Mural Series Delivers Wall-Worthy Players in Diamond Dynasty

Mural Series Brings Wall-Worthy Players to Diamond Dynasty

The new Mural Series sounds, feels, smells, and tastes a lot like the Cityscapes Series that debuted a fortnight ago in Diamond Dynasty. There's plenty to like, but also a few puzzling things about it.

There's a full spectrum of ways to obtain Mural Series cards in DD. Players on the XP reward path include (free!) (lefty!) (reliever!) Adrian Morejon, Hunter Goodman, returning Legend Grady Sizemore, Bryan Woo, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (A new and neat crossover from the My Legacy Collections allows players to nab 20 Stars for that XP reward path for having 600 total strikeouts and 250,000 career Parallel XP, enough to get Morejon immediately.) The Mural Series' tie-in Event is the first Moonshot-themed Event of the year, and will run for the next week with Mike Moustakas as a Program XP reward path item and a new Event Rewind Pack that holds rewards from Events past, a helpful (or lucrative) offering, available at the path's end. The Mini Seasons crop is Bruce Sutter, Cal Ripken Jr., Wyatt Langford, and George Springer, and there's a repeatable Pack reward in it; the Conquest map holds a Ralph Kiner and a non-repeatable Deluxe Pack reward; the new Diamond Quest's Epic-tier rewards are Johnny Damon and Ozzie Smith.

But the Pack and Collections players are, as has been the case this cycle, largely the ones more worthy of murals: Joey Bautista (with art depicting his iconic bat flip), David Ortiz, Bob Gibson, Manny Machado, CC Sabathia, Rod Carew, Duke Snider, and Tony Gwynn are among the top names in the Pack, with plenty more Hall of Famers available, and the Collection rewards are 94 OVR Vladimir Guerrero Sr. (13 cards collected), 94 OVR Roy Halladay (21), and 95 OVR José Ramirez (29). Ramirez is a monster, as a switch-hitter with both contact and power skills and eligibility at second and third base and left field in addition to his primary position of shortstop.

What there is to differentiate the Mural Series from Cityscapes, another Program with no specific ties to Team Affinity but that feels strongly like a vivisected and reskinned bit of team-based content, is unclear. SDS said on stream that Mural Series cards are tied to players' tenures with their specific teams — which ostensibly helps present cards that are reflective of spans within their careers rather than years, months, or even single-game performances — but that isn't exactly different from Cityscapes' spectrum of cards, which showcased some franchise stalwarts and newer stars (like Jacob Misiorowski). And both Programs have been full-scale passes at players beloved in specific cities, but have still been heavier on some teams than others — which reinforces the idea that this could have been packaged better as Team Affinity content of some sort.

May Spotlight Drop 2 Headlined by Travis Bazzana

The second Spotlight Drop for May has Rays hitter Yandy Díaz — who just recorded his 1,000th MLB hit — at the end of its XP reward path, but is probably better framed as the first chance at a really good Travis Bazzana card in MLB The Show 26.

Bazzana, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, made his MLB debut in late April, but has since hit his first homer in the bigs and also shown absurd discipline at the plate, tallying 12 walks to his 10 hits and walking once in all 12 games. Naturally, he comes to Diamond Dynasty with 75 Vision and a Discipline stat that does not affect his 93 OVR, but also as a capable hitter and basepaths threat (81 Speed/99 Steal) with eligibility at every position but catcher and first base.

Díaz is a fine hitter, but Bazzana and Tyler Glasnow, his fellow 93 OVR Spotlight Pack denizen, are the prizes of this release, with Padres rookie Sung-Mun Song being a capable lefty contact bat at second base being the best of the rest. (Yankees right fielder Spencer Jones, one of the ultimate homer-or-humiliation prospects baseball has ever seen, is the other free reward path player, but he is, uh, obviously not the best Yankees right fielder in DD.)

Other News and Notes

• The Guardians-centric theme of the Mural Series continues in Chase Pack 10, where a switch-hitting 95 OVR Mural Series Carlos Santana with catcher eligibility comes in as one of the better Chase Pack players of the Diamond Dynasty cycle.
• Thursday's new Storylines release includes new cinematic-forward tales of Negro Leaguers Ted Radcliffe, John Preston Hill, and Willie Wells, all of whom are the sort of serviceable but not spectacular cards that have been customary for Storylines of late.
• The touted debut of THE WHEEL (of infinite, random post-reward path rewards) in the Multiplayer 3 Program happened earlier this week, along with a refresh of World Series-tier rewards (Chris Sale and Alex Bregman cards from their Red Sox and Astros days, respectively). The reward path has an NL East theme: Its top three rewards are Braves-flavored Max Fried and Freddie Freeman cards and a Bryce Harper that will absolutely rake against righties and is the top card reward from the path.
• There's a new and free Camo Pack in the Shop with cosmetics tied to Armed Forces Day and the Padres' camo uniforms.
• Next week's content includes a new Showdown on Monday — the first since the Jackie Robinson Day Program — and new Conquest and Spotlight Drop stuff on Friday.