I won a copy of the All Madden edition of the game from EA for my write up below so thought I'd share the info with the community as well.
If you're interested in seeing what other tips were posted or to see my name in the winner list you can go to the official EA forum post here.
Since I wrote the forum post before the game was out, I'm updating a little bit of the info to make some more sense with the changes that were made where incorrect assumptions were made for things like gap pack still existing.
Skills Trainer
First thing everyone should do when starting Madden is get through the skills trainer challenges, not only is there a small reward of a gold + pack that you can use in Madden Ultimate Team, but you also learn the basics for football and any changes in the game. Learning what each type of zone coverage and man blitz scheme is plus what the counters are for each is invaluable if you want to take your game to the next level. New this year is the tutorial for the skills based passing mechanic which is definitely something you will want to learn as it takes your game up a notch being able to control your ball placement like a real QB.
Offensive Playbooks
Choose your favorite team when you start MUT that way you get to play with who you are familiar with and get their playbooks. Learn a couple of formations and plays you like based on situation I.e. identify a go to running play, one each for inside and outside runs. Learn a short yardage passing play, a medium yardage play and a long yardage play. Once you get these handful of plays nailed down and understand why they are great plays in terms of concepts and how they may beat each coverage, you will be able to more quickly identify solid plays in your playbook of choice. A good rule of thumb is to always keep your opponent guessing, i.e. if your opponent can identify what you are trying to go to based on your offensive formation, they have already won more than half of the battle. This is why it's a great idea to really learn several plays you can run out of your favorite formations, that way you can keep them guessing, it's a game of chess.
Defensive Playbooks
Similar to offense, identify formations you enjoy and learn several coverage schemes in the formation. Learn what base align does as well as how to adjust your coverages to keep your opponent guessing. You want to make each coverage look similar whether you are running Cover 2/3/4/6/9 or Man, this way your opponent doesn't know what you are doing until they hike the ball. The more they have to think after everything is in motion, the more likely they are to make a mistake. Do not be afraid to adjust out of your defense if what you are doing isn't working. I.e. if you are in Nickel formations and your opponent is running all over you, it is time to switch to your base defense whether that is a 4-3, 3-4, etc. This puts more linebackers on the field to help with stopping the run. You have to adjust to what your opponent is trying to do and not stay locked into one formation or coverage or you will get beat by good opponents.
Madden Ultimate Team
MUT is a great way to build a dream team of players that you then take out on the field to compete. But in order to build that team, it takes grinding which is part of the fun. Whether you invest your time or money is up to you but in order to maximize what you can earn, you should do all solos available to you. For one, you get rewards for hitting certain tiers for the solos and on top of that you gain progression through the field pass for even more rewards. There is no reason to not do as many of the solos as you can to quickly build up your team and progress through the objectives.
Take advantage of sets that give you cards back in return, this is a great way to build up your team quickly, especially if you sell the champion item of the set to recoup most of your investment into the set and only keep the heroes you put into the set. An example, if there is a coveted 89 OVR player set that returns 3 86 OVRs you put in and you sell the 89 OVR, you can get the 86 OVR players to keep on your team at a fraction of what they would otherwise cost individually on the auction house. They do become Not Auctionable or Tradeable at that point, designated this year with a BND, so you do have to take that into consideration on which sets are worth doing based on what cards would be bound to your team.
For players looking to get the most bang for their buck, learning to use the auction house is vital. Be sure to download and use the Madden Companion App from the play store, it links to your EA account and allows you to work the auction house by viewing what is in your binder to post for sale or buying straight from the auction house when away from your console. It's a great time saver and a way to stay connected to the game even when away from your platform of choice. There are cycles of when to buy and sell that you can quickly recognize if you pay attention to patterns, the following is form M22 observations but should apply to M23 as well for the most part:
At a high level, the cyclical parts can be broken up into times/days/weeks/months, basically you want to find the best times to buy/sell and hold. You don't want to go all in on one investment and you also want to ensure your coins are out on the field, i.e. don't just stack coins to stack, have a solid team you're happy with and then worry about the stack. I'm in CST, so I like to sell overnight for me, I can set it and forget it, always use 8 hours and make my auction price based on how hot an item is. If it's selling several times in an hour and therefore in demand, I know I can set my price above the lowest and it will probably sell once those lower than me dry up. If it's only got a sale here and there in the day and not in high demand, have to decide if I want to be the lowest and guarantee a sale or if I want to price higher and hope it will sell, could take a couple of reposts on the AH to sell if I go the latter route.
For days of the week, I've found that usually prices start to go up Monday night through Wed night at which they tend to get their highest since people by for WL then they start to drop down Thur-Sun and go back up again. If you stay on the market you'll notice this trend and you'll also notice the outliers. I've never ever sold off my whole team for a promo, in fact, I hardly sell any of my main team players and they stay on the squad from day one, joys of having a theme team, this makes it easier to spend training with confidence and not waste coins trying to power down or time the market because most of the times you will lose if you try to sell and catch a crash. I instead take advantage of the market by knowing when I should sell cards I don't need for my team that are over training value.
Knowing, based on history, what promos could be coming each month, also lets you know how to hold cards and when to sell, i.e. at the beginning of the game, if it isn't a huge profit, I hold every card I pull, even silver and gold and wait for the team diamond explosion, then I'll decide what I should sell individually, what I should exchange, and what I should use for sets I care about.
Winning in H2H is a key part of increasing not only your xp for the Field pass but increasing your coin stack as well, the payouts are good for the time spent once you are in higher divisions not to mention the trophy packs this year which include 3 random elites that could payout big depending on your pulls.
Top Offensive Tip
Offensive Scheme - Run/Pass Balanced out of heavy formations like Singleback wing pair, switch to Gun formations situationally
Basically, keep your opponent guessing and leaning towards respecting the run so the passing game opens up more for you. Take advantage of all run types, inside/outside, sweep, dive, iso, zone, traps, etc. The Skills builder is a great mode to learn the intricacies of the run game so you know based on the play call what hole you are trying to hit as a RB.
Top Defensive Tip
Defensive Scheme - BNOG zone rotating through C2, C3, C4, C6 and C9 as needed, blitzing SubLB2 often to augment the 4 lineman rush
Big Nickel Over G is a great scheme that brings in two lbs or safeties on top of your core fs/ss and cb1/cb2 groups. It keeps a solid box that is great at stopping the run if you can maintain your gap assignment as a user and locks down most passing plays with adjustments. Keep your opponent guessing with coverage schemes and adjustments and learn what the weakness of each coverage you call is from the skills trainer so you can cover that gap when you rotate through the coverages during your play calling.
