Squad Building Challenges within FIFA 17 are the best idea ever introduced to Ultimate Team. Why? Partly because they enable you to acquire elite strikers such as Luis Suarez or Alexandre Lacazette for a fraction of their normal cost. But mainly because they enable you to earn in-game coins without dropping real cash on packs. Since September, I’ve made 4.6 million coins despite spending the sum total of £12 (on 1500 FIFA Points, immediately after release, and before I knew better). By following this method you can too.
Sell cards when they're most valuable
‘SBCs’, as they’re known among the community, see you submitting teams according to specific requirements in order to earn rewards – this, rather than spending coins, should form your path to Gold packs. Every weekend, for instance, four Marquee Matchups are made live within the SBC framework. Hundreds of thousands of FIFA addicts then hit the transfer market, seeking out the cards necessary to complete these Marquee Matchups SBCs. But if you already have these cards stashed in your club, you can complete said challenges for literally nothing, then make monster profits from selling your extra stock.
Essentially, every player card in the game will have value at some point of the year. And you should only sell these cards when that value is maximised.
For instance, this past weekend the ‘Kashima vs FC Tokyo’ Marquee Matchup required you to submit a team of Meiji Yasuda J1 players. If, like me, you’d hung on to the Japanese league players acquired in Silver and Bronze packs since day one, you were able to easily complete the challenge and then sell off all other J1 cards at 500-1000 coins each. In this way I made 140,000 coins over the weekend *just on Japanese players*.
Here, then, is my method, which essentially comes down to this: only ever buy Bronze packs, Silver packs, and discard in-forms, and enjoy the rewards that follow…
Never buy Gold packs
They’re a huge coin drain. A basic Gold pack costs 5,000 coins, most of which will be junk – and the majority of cards rated 84 or under can be purchased for less than 5,000 coins anyway. You’ll earn plenty of Gold packs during the course of completing Squad Building Challenges, and using this method will build up the coin reserves to grab any player you need. I’ve made 4.5 million profit in addition to spending 241,000 on in-form Thiago Silva, 166,000 on Antoine Griezmann, 142,000 on in-form Edinson Cavani, and more.
Only buy Silver and Bronze packs
And when you do, only go for the standard versions: 2,500 coins for silver, 400 for bronze. I’ll get to what you need to do with these shortly.
Decide if you're going to do the league SBCs
The following leagues all have SBCs where by completing one team you unlock a specific pack, and by completing all the teams you unlock a ratings-boosted player card:
- Liga NOS (POR 1) – Jonas
- MLS (MLS) – Giovinco
- La Liga Santander (ESP 1) – Luis Suarez
- Ligue 1 (FRA 1) – Alexandre Lacazette
- Super Lig (TUR) – Samuel Eto’o
- Liga Bancomer MX (MEX 1) – Andre-Pierre Gignac
- Russian League (RUS 1) – Fedor Smolov
- Eredivisie (NED 1) – Siem De Jong
- Scottish Premiership (SPFL) – Leigh Griffiths
- Pro League – Jeremy Perbet
If you decide to do any of these, stash any players from that league in your club when you open packs. When you have 8-9 players for any of those teams, buy the last couple of players needed – Futhead is an excellent resource to help you fill in gaps – at the lowest BIN price and get it completed. That’ll give you a new pack and take you a step towards the overall player reward for that league.
What to do when you open a Silver pack
First, look for players from the above SBC leagues. So: POR 1, MLS, ESP 1, FRA 1, TUR 1, MEX 1, RUS 1, NED 1, SPFL, and BEL 1. If you’re doing the SBC for any of the above, send any player cards from that league to your club. If not, place them on the transfer list.
Players from all other leagues should be stashed in your club until a Marquee Matchup, or other new SBC, comes up that requires them. I’ve had 100+ Japanese league players in my club for months which, as I say, I finally sold this weekend for 500-1000 coins each.
Send all Duplicate players to the transfer list.
List Player Fitness cards (+40) for one hour at 150/200. (150 bid price, 200 buy it now.)
Send shiny Squad Fitness cards (+20) to the transfer list.
Send all Healing (team and player) cards to the transfer list.
List shiny Manager Contracts cards for one hour at 150/250.
Send standard Manager Contracts cards to your club. *These are the only Manager Contracts cards I ever use.*
List standard Player Contracts cards (’10/10/8’) at for one hour at 150/200.
List shiny Player Contracts (’20/24/18’) for one hour at 200/300.
Place shiny Kits cards on the transfer list.
Quick sell all standard kits unless you wish to use them.
Place Player Training cards for All Attributes, Shooting and Pace on the transfer list.
Quick sell all other Player Training cards unless you with to use them.
Quick sell all Goalkeeper Training cards unless you wish to use them.
Place managers for the big leagues – ENG 1, FRA 1, GER 1, ITA 1, SPA 1 – on the transfer list.
Quick sell all other managers unless you wish to use them.
Unless you want them, quick sell all Stadiums, Badges, and Coaches.
Now go to your transfer list and cycle through all the cards you just moved there. Click ‘compare price’ and if there are a ton of the same card on the market at 150/200, also list at 150/200.
For cards listed at higher prices than 150/200, take note of the lowest Buy It Now price available, then list yours for a Buy It Now price of 100-200 coins more. So if the cheapest price you can find Timothy Fosu-Mensah for is 1,600 coins, list yours at 1,800, with a start price of 100-200 coins less. The card likely won’t sell at the first attempt. But it should do within 24-48 hours.
Always list cards for one hour. The key to this method is keeping your list full, and refreshed, as often as possible.
What to do when you open a Bronze pack
Again, look for players from the SBC leagues. So POR 1, MLS, ESP 1, FRA 1, TUR 1, MEX 1, RUS 1, NED 1, SPFL, and BEL 1. If you’re doing the SBC for any of the above, send any player cards from that league to your club. If not, place them on the transfer list.
Players from all other leagues should be stashed in your club until a Marquee Matchup comes up that requires them, as discussed earlier.
Send any players from the Premier League (ENG 1) to the transfer list.
Send any non-German players from the Bundesliga (GER 1) and non-Italian players from Calcio A (ITA 1) to the transfer list.
Send all Duplicate players to the transfer list.
List Player Fitness cards (+20) for one hour at 150/200.
Send shiny Squad Fitness cards to the transfer list.
Send all Healing (team and player) cards to the transfer list.
Send shiny bronze Player Contracts cards (’15/6/3’) to your club. *These are the only Player Contract cards I ever use!*
Quick sell all standard Player Contracts cards, and both shiny and non-shiny Manager Contracts cards.
Place shiny Kits cards on the transfer list.
Quick sell all standard Kit cards unless you wish to use them.
Place Player Training cards marked All Attributes, Shooting and Pace on the transfer list.
Quick sell all other Player Training cards unless you with to use them.
Quick sell all Goalkeeper Training cards unless you wish to use them.
Place managers for the big leagues – ENG 1, FRA 1, GER 1, ITA 1, SPA 1 – on the transfer list.
Quick sell all other managers unless you wish to use them.
Unless you want them, quick sell all Stadiums, Badges, and Coaches.
Now go to your transfer list and do the same as you did for silver cards on there. Many cards will only go for 150/200, but you only need to sell an average of three per pack to make a profit.
A note about packing in-form (TOTW) cards
If you pack any silver or bronze in-forms using the above methods and have no plans to keep them, DO NOT SELL until at least a fortnight later. While still in packs (from 6pm Wednesday to 5.59pm Wednesday the following week) they have really poor resale value as everyone is offloading them at once.
Invest in discard price Gold in-form cards
Once you pass the 200,000 coins mark, I recommended investing in 3-4 TOTW players between Sunday and Tuesday of any given week. To this, search for ‘Special’ players on the transfer market at a Buy It Now price of 10,000-10,500, then cherry pick any gold ones rated 81 and above. (You can *always* resell these players for at least 11,500 coins, sometimes much more – or, if you suddenly need funds, quick sell them to the CPU for 9,900, meaning any losses are tiny.)
I stash these purchases in my club for 2-3 weeks, then list for at least 13,000-14,000 – sometimes more, depending on comparative prices for the same card.
Check your transfer list regularly and 're-list all' as often possible
If any Kits or Managers haven’t sold after you’ve been refreshing for 48 hours, quick sell them. For all other items, consider dropping the Buy It Now price by 50 coins after day one, 100 by day two, and so on. The exception is player cards listed at 150/200: just leave them on the transfer list at that price until they sell. Eventually, they will sell. And you should be very, very rich.
FIFA 17 is out now on PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC. Need clarification on any of the above? Drop me a line on Twitter @BenjiWilson and I’ll do my best to elaborate.
