Gridiron Notes: Madden NFL 21 Madden Ultimate Team Deep Dive

Today’s Gridiron Notes comes from the Madden Ultimate Team! You can expect to learn about a new feature coming called Ability Caps, get a first look at the new item layout, and a sneak peek at some content coming to Madden Ultimate Team.

If you’re unfamiliar with Gridiron Notes, it’s a series of blogs where we keep you informed about the latest EA SPORTS Madden NFL 21 news. This is where we deliver information such as deep dives on features coming to Madden NFL 21, Title Update notes, Ultimate Team, and more.

Hello Madden Ultimate Team Fans!

First, we hope this Gridiron Notes finds you healthy and well. It has been a challenging time, but Madden NFL 21 is almost upon us. Let’s dive right in and talk about some of the things you can expect in Madden Ultimate Team this year. 

Arguably the biggest addition coming to MUT is a feature we’re calling Ability Caps. Ability Caps adds a new layer to team building that allows you customize how you want your team to perform on the field. Let’s quickly revisit how Abilities worked in Madden NFL 20 - you were able to upgrade and equip Abilities on any of your players, but you eventually had to select three players from offense and three players on defense. But now with Ability Caps, every Ability has an Ability Point (AP) cost and you will be given an AP Limit for each: offense, defense, and special teams. It will be up to you to choose how you want to spend those points.

It’s fair to say that not all Abilities have the same kind of in-game impact and because of that every Ability can have a different AP cost. Taking that a step further, the same Ability can even have a different AP across different player archetypes where it makes sense. Some examples:

For an Improvisor QB, Redzone Deadeye is 1 AP while Escape Artist is 3 AP.

Additionally, Hot Route Master is 2 AP for a Field General QB but is 4 AP for a Scrambling QB.

When it comes to X-Factors, these too will exist in the AP system. You will still only be able to have 3 X-Factors per side of the ball but good news - all default X-Factors are going to cost 0 AP. If we release additional variations of X-Factors with different trigger or knockout conditions, those may be balanced by adding an AP cost to them. For every eligible player, you will have the option to toggle the X-Factor on or off (again with the restriction of only getting 3 on offense and 3 on defense). If you need to make AP changes to Superstar Abilities, you will have to go directly to the player and make your adjustments there. There is not the same option to toggle an individual Superstar Ability on or off.

The AP Limit at launch is currently set at 10. We will have a few points during the year where we will increase the AP limit. It’s also important to note that we view the AP cost for any given Ability as a way to balance the meta. We will likely have points in the year where we need to make some adjustments to AP costs. We will try to wait until Series updates to make those but that may not always be the case.

Check out some examples of these Abilities and their AP cost.

When you select a player under the Active Superstars tab, you’ll see a breakdown of the individual Abilities you have on that player and their AP cost.

The final thing to touch on for Ability Caps is that because of this system we are going to allow up to 5 Abilities per individual player. The breakdown will look like this:

80 OVR: Tier 1 Ability Slot
85 OVR: Tier 2 Ability Slot
90 OVR: Tier 3 Ability Slot
98 OVR: Tier 3 Ability Slot
99 OVR: Tier 3 Ability Slot

The team spent some time this year focusing on how we could improve the user experience (UX) when it comes to interacting with items and a couple things stood out. For one, how much information was in the frame, especially on top of the art itself. We had things like an archetype icon, salary cap info, is it LTD or Power Up eligible...there was a lot happening! And while on one hand there was too much information, on the other there wasn’t some of the most important such as what specific Abilities were equipped on the player.

So with the redesign, we put together a “50/50” concept where the art and core info was broken up into separate sides of the frame. You’ll notice that we have removed the salary cap cost from the front of the item and switched out the archetype icon with explicit text for what position and archetype the player is. The NAT, LTD, and Power Up icons are now off of the art and will show up in the bottom right of the frame where applicable. The art has been shifted around in order to allow for the specific abilities icons to display versus just the number of passive abilities. Another small but very noticeable thing is we have removed the dark scrims around the edges of the frame as well.

While we prioritized building this version of the layout, we knew that we needed to find a way to incorporate another look that would show off more of the art. We landed on a design that would allow the art to expand when it was not in focus or highlighted in the UI. So for example when viewing your lineup, item binder, or opening a pack, the player that you are highlighted on will be in the “50/50” view while everyone else in view will be “80/20”. We are excited about this balanced approach of showing you more information when you need it while having a separate view that has more space dedicated to showing off the fantastic work that the Live Content Art Team delivers.

We also did some work to remove the “back” of the item. Now when you action on an item, you are taken to a full screen view where we have consolidated the options from 6 tabs previously to now just 3. Overall, we feel like we have optimized the overall experience when needing to interface with your items.

Rivalz is the name of the first main experience you’ll jump into upon entering Madden Ultimate Team. This series of Challenges is meant as a nice onboard into the mode consisting of all Arcade game style and basic end conditions. Completing these Challenges will allow you to choose an 85 OVR Ben Roethlisberger, Zach Ertz, or Jaylon Smith. 

Early on in your Madden Ultimate Team journey you will be able to choose 1 of 4 Team Captains. These players will be foundational to your MUT squad the entire year. Your choices of MUT Captains this year are Ed McCaffrey, Eddie George, La’Roi Glover, or Aeneas Williams. Some things to point out for MUT Captains are that while you can only own one at a time, you will be able to exchange them for another MUT Captain at any time. Additionally, there are 32 versions of each MUT Captain, one for each NFL Team which will allow you to make sure the Captain can work on any “theme team” you may choose to invest in.

There are 4 players being highlighted in NFL Epics at launch, each have 25 Ultimate Challenges showcasing some of the most memorable moments from their careers. Making progress in each of these will unlock an additional “Epic Moment” Challenge. Completing that will earn you an 85 OVR version of the player. The 4 players being featured are Adrian Peterson, Larry Fitzgerald, Jack Youngblood, and Ronnie Lott.

The player chosen to become MUT Master has shifted over the past few years. 4+ years ago the MUT Master was typically the same player as the cover athlete. However more recently, we’ve taken the opportunity to use MUT Master as a way to pay tribute to some incredible players and stories that go beyond the sport of football. This year is no different as we have Sam Mills as your Madden NFL 21 MUT Master. Sam had a fantastic 12-year career, including 5 Pro Bowl appearances. He spent his first 9 years in New Orleans and wrapped up his playing career in Carolina. Mills joined the Panthers coaching staff after his playing career was over but received some devastating news that he had intestinal cancer in August of 2003. Despite being told he would only live another few months, Mills underwent treatment and continued to coach. His emotional speech to “Keep Pounding” became an inspiration to the 2003 Panthers as they went on a run that took them all the way to the Super Bowl. Mills would die in April 2005 but the “Keep Pounding” spirit lives on as the Panthers have a statue of Mills outside the stadium and have a “Keep Pounding” drum pregame routine at the start of every home game.

MUT Master will start out at a 75 OVR and you earn him by scoring your first TD in MUT. After that you’ll be working on a list of Objectives to keep getting collectibles that will add +1 OVR to Mills. He goes up to 93 OVR from the main list. Different this year is a separate Series-based Objective List that will earn you another +1 OVR to Mills. These opportunities to add another +1 to the MUT Master will come out each Series until Sam reaches 99 OVR. 

Andre Johnson is back in Madden Ultimate Team. Simply increasing your MUT Level and completing Level Challenges will allow you to add collectibles to Andre Johnson that will boost his OVR. Level Master will have the capability to equip any team chemistry and unlock various alternate versions of X-Factors that have different trigger and knockout conditions. 

Team Builders provides you another great way to get your Theme Team started. Play through this 16-game Challenge sequence to earn a Fantasy Pack. That pack will first let you choose 1 of the 32 NFL Teams and from there, you choose between an 84 OVR offensive or defensive Team Builder.

A thing that got an overwhelming amount of positive feedback last year was the addition of Team Diamonds and bringing back some players who maybe haven’t been in Madden for quite some time. We’re excited to deliver Team Diamonds at launch this year. You can collect these players by completing the respective Team Diamond set. The list of players include:

Team Diamonds Master – Barry Sanders
Bears – Jim Covert
Bengals – Takeo Spikes
Bills – Kyle Williams
Broncos – Elvis Dumervil
Browns – Frank Minnifield
Buccaneers – Warrick Dunn
Colts – Bob Sanders
Cardinals – Adrian Wilson
Chargers – Eric Weddle
Chiefs – Dante Hall
Cowboys – Travis Frederick
Dolphins – Mark Clayton
Eagles – Troy Vincent
Falcons – Roddy White
49ers – Justin Smith
Giants – David Diehl
Jaguars – Keenan McCardell
Jets – Mo Lewis
Lions – Robert Porcher
Packers – Jermichael Finley
Panthers – Charles Johnson
Patriots – Asante Samuel
Raiders – Rich Gannon
Rams – Dre Bly
Ravens – Adalius Thomas
Saints – Jahri Evans
Seahawks – Mack Strong
Steelers – Heath Miller
Texans – Amobi Okoye
Titans – Drew Bennett
Vikings – Phil Loadholt
Washington Football Team – London Fletcher

Last year, we had the most former NFL Stars ever in Madden and we're looking to up the ante again this year. There are some surprises in store so be sure to stay on the lookout all year long!

As for the Legends program itself, it will look similar to what you have seen the past few years. However, one big thing to note is we will be going down to 2 Legends each weekend, but both of those players will have Limited-Time “Boss Versions”. With the Boss Versions, they will match the ratings of a fully Powered Up version of that player. 

Raise your hand if you’re excited and following the news about the next wave of consoles! With that approaching, it’s natural to ask questions for how this might impact your experience when Madden NFL 21 releases worldwide on August 28. We will have a follow up blog or post about this in the future but what we can say for now is that everything in your item binder will carry over as well as your Coins, Training, Points, etc. as long as you stay on the same family of console (Xbox One → Xbox Series X and PS4 → PS5). This will not be done as a “one-time push” like it was in the previous console generation transition but instead they will co-exist together. Any change or update made on one generational platform will also show up in the other. Again, we will have an even deeper dive on this coming up.

We have a ton more content plans that we don’t want to spoil so stay tuned!

This will be our last Gridiron Notes before the worldwide launch of Madden NFL 21 on August 28!

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Madden NFL 21 is out worldwide on August 28. Pre-order the Madden NFL 21 Deluxe or MVP Edition and play 3 days early. Stay in the conversation by following us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and EA Forums. Sign up for the Newsletter today to receive updates on Madden, and other EA news, products, and events, all season long.