Diamond Dynasty is the Madden Ultimate Team mode of MLB The Show 23. It's questionably less greedy than its inspiration, but players who aren't careful could be out tens of thousands of dollars after a year of trying to be on top.
This isn't necessary. Barring competitive tournaments with massive cash payouts, there is little reason to go broke playing Diamond Dynasty in MLB The Show 23. Players can easily win their leagues and go deep into seasonal tournaments with just a few pieces of advice.
10 Don't Spend Money
Barring pro gamers who decide to make this game their sole source of income, there is no reason to spend money buying stubs. With new cards coming out every few weeks and existing cards increasing and decreasing in value constantly, spending money for the "best" cards is a never-ending journey.
There is a method for farming stubs that works excellently. In just a few gameplay sessions (or one ten-hour session), gamers can employ a strategy that will give them the most pricey cards on the market.
9 Rotate Lefties And Righties
One mistake gamers make is to automatically put the highest-rated players into the lineup without checking what this does to the hitting rotation. As much as possible, gamers should have 4 or 5 lefties and 4 or 5 righties, then try not to have two lefties or righties bat in a row.
Experts in Diamond Dynasty will exploit this immediately. If they see three right-handed hitters coming up, they'll put a righty in to give themselves an advantage. The best teams know to rotate handedness in the lineup.
8 Move Players Out Of Position
Perhaps the biggest upgrade that new gamers leave on the table in Diamond Dynasty is assuming players need to be in their "default" position. Sometimes, players are actually better in one of their secondary positions.
It's true that Babe Ruth is one of the best right fielders in the game. He's the highest-rated right fielder in Diamond Dynasty. But his overall rating is better at first base. If gamers get two amazing right fielders, switch Ruth over to first.
7 Looking Above 99 Ratings
The game automatically rounds player ratings to the nearest whole number and caps the rating at 99 though a card's value can go much higher than 99. When looking over the best Diamond Dynasty cards at each position, note that almost all of their true ratings are better than 99.
Many newcomers will assume that all 99s are about equal, but things like quirks, handedness, and extreme attribute boosts make this untrue. When seeking a card, look at its true rating instead of its given rating.
6 Leveraging Supercharge Boosts
During the baseball season, whenever a player has a great performance, their card in Diamond Dynasty will get a boost, increasing it until it is on par with the best cards in the game. These are often silver and gold cards that cost mere hundreds of stubs or less.
Fans of baseball should review the best performances of the day and then buy the cards before the boost hits. The best starting pitchers currently have boosts going. These are temporary boosts, but they pay for themselves with wins. Or gamers can sell the card when the boost hits for a massive stub margin gain.
5 Use The Marketplace, Not The Shop
Looking at the prices in the marketplace versus the average cards acquired from packs, there is no competition. Directly purchasing the desired card versus relying on chance is multiple times more efficient.
The shop depends on gamers hoping to get lucky but the brutal truth is that it's more common to be unlucky than lucky when opening packs. Allow gamblers to acquire the cards and then buy the cards they decide to sell to save on stubs.
4 Get The Freebies
There are a few freebies that gamers should not miss out on. Even on a non-gaming day, log in briefly once to get some free items. Doing this daily will result in a pack every so often and there is even a chance to get diamond-rarity cards by doing this.
Also, check out the pack shop and look out for free packs. These are not advertised at all because the incentive is to drive people to the shop for a bad purchase. Look for anything that costs zero stubs and pick it up.
3 Don't Ignore Road To The Show
Although this PvP multiplayer mode might be the gamer's preferred game mode, Road to the Shop has some perks and cards to unlock that work in Diamond Dynasty. This doesn't have to be a total commitment; playing one season is often all it takes to max out the program rewards.
Campaign-focused players will want to get called up in Road to the Show quickly but Diamond Dynasty players can just mindlessly game for a few hours until they've got all the Diamond Dynasty rewards.
2 Sub Out Pitchers Frequently
Unlike franchise mode where gamers will want to give their bullpen a break, Diamond Dynasty has room for lots of pitchers that are all eager to play and recover quickly. For this reason, don't be afraid to pull a starter after just one time through the lineup and put in another starter.
Players who have some of the best closers and relievers around will find that there is a huge upside to putting in one pitcher per inning or even one pitcher to face one dangerous hitter. The veterans are quick to tag out their pitchers as it keeps the freshest arms in.
1 Have A Team Identity
One of the common issues even experts face is that they've got a bunch of highly-rated players but the team lacks identity. Perhaps the most common mistake is to have all sluggers in the lineup, hit three solo home runs per game, and lose constantly.
Like a real baseball team, there needs to be an identity. Get some contact speedsters at the top of the lineup and some power sluggers in the middle. Have a tactic for scoring in every inning regardless of who is leading off. Follow the power-regular-contact rule as the hitting tips suggest.
MLB The Show 23 is available now for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.