Madden 20 MUT: New Power Ups and Cooldown House Rules Returns

The Madden 20 MUT Power Ups are some of the rarest content we get for MUT. This is because apparently Power Ups are a real pain the butt to do for the MUT team, and so they’re more like a “special treat” than a common occurrence. I’m not sure the reasoning behind that, but I assume it has to do with both how they are weighted in packs plus how they have to be averaged out to give certain abilities but not others, etc. Basically, the math is probably a pain on some level.

10 new Power Ups are now live in #Madden20 pic.twitter.com/PMVUj2CBUq

— Madden Ultimate Team (@EASPORTS_MUT) February 18, 2020

A couple of the biggest names among the 10 new Power Ups are Kyler Murray and Sammy Watkins. Through various permutations, you can get Murray up to 99 speed at this point, but his card won’t be 98 overall base, so he won’t get Dashing Deadeye as a Scrambler archetype. Still, it’s a heck of a card.

Watkins is interesting on a couple levels. Apparently, his Series Redux does not go into the PU (and the 2x Chiefs chem isn’t working for some reason), but you can still get him up to 98 speed, and this makes the Chiefs wide receiver group even more insane (and fast).

Another weird one right now (that I assume will be patched) is Raheem Mostert being able to get receiver chems like Mossed. Mostert was already interesting because he can fit on various theme teams, but I would not get attached to the receiver chems as that does seem like a bug.

Overall, all these cards are interesting on some level, and it’s why fans of MUT really do enjoy the Power Ups. They open up new avenues for cards you already have, and assuming you have the Training to burn, it creates new opportunities to make elite players on your starting squad.

EA is having some server issues today (in FIFA and Madden), so some might have trouble enjoying this new content for now, but it’s not going anywhere. In addition, the Power Ups have some bugs in them, as I mentioned, which will need to be sifted through as well.

Beyond that, I have really been watching this “limits” concept closely with House Rules to see how people in the community feel about it. Basically, you get a cooldown on certain plays after they’ve been called a certain amount of times. The hope is that it opens up playbooks and makes people not rely on 2-3 money plays over and over again. Of course, hot route spam is still a thing, and you can still do various 7 and 8 man blitzes, but it’s still a concept worth analyzing.

So far, I think the reception has been more positive than negative. Of course, some people think the AI should just be good enough to learn that the same play is coming and eventually stop it, but as we know in all sports games, certain things remain exploits no matter how smart the AI gets. Football games have a unique opportunity here because you actually have to call a play, so it means the developers have an extra tool at their disposal to alter how things play out — something a soccer or basketball game can’t do. House Rules is a good chance to try things out, and so I think it’s a good call by EA to use House Rules as that testing ground to see if certain concepts can work in the grander scheme of things to create more competitive balance and something that’s more interesting to watch.