2019-20 Upper Deck Synergy Hockey

Upper Deck Synergy landed in 2019-20 as a mid-range hockey release positioned between base sets and premium products. The design emphasizes connectivity between players through on-ice partnerships and chemistry, which is reflected in the card design and insert strategy. You'll find rookies like Dominik Kubalik and Quinn Hughes mixed into the set, though the focus leans toward established stars like Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, and Nathan MacKinnon. The base set is clean and readable, which matters if you're building a player collection rather than hunting parallels. The meat of Synergy is in the parallel tiers and insert sets. You're looking for colored parallels like Red, Blue, and Black versions that pull from hobby boxes. The real chase cards are the Synergy Combos, which feature two players with strong on-ice chemistry and come in multiple parallel versions. Autographed cards exist but are sparse in retail configurations, so hobby boxes are the way to go if signatures matter to you. Print runs on the rarer parallels are moderate, so these aren't impossible to track down later, but rookie parallels hold value better than older player variants. Synergy works best if you're chasing specific players or building parallel sets rather than ripping for the lottery of hits. The product has solid aesthetics and decent pull rates, making it appealing for set builders on a budget. Compared to other 2019-20 releases, it falls between throwaway retail product and the expensive tier where you need five-figure box breaks. If you like the design and have a player or two in mind, buying singles of the parallels you want usually makes more sense than the blind box gamble. It's a solid middle option that hasn't aged into crazy secondary market prices.