Entering FC 26 Ultimate Team midway through the cycle can feel like walking onto a pitch where everyone else has a headstart. The power curve has peaked, especially after the TOTY release. However, starting now actually offers you a strategic advantage in market efficiency. While early players may have overspent on gold cards that have since crashed in value, you can now pick up elite-tier base players for relatively cheap.
This means you can build a competitive team for a fraction of the cost, and we’ll be guiding you on how to do that. The game provides high rewards now, where chained Evolutions and high SBCs are the best path forward. Here are a couple of steps you can take for rapid growth to compete with already established top-tier squads.
Chained Evolutions
You’re just starting, and you definitely need some strong cards to be on par with the sweats. Evolutions are your equaliser against overpowered teams. Evos let you let you upgrade eligible base cards by completing in-game objectives, boosting stats, and adding PlayStyles. Training Camp is a key passive for this, as it lets you submit a card for a set duration of time and receive time-based upgrades.
Once you start focusing on Evos, the core loop is relatively simple. Evos are really easy. Find all-rounders with balanced stats that are eligible for active Evos; you can find them everywhere. The thrill of creating a one-of-a-kind beast that nobody has and chaining evos to make it even more overpowered? Pure satisfaction, and if you grind smart, you can very easily take your squad to the next level in no time.
The best way to take advantage of this is to find all-arounder cards with balanced stats that fit into active Evos. The best part about these cards is that you can stack them and they play just like million coin players, while costing you nothing. Another great way would be to look through the Future Stars Academy, where you can find a path to a 91-rated player with icon chemistry.
Rush 5v5 Mode
Rush isn’t exactly the best in terms of progression for Clubs, but it has been surprisingly much more useful with Ultimate Team. Here, Rush is the single fastest way to earn XP and packs in FC26. The games are quicker and offer massive Rush Points that contribute to weekly objectives.
Your best bet is the Weekly Rush Objectives. Once you complete these, you usually get 83+ or 84+ Rare Gold Player Packs, which help massively in building your initial squad. Another advantage of this mode is that you can climb the Season Pass efficiently, which allows you to unlock high-rated icons and Heroes for free. You definitely don’t want to miss out on free icons. Sure, for Clubs progression, you should stick to smart use of the AXP consumables, but for Ultimate Team, Rush is a viable starting point.
Foundation And Daily SBCs
We’ve looked at some of the more technical ways to build a competitive team, but the basics are always the key. The Hybrid Nations and Hybrid Leagues SBCs provide a reliable source of great tradeable packs without breaking the bank. But SBCs aren’t always simple, though, as they require some prior planning.
For example, Marquee Matchups are released every Thursday. You can complete this easily with bronze/silver players, and they often yield high-value tradeable players, which you can either sell to fund your meta team or keep to play them in that same team. Another thing to do is the Daily Upgrade SBCs. Through this, you can multiply your bronze and silver cards, and by doing the Daily Gold Upgrade, convert low cards into Gold fodder.
