What happens when you play Wildcard in FPL?

What happens if you get a wildcard FPL?

Wildcard. Oh man. It’s like hitting a reset button. You activate it, and suddenly every single player in your team, all fifteen of them, can be swapped out. No point hits at all. Zero. It’s a complete free pass for unlimited transfers.

My team, "Klopps & Robbers," needed one badly last month. I was staring at a massive red arrow, sitting at 1.2 million global. Players injured everywhere. Should have pulled the trigger then. Missed my chance.

Normally, you get one free transfer a week. If you don't use it, you can roll it over for two. Maximum is two free transfers. A Wildcard just blows that out of the water. It’s a totally different game changer. Not a transfer, it’s an event.

Everyone gets two a season. Two Wildcards. One before the Gameweek 20 deadline, usually late December. The second one kicks in after that deadline and lasts until the very end of the season. Timing is everything with these. I'm always second-guessing.

I blew my first one way too early last season, I know it. Gameweek 5. Absolute disaster. All my players were performing badly, I panicked. You live and learn, right? This time, I’m holding out for a proper crisis or a massive fixture swing.

Thinking about who I’d bring in right now. Haaland is a given. Always Haaland. And probably Son. My midfielders are a bit meh. Palmer is doing okay, but I need more explosive options. Maybe even a sneaky defender punt.

The second Wildcard is the real strategic beast. That’s when the Blank and Double Gameweeks start. You can shape your entire squad to exploit those, setting up for a Bench Boost or Free Hit. It’s the ultimate planning tool.

Liam, my mate, used his a few weeks ago. Said his team value was plummeting too fast. Needed to ditch expensive flops before they dropped more. Saved him a fortune on sell-on value. Smart. I need to be more decisive.

• Wildcard Functionality

  • Allows unlimited transfers for your entire squad of 15 players.
  • No point deductions are incurred for any changes made.
  • It effectively resets your team for a fresh start.

• Wildcard Allocation

  • Two Wildcards are provided per Fantasy Premier League season.
  • First Wildcard: Available from Gameweek 1 up to the transfer deadline for Gameweek 20.
  • Second Wildcard: Becomes available after the Gameweek 20 transfer deadline and remains active until the final Gameweek of the season.
  • Only one Wildcard can be used per Gameweek.

• Strategic Advantages

  • Crisis Management: Essential for overcoming significant injury crises or widespread poor form among your players.
  • Team Value Optimization: Enables rapid trading of players to capture price rises and offload those expected to fall, maximizing your overall budget.
  • Fixture Targeting: Perfect for completely restructuring your team to exploit favorable fixture runs for specific clubs or avoid difficult ones.
  • Blank/Double Gameweek Preparation: The second Wildcard is critical for navigating these periods, allowing managers to load up on players with additional fixtures or those avoiding blanks.
  • Early Season Correction: Some managers use the first Wildcard early to correct initial squad mistakes or capitalize on unexpected standout performers.

• Key Considerations

  • Budget Adherence: You must still remain within the £100.0m total squad budget.
  • Player Price Protection: When activated, your selling price for current players is locked in based on their value before the Wildcard. New players are bought at their current market value.
  • Timing is Crucial: Effective use of Wildcards significantly impacts overall season rank. Early panic usage or holding too long can be detrimental.

What is the point of the wildcard in FPL?

The wildcard is basically your big reset button. It gives you unlimited free transfers for an entire gameweek, so you can totally rip your squad apart and build a new one with no points hits. Its a total game changer.

If you're popping your wildcard for say, Gameweek 8, you have to activate it right after the GW7 deadline. Do it early in the week. This lets you take advantage of all the player price changes. I waited until a Friday once and lost out on 0.2m in value, was fuming.

• You get two wildcards a season. The first one must be used before the deadline on December 30, 2023. The second one becomes available after that for the rest of the campaign.

• Best time for the first one is usually an international break around GW 4-9. It gives you more time to tinker and you have way more data on which players are actually performing. My mini-league rival used his in GW3 and it was a total disaster.

• The second Wildcard is absolutly essential for preparing for the big Blank and Double Gameweek fixtures that happen in the second half of the season. You basically use it to load your team with players who play twice in one week.

• It’s the ultimate fix for a "dead team". You know, when you have like three injuries, a suspended player, and your 8.0m midfielder hasnt scored since August. Instead of taking a -8 or -12 hit, you just start over.

• While the wildcard is active, you can make transfers all week long. A common tactic is to bring in players you expect to rise in price early in the week, and then transfer them out again for other players before the deadline. You can build up a lot of teem value doing this. Its a bit of a hassel but worth it.

Do I get free transfers back if I wildcard?

Saved free transfers are unaffected by a wildcard. They roll over. If you have two, you keep two for the next Gameweek.

• The wildcard grants unlimited free transfers only for the active Gameweek. Once the deadline passes, the privilege is gone.
• Your standard free transfer for that week is consumed by the wildcard. You don't get an extra one on top.
• Once you activate the wildcard, it cannot be canceled. No turning back. I learned that the hard way in 21/22. Blew it in GW4 on a gut feeling. A disaster.
• Player price changes still occur while your wildcard is active. You can build team value by acting fast on players predicted to rise.
• You get two wildcards. The first must be used before the GW20 deadline (Jan 13, 2024, 11:00 GMT). The second is for the remainder of the season.
• This is not the Free Hit chip. The wildcard makes permanent changes. Free Hit reverts your squad after one Gameweek. Don't mix them up.

Is it good time to use wildcard in FPL?

It was Gameweek 7 of the 23/24 season. I was sitting in my car in the Tesco car park on a Friday night, waiting for my wife. The deadline was approaching. My team was a dumpster fire.

My defense was a mess. I still had Ben Chilwell, who was injured. Estupiñán was also out. My midfield had Rashford and Bruno Fernandes, who were doing absolutely nothing. My rank was a catastrophic 2.1 million. I felt actual dread looking at my phone screen.

I was staring at the "Play Wildcard" button. My finger hovered over it. Every fiber of my being wanted to just burn the team to the ground and start again. But I resisted. I took a -4 hit instead, which did nothing. My rank got even worse. The week after, it was pure pain.

I finally snapped before Gameweek 9. I couldn't take it anymore. I had to get Son, Villa assets like Watkins and Cash, and a proper defense. The old team was unsalvageable. I spent the whole week tinkering, checking price changes obsessively. Activating that chip was the biggest relief. My season turned around right there.

So, you use the wildcard when your team is beyond repair.

• You need to make five or more transfers. If you're looking at a -12 or -16 points hit to fix your squad, that's a clear signal. You are losing the game. Just use the chip.

• You're on a "red arrow" death spiral. If you've had 3+ terrible weeks in a row and your rank is plummeting, something is fundamentally wrong with your team structure. A patch-up job wont work.

• There is a massive fixture swing. You see a bunch of teams like Brighton or Palace about to hit a sea of green fixtures, while your key players from City and Arsenal are facing a nightmare run. A wildcard lets you aggressively target those fixtures.

• You need to hop on multiple bandwagons. You missed out on the hot new striker and the must-have midfielder. Trying to get them in one by one costs too many points and ruins your team balance. The wildcard is your "get out of jail free" card.

The best timings are almost always:

• Gameweeks 5-9: You have enough data. You know who the surprise packages are (like Watkins was for Villa) and which preseason picks were total duds. This is the prime time for the first wildcard.

• During an International Break: This gives you two whole weeks to plan. You can avoid early transfer madness, wait for injury news from pointless international friendlies, and watch all the price changes.

• Leading into a big Double Gameweek (DGW) or Blank Gameweek (BGW): This is a more advanced strategy. You activate it the week before to load up on 11 doublers, or to build a team that can navigate a BGW without using the Free Hit chip. This is how you make massive rank gains.

Do Wildcard transfers affect prices?

Wildcard transfers, bless their little, frantic souls, have absolutely no bearing on player price rises or falls. Zero impact, like a silent guardian of your virtual wallet.

It's a common misconception, a phantom limb sensation for many FPL managers. They panic. My friend Dave, bless his heart, thought he was tanking Salah's value just by using the chip. Silly Dave.

The system is smarter than that. Think of it as a separate ledger. Your activated Wildcard lets you rebuild your squad from scratch, a Phoenix rising from the ashes of bad transfers, but it doesn't register those moves as real price-affecting transfers in the market.

This is why, when everyone and their grandma pulls out the plastic fantastic (the Wildcard, obviously), those price change predictor tools go a bit wonky. They're based on net transfers in and out, not just any transaction.

It's like expecting a weather forecast to account for every single person buying an umbrella indoors. Nonsense. The algorithms, usually so smugly accurate, are thrown off by the sheer volume of "phantom" transfers, leading to slight inaccuracies. My mini-league spreadsheet, usually gospel, gets all confused.

What does affect player prices, then? Ah, the real puppet masters:

• Net transfers: The raw number of managers actually buying or selling a player without using a Wildcard or Free Hit.
• Ownership percentages: High ownership means more eyes, more potential transfers.
• Player performance: Scoring points, getting assists, keeping clean sheets – the usual suspects.
• Upcoming fixtures: A juicy fixture run or a dreaded blank game week can swing things dramatically.
• News and rumors: Injuries, benchings, or even just a good training report. The FPL universe is a fickle beast.

Remember, a player needs a significant net number of transfers in to rise, and out to fall. We're talking hundreds of thousands for the big guns, sometimes millions. Wildcards are just internal house cleaning for your team.

My own strategy, frankly, involves ignoring the predictor tools for a day or two after a big chip week. It's like trying to navigate a ship in a storm with a compass that's been dropped. Better to wait for calm.

Key takeaways for savvy managers:

• Wildcard transfers are price-neutral. They're your personal reset button, not a market mover.
• Price change predictors get unreliable during weeks of high Wildcard usage. Trust your gut more, or historical data.
• Focus on player form and fixtures for genuine price intelligence. Not the market noise from a chip frenzy.
• Don't panic sell a player based solely on a predicted price drop during a Wildcard week. Check actual transfer numbers, which are not influenced by Wildcards.
• Plan your transfers carefully regardless of Wildcard status. Each move is precious, a tiny chisel stroke on your masterpiece.

I usually keep an eye on trusted FPL content creators; they often flag when the predictor tools are off. It saved my bacon when I almost sold Haaland after a fake price fall alert. That was a close call, honestly.

Ultimately, Wildcards are a powerful tool for your team's health, a grand surgical procedure. They are not a lever to manipulate the FPL economy. That's a different game entirely, played by the big algorithms, not us mere mortals.

Does your first Wildcard expire?

Yes, your first Wildcard expires. It vanishes at the Gameweek 19 deadline. Use it, or it is lost. It does not carry over.

A tool unused is just potential. Indecision is its own choice. The game moves on.

The Second Wildcard activates after the GW19 deadline. It is for the second half of the season. That one lasts untill the final gameweek.

I used mine in GW7 this year. The team was a mess. My differential picks were a joke. Had to gut the whole thing. Zero regrets.

There is no perfect time. Only your time.

• Early Wildcard (GW 4-8): For a catastrophic start. Your initial draft was fundamentally wrong. It's a hard reset. Most people do this when they panic.

• Mid-Season Wildcard (GW 12-16): A strategic pivot. You target a major fixture swing. Ditch players from teams entering a hard run. Get ahead of the curve.

• Late Wildcard (GW 18-19): The last call. Often used to prepare for the festive fixtures and the blanks/doubles that follow. Or for those who simply waited too long.

The first wildcard must be used before the deadline for Gameweek 19. It is a one-time chip for the first half of the season. The clock is always ticking.

The debate over timing is a distraction. The real question is whether your team needs it. A good team on a bad week is not a crisis. A bad team on a good week is. Know the difference.