You need to know the rules to play a game and this one is no different. With our cards guide for FIFA 16 Ultimate Team, you will get to know the basic and most important rules of the game.
Quick Access
Cards for FIFA 16 Ultimate Team
FUT 16 is the most popular game mode of the FIFA franchise. In this game, the aim is to get the right cards to build the best team possible.
The first thing you should try to answer is ‘how do cards come into the game ?‘. The FIFA 16 Ultimate Team Cards are created by EA Sports. They randomly place them into packs. You have five different ways to get one of these packs with cards:
- When you create a new club
- When you purchase packs in the store
- When you win tournaments and seasons
- When you play FUT Draft
- When EA gives you a gift
iIt doesn’t matter if you have started playing FUT 16 or if you have deleted your club and created a new one, you will always get a starter pack. It will consist of 34 untradeable cards, (29 bronze, 2 silver and 3 gold). This pack, besides enough players to start playing and coming with 45 contracts each, also gives you everything you need to start your club.
You can go to your console’s FUT store and use FIFA Points to buy how many packs you wish. Click here to learn more about it.
There are a few single players seasons and many tournaments that reward you every time you win them. Check here which tournaments and seasons offer packs to the winners.
Every time you play FUT Draft, you are rewarded with packs. Even when you lose. However, as you progress, you’ll earn better rewards. Win four matches in a row to earn the best rewards possible. Each time you win, the potential rewards increase.
It is not usual, but sometimes you can get free packs offered by EA Sports. If you have played previous FUT’s, you will be rewarded with at least one welcome back pack upon first accessing. During specific and very limited periods of time, like holidays or just before the retail game release, EA Sports will also give you daily gifts. You just need to login to Ultimate Team once a day to redeem your pack. It is very rare, but EA Sports may surprise you too with special campaigns and anniversary offers.
Obviously you can buy the cards you want to purchase directly in the transfer market. In that case you will not be the first owner.
Any FIFA 16 Ultimate Team card can be classified according to its type and its category.
The type tells us what is the role of the card. The category tells us how good the card is.
FIFA 16 Ultimate Team Cards Types
All you have in your FUT 16 club is cards. These cards have different types, each one with different roles.
In FUT 16 there are four types of cards: players, staff, consumables and club items.
To know more about each one, just click on the corresponding link:
- Players Cards
Regular
Upgrade
Transfer
In Form
Team of the Week (TOTW)
Team of the Year (TOTY)
Team of the Season (TOTS)
Man of the Match (MOTM)
International Man of the Match (iMOTM)
Heroes
FUTTIES
Record Breaker
Pro Players
Legends
- Consumables’ Cards
Player Training
GK Training
Position Training
Manager’s Leagues
Contract
Fitness
Healing
Chemistry Styles
- Club Items Cards
Kits
Badge
Ball
Stadium
The following table shows you the differences between the four types of FUT 16 cards:
| Categories | SubTypes | Cards | Duplicate Items | |
| Players | 3 | 11 | +15,000 | No |
| Staff | 3 | 5 | 434 | No |
| Consumables | 3 | 8 | 191 | Yes |
| Club Items | 3 | 4 | +2,000 | No |
FIFA 16 Ultimate Team Cards Categories
No matter if you are talking about a player’s card, a staff card, a consumables card or a club item card, there is always a category associated to them. The category tells you how good a card is. This is the way to distinguish the cards of the same type.
There are three FIFA 16 Ultimate Team Cards Categories:
- Gold, the best one;
- Silver;
- Bronze, the worst one;
In the case of the players’ cards, their quality is measured by their ratings:
- Gold, for ratings between 75 and 99.
- Silver, for ratings between 65 and 74;
- Bronze, for ratings up to 64;
Whether it is a regular card or an in form card, all players fit in one of these three categories.
FIFA 16 Ultimate Team Players’ Cards
The players’ cards are the most important and also the most complex of the game. They are essential so that you can play. Before any game, you will need to fill the starting eleven slots but also the seven slots for substitutes. Without that, you cannot play. That’s why the starter pack gives you, at least, 18 untradeable players.
Unlikely other game modes, in Ultimate Team players are not improved over the time, except when they are released on IF cards
If you want a specific player, our suggestion is that you go and search for him on the market using the player filters. This way you will only spend coins on cards you don’t have and you will be equipping your club according to what it needs. Obviously the cards you get from packs should also be taken into account. However, if you think they are not necessary, put them on the market and get a few coins from them.
You can keep as many player’s cards as you want in your club, as long as there are no duplicates. You can have them duplicated on the transfer list or targets, though. In this case, the only limit you have is the list’s maximum capacity that can be increased with the respective EAS FC catalogue items.
Every time you get a player card in a pack or you buy one in the market, you need to send it to your team if you want to use it. In order to do that, you just need to select ‘send to the active squad‘. If you cannot find the card in your squad, and if you are sure that you have not discard it or send it to the transfer list or transfer market, then it is because probably your squad was full and you have send it to the club. In that case, look for it in ‘My Club’ and swap it for another player.
It is not possible to improve the rating or the stats of any player card, except using training cards. However, it only lasts for one match. If you have found a card very similar with a card you own but with a different rating, stats, league or club it is because it is a different card type.
The table below allows identification of the similarities and differences between the five types of players cards there are:
| Colour (1) |
Cards (2) |
Bonus (3) | Frequency (4) | Season (5) |
Availability (6) | Rating (7) | Rarity (8) | Price (9) | |
| Regular | Gold/Grey/Brown | +15000 | 0 | 1x | Sep-Sep | Always | #10 | #4 | #9 |
| Upgrade | Gold/Grey/Brown | +130 | 2 | 1x | Feb | Always | #8 | #4 | #7 |
| Transfer | Gold/Grey/Brown | +- 3000 | 0 | 2x | Jan-Feb Aug-Sep | Always | #10 | #4 | #8 |
| TOTW | Black | +- 950 | 2 | 52x | Sep-Sep | 7 days | #9 | #4 | #6 |
| TOTY | Blue | 11 | 7 | 1x | Jan | 7 days | #3 | #4 | #2 |
| TOTS | Blue | +- 250 | 5 | 14x | May-Jun | 7 days | #5 | #4 | #4 |
| MOTM | Orange | +100 | 2 | – | Mar-Sep | 1 day | #7 | #4 | #5 | Heroes | Purple | +100 | 2 | 5x | Sep-Jun | 1 day | #7 | #4 | #5 |
| FUTTIES | Pink | 11 | 2 | 1x | Jul | 1 day | #9 | #4 | #5 |
| Record Breaker | Blue and Red | 1 | 7 | 1x | – | 1 day | #2 | #2 | #1 |
| Pro | Cyan | +45 | 10 | – | – | – | #1 | #1 | n.a. |
| Legend | White | 66 | 0 | 1x | Sep-Sep | Always | #4 | #3 | #3 |
Legend:
(1) Colour – Card’s main colour
(2) Cards – Amount of different cards
(3) Bonus – Stat’s average increase
(4) Frequency – Number of times that cards are released in a year
(5) Season – Months in which cards are released
(6) Availability – Duration of cards in packs
(7) Stats – Descending order of average rating
(8) Rarity – Increasing order of the number of copies by card
(9) Price – Descending order of average price
We will now examine in detail each group of player’s cards.
Regular Players’ Cards
Regular cards are the most basic ones. Every player must have one. All other cards are modifications made from these ones. At the beginning of the game, all the FIFA 16 Ultimate Team players’ cards belong to the regular category. These cards have the innate characteristics and attributes of the player.
As the game progresses, users can change many of the card features such as the preferred position and preferred chemistry style. However, these cards are still considered regular cards. Only the game system can create non-regular cards. It is important to notice again that it is not possible to improve the rating or the stats in a permanent way.
Except for Legends, all the players have a regular card
In FIFA 16 Ultimate Team, there are more than 15,000 regular cards, corresponding to as many players. They are always in packs, for the whole the year. The only time that a player doesn’t have his regular cards in packs, is when it is being released another card is released of him.
The ratings and the stats of regular cards are calculated according to the player’s performance and popularity in the previous 365 days. The card with higher ratings is the one of Lionel Messi (93).
When a card is released for the first time and assigned to its first owner, it comes with fitness 99 and seven contracts, except for the players of starter pack that have 45 contracts.
FUT 16 Regular Cards
Upgraded Players’ Cards
As we already have explained, it is not possible to improve the stats of any regular card. However, if a player stands out in the real world, in such a way that his card becomes strongly outdated, EA comes to justice introducing a new type of card.
The Winter upgraded players’ cards, also known as UP cards, are usually released in February with the goal of adjust the players’ rating and players’ attributes to the reality. They are physically identical to the originals, except on rating and stats.
These cards are usually assigned to the best players of the first half of the season. They must have played well in a consistent way throughout this period and not only in few games, showing that their old regular card was really outdated. The average rating increase to these cards are 2 points, which is explained by the fact that they are only assigned to players who had a marked development and not to minor adjustments.
As soon as upgraded cards are released, they replace all the respective regular cards that are supposed to be released in packs until the end of the game. That is, the only card you will find in packs is the new one but you may find both cards in the transfer market.
You can find a complete explanation about Upgraded Players’ Cards here (available soon)
Transfer Players’ Cards
In order to keep the game updated, EA moves in to FIFA 16 Ultimate Team what is happening in the real transfer market.
When a player moves from his club to another one in the real world, EA Sports releases a new card of this player: the transfer card. The only difference you will find between the new card and the old one, the regular version, is the club and eventually the league. In everything else they are physically identical to the originals, including the ratings and the stats which remain unchanged.
These cards are released two times in the year: during the Winter Transfers Season, on January and Frebruary, and during the Summer Transfers Season, on August and September. In any of these cases, the cards are released as the transfers are occurring.
You can find a complete explanation about Transfer Players’ Cards here (available soon)
In Form Players’ Cards
One of the features that makes this game mode so interesting is its dynamic component. During the season, and depending on the players’ form in the real world, EA releases In Form (IF) Cards that change the players’ attributes. To own one of these cards is like having a player in your team with potential to play permanently as well as he did when he stood out.
IF Cards are the most valuable cards of FIFA 16 Ultimate Team and they can be grouped into the following subcategories: Team of the Week (TOTW), Team of the Year (TOTY), Team of the Season (TOTS), Man of the Match (MOTM), International Man of the Match (iMOTM), Heroes, Record Breaker, FUTTIES, Pro Players and Legends (only in XBox).
Team of the Week Cards
Every week EA Sports selects eighteen players of any category based on their good real performances on the previous week and joined them in a single team. That team is called Team of the Week and you can play against them in the ‘TOTW Challenge’.
To each one of the players of this team, it is assigned a new black card which becomes available in packs for a week, replacing the corresponding regular card. In other words, in the week a player gets his TOTW cards in packs, it is impossible to find his regular card there. Your odds of pulling a TOTW card from a pack are exactly the same of pulling the regular card of that player in another week.
The ratings and attributes of TOTW cards are usually boosted in one, two or three points. The position of the players in these cards may change if, in the previous week, they played really well in a different position.
You can find a complete explanation about TOTW Cards here
FUT 16 TOTW Cards
Team of the Year Cards
In early January, EA Sports build a team of players based on their real performance on the previous year. The players of this TOTY are selected from the voting of FIFPro, the world wide professional footballers association, and announced in the FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala. They are supposed to be the best players in the world.
They are upgraded with a blue TOTY card which becomes available in packs for a week (two days for each position and a final day with all players together). In the week a player gets his TOTY card in packs, it is impossible to find his regular card there. Your odds of pulling a TOTY card from a pack are exactly the same of pulling the regular card of that player in another week.
You can find a complete explanation about TOTY Cards here
FUT 16 TOTY Card
Team of the Season Cards
In May and June, EA Sports build teams based on the players real performances on that season. Unlike what happens with the TOTY, in the TOTS the players are chosen by their performances in the season and not for the full year. Instead of releasing a single team, the Team of the Season is made by fourteen teams, each one from a popular league or region. Besides these ones, a All-Star MLS is also released in early August.
Each one of these players is assigned a new blue card which becomes available in packs for a week for most of the time, replacing the corresponding regular card.
The ratings and attributes of TOTS cards are usually boosted in four, five or six points. The position of the players in these cards may change if, in the most of the season, they played really well in a different position.
You can find a complete explanation about TOTS Cards here
FUT 16 TOTS Cards
Man of the Match Cards
Orange MOTM cards don’t have any periodicity and are assigned to the best players of non-leagues matches. They become available in packs for only 24 hours. During this period, which starts at midnight (UK time), the Man of the Match cards replace the corresponding regular cards.
The ratings and attributes of MOTM cards are usually boosted in one or two points, compared with their last TOTW card or, if it doesn’t exist, their regular card. The position of the players in these cards may change if, in that match, they played really well in a different position.
You can find a complete explanation about MOTM Cards here
FUT 16 MOTM Card
International Man of the Match Cards
It was not officially confirmed but there are good chances to see the iMOTM cards back to reward the best players of Euro 2016 matches. For each match, can only exist one iMOTM card.
These green red and blue cards may become available in packs for only 24 hours. During this period, International Man of the Match cards replace the corresponding regular cards.
The ratings and attributes of iMOTM cards are usually boosted in one or two points, compared with their last TOTW card or, if it doesn’t exist, their regular card. The position of the players in these cards may change if, in that match, they played really well in a different position.
You can find a complete explanation about iMOTM Cards here
FUT 16 iMOTM Card
Heroes Cards
The Heroes cards were created to reward individual honours, like best players and best young players awards, and heroic contribution during an important match such as a league derby, winning promotion to a higher league, or saving his club from relegation.
These purple cards are available in packs for only 24 hours. During this period, the Heroes cards replace the corresponding regular cards.
The ratings and attributes of these purple cards are usually boosted in one or two points, compared with their last TOTW / MOTM card or, if it doesn’t exist, their regular card. However, they are always worse than TOTS and TOTY cards. The position of the players in these cards may change if, in that match, they played really well in a different position.
You can find a complete explanation about Heroes Cards here
FUT 16 Heroes Cards
FUTTIES
Pink cards are assigned to FUTTIES, the special award in-forms chosen by the FIFA community. The ten players with more votes, for each one of the award categories, get one of these cards. FUTTIES are cards with improved stats packed during a week, just like TOTW cards.
They are released only once, almost in the end of the season.
You can find a complete explanation about FUTTIES Cards here
FUT 16 FUTTIES Pink Card
Record Breaker
It is extremely rare, but sometimes EA needs to create new cards that does not fit in any of the other cards types. These special cards are usually released for record celebration or, less often, for charity reasons.
The ratings and the stats of these players receive a huge bonus in these blue cards, making them almost always the best players of the game. Usually, these cards become available in packs only for 24 hours. The record breaker cards are extremely rare and that’s why they are the most expensive ones.
You can find a complete explanation about Record Breaker Cards here
FUT 16 Record Breaker Card
Pro Players Cards
Pro Players cards are assigned by EA Sports to professional football players that play FUT 16 in a bid to make friends and gain exposure.
Each professional player chosen by EA has his own Pro Player card. This cyan card is unique and cannot be sold. That is, you will not find them in packs neither in the transfer market (as it happened in the past). If you play against someone with one of these cards that’s because you are playing against a real professional football player.
To all these cards were assigned a 95 rating and unrealistically high attributes, that usually are greater than 88.
You can find a complete explanation about Pro Players Cards here
FUT 16 Pro Players Card
Legends Cards
Legends are an exclusive content for XBox One and XBox 360 gamers. The players of these cards are some retired greatest football players of all time. It gives you the chance to play with, for example, Pelé, George Best or Peter Schmeichel in you team.
The ratings of these white cards ranges between 86 and 95. In FIFA 16 there are 64 Legends players, 8 of them for the first time ever.
You can find a complete explanation about Legends Cards here
FUT 16 Legend Card
Rare Cards
A rare card doesn’t necessarily mean a better card
No matter if it is a player’s card or not, there is two kinds of cards: the normal ones and the rare ones.
Most of gamers thinks that the rare cards, with its bright and with luminous aspect, are better than the other ones and that they were created to help players to distinguish easily the best cards. It is not absolutely true. The rare cards are cards that have something unique. In the case of player’s cards, for example, the rare cards are assigned to players that have something that no other player has. It can be the tallest goalkeeper of his league, the only player from a country in a particular league or even a CB with an exceptional attribute compared to players with a similar overall.
These cards are usually more valuable than the other ones. Even the discard price is higher.
A player can not have associated with him a regular rare card and a regular not-rare card.
FUT 16 Rare Cards
Graphic Signs on Players’ Cards
Sometimes you find a player card that has something different on it. If you don’t know what is it, we will try to help you.
When a player or a manager is out of contracts, their cards have a red folder sign on the top right side. It is very useful, specially when you are searching players or managers on the transfer market. As soon as you apply a contract card, the sign disappear.
FUT 16 Player Out of Contracts
When a player is injured, his card has a red cross sign on the top right side. It is very useful, specially when you are on your main squad menu. As soon as he rest or you apply him a healing card, the sign disappear.
FUT 16 Injured Player
When a player is suspended, his card has a red rectangle sign on the top right side. It is very useful, specially when you are on your main squad menu. As soon as he is able again to play, the sign disappear.
FUT 16 Suspended Player
When someone applies a training card on a player, he will have better attribute(s) for one match. In order for anyone to recognize this, the player card has a rectangle with a different colour background. Surrounding the rating and the attributes that were improved is an arrow on the right side. As soon as you use him in a match, the sign disappear.
FUT 16 Player with improved attributes
Concept Squads is a powerful squad planning in-game tool that allows you to plan future squads using any FIFA 16 Ultimate Team player. Use it to plan your next Transfer Market buys, find replacements for players, and test out different Chemistry combinations.
To build the team of our dreams is not easy. You have to imagine which players fit well on your squad and if they will get good chemistry links or not. Now, it is much easier since you can populate your squads with players you don’t own to see how they fit. You can even go directly with a single click to the transfer market to buy the player you need.
So you can distinguish the players you already own from the other ones, there are two types of cards layout. If you already have them in your club, the cards look normal. If you do not have them, the cards look grayish. That’s what we call concept cards.
FUT 16 Concept Squads
All these signs are shown on any type of player card: Regular or IF, normal or rare.
New Stuff
For experienced Ultimate Team gamers, most of what we have published here isn’t new. In that way, we have created this short chapter to show you what has changed with club items:
FUT 15 >> FUT 16
- FIFA 16 design applied to FUT 16 cards
Introduced 8 new legends
FUT 14 >> FUT 15
- FIFA 15 design applied to FUT 15 cards
Introduced 15 new legends
PHY replace HEA in basis attributes of players’ cards
FUT 13 >> FUT 14
- Added Legends cards
New cards design
IF cards improved in the same proportion as upgrade cards
Added untradeable cards
‘Level’ was named ‘category’
‘Category’ was named ‘type’
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: How can I get a card ?
A: The first owner of a card is someone that gets it in a pack. You can try to buy packs, get it in tournaments/season prizes or buy it from another player in the transfer market.
Q: What kind of cards exist on FIFA 16 Ultimate Team ?
A: According with its type, the cards can be players, staff, consumables and club items.
Q: Are the In Form cards only for players cards ?
A: Yes. Only players’ cards can be In Form.
Q: Can a player change his rating or category ?
A: If you own a card, you cannot change it to another level or rating. What may happen is a new improved card of the player you have can be released.
Q: When an IF card is released, will my regular card of that player change to the improved version ?
A: No. You will need to buy the new card.
Q: How many of the same card can I have in my club ?
A: One. Excepting consumables, you can’t have repeat cards in your club. However you can have more than one card of the same player, if they are different and if you not use them at the same time in your squad.
Q: Which packs should I buy to get IF cards ?
A: Any one with rare players.
Q: When a TOTW card is released, does the regular card of that player stop being released ?
A: Yes. The regular card of that player stops being released during that week.
Q: A single player can have more than one TOTW card ?
A: Yes. Players can get a new TOTW card if they played even better than in the time that they got the previous TOTW card. That’s why the more recent is a TOTW card of the same player, but the rating will be higher.
Q: When an upgraded player card is released what happens to the old one ?
A: It stops being released in packs. You will be able to find it on the transfer market but not in packs.
Q: When a transfer player card is released what happens to the old one ?
A: It stops being released in packs. You will be able to find it on the transfer market but not in packs.
Q: When a transfer player card is released the rating and the attributes of that card are improved ?
A: No as this only happens sometimes when the player really deserves an upgrade.
Q: Can I own two cards of the same player with different clubs ?
A: Yes. You can own two cards of the same player with different clubs but you cannot use them at the same time in the same team.
Q: I am playing with someone with a turquoise card. What does it mean ?
A: It means that you are playing against the real professional player of that turquoise card.