Icons have long been a staple of Ultimate Team since their introduction back in FIFA 16, but FIFA 22 has us questioning whether they have a future in the game.
Much has been made of the attainability (or lack of) of the Icon cards in FUT in previous seasons, but now EA faces a much tougher, and more crucial problem.
What we are certain of is that EA needs to revamp the Icons quickly, or the majority of legend cards will become redundant in the game.
Mudded Market
For the first time that we can remember, Icon cards are actually attainable on the FUT Market, something FUT fans have been crying out for!
However, this does not appear to be deliberate, as instead, it seems to have been brought about by two factors:
- The mudded FUT Transfer Market
- Icon players not fitting the meta
Let's start with the current FUT 22 market which has 84-rated players selling at discard price, so instantly there is an obvious problem.
The market has been much lower than we have ever seen this season, which in turn has seen Icon players value decreased.
In any other season that would be seen as a win, but not in FIFA 22.
Unuseable Icons
At the start of the FUT 22 cycle, we saw slower gameplay dominated by the midfield in a refreshing change from the all-out speed fests we had experienced in FIFA 21.
Slow build-up play allowed for a wider range of players to be used within the game, with more technically proficient players coming into their own.
As the FUT 22 cycle has gone on though, things have reverted back to pace abuse with more and more full-backs cropping up at centre-back!
This has left a smaller pool of players to pick from once again, and that includes Icon players too.
Strength, Agility, and of course Skill Moves are highly coveted this season (along with pace), rendering many of the legends in Ultimate Team useless.
Icons should all be useable as they are so rare to find in packs, so to get one that plays like a regular gold card is catastrophically disappointing.
Restore the Balance
If EA can get us back to the early gameplay in FUT 22, then there is still life left for the Icons as the majority of them boast terrific technical attributes.
Pace must always remain a key factor in the game, but it is an issue when it becomes the only factor for success.
While the gameplay does get patched and modified in updates, the abundance of new special cards to fit the power curve also increases the speed of players available.
When everyone has juiced-up cards in their team, the pace of the game is naturally going to increase, but there is a solution.
Dynamic Icons
If you are lucky enough to bag yourself a Base Icon early in the FIFA cycle, your joy will surely have been short-lived when you realised that they were being outclassed by the OP gold cards in the game.
However, if EA introduced a dynamic feature for the Icons, our favourite legends could remain consistent with the power curve for the duration of the FUT cycle.
Each version of the current Icon cards has a limited shelf-life (aside from the elite picks), so a way to keep the cards useable and at a consistent price would see a future for them in the game.
If Icons received an upgrade of +1 each season in FUT, each Icon would reach near enough their Prime Moments rating, making them useable and desirable once again.