In FIFA 21 there are currently a few Squad Building Challenges that lure you with seemingly strong rewards. Here, however, you really need a lot of luck to get something worthwhile.
Which SBCs are we talking about? Currently, you can find the following two SBCs in Ultimate Team.
- The “86+ Double Upgrade” SBC
- The “Striker Icon Upgrade”
Both look quite exciting at first glance. The 86+ SBC promises two rare gold players with a value over 86, with the rating being open-ended. And the Striker Icon features a striker legend. So, you already have no chance of pulling a more or less useless goalkeeper from the pack.
But are these really that good of offers? Not really, many players think. Because both SBCs have the potential to cost you a lot of coins or players, but in the end, give you nothing worthwhile in return.
Players can be obtained either from packs, through tasks, or purchased on the transfer market. If you already have suitable players in your club for a challenge, you can use them. If suitable cards are missing, you need to spend coins on the transfer market to get the necessary players.
Players criticize expensive SBCs
Here’s the problem: Both SBCs are just damn expensive. The requirements demand teams made up of players that are not exactly cheap.
- The 86+ Double Upgrade requires a team with an average rating of 86 but only gives you back two players in the end. On futbin, the solution to the SBC, if approached without any existing players in the club, is estimated at around 155,000 coins.
- The Striker Icon SBC is even more expensive. It demands:
- An 84-rated team with at least 2 TOTW players
- An 85-rated team with one TOTW player
- An 86-rated team
- An 87-rated team
On futbin, the entire challenge is estimated at around 570,000 coins. You do get some packs for the intermediate tasks, but it’s known that you need a lot of luck to pull something good out of there.
If you look at what kind of players you could already get for this amount, you should really think twice about whether to tackle this SBC – and this also applies to the 86+ Double Upgrade. Because you must not forget: The rewards from both SBCs are untradeable.
This means you should definitely pull players you want to use in your team. The problem is: In the 86 Double Upgrade, there’s a risk of ending up with only two players that essentially provide no value for the many good players you have to exchange.
Of course, cards like Ronaldo and Neymar can come out of this, which are worth it – but the chance is high that you’ll end up with goalkeepers like De Gea or weak cards like David Silva, resulting in a significant loss.
With the icons, there’s always the risk of also pulling ones that can no longer compete at the highest level. After all, the icon pack contains not just Moments and Prime cards, but also Mid-Icons.
It can easily happen that you complete a 570,000-coin SBC and then only get one player that is worth just half of that.
This is how the community reacts: On futbin, where players can share their SBC solutions, both SBCs are extremely unpopular. The 86+ Double Upgrade has only 5% positive ratings against 95% negative ratings, while the icons stand at 12% (positive) against a striking 88% (negative).
In the FIFA subreddit, the SBCs are evaluated as way too expensive. The icon SBC is only for players who can afford to lose a lot of coins or SBC fodder. The 86+ SBC, on the other hand, is not recommended for anyone.
- When the 86 SBC went online, players referred to it as “the SBC with the worst value in the game” (via reddit).
- “I saw the requirements and had to laugh,” comments a user (via reddit).
- “This and the new icon SBC completely miss the target” (via reddit).
- “Imagine pulling a mid icon after you’ve exchanged an 87, 86, 85, 84 team roster” (via reddit).
The temptation for good rewards is high for such SBCs, but here you really should only go for it if you have so many coins that you can hardly lose anything. Otherwise, you might want to look for other cards.
Right now during TOTS, there are some players that can be picked up cheaply. And you can find real top players here: The 8 best players under 500,000 coins in FIFA 21.
