Goals ranked play has been out for over a year now and alpha cards are well established within the meta, and with alpha packs trading at 7 cents, who would ever think of buying beta packs? And yet, this is a question the Goals team will have to answer eventually. What could make beta cards appealing, what could they offer, within the scope of existing gameplay, that alpha cards do not? One possible answer to that question would be abilities that are tied to the players, that offer a more "advanced" way to play the game. Player cards would have the same six stats as the current ones have, but beta players could also be given unique abilities that proc in certain situations or do something specific. This could spice up gameplay and offer greater flexibility in team creation.
Here are just a few ideas I had when it comes to these abilities themselves.
Playmaker: A successful lateral pass by this player has a 20% chance to leave the receiver in a post-dribble position.
Spectacular Saves: Everytime this Goalkeeper blocks a shot, gain a team wide 5% morale boost.
Opportunistic Scorer: After a successful dribble, this player gets +10% to shooting chance.
These abilities are not too overpowered but they add flavor to the game and if used effectively, they can make your team more formidable.
The best way to design the Beta set (S2), in my view, is to release much fewer players, but each of them should be playable (no more garbage players) and have a unique ability. There could be only a few dozen players in the set, which would make it easier to level up a collection after opening packs, rather than having to deal with hundreds of players, most of them too bad to ever be used in a team. Also add new coaches with new abilities, and there was talk of a "trainer" card that doubles your earnings from the Training Grounds. Introducing these new assets within a Beta set would undoubtedly generate interest and shake up the meta , while Alpha cards remain cheap and accessible for team building.
Thanks for reading!