New Release: 2018 BBM Lions

Another day, another team set. The Lions version came out at the end of May, with the usual 81-card base set, inserts, and hits.

The regular base cards use a hand-written font, a trend for BBM for the year. Cards L01-L68 feature regular players plus a dual-mascot card at the end. There is no checklist card.

The subset cards have no obvious meaning. Catch The Moment is six cards, possibly for clutch hitters. Kazuo Matsui's statistics from his days with the Lions are on the back - the 2004-2017 seasons were spent in the US and then with the Golden Eagles. He's had a pretty solid NPB career, actually, with a career average of .344. The last line of his statistics is his 2018 line, with only 9 appearances and 15 at-bats boasting a .333 average. However, since this card was printed, he's appeared in 2 more games, gained four more at bats, and lost a hit. His NPB page says he has only four hits this season. Poor guy.

The fastest players must be in the three-card Accelerator subset.

The final four cards are in the Reign Men subset, featuring award winners.

The regular inserts come in the usual three tiers of parallels: Gold #/90, Holofoil #/75, and Gold Holofoil #/50. There are 18 inserts total, split among four sets.

Rocket Arms: 3 cards, pitchers.

Sparkling: 3 cards, no idea (defensive stars?)

Big Bang: 3 cards, power hitters

Pride of Lions: 9 cards, starters

Moving on to the premium inserts and hits...

 Phantom is #/25, and features 12 cards for the Lions.

 Every player has a regular autograph card, #/60 or less.

 There are two Combo Authentic Autographed Cards, #/5 each.

 Silver Autographs are #/9, and Gold Autograph parallels are 1/1s. There are nine cards in each set.

 Six players have Rookie Autographs, #/10 each.

And three Lions appear in the cross-brand Picturesque autograph set.

I'm not aware of any promo cards for the Lions set.

Premium insert and autograph images are promotional images from BBM.