Manager's Corner: First Impression of Coach Abilities

A bombshell was dropped on us today in the GLG discord as coach abilities were revealed unexpectedly. This led to a surge of market activity as other managers pushed and shoved to secure the best cards, while yours truly had the best coach in the game already in hand, more on that later...

Here are my first impressions on the coach abilities that were revealed today. From the initial analysis, it seems we can split these coach abilities into five broad categories.

-Abilities that always buff or debuff everyone.
-Abilities that buff or debuff everyone only if certain circumstances occur.
-Abilities that buff or debuff only certain stats or players.
-Abilities that help your team outside the game.
-Nacho Aguilar (It is a jest to call this a category but it doesn't fit anywhere else)

Let us go through each category in turn.

Abilities that always buff or debuff everyone.
Diamond Hands, Boss Boost, Analytical Acuity, Trashtalk, Superfans

In this category, Diamond Hands and Superfans both give your team a permanent buff resulting in increased success in all actions, making them both very desirable abilities. Boss Boost acts as a reliable midgame heal that will keep your team fresh until the end, while Analytical Acuity and Trashtalk will debuff the entire enemy team. Abilities within this category should be considered among the best and most reliable.

Abilities that buff or debuff everyone only if certain circumstances occur.
Competitive Edge, Raging Bull, Rally Cry, Underdawg, The Favorite, Relentless

In this category, my favorite is... The Favorite, because it applies at the start of the game and will give you an edge in getting the first goal. Relentless will allow you to keep being aggressive and build on a lead, but won't help you if you're losing or tied. It is good for teams that expect to take the lead early on. Underdawg on the other hand will help weaker teams fight on equal terms with stronger teams. Raging Bull will help you when you are losing, but you don't want to drain your stamina too much. Rally Cry heals up your team's stamina and morale when things are going bad, and Competitive Edge affects both teams in relation to the current score, always favoring the current loser. Some of these abilities could be very good, but others might appear useless, like Competitive Edge. We will not know for sure which ones are better until we get precise numbers for all these buffs and debuffs.

Abilities that buff or debuff only certain stats or players.
Creative Genius, Midfield Control, Fancy Footwork, Fleet-footed, GKskillz, Hit and Run, Hooligan

This category of skills allows you to build your team based on the strength of your coach. If you only want to move the ball by passing, Creative Genius and Fleet-Footed will probably help you a ton. Same with Fancy Footwork if you are intent on dribbling past the entire opposing team. Midfield Control allows you to take advantage of really strong midfielders, especially defensive minded ones, in order to recover the ball and pass it to the forwards. Hit and Run and Hooligan both help your tackling along with some extra perks, they should be very strong defensive skills. Finally, GKskills helps your goaltender but it will not come into effect right away.

Abilities that help your team outside the game.
Cybernetic Enhancements, Lucky Dog

Lucky Dog is a card that immediately became very popular, because it will give you increased rewards for winning the game. It doesn't give other bonuses though, so you might not win as many games. Cybernetic Enhancements does help you a bit inside the game, but its real value seems to come from its effect on health, which might allow you to play more often with your teams, and thus, win more games. Still unclear on that though.

So, which is the best coach ability? For me, it is Diamond Hands, hands down! Others might be equally useful, but for a team that is decked out like mine, he could give me that extra edge in defeating other high end teams, a small modifier on already high percentages.

In other news, my first GLG team was minted today! The Extraction Squad is here! Tremble!

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!