the two.

Overall:

The backs of the cards aren't anything special (which is par for the course for most things related to Gypsy Queen) but the card fronts are quite nice.  I like this set more than I probably should...with that said, I give it a 9/10.  Plus, it doesn't hurt that my Reds actually got a spot in the set for a star pitcher (a real rarity for Cincinnati over the last two decades or so)!

For the record, here is the full set checklist:

  • DA-AW Adam Wainwright
  • DA-CC CC Sabathia
  • DA-CK Clayton Kershaw
  • DA-CL Cliff Lee
  • DA-CS Chris Sale
  • DA-DB Dylan Bundy
  • DA-DP David Price
  • DA-FH Felix Hernandez
  • DA-GG Gio Gonzalez
  • DA-JC Johnny Cueto
  • DA-JV Justin Verlander
  • DA-JW Jered Weaver
  • DA-MB Madison Bumgarner
  • DA-MC Matt Cain
  • DA-MM Matt Moore
  • DA-RD R.A. Dickey
  • DA-RH Roy Halladay
  • DA-SS Stephen Strasburg
  • DA-TB Trevor Bauer
  • DA-YD Yu Darvish


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