3 downs - 10 packs

As an avid fan of the three down football game, even preferring the style to the US counterpart, I was really, really excited when I learned that Upper Deck would be producing CFL cards this season. Pacific produced cards about a decade ago, and then for the past many years, they've been out, but insanely short-printed into only sets. No packs.

So, this was really anticipated, at least by me.

These are what the packs look like. I'm encouraged by the fact that 'Hobby' appears in the upper left - thus meaning I might have a chance to find these at Target or Wally World. Although I haven't seen any yet. I would have picked Darian Durant as the cover boy, seeing as the Argos really aren't a high profile team, even in Toronto, and the Riders fan base is fanatic.

I always say I can judge how much I'll like a set based on the first card I see. First card out was a Hamilton Tiger-Cat, so that's always a good thing to see your favourite team on the first card.

Here are the back of the base cards. The checklist is kinda strange. The first 100 are all offense players. The next 50 are defensive players, and they are kinda short-printed to a rate of 1 per pack. The final 30 are star rookies, and those a short-printed at 1 in every 4 packs.

Speaking of rookies, here is one. There are 'star rookies' of guys who have already had NFL cards, and even spent time there, such as with this Steve Slaton (put aside for Bob Walk the Plank). Chad Johnson (Ochocinco) is also a Star Rookie. This was the only I pulled from 10 packs, but since I really don't plan to build this part of the set, I don't really care.

The base cards are done in the colours of the respective teams, much like with some of the hockey releases. No complaints here, and I really like the double blue on the Argonauts team cards.

Of course, with Upper Deck, you're going to see some really nice photos. Here are my favourites from the base cards. I really have been highlighting Toronto Argonauts cards more than this Ti-Cat fan should.

Falling at a rate of 1:3, I picked up slightly more than I should by pulling 4 from this insert set of 50. They look far nicer when the colours match up with the team, as with the Lulay and Chiles. When they don't, they look not-so-good, such as with the Chad Owens.

The UD Game Jersey fall at a rate of 1:13, so getting two of these are pretty nice. I really like the fact that Offensive Linemen are used in this checklist. That is a really nice, bright orange swatch as well. I'll probably send that Ricky Foley off to Condition Sensitive at some point.

But, there was still one more pull that might have been even better.

The manu patches move over to this set, after being in the past O-Pee-Chee hockey sets. There are no odds concerning the rate these fall at, but there aren't too many of these on ebay so far, so they may be pretty tough pulls. They are thick enough to replace 5 cards in the pack. Unfortunately, these can easily be pack searched, since it was very obvious there was something thick in this pack, as there was no give at all.

So, that's a nice start on the base set. I'll probably at least complete the first 100 portion of this set, but I'm going to wait to see if the retail version shows up locally.