What in the World is EA Doing?

So… the new Gronk card is interesting to say the least. MUT has been weird this year. Now it seems EA has thrown caution to the wind and let all hell break loose.

If I’m not mistaken, Gronk will have:

- 2 X-Factors

- A new “Gronk” archetype

- Just about 10 discounted abilities

- 2x chems for all 32 teams and zero chill/all madden chemistries

- An upgradable 82 OVR that can turn his regular 98 into a SUPER 98 with upgrade tokens

- Am I missing anything? Probably.

Sure, this Gronk card is cool and everyone will be able to get him for free, but damn, EA is really just throwing stuff at the wall now. It seems they’re trying desperately to make something flashy that’ll get everyone’s attention. To their credit—it’s working.

I’ve been skeptical about this discounted ability thing all year. This is the first year that players get these ridiculous 0 AP abilities. How much longer until it’s nearly impossible to spend all 12 AP because everyone will have OP discounted abilities that cost 0-1 AP.

I can only imagine what ability discounts they'll give Golden Tickets this year. Will we start seeing QBs who can get SFL, HRM, Fearless, and Gunslinger for 2 AP total? I agree, it's starting to get a bit out of hand.

I'm fine with them limiting AP to 12 on both offense and defense and then giving small AP discounts here and there just to allow certain set ups and to give certain player value for specific playstyles.

In my opinion, the only abilities that should be able to be discounted to 0 are the "near useless" abilities that are in tier 1. I can imagine it'd be annoying to the meta players, but at the same time, I'm not wanting to play a remake of Madden 20 where everyone and their mom on every team has abilities activated everywhere. Definitely feels like EA is pumping up all these cards just to attempt to please the fanbase and draw attention away from the constant screw ups. 

With all that said, this Gronk card looks incredible and will be incredibly obnoxious to play against.

Agree on the discounted abilities, basically even good cards can be worthless based solely off of what abilities they have discounted. I prefer a bit more of a trade off so that you can run some meta abilities but not others, like the archetype discounts from last year. 

I like that Gronk is in the game though, and as long as he isn't obtained by a glitch (which I'm sure some people will do regardless) he is a reward that is worth it for putting in the time for the XP.

I just hope that the release of Season 3 means I'll finally be able to log into MUT again. I've opened five cases with EA about it, four of which have been closed and the most recent saying "no fix available". I'm starting to convince myself that I'm not even talking to real people when I request a chat. The way that the advisors speak in the chat resembles the ChatGPT AI that I sometimes mess around with, just with a lot more spelling and grammar mistakes.

Going to be interesting for sure.

thinking of how many times I’m going to have multiple defenders mossed on 4th and 37 is making me wanna quit the game.

Gent said:

I can only imagine what ability discounts they'll give Golden Tickets this year. Will we start seeing QBs who can get SFL, HRM, Fearless, and Gunslinger for 2 AP total? I agree, it's starting to get a bit out of hand.

I'm fine with them limiting AP to 12 on both offense and defense and then giving small AP discounts here and there just to allow certain set ups and to give certain player value for specific playstyles.

In my opinion, the only abilities that should be able to be discounted to 0 are the "near useless" abilities that are in tier 1. I can imagine it'd be annoying to the meta players, but at the same time, I'm not wanting to play a remake of Madden 20 where everyone and their mom on every team has abilities activated everywhere. Definitely feels like EA is pumping up all these cards just to attempt to please the fanbase and draw attention away from the constant screw ups. 

With all that said, this Gronk card looks incredible and will be incredibly obnoxious to play against.

Definitely feels like EA is pumping up all these cards just to attempt to please the fanbase and draw attention away from the constant screw ups. 
 

My thoughts exactly. Gronk is probably a little too incredible, but incredible nonetheless. And he’s free, which I assume will get EA the most praise.

Regarding AP situation, it’s an odd compromise/trade-off to what they had last year. Last’s year’s constant changing of AP on OP abilities wasn’t a great look. I mean, escape artist nearly ruined the game. It was 14 AP by the end of the year and I was still running it.

I do think sticking with 12 AP on both offense and defense throughout the entire year was smart. But it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be able to trot out an offense with 5 secure protectors, HRM, gunslinger, PLE, and 5 short in elites. It’s for sure gonna get interesting.

QB283 said:

Agree on the discounted abilities, basically even good cards can be worthless based solely off of what abilities they have discounted. I prefer a bit more of a trade off so that you can run some meta abilities but not others, like the archetype discounts from last year. 

I like that Gronk is in the game though, and as long as he isn't obtained by a glitch (which I'm sure some people will do regardless) he is a reward that is worth it for putting in the time for the XP.

I just hope that the release of Season 3 means I'll finally be able to log into MUT again. I've opened five cases with EA about it, four of which have been closed and the most recent saying "no fix available". I'm starting to convince myself that I'm not even talking to real people when I request a chat. The way that the advisors speak in the chat resembles the ChatGPT AI that I sometimes mess around with, just with a lot more spelling and grammar mistakes.

I guess it’s always going to be a struggle with balancing and tuning abilities. There’s always gonna be a trade-off.

Knowing EA there will probably be an XP glitch, but still, Gronk is an endgame TE that’ll be free. Makes me wonder what they have saved up for S4 and the rest of the game. Will the Super Bowl MVP come with 4 custom ability buckets, 5x team chems, and 15 discounted abilities. It doesn’t seem like they can go much further.

Also, I hope you can log in soon. Honestly I’d go a little crazy if the playoffs started and I couldn’t log into MUT.

Daddy said:

thinking of how many times I’m going to have multiple defenders mossed on 4th and 37 is making me wanna quit the game.

pain.

bankballers said:

Going to be interesting for sure.

EA always finds a way to 1-up themselves and still disappoint their player base. Looking forward to it.

ichinanjo said:

Definitely feels like EA is pumping up all these cards just to attempt to please the fanbase and draw attention away from the constant screw ups. 
 

My thoughts exactly. Gronk is probably a little too incredible, but incredible nonetheless. And he’s free, which I assume will get EA the most praise.

Regarding AP situation, it’s an odd compromise/trade-off to what they had last year. Last’s year’s constant changing of AP on OP abilities wasn’t a great look. I mean, escape artist nearly ruined the game. It was 14 AP by the end of the year and I was still running it.

I do think sticking with 12 AP on both offense and defense throughout the entire year was smart. But it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be able to trot out an offense with 5 secure protectors, HRM, gunslinger, PLE, and 5 short in elites. It’s for sure gonna get interesting.

Sad thing is, if you don't run HRM, you can pretty much get that exact set up right now: 

Zero Chill Brady: Gunslinger, SFL, Fearless - 4 AP total
Oline: Munoz, Larry Allen, Creed Humprhey, Will Shields, Yanda - 5 AP total 
TE: Taysom HIll and Kittle SIE - 0 AP
WRs: CeeDee Lamb, Steve Smith Sr, Ty Hilton - 1 AP total for 3 SIE and 1 SOE
 

Crazy that we're already here and we still have 6 months of the game left.

Gent said:

Sad thing is, if you don't run HRM, you can pretty much get that exact set up right now: 

Zero Chill Brady: Gunslinger, SFL, Fearless - 4 AP total
Oline: Munoz, Larry Allen, Creed Humprhey, Will Shields, Yanda - 5 AP total 
TE: Taysom HIll and Kittle SIE - 0 AP
WRs: CeeDee Lamb, Steve Smith Sr, Ty Hilton - 1 AP total for 3 SIE and 1 SOE
 

Crazy that we're already here and we still have 6 months of the game left.

Damn I didn’t even realize that. I guess I’ll have to be even more lofty with my projections.

ichinanjo said:

EA always finds a way to 1-up themselves and still disappoint their player base. Looking forward to it.

Lol! Very true.

I mean, what else are they going to do? Lower the AP limit?

they need to raise rookies when you draft them