Valiant Joins Quidd to Offer First Trading Card Set in 20 Years

There comes a time in a comic book company's revival where you can no longer call it a revival and you have to acknowledge that it has finally arrived. There are a number of factors to calculate in such an equation, but things like steady releases of consistent, quality books isn't quite as important to the science of the matter as more tangential ideas like board games, action figures and of course, trading cards.

Faithful readers, thanks to the launch of its own digital trading card series within the Quidd app, today is the day Valiant has made it.

Jokes aside, Valiant has been doing just fine with its comic line. That it's doing well enough to venture into the frequently unstable world of trading card collecting is a great sign of how much faith the company has in both its product and the fans. Of course, the investment you make in digital trading cards is much less than that of one you'd have been expected to make back in 1993 when Valiant and Upper Deck teamed for a physical set.

The extremely limited 2013 set from Rittenhouse Archives notwithstanding, it's been a long time since Bloodshot and Ninjak, have been seen in trading card form. Even though Quidd's platform is digital, the general idea is the same as real trading cards. If you've even dabbled in the likes of Star Wars Card Trader, The Walking Dead Card Trader, or WWE Slam, Quidd should have you feeling right at home.

If you're new to the digital trading card game, we've got good news --- Quidd is easy to understand, very accessible to newcomers, and has some interesting mechanics that other apps may do well to learn from.

When you're first welcomed to the app, you have a chance to choose which of the brands available you'd like to start with. Unlike other single-minded apps, Quidd offers Valiant, Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Bob's Burgers, and a few other licenses as well. In addition to digital trading cards, there are also stickers, which work in the way Facebook's stickers do within the digital realm. You're then offered a number of free packs, the actual count of which varies based on which license you're currently exploring.

Those free packs don't go away though after you choose your primary fandom. Every free pack for every one of the brands remains for you to explore later should you decide to delve into Star Trek after digging through Valiant's offerings. The cards all come in varying packs indicating which variant you're chasing, and each also offering different rarity and card counts. Some packs are even limited in their availability, so you may need to act quicker for some sets than you do others.

Fortunately, like any good digital card trader, Quidd offers you free credits for purchasing these virtual cards. Unlike its contemporaries, Quidd doesn't make you wait an entire day for more credits. You can earn 3,000 in-game coins every three hours. All you have to do is be patient. If you get super into it early on though, don't worry; you can purchase currency for these packs, and at a lot cheaper a conversion rate than the competition.

If you're not sure what you're going to get in a given pack, you can explore the pack odds. This tab tells you not only the chances of your pulling a given insert in the pack (if it is an insert), but also how easily you'll be able to get inserts versus base cards, and in some cases, even the base card distribution rate. It's a fascinating bit of numerology, and one that makes Quidd's app stand out. Usually you get straight-up odds like 1:30 packs for inserts in other apps. Here, in something like the Flying Faith pack, you know that there's an 82.47% chance you'll pull one of the inserts, how often you'll pull one of those 16 different cards, and what the odds are of you pulling a standard base card. It's a breakdown that is appreciated as a lifelong card collector, and can only make it easier to understand the ratios for new users.

Once you've got the handle on picking up free packs, snapping up some others for in-game coins, and learning what you want to focus your collection on, you can dive into the trading tab to help flesh out yours and others' collections. This is by far the cleanest and clearest way to make trades I've seen in an app. Typically the fan feeds are cluttered messes in other apps, but Quidd makes it relatively simple.

All you have to do is post the card you want, say what you're offering, hope someone bites. The same works inversely if you have a card you're willing to trade, you just post it and say what you want in return. It's a much simpler way to figure out what you are actually dealing with and for within a trading card app. What's more, each of the fandoms has its own trading network, so you're not just filled up with a bunch of Star Trek fans looking for Firefly cards in the Valiant channel.

I'll say this about Valiant's entries into the Quidd app --- after perusing the selection today, it's clear the design aesthetic for Valiant's portion is much cleaner, clearer, and interesting than most of the other offerings. Plus, with Valiant cards, you don't have to worry about getting some truly random additions like weapons, engine parts or logo t-shirts. Some of the other sets don't quite grasp what makes an interesting trading card. Valiant doesn't have that problem (at least not yet), and is just a nice way to learn your way around the universe. It's also almost entirely free, so there's no harm in checking it out before getting to invested in making sure you're checking in every few hours to get more coins and open more free packs.

The Quidd app is available on iOS only right now, but you can download it for free right here.