FC 25 Trailblazer Raphinha Player Review - Cop or Flop

A new promo is here for FC 25 and it’s the return of the Trailblazer promo! Quite a few high level cards have just dropped with the likes of Erling Haaland leading the front with an absolutely incredible card. Amongst him is a Gabriel, Palmer, Llorente and a few very nice looking cards that I could only dream of possibly packing and slotting straight into my squad.

Onto the SBCs for today but an honourable mention for the new objective that also dropped today that grants players a Loan Trailblazer Pulisic for a considerable amount of time. More of this please EA! But the SBC drop for today looks quite exciting in a Trailblazer Raphina! I can see 9 segments required for this SBC… But more on that later. This card looks insane. 

Raphina is joining the attack of Gareth Bale & POTM Lamine Yamal in what feels like a fun and deadly attack. This Raphina is a +1 on his TOTW item and a +3 on his base card. Some standard +1s across the board from the TOTW version with the exception of a +5 on defending. No boosts to the skill moves or weak foot but he has been given the Tiki Taka Playstyle+ as well as Inside Forward++ when playing RW. Some great boosts/upgrades overall.

For Chemstyle here I opted for the Deadeye to push the shooting and passing as I knew he would be cutting inside a lot, alternatively the Hawk is also a great option.

Here are the following segments to unlock the Trailblazers Raphina SBC:

FC Barcelona

# of players from FC Barcelona: Min 1

IF Players: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 84

# of players in squad: 11

Brazil

# of players from Brazil: Min 1

IF Players: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 85

# of players in squad: 11

LALIGA

# of players from LALIGA EA SPORTS: Min 1

IF Players: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 85

# of players in squad: 11

Top Form

IF Players: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 85

# of players in squad: 11

85-Rated Squad

Squad Rating: Min 85

# of players in squad: 11

85-Rated Squad

IF Players: Min 1

Squad Rating: Min 85

# of players in squad: 11

86-Rated Squad

Squad Rating: Min 86

# of players in squad: 11

86-Rated Squad

Squad Rating: Min 86

# of players in squad: 11

87-Rated Squad

Squad Rating: Min 87

# of players in squad: 11

So as I mentioned earlier.. 9 segments required to complete this SBC. My initial reaction was disgust as this is feeling a little bit like an Icon SBC. But thankfully the most of this is 85-rated squads and the total cost is coming at just shy of 550k to complete. Again I was a little put off by this price but then when I looked at the TOTW version, that card currently only costs 100k less than this SBC. So actually I think they may have priced this SBC pretty well considering it has some nice boosts from the previous item.

How did he perform in-game?

+ Pace was of course one of my favourite things on this card. When blending in the L1/LB speed boost, despite the nerf, he would feel absolutely rapid and often burst out into open space.

+ Shooting surprisingly was really good. Despite no shooting playstyle pluses, he still has the finesse playstyle and he can curl the ball into the back of the net with ease.

+ Positioning was nice on this card now that it has Inside Forward++, he really gets central on the attack and puts himself into great goal scoring positions.

+ Dribbling also impressed on this card as he was incredibly agile and made quick snappy movements with the ball, breaking defenders' ankles as they attempted to keep up.

/ Passing on this card was okay but for a winger you would ideally want something a bit more impressive. He could make basic passes and the odd cross but that was the extent of it.

Raphina - Cop or Flop?

So is this card worth picking up? It’s absolutely not a cheap SBC by any means but I think the price is absolutely right here. My only change would be to keep the SBC the same price but with fewer segments as I feel that the community would probably respond a lot differently if they weren’t looking at 9 different segments to get this done. But we have two weeks to complete this and if like me you have been doing the repeatable TOTW Upgrades then you should definitely have plenty informs sat within your club. 

This card performs really well in-game and definitely feels like he’s made an improvement to my team and will help me win those more difficult games. Yeah he’s expensive but this is a fun card and if you can afford the coins/ fodder, I would recommend picking this one up!

Verdict = COP