FC 24 89 Winter Wildcards Martinelli Player Review - Cop or Flop

Season 3 has started with an absolute bang with the “Winter Best Of” team dropped into packs along with exciting objectives and incentives to play the game, but today kicks off day one of what is shaping up to be a potential Thunderstruck 2.0 kind of promo if the teasers dropped by EA are anything to go by. This promo, of course, is Winter Wildcards.

Now would I have liked to have seen FUTMas return? Sure. But this is shaping up to possibly be just as good, if not better with daily SBCs as shown by the info dropped via EA’s Twitter earlier this week and today we look to get our hands on the brand new Winter Wildcard SBC that is none other, than Gabriel Martinelli.

You can check out the card here!

Up until now, I was a little disappointed with myself for missing out on Evo’ing Martinelli but that seems to have been saved because this card looks incredible. This card comes in with the boost to his Skill Moves and Weak Foot from 4*/3* to 5*/4* as well as the Technical+ playstyle and finally the obvious position change that now allows Martinelli to play at RW as well as LW.

To kick off the wonderful winter season, Martinelli joins my (kind of) Arsenal Evo team and joins the attack force of Mbappe and Hurtig with of course a good mix of other Arsenal cards from Promo’s past.

I was a little torn on the Chemstyle but opted for the Deadeye as I wanted to focus on his shooting and passing mainly but otherwise, I would have maybe gone slightly overkill and chosen the Hunter Chemstyle just to go all in on Pace and Shooting as I feel with those he will feel unstoppable upfront.

Here are the following segments to unlock the Winter Wildcard Martinelli SBC:

#1 - Arsenal
# of players from Arsenal: Min 1
Squad Rating - 84
Pack Return - Mixed Players Pack

#2 - Brazil
# of players from Brazil: Min 1
Number of TOTW Players: Min 1
Squad Rating - 85
Pack Return - Jumbo Premium Gold Pack

#3 - Premier League
# of players from Premier League: Min 1
Squad Rating - 85
Pack Return - Prime Mixed Players Pack

#4 - Top Form
Number of TOTW Players: Min 1
Squad Rating - 87
Pack Return - Premium Gold Players Pack

#5 - 87-Rated Squad
Number of TOTW Players: Min 1
Squad Rating - 87
Pack Return - Rare Mixed Players Pack

#6 - 88-Rated Squad
Squad Rating - 88
Pack Return - Rare Electrum Players Pack

This is a real expensive SBC with the price tag of around 600k. I do have my reserves because as we know, there is going to be daily content for the next couple of weeks so this could potentially be a little early to pull the trigger on such a massive SBC. Thankfully, we know roughly what to expect for SBCs and there are so many ways to get fodder into your club right now that you can plan out what you want to complete if one of your favorite players looks to be coming up across this promo. We also have 28 days to complete this card so can be one that we grind over the course of the next month.

How did he perform in-game?

+ Pace was fantastic on this card, he felt too quick on the ball making him a real threat up front.
+ Dribbling was probably my favorite stat on this card as he just worked absolute magic with the ball. It felt nearly impossible for the opposition to take the ball from him. Especially when utilizing Technical Plus playstyle
+ Shooting of course also felt good, this was massively aided by the fact he has Trivela and Finesse playstyles under his belt. He had no problem hitting his target.
/ Passing on this card was okay and massively saved by the Whipped pass playstyle but nothing special, hence why I opted for the Deadeye to give it that extra boost.
- Strength of course is the main thing to let this card down, if you aren’t good at dribbling you may end up being muscled off the ball and it didn’t seem to take much to force him out of the way.

Martinelli - Cop or Flop?

This one is a tough one for me because I enjoyed using this card. He’s quickly become one of my favorite RWs in the game. If he had the Finesse+ playstyle he would be levels above Salah as this Martinelli card was unreal on the wing. But 600k is a lot to justify the spend on this early on into the promo.

What I will say is due to the amount of time you get and the ways you can obtain fodder, this becomes extremely grindable and may be worth the long-term pickup. The card is expensive but I think the fact he plays so well in game, plus comes with the increased SM/WF AND a Playstyle+... I am edging more toward this being a Cop… But don’t rush into it!

Verdict = COP (But don’t rush to complete just yet)