Sidney Crosby Case Hit: 2011-12 Pinnacle Pantheon

After looking for quite a while, and failing to find one on Ebay that didn't carry with it an obscene BIN price, I finally got my hands on another Sidney Crosby case hit, a Pantheon card from 2011-12 Pinnacle. It ran me just under the cost of the blaster, and the rarity of it, combined with how Panini was able to do so much without any die-cutting, foil, holograms, or any other tricks, makes this quite the addition to my Sidney Crosby collection.

The name is taken from the Greek temple to all the gods, and this set recognizes the very best the the NHL has to offer. They played up the Greek origins of the sets names by placing stone columns and a cornice on the bottom of the card and placing the team's logo in the middle of a round shield. It's printed on a thicker card stock, but that's all of the effects that are used, which is good, because with all of the colors and design elements present, it would have detracted from what was already there.

My only complaint is that they used the same photo on the back of they card as they did on the front, which they also did on Pinnacle's other 2011-12 Case hit, Black. They kept the same background, too, which I have much less of a problem with, as it ties the front and back together, without flooding the design with Greek architecture. Since this is a set that, more or less, pays tribute to hockey gods, the text on the back spotlights some of the player's god-like attributes. In Crosby's case, it recognized the fact that injuries had limited his production, while spotlighting just how good he was when the returned to the ice.

This just goes to show, you don't always need an autograph or a jersey swatch to make a really cool card.