FIFA Mobile’s Golden Egg promotion has been a breath of fresh air for the game.
Following in footsteps of Madden Ultimate team’s annual Golden Ticket giveaway, if you were lucky enough to pack a Golden Egg, you were able to craft a player of your choosing as a 99-overall beast, along with the boosts of your choosing. In order to not totally break the game, EA’s capped those boosts at roughly +3 to +6 overall (depending on the stats chosen), or slightly higher if you chose to only boost certain nationalities or cards from a specific in-game program.
Amongst those that caught our eyes -- as the Yanks that we are, naturally -- was Seattle Sounders FC wunderkind Jordan Morris. For those unfamiliar, Morris was a superstar for Stanford University. Despite having been a product of the Sounders’ youth team, Morris elected to get his college degree while playing amateur soccer/football for their team.
Morris’ impact was so pronounced, he led the Cardinal to their first ever men’s soccer national championship. And while doing so, he made the shortlist of then US Men’s National Team skipper Jurgen Klinsmann, who made Morris the only collegiate student athlete on the US’ senior national team squad.
After foregoing his senior year of eligibility for Stanford, Morris trained with Werder Bremen before electing instead to sign with his home-town Sounders. From there, he helped lead Sounders, a long MLS power but never league champ, to their first ever title as well.
One lucky Golden Egg winner wanted to know what it would be like to see what would happen if you crossed Morris with Messi and Ronaldo. The result is 99-overall rated Jordan Morris.
Despite having been selected as a center-forward by the Golden Egg winner, as part of EA’s packable Golden Egg promotion -- that’s right, this weekend only, you can get your hand on one of the Golden Egg cards created by the lucky winners -- the card was instead moved to striker.
With his full powers unlocked, let’s take a look at what you get if you’re lucky enough to pack the 99 OVR monster:
Choosing a silver player makes Morris one of the savvier possible Golden Egg choices. Essentially all his stats across the board get a +32 boost from their base levels.
His acceleration is instantaneously amongst the elites of the entire game. His shooting is almost rocket powered. And perhaps where his real value lies is his physicality. 106 strength and 113 aggression? Goodness.
So what about his actual in-game play? How did Morris stack up against some of the best in FIFA Mobile?
Pros
It’s hard to pick just one positive, as predictably, a 99-overall striker built like a Panzer tank is going to make some serious noise on the pitch.
The far and away biggest noticeable attribute he has is his strength on the ball. Opposing defensive backs, even the likes of TOTY Ramos and TOTY Pique, basically flew off him as he made his way into traffic. His robustness allowed him to control the ball in crowded situations, a problem for virtually every other attack-minded in the game.
His muscle also allowed him to generate free kick opportunities left and right. If you need a late goal to win an Attack Mode or League vs. League match and you aren’t fortunate enough for the random number generator to bless you with a “Great Chance”, you can create your own luck by just barreling into an opposing player. Either he flies out of the way and you get your shot on goal or you’re getting one from a set position.
The next take away was his tremendous top speed. Despite being 5’11 (180cm), 185 pounds (84 kg), Morris flies around the pitch with the same electricity of the 100-overall Eden Hazard and 99-overall Domination Angel Di Maria. Having a sturdier player with the kind of strength Morris possesses move like 99-overall Marco Reus isn’t even fair.
If anything, the combination of speed and bulk led me to take him for granted at times, worrying he’d get caught behind or assuming he’d be slower than he was. If you take Golden Egg Jordan Morris at face value though, the goals will absolutely come — and in bunches.
The other noteworthy big positive was his precision as a striker. Anyone who’s used the 99-overall Attack Mode Antoine Greizmann or the 98-overall Team Hero Series 2 Sergio Aguero knows the importance of being able to go top shelf with pin-point accuracy.
Morris is as precise as any attacking player I’ve used in FIFA Mobile including 98-overall Team of the Year Luis Suarez, 99-overall Team of the Year Ronaldo, and 98-overall Team of the Year Lionel Messi. The only missed shots I had with Morris were user error. If you aimed the ball where it was supposed to go, Morris obliged.
Cons
This is an extremely first world FIFA Mobile problem to have, but Morris’ near superhuman powers caused me to almost leverage him too much. I was so determined to put the ball in the hands of my lethal playmaker, that I passed up better looks or took unnecessary second and third passes where I should’ve just gone at goal with the player I was controlling.
Certainly with some practice, those kind of trivialities can be course corrected. But even if the rest of your attack isn’t in the same neighborhood as a player like a Golden Egg Jordan Morris, it’s a good reminder to spread the wealth and take advantage of the opportunities presented to you.
Probably the single biggest knock on GE Morris is his painfully mediocre boosts. We’ve already praised the Golden Egg recipient on choosing a Silver attacking player. But choosing such pedestrian boosts — Acceleration is the 14th most influential to Squad Overall ratings and Speed is the 12th — was a glaring oversight in an otherwise nearly perfect player choice.
We won’t knock his decision of putting the base card at center forward since we all are lucky enough to have the chance to pack him at striker, but SPA (short passing accuracy), BAC (ball control), or REA (reactions) all would’ve been superior offensive stats to choose to boost.
Summary
99-overall Golden Egg Jordan Morris is an absolute dream, especially for American soccer fans, Sounders fans, or fans of ludicrously overpowered in-game items. On paper, some of the possible downsides — dribbling, for example — never really came to fruition. And while he may not be the best passer ever to possess the ball in FIFA Mobile, it never felt like he wasted a possession unless I electively did something stupid with him.
It is worth noting that the odds of getting a Golden Egg player are long. At 1000 FP (or 10,000 for a bundle), you could spend an awful lot of money and not have the same luck those fortunate enough to pull one this weekend have had. But if you’ve got the resources and want to stock up on Elite players for possible TOTS plans, there are certainly worst ways to spend your disposable income.
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