Black Diamond Guide
I was thinking of writing up a post about Black Diamonds until I saw this post from Redditor ColdSlawter and realized I couldn't say it better. ColdSlawter has graciously given me permission to repost it here. Join the conversation in the comments on Reddit!
Below the guide write-up, I've added a value table that breaks down the cost and return for each card type as well as a list of the new Legend skills, as described by Com2Us in the update announcement. Check back for new details as we learn more!
Guide to Black Diamonds
Now that we have more information about Black Diamonds, I thought I'd write a short guide to help inform the community!
Black Diamonds are a new tier of card grade (Normal, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond) that are upgraded versions of Diamond cards. You can only acquire them by upgrading a Diamond card you already own. There are no "Black Diamond packs."
How to Upgrade
There are a few different ways to upgrade your Diamonds to Black Diamonds.
The first is with Black Diamond pieces, a new item added to the Master League Mode drop table. These are going to be the main way to get the majority of your cards to Black Diamond. From early results, Black Diamond pieces seem to drop at a similar frequency to Free Agent Tickets in Master League.
- For a regular or regular Vintage card, 60 Black Diamond pieces are required.
- For an All-Star card, 80 Black Diamond pieces are required.
- For a Prime card, 120 Black Diamond pieces are required.
- For a Signature card, 160 Black Diamond pieces are required.
- For a Legend card, 200 Black Diamond pieces are required.
The second way is with Gold or Diamond dupes of the same type AND same team. If you have a Diamond Yankees Cole Sig, for example, you would need a Gold or Diamond Cole Signature card on the Yankees to use as upgrade material. A regular Diamond Cole would not work, and a Houston Sig Cole would also not work.
I would not recommend using duplicate Diamonds as material for Black Diamond upgrades if you have not completed special training on all of your cards. The progress is minimal (4% for normal Diamonds) which would be much better served in Special Training.
I would also not recommend using duplicate Signatures for Black Diamond training, as they could be better used in Signature Club Crafts which could yield a completely unique Sig for your team.
Why Upgrade to Black Diamond?
There's a lot of confusion about how useful Black Diamonds really are. When you initially upgrade from Diamond to Black Diamond, you'll see an immediate increase to your player's stats. The exact increase will differ based on the card's type.
- A regular card will gain +1 to every stat.
- A Vintage card will gain +2 to every stat.
-
An All-Star card will gain +2 to every stat.
- If you have an All-Star Set Bonus, they get an additional +1 to every stat.
- A Prime card will gain +1 to every stat and also have its Grade Increase raised to 90.
- A Signature card will gain +3 to every stat.*
-
A Team Signature card will gain +5 to every stat.*
- Yes, you read that right. Team Signatures in Black Diamond will have +1 Diamond Set and +1 Team Set, which both double due to signatures doubling set deck effects. This is +4 stats, then they get an additional +1 to all stats.
- A Legend card will gain +3 to every stat.
On top of the initial stat increases that cards get, all Black Diamond players get access to Special Training Levels 9 and 10. Special Training Level 9 will add +2 to your top 3 stats (1.2 OVR). This will cost 15 Diamonds. Special Training Level 10 will add an additional level to a single Diamond skill. This will cost 17 Diamonds. (You can use other card qualities to special train, but wanted to include the simple calculation).
If that wasn't enough, all Black Diamond cards also get access to Legend skills (not to be confused with the skill formerly known as "Legend" for batters, which has now been renamed to "5-Tool Player").
These are special skills that presumably are better skills than we have ever seen before. However, these are gated by Premium Skill Change Tickets being the only way of acquiring them. They did add a weekly Club Craft consisting of 3 Skill Change Tickets and 300 Club Coins to get a single Premium SCT (with a 7-day cool-down). Unfortunately, you are not guaranteed a Legend skill on every roll of a Premium SCT, and some skills are specially tailored to specific positions.
Another note to keep in mind is that Legend cards have a higher chance of acquiring a Legend skill, 20% as opposed to 10% for all other card types.
In short, they have changed the endgame of every single deck. However, I am still hesitant to say that this update is as impactful as Mentor. We will have to see exactly how game changing the Legend skills are, as they are currently locked behind extreme amounts of luck.
Who should I upgrade?
We're getting 100 Black Diamond pieces this week, so that gives a head start to any of the better card types. If you're a casual player, go with your best card! Then again, most casual players wouldn't bother to read a huge text block for a mobile game.
On a more serious note, Black Diamond upgrades for Regular cards are fairly underwhelming. You're basically capped at 2.2 OVR and an extra skill point for an incredible amount of resources (32 Diamond cards or 60 Black Diamond pieces).
On the other hand, upgrading your Regular card could round out your lineup or rotation better, as increasing the stats on a weaker card is more important than increasing the stats on a juggernaut.
Best value per Black Diamond piece? Vintage cards! They're +2 OVR immediately for only 60 Black Diamond pieces.
Highest potential? Team Signature cards, though you probably already knew that.
Best use of the $100 Black Diamond Ticket? A Legend. Saves you the most Black Diamond pieces. Team Signature is a close second though. Just don't use it on anything else...
Now that you've seen the overview of Black Diamonds, let's get into the specifics!
OVR/BDP Value Table
This table outlines the best value per Black Diamond Piece spent. Higher return is better. Basically, when you're considering where to invest your hard-farmed Black Diamond Pieces, you want to make sure you're getting the most OVR back.
| Card Type | Black Diamond Pieces BDPs* Needed | Max OVR Return | Max OVR Return per Black Diamond Piece BDP* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | 60 pieces | + 1 | 0.017 OVR |
| Vintage | 60 pieces | + 2 | 0.033 OVR |
| All-Star w/o All-Star Set Effect | 80 pieces | + 2 | 0.025 OVR |
| All-Star w/ All-Star Set Effect | 80 pieces | + 3 | 0.037 OVR |
| Prime | 120 pieces | + 3 | 0.025 OVR |
| Signature w/ Diamond Set Effect | 160 pieces | + 3 | 0.019 OVR |
| Signature w/ Diamond & Team Set Effect | 160 pieces | + 5 | 0.031 OVR |
| Legend | 200 pieces | + 3 | 0.015 OVR |
How much progress do I get per material card?
The main way to upgrade a card to Black Diamond grade is to use Black Diamond pieces (BDPs) but you can use duplicate cards to make progress as well!
The amount of progress depends on the grade of the material card and the card type. Unlike with level upgrades (to go from 10/10 to 20/20) the progress you get from using a card for Black Diamond upgrades is guaranteed. So that's nice.
Remember: You can only use cards that are the same player, team, and card-type as upgrade materials. For example, if you have a Regular 2009 A.Pujols card, you could use any of his eight Regular STL cards as material, but you could not use any of his eight LAA cards. If that 2009 A.Pujols card was actually his Prime card (not the Regular), you would only be able to use his 2006 Prime or his 2009 Prime as upgrade material. Regular cards, even from those years, would not work.
Progress Table
The table below describes how much progress you get per material piece (BDP or duplicate card):
| Card Type | Black Diamond Pieces BDPs* | Gold | Diamond |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular | 60 pieces ( 1.67% ) | 100 cards ( 1.0% ) | 25 cards ( 4% ) |
| Vintage | 60 pieces ( 1.67% ) | 15 cards ( 6.67% ) | 4 cards ( 25% ) |
| All-Star | 80 pieces ( 1.25% ) | 16 cards ( 6.25% ) | 4 cards ( 25% ) |
| Prime | 120 pieces ( 0.83% ) | 15 cards ( 6.67% ) | 4 cards ( 25% ) |
| Signature | 160 pieces ( 0.62% ) | 8 cards ( 12.5% ) | 2 cards ( 50% ) |
| Legend | 200 pieces ( 0.5% ) | 8 cards ( 12.5% ) | 2 cards ( 50% ) |
Legend Skills
In addition to the OVR boosts Black Diamond cards receive, they also become eligible for Legend skills. Legend skills are a new suite of skills that can only be acquired by Black Diamond cards, and can also only be acquired from Premium Skill Change Tickets. Only one Legend skill can be acquired per skill slot.
Legend skill drop rates are fairly low and you are not guaranteed another Gold skill when you get a Legend skill. The odds of pulling any other skill after a Legend skill are 1/n, where n is the number of remaining non-Legend skills (currently, there are 34).
This means the odds of pulling a Legend skill along with a pair of bronzes is the same as pulling a Legend skill with Last Boss and Dominant Pitcher. It's all up to chance.
| Card Type | Drop Rate |
|---|---|
| Legend | 20% |
| All others | 10% |
Below are the Legend skills as described by Com2Us in the update announcement. As these start to appear in the wild, this table will be updated with screenshots and clarifications.
If you would like to submit a screenshot of a Legend skill you've spotted, please reach out via my Contact Me page .
Batter Legend Skills
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Batter's Insight | Weakens or neutralizes the opponent pitcher's skill when in scoring situations. Not applied the Pitcher's Insight. |
| Contact Master | Increases the chance of the batter getting an accurate hit. The chances of getting a hit will increase according to the number of hits recorded in a match. |
| Bad Ball Hitter | Increases POW and CON, and decreases the opponent pitcher's LOC and BRK values. Increases the chances of getting a hit on the first ball with each at bat. |
| Pioneer | Increases POW, CON, and EYE stats. The chances of getting a hit will increase as the number of hits of the team is lower. |
| Born to be Star |
Increases all stats. The chances of getting a hit will increase as there are more runner on base when at bat.
See it in action! |
| Chance Maker | Increases CON, EYE, and SPD stats. The following batter's chance of getting extra-base hits will increase according to the on-base count when you successfully get on-base. |
| Batter's Chemistry |
Increases all stats and the chances of getting a hit in scoring situations for all batters when you register on the lineup. Only the skill with the higher level will be applied when more than 1 of the same skill is applied
See it in action! |
Pitcher Legend Skills
| Skill | Effect |
|---|---|
| Pitcher's Insight |
Weakens or neutralizes the opponent batter's skill when in scoring situations. Not applied to Batter's Insight.
See it in action! |
| Control Master |
Increases LOC and BRK, and decreases the opponent batter's POW and CON.
See it in action! |
| Fireballer | Increases VEL and FB, and decreases the opponent batter's POW and EYE. |
| Slow Starter | Increases LOC, VEL, and STA. Increases LOC and VEL according to the number of pitches. |
| Bullpen Day | Increases LOC, VEL, FB, and BRK. In the case of a relief pitcher, the designated stats will be increased additionally in three innings after getting on the mound. |
| Cooperative Pitching | Increases LOC, VEL, FB, and BRK. Increases the change of inducing a weak contact when faced with batters that succeeded in getting on base while the next pitcher on the mound is playing a match. |
| Pitcher's Chemistry |
Increases all stats and pitch accuracy for all pitchers when you register on the lineup. Only the skill with the higher level will be applied when more than 1 of the same skill is applied.
See it in action! |
