2019-01-22T12:30:03 01:00

FUT 19 for beginners: How player cards work

FIFA Ultimate Team is all about the player cards, whose values determine the strength of your teams. Here you will learn

how the cards work.
what differences there are.
which contents are available in the packs.

Content overview

Common and rare cards
What do the values mean?
Contracts and fitness in FUT
Standard packs explained
What are promo packs?

FIFA Ultimate Team is one of the most exciting modes in FIFA 19. You compete against players all over the world and put your skills to the test with a self-made team! However, especially for newcomers, the mode can be very confusing. What do all the different cards mean? How valuable are they? As you've probably noticed, the cards in FIFA Ultimate Team are classified according to several criteria.

Bronze, silver, gold - the best player cards in FIFA 19

The very first criterion is the color of the card. It is determined by how good the player depicted is. While Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are on gold player cards, Steven Skrzybski from Schalke is on a silver card and Markus Ziereis from 1860 Munich is on a bronze card. Which card a player gets is determined by his overall strength.

Players with a GES value of under 65 receive a bronze card
Players with a GES value of over 65 receive a silver card
Players with a GES value of over 75 will receive a gold card

By the way, you can see the GES value in the upper left corner of each card next to the player portrait.

Common and rare cards in FIFA Ultimate Team

The second important characteristic of a card is its rarity level. There is a difference between common and rare cards as well as a selection of different special cards and event cards. The rarity of a card can be easily recognized by its frame. The rarer the card, the higher its value when you decide to sell it on the transfer market.

Gradually, you will become more familiar with the different colors and shapes of the cards and will be able to match them. Special cards can only be drawn from certain card packs. Some FUT events, such as the Halloween event, are limited in time, so you can only get the player cards in the spooky Halloween design during a certain time window. After that, they are usually only available on the transfer market.

In addition, EA SPORTS regularly releases special cards to honor good performances by professional footballers in real life. These include, for example, the Team of the Week cards (TOTW) or the Man of the Match cards (MOTM).

PAC, SHO, PAS - This is what the values on your FIFA cards mean

Now that you know how rare and how good your cards are, it's down to the nitty gritty. Under the name of your player you can see the different player values. Behind these abbreviations you can find exact information about the player's skills. Below you can see what the abbreviations stand for.

TEM means speed
DRI means dribbling
SCH means shooting
DEF means defense
PAS means passing
PHY means Physique

Each of these values is composed of many other values that tell you even more about the players. For example, the TEM value is made up of the values Antritt and Sprinttempo. If you want more detailed information about your players, you can find it in the detailed overview. There you can also see, for example, the fitness or the number of remaining contracts.

Caution, trip hazard! Contracts and fitness in FUT 19

Especially new players often stumble into the contract and fitness trap in FIFA Ultimate Team. Each player card has a certain number of contracts. With every game you play, the number decreases. When a card runs out of contracts, it can't be used until you recharge the contracts. New player contracts can be purchased for FIFA coins on the transfer market.

Pro tip: The color of your contracts does not have to match the card color. You can also apply gold contracts to bronze or silver cards.

The same applies to the fitness of the players on the cards. If a card is used in several games in a row, the virtual kickers lose energy (fitness). You can prevent this by rotating the cards a bit and giving exhausted players a break.

Pro tip: If you don't want to do without certain key players, you can improve their fitness with training objects (push cards). This way they will last longer and won't get tired as quickly. But be careful: cards with such pushes are often not allowed to be used in the Weekend League.

Now you are optimally prepared and can start in FIFA Ultimate Team! Take a look at our guide to the cheap FUT players you can use to improve your team.

Card Packs in FIFA Ultimate Team explained

In FIFA Ultimate Team you can strengthen your team with fresh players that you draw randomly from different card packs. This so-called pack opening is an activity you'll spend a lot of time doing in FIFA 19.

While good players are used to upgrade the squad, unused cards can be exchanged for coins on the transfer market or via a quick sale. With these, better players and consumables like training cards or contracts are available on the market.

But with so many different packs, it's especially hard for newcomers to choose. Which packs contain which cards? What is worth investing in? We'll tell you which packs promise the greatest chance of success.

These are Standard Packs in FUT 19

Standard Card Packs are sets that are always available in the FIFA Ultimate Team Store for coins or FIFA Points. These sets each come in a bronze, silver, and gold variant. Each of these sets contains twelve random cards of the respective color.

You can be sure that there is at least one rare card in the normal packs. The Premium Packs are a bit more expensive, but you'll also get at least three rare cards. We recommend that you always go for the premium versions of the respective packs.

These FUT packs are available

Bronze Packs
Bronze packs give you access to a wide variety of bronze cards in FUT. These can be consumables, club cards or players up to a GES strength of 64. The normal bronze pack costs 400 FIFA coins and the premium variant 750.

Silverpacks
The silver packs grant you access to various silver cards in FIFA Ultimate Team. These can be consumable items, club cards or player cards up to a GES strength of 74. The normal Silver Pack costs 2,500 coins and the Premium Silver Pack costs 3,750 FIFA coins.

Gold Packs
Last but not least, the gold packs logically give you access to various gold cards that are considered the most popular cards in the game. These can be consumable items, club cards or player cards up to a GES level of 99. While the Standard Gold Pack costs 5,000 FIFA coins, you'll have to dig deeper into your virtual pocket for the Premium Gold Pack. 7.500 coins will cost you the pleasure.

Promo Packs are only available at certain times

Unlike the standard packs, the promo packs are not available permanently, but only at certain times. This means that you should log in at the right time to get these sets. For example, this includes the extremely popular Ultimate Pack, which contains 30 of the best items in the game. However, the price for this pack is quite something. You'll have to pay a whopping 125,000 FIFA coins for an Ultimate Pack.

The reward packs in FUT 19 are the only packs that are not available for purchase. These sets are given away by EA SPORTS as rewards to players who complete certain challenges. In addition to the Starter Packs, these also include the extremely coveted Team of the Week Packs (TOTW). Each week, EA SPORTS releases the Team of the Week with cards from players who performed particularly well. These are available in the Premium TOTW Packs.

by Constantin Krüger

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