FIFA 21 - Where City and Liverpool fans agree, Rashford is awesome

teddykgb

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Liverpool and Chelsea draw.

Spurs are skidding.

City are faking covid to duck Everton.

United score in Fergie time to win it from our superstar who is single handedly curing world hunger.
Rashford did enough good this summer that I’ve broken my “no United players in my FUT team” rule for him. Not that prick Cantona or Beckham though, they’re banished
 

PedroSpecialK

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I welcome comrade Rashford onto my FUT squad. I packed his TOTGS and record breakers Mbappe untradeable. I'm still ass enough to be d3 unfortunately
 

teddykgb

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He’s better than 99% of strikers. I’m in D2 and I regret it immensely. I occasionally get d1 guys and it’s such a chore to play at this level I’d give anything to just play casual d5 fifa
 

PedroSpecialK

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What, you don't like endless stepovers, elasticos, rainbow flicks, and perfect tackles that bounce back into the attacker's path?

As a veritable old on FIFA, the game causes me way more stress than it's worth... I'll be damned if I ever play weekend league again.
 

Tangled Up In Red

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Wait, you guys don't just play, slightly buzzed, only against the computer on semi-pro?! 4-0 stress free wins are a joy.
I only know ground pass, high pass, shoot and tackle and I've been playing FIFA since 2010.
 

teddykgb

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What, you don't like endless stepovers, elasticos, rainbow flicks, and perfect tackles that bounce back into the attacker's path?

As a veritable old on FIFA, the game causes me way more stress than it's worth... I'll be damned if I ever play weekend league again.
I think EA should face criminal charges for what they’re doing to these kids with 30 matches over 3 days. It’s absolutely insane to me. I’ve done it maybe 5 or 6 times in the last few fifas and it’s way too much time spent and mentally exhausting. It shouldn’t be allowed
 

Zomp

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I think EA should face criminal charges for what they’re doing to these kids with 30 matches over 3 days. It’s absolutely insane to me. I’ve done it maybe 5 or 6 times in the last few fifas and it’s way too much time spent and mentally exhausting. It shouldn’t be allowed

When I did weekend league it was 40 matches. Crazy.
 

PedroSpecialK

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I think EA should face criminal charges for what they’re doing to these kids with 30 matches over 3 days. It’s absolutely insane to me. I’ve done it maybe 5 or 6 times in the last few fifas and it’s way too much time spent and mentally exhausting. It shouldn’t be allowed
Totally - and the fact that it used to be 40 matches over 3 days makes it all the wilder. Even more than that, the pay-to-win aspect is disgusting - due to WFH, I can grind menus and do bronze pack method pretty mindlessly for a couple hours a day during meetings to make my coins without putting real $$ into the game, but even that seems futile when you come up against players who have clearly put thousands of dollars of their (or their parents') money into the game so they can have a sick team for 6 months of gameplay.
 

teddykgb

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Totally - and the fact that it used to be 40 matches over 3 days makes it all the wilder. Even more than that, the pay-to-win aspect is disgusting - due to WFH, I can grind menus and do bronze pack method pretty mindlessly for a couple hours a day during meetings to make my coins without putting real $$ into the game, but even that seems futile when you come up against players who have clearly put thousands of dollars of their (or their parents') money into the game so they can have a sick team for 6 months of gameplay.
Yeah I only play it out of habit. It’s a garbage p2w game and the only fun is card collection which they actively ruin every year. The actual game probably peaked like a decade ago but the p2w aspects have gone off the charts. I remember being angry about the cost of top icon SBCs a few years back and now they practically don’t exist and cost even more when they do. Star Wars people rioted over Vader and r9 is like 7 trillion times worse in this game.

So I settle for Joao Felix and Son
 

Zomp

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I split this out because this is the first FIFA I've played in a few seasons (yay, parenting!) and it seems as though we have a few members that play it.

What system are you guys on? I play on PS4.

I used to be an Ultimate Team guy, getting to division 3 or 2 nearly every season. But I am TERRIBLE this year. I've only done online draft mode as its the cheapest way to try out players but I'm like 2-6. As someone who hasn't played in a few seasons, here are the biggest changes from, say, Fifa 18.

Skill moves, particularly juggling skill moves, are way overpowered. I swear any time I close someone down they just do a skill move and I can actually see my player slide back a yard to give them space. Its pretty frustrating and I don't know how to defend against it. If anyone has advice I'm all ears.

R1 dribbling is also overpowered.

Spamming sprint is a *bad* idea. The players won't control the ball if they are sprinting into it.

Goalkeepers are AWFUL. Every curved shot or blast goes in. Its a bit jarring because I'm used to the keepers saving something thats close to them, but it just doesn't happen anymore.


Last night, out of boredom I dabbled in Pro Clubs. If you've never done it, you create a player and just play with that one guy for the whole 90 minutes. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I only did friendlies with 4 other random people so of course you get the players who try to do everything themselves, but if you had a coherent team I'd imagine its great. If anyone here is on PS4 I'd love to give it a shot with abled players.
 

PedroSpecialK

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I'm on XB1 - and yeah, the emphasis placed on arcade-ish, right-stick skill moves is insane. I don't have the reflexes anymore to stay competitive with those, other than to do the bridge move (double-right bumper) to get around pressing attackers and some fake shots/crosses.

The other awful part of gameplay is the auto-lunging of your defenders almost any time you switch in to take control of them - but AI defending has been nerfed to the point of being untenable. I've found the 5ATB formation with 2 CDMs and fullback set to balanced attacking is a reasonable way to counter some of the poor in-game mechanics.

Pro Clubs is a lot of fun, but I don't have any friends who even play, let alone on XB1 alas - so it's ultimate team for me. They've done some interesting things in FUT with the friendlies modes to grind objectives / get free players, which I've enjoyed - you can put a really good team together without packing anything reasonable.

This is my current squad - the Rashford and Mbappe packings as untradeable cards was insane luck, players like Mollet / Mukiele / Kounde / Capa I was able to play for with objectives:


Switching into this in-game using custom tactics:

 

teddykgb

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I’m on Ps4. The objective cards and silver stars are the best things they’ve done this year. It’s the most like old fifa where you get different teams and play styles. I’ve played a lot more friendlies than Rivals this year.

My team starts in a 5 back but I play 4-4-2.

Ter Stegen
Freeze Laimer —- Varane ——RTTF Kounde —- Ferland Mendy

Base Wright — Base Matthaus —- showdown Acuna —- Rodrygo Record Breaker

IF Son — PoTM Felix

Not sure if that will show. Felix goes to ST with Son. Matthaus into midfield with Acuna and Mendy to Lb. I sub on a RB for Gedson and if opponent is good take out Wright for a wide midfielder like Van Bergen or Rashford. My sub options are all the objective cards like Gravenberch and Deulofeu.

I think Pro Clubs is what fifa competitive should be. I haven’t gotten into it because my understanding is that you need to coordinate everyone online at the same time and that just can’t happen with two kids. It’s got to be way more fun and a better test of skill than FuT although everyone uses an any as far as I understand so that would quickly get old
 
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teddykgb

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And @Zomp a few things to bring you up to speed:

Don’t play draft. It’s a try hard mode now only seriously played by people in higher divisions because that’s the only way to hope for profit. Everyone else is cannon fodder.

Defending is mostly about purposeful retreat. Lots of through balls and dribble moves this year, you can best deal with them by stepping off. I can’t tell you how many times I intercept the bridge. The best thing in midfield is to cut off the through ball but once it’s on right stick switch to CB and just run toward your goal. The whole game style is focused on 1 b 1 with keeper if you take that away a lot of people implode.

4-4-2 is great this year and I’ve never been a 4-4-2 guy. You need width and can’t play 4-1-2-1-2 imo because they added in some crazy bullshit auto marking press options. Constant Pressure or Press after possession loss are crazy overpowered try them yourself if you want to understand why you get swarmed sometimes.

Finally depending on when you stopped they added in custom tactics a few years back which lets you start in one formation and switch all your tactics/ formation with a button press. It’s really hard to be effective against good opponents without a few tactical options pre canned for press or formation counters
 

tmracht

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Ugh. Fifa has gotten worse every year since 15. This years version is absolutely terrible.
Yeah I couldn't get into FIFA21. I've been doing a nice ML on PES21SE it's pretty nice on Steam with all the mods installed.
 

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I play tons of FIFA, but have never gotten into the Freemium aspects of any sports games (which is a problem because that is almost all what FIFA, Madden, 2K and MLB The Show are these days) so I'm strictly a career mode guy. Currently battling for the EPL crown with Aston Villa, being led by brilliant transfer signings of Gio Reyna, Eduardo Camavinga and Nuno Mendes.
 

PedroSpecialK

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I’m on Ps4. The objective cards and silver stars are the best things they’ve done this year. It’s the most like old fifa where you get different teams and play styles. I’ve played a lot more friendlies than Rivals this year.

My team starts in a 5 back but I play 4-4-2.

Ter Stegen
Freeze Laimer —- Varane ——RTTF Kounde —- Ferland Mendy

Base Wright — Base Matthaus —- showdown Acuna —- Rodrygo Record Breaker

IF Son — PoTM Felix

Not sure if that will show. Felix goes to ST with Son. Matthaus into midfield with Acuna and Mendy to Lb. I sub on a RB for Gedson and if opponent is good take out Wright for a wide midfielder like Van Bergen or Rashford. My sub options are all the objective cards like Gravenberch and Deulofeu.

I think Pro Clubs is what fifa competitive should be. I haven’t gotten into it because my understanding is that you need to coordinate everyone online at the same time and that just can’t happen with two kids. It’s got to be way more fun and a better test of skill than FuT although everyone uses an any as far as I understand so that would quickly get old
Ah nice, Laimer in for Gedson makes sense. Is Wright fast enough to play as a RM or is he cutting inside more than going down the wing? I'm kicking myself for not doing that Acuna SBC, seems like great value - for times when I need a swarming midfield option, Bruno Peres road to the final has been about as good as I can hope for so far.

I gotta get Sissoko out of my squad at this point, but he's the only way to get Rashford on any kind of chem without putting the free Beckham card in there and subbing off. I'm waiting for team of the year and have a couple million coins worth of packs saved up for it... best pull likely to be Keylor Navas or something. Regardless, a replacement for Sissoko and Varane in for Diego Carlos are a must over the next few weeks.

Very jealous of that Matthaus, I'm assuming he was packed? I did one base icon pack and got Klose... going to dump him into the last SBC for the base/mid icon pack in the next day or so.
 

teddykgb

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Ah nice, Laimer in for Gedson makes sense. Is Wright fast enough to play as a RM or is he cutting inside more than going down the wing? I'm kicking myself for not doing that Acuna SBC, seems like great value - for times when I need a swarming midfield option, Bruno Peres road to the final has been about as good as I can hope for so far.

I gotta get Sissoko out of my squad at this point, but he's the only way to get Rashford on any kind of chem without putting the free Beckham card in there and subbing off. I'm waiting for team of the year and have a couple million coins worth of packs saved up for it... best pull likely to be Keylor Navas or something. Regardless, a replacement for Sissoko and Varane in for Diego Carlos are a must over the next few weeks.

Very jealous of that Matthaus, I'm assuming he was packed? I did one base icon pack and got Klose... going to dump him into the last SBC for the base/mid icon pack in the next day or so.
Wright is a base icon pack as is Matthaus. Wright isn’t a great wide midfielder but I play him with catalyst so he’s pacy and not awful at passing. I mostly need agility and passing in the wide areas so he’s not great for me but all the position changing and subbing in doing is tedious so I try to do my best with him until I get a better fit. My attack options are good but not exceptional so I’m just piecing it together until I get a great pull and make the chem work. Ideally I’d swap figo in for Wright but he’s expensive

You’ve got a Varane sized hole in your back line, btw. GL on the TOTY packs, it’s fun to open but they are crazy rare. Would really change your team if you get one though
 

teddykgb

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That fucker got me last year in one of those and I almost quit

Edit: I did Robben and I’m kind of regretting it although it is fun to try to bang finesse with him. I’m terrified to do that base or mid SBC because I just know it’ll be Giggs, Scholes, Blanc, or fucking Cantona and I’m very, very petty
 
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sodenj5

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At this point, I think most people are holding out for TOTY and ripping packs and doing SBCs. After the the game will probably be dead. Future Stars is always a fun promo, but the game is so bad this year, I can’t see myself playing too far beyond TOTY. I’m on PS5, so the competition pool is even smaller. See a lot of repeats in Weekend League and Rivals.

Team press breaks the game. Everyone man marks like leopards on speed. Not only that, but you can do everything 200% correctly, and the game will still flub your touches and mess up your passes because of “composure.” There is also not nearly enough of a stamina hit to discourage people from pressing you for a full 90 minutes.

Agree with Zomp. I started messing around with Pro Clubs last week and had some fun. Made a RWB so I could bomb up and down the pitch. Basically the FIFA version of Fortnite or Warzone.
 

Zomp

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Honestly i think a 7 or 8 guys playing pro clubs together would be the best use of the game. I’ve tried to get my friends to do it but it’s tough for everyone to be together.

if anyone is on PS4 and wanted to give it a shot I’d love to try it.
 

PedroSpecialK

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Really struggling to have fun at this point so I’d did another base or mid and got 85 Laudrup. He may even be worse than Giggs
That blows - I think I'm steering clear of them until I have enough post-TOTY fodder from these 50+ saved packs.

I did weekend league for the first time this year just so I could get the last icon swap token (18 wins), missed out on it by one win, but was generally pretty pleased with how my team did. Klaiber from that showdown SBC is an absolute beast, him and Mendy bombing down the wings saved me in a bunch of games. Linked him with Van Bergen, then swapped Van Bergen for Rashford at halftime.

I may try for Roy Keane and play him with a shadow in Capa's spot, he was a beast for the 3 loan games I played with him.
 

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I am playing it on PS5. Visually it looks great. As others have mentioned though, it still can be enraging to play. I refuse to pay a dime above the cost of the game though (just like in MLB, etc) which sucks when other people are willing to blow thousands on in-game purchases. So in short, it takes me forever to get any really good players (I have shit luck with packs) and I play pretty much just division rivals, or whatever it is called 99% of the time.
 

sodenj5

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They finally dropped a few decent icon SBCs ahead of TOTY, but I’m still basically just sitting on a pile of coins waiting for TOTY to drop so I can play for a week and throw this game in the dumpster.
 

teddykgb

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I think I’m gonna do Okocha who is cheap and always super fun to use and then do the same. I’ve packed TOTY in last two fifas but they’re so rare there’s no shot I’ll do it again. Probably come back around tots
 

PedroSpecialK

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I did Icon Koeman after wrapping up the icon swaps grind, and boy is he worth it. 10-3 right now in weekend league, my best start in a few FIFAs - awesome as LCB in the back 3 of Koeman - Capa - Koundé. He displaced Diego Carlos in the team and allowed me to strong link Klaiber without needing to play Van Bergen. Alessandrini is back in at RM, goes up front in the 5-2-1-2, and is wreaking havoc - next order of business is replacing Coman, and eventually Mollet and Capa. And absolutely no way I’m ever playing Ryan Giggs at LW
 

sodenj5

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TOTY has been pretty underwhelming so far. Obviously I didn’t realistically expect to pack anyone, but the lack of SBCs and other content has been pretty lackluster.

At this point just hoping for a flashback Marcelo SBC so I can mess around in my 352 and have fun.
 

Zomp

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I am now all in on Pro Clubs. I’ve played over 100 matches as a central midfielder and my rating has capped out at 87 overall.

I could make it higher but I opted for traits that cost skill points instead of boosting ratings.

pace 79
Shot 86
Pass 88
Dribble 87
Defense 68
Physical 78

5 star skills. 5 star weak foot.
 

PedroSpecialK

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TOTY has been pretty underwhelming so far. Obviously I didn’t realistically expect to pack anyone, but the lack of SBCs and other content has been pretty lackluster.

At this point just hoping for a flashback Marcelo SBC so I can mess around in my 352 and have fun.
Yeah it's been rough, I did like the Suarez objective card, finished that up last night.

I'm still sitting on all my packs in anticipation of a Thursday/Friday full TOTY release... like a psycho, I made a sheet for the packs I'm saving / approximate values, so far looking at ~122 packs coming in at 3.75m coins' worth of value. League upgrade packs released today means a lot more bronze pack method in meetings and rinsing those into silvers / golds etc
 

PedroSpecialK

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Oh yeah I haven't played a game with him, not expecting him to be that good in-game, just liked having a 91 card as free SBC fodder
 

sodenj5

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I just packed TOTY KDB from the prime gaming pack. My wife’s Amazon addiction must have gotten me on the red list
Congrats. I packed TOTY KDB in an 82+ upgrade pack last year. Dude was a beast all year.
 

teddykgb

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I have no idea how to fit him in to my 4-4-2 I may just play him ST. I do know that I’ll spend most of the night in futbin app making different squads trying to figure out what I want to do.

I’d normally just shift to 3-5-2 which I’ve played a ton but I did Okocha who is super fun and he’d also want to be CAM
 

PedroSpecialK

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God damn, congrats! If you're running your prior team, assuming Okocha in for Wright, could go for something like this and play the following lineup in-game with everyone on at least 7 chem:


MATS
Laimer - Varane - Kounde - Mendy
Matthaus - Acuna
Felix - Okocha - Son
De Bruyne
 

sodenj5

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Welp, I sold off Middle Dalglish and Prime Raul last night and pulled the trigger on TOTY Ramos this morning.

Then I rolled all of the fodder I’ve been piling up with upgrade SBCs into the base/mid icon SBC and pulled middle Baggio. All things considered, not a bad outcome.

Plan on playing Ramos at CDM in the 352 for a while. See how it goes.
 

teddykgb

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Ramos looks awesome I was hawking g him earlier. I was laughing because he may be best on basic or engine the non pace stats are juiced.

Thinking about doing Dybala as I’ve seen good things and I loved his base. May just be a sideways upgrade to Son IF in output even though they’re different players
 

sodenj5

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Ramos looks awesome I was hawking g him earlier. I was laughing because he may be best on basic or engine the non pace stats are juiced.

Thinking about doing Dybala as I’ve seen good things and I loved his base. May just be a sideways upgrade to Son IF in output even though they’re different players
I haven’t tried him yet, but I put a Hunter on him right now. Wanted to juice the shooting stats a bit and make him a threat to bang some goals in. Might end up going with engine after I test him out a bit.

The best part of TOTY cards is putting them in weird spots and letting them go. That Davies card could play any spot on the pitch.
 

teddykgb

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Made Div1 tonight. Been playing KDB Cm in 4-4-2 and he’s earnestly only a marginal upgrade over Acuna but it’s nice to have a scoring threat. Tried him at ST but it’s such a waste of so many of his stats I decided I just wanted him on the ball as much as possible even if his stats won’t pop off the page
 

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Tried TOTY Ramos at CDM and it’s a no go. For as good as his stats are, he’s still animated like a defender. His touches are slow under pressure, his dribbling is clunky, etc.

He’s a fantastic CB, but do I need 2+ million coins at CB when Varane and Gomez are so OP? Probably not. I’ll keep him for now, but he is probably not a permanent fixture on my squad.
 

teddykgb

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That’s surprising he looks perfect for the role. Is it just the speed? I spent a lot of time with engine on baby Matthaus and was kind of frustrated that he didn’t feel as good as I’d hoped until I just slapped shadow on him and used the speed boost to get the rest of his great qualities where they needed to be as quickly as possible
 

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Are you guys getting all these great players through these squad building tasks, or just through packs earned/bought from playing division rivals, or??
 

sodenj5

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That’s surprising he looks perfect for the role. Is it just the speed? I spent a lot of time with engine on baby Matthaus and was kind of frustrated that he didn’t feel as good as I’d hoped until I just slapped shadow on him and used the speed boost to get the rest of his great qualities where they needed to be as quickly as possible
I was a bit let down, to be honest. Not really the speed. I was using him with a hunter.

Was way more the dribbling and responsiveness. He felt like a CB and nothing like a good CM or CDM.

As a “stay back” CDM or basically an extra CB, he’s probably fine, but I wanted to use him more as a box to box CM, and his touches and dribbling are way too poor. He was getting dispossessed constantly in the attacking third.
Are you guys getting all these great players through these squad building tasks, or just through packs earned/bought from playing division rivals, or??
To be 100% honest, I got very lucky ripping packs, and made some minor coins flipping players and some icons.

I pulled Neymar when he was almost 1.1 million and sold him. I pulled Mbappe when he was like 800K and sold him. The majority of my current squad is untradeable through either SBCs or upgrade packs.

Base Suker (Base Icon SBC)
POTM Joao Felix (SBC)
Middle Baggio (Base/Mid Icon SBC)
Gold Pogba (Gold Upgrade SBC)
RTTF Herrera (SBC)
Freeze Adama (SBC)
TOTY Ramos ($)
Gold Varane ($)
Gold Joe Gomez (Pack Pull)
TOTT Trent Alexander-Arnold (SBC)
Gold Oblak (Upgrade SBC)

TOTY Ramos is the vast majority of my liquid coins. I’ve been dicking around and just trying different icons every week or two and usually break even when I sell them. I’ll probably sell Ramos eventually and try out TOTY KDB for a little while.
 

teddykgb

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Are you guys getting all these great players through these squad building tasks, or just through packs earned/bought from playing division rivals, or??
The truth is that it’s a crap lottery. You need to open a LOT of packs to get anything. Like way way way more than you think. SBCs can get you packs, so it’s a viable strategy to churn cards — do upgrades, take untradeables, etc but it will leave you with very few coins unable to buy anything unless you happen to pack something great tradeable like sodenj describes above.

I cannot stress enough that you should not ever ever ever ever ever spend real money on packs unless it is the first 2 weeks of the game. Packs are way too poor and the coin value of packs is a scandal. I’m not going to say I haven’t done it but I have always regretted it.

Unfortunately this game has really devolved into a live service game that demands a ridiculous time investment in order to get the best rewards. You will not have fun caring about TOTY cards or R9. Just pretend they don’t exist. Imo the most fun way to play now is to do value SBCs and the better free cards you can grind for. If you really want to chase a player you really need to play Squad Battles, Rivals, and WL and take coins from Rivals. If you’re good you’ll consistently make 100k or more a week and so over 10 weeks you can buy that million coin player. But then you have to not be enticed by any SBCs along the way which can be very difficult. SBCs themselves are a coin sink designed to take your buying power away. This forces you to either play more or buy packs. Most SBCs are a ripoff as a result and the absolute best move is to not do any of them but I think an SBC like that Dybala or Boateng that are out right now are so cheap that the coin loss is likely worth it as you’ll spend double or triple their price to get a similar player on the market. Basically, when deciding to do an SBC ignore the pack rewards because they will almost assuredly be crap and ask yourself if that player will definitely be in your team 8-10 weeks from now. If that answer isn’t unequivocally yes then you probably should avoid it
 

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10,736
NJ
Yeah I have not bought any packs in years. I used to, but it was almost always (99%) a losing proposition. Most times, I do not even take the packs from Rivals' rewards, because again, they are mostly all losers so better off taking the coins. Problem is, many times I do not play enough over the week to get a higher coin reward.

My best pack pulled card this year through free packs was an 85 Lukaku and 89 Sergio Ramos, both the gold version. Oh, and an 87 Headliners of Oyarzabal.

My main issue in the past has been buying too many players in the $15k-50k range instead of saving coins to buy some real impact guys in the $100k-1M+ range