What is a Wildcard in FPL? Our Complete Guide

By: Ahsan Ejaz

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What is a Wildcard in FPL

In Fantasy Premier League, the Wildcard chip permits you to make limitless transfers to your team for the Gameweek it is active, without any point deductions. Normally, transferring players beyond your allotted free transfers results in a -4 point deduction. The Wildcard chip allows you to reshape your whole team if you desire, without stressing over losing points to do so.

Whether you’re an FPL veteran or or a newbie attempting to figure out the basics and fundamentals of the game, understanding how the Wildcard chip works and how best to deploy it is crucial for your FPL team’s success, especially now that managers get 2 Wildcards per season.

 

How Many Wildcards Do You Get Per Season and When Can You Activate Them?

Each FPL season gives you two separate Wildcard chips at two different points of the Premier League season:

First half Wildcard: Available from the opening game of the season until December 29th.

Second half Wildcard: The second Wildcard managers have will be available after the deadline set on December 29th (prior to the January transfer window opening) and remains available until the end of the season.

 

How to Activate Your Wildcard Chip:

Activating your Wildcard Chip is straightforward, just follow these steps:

1. Activate the Wildcard: Go to your “Transfers” tab on the FPL site and remove the players you would like to transfer out of your team, and select their replacements within your £100m budget. You have unlimited free transfers the Gameweek your Wildcard is active.
2. Save your changes: Whenever you’ve finished making all of your desired transfers, hit confirm. You will be asked whether you’d like to confirm the transfers as normal, or use your Wildcard or your Free Hit chip. Select the Wildcard chip and confirm. Your Wildcard will be enacted, and no points will be deducted for any of the transfers.
3. Remaining free transfers: Any free transfers you had prior to activating your wildcard chip will remain. If you had 1 free transfer at the start of the Gameweek, you will retain that one free transfer for the next Gameweek.

 

 

When to Use Your Wildcard Chip?

The ideal time to utilise your Wildcard is when you feel you have too many underperforming players and /or players with difficult upcoming fixtures, and you feel your team needs a large and immediate overhaul. If you are only thinking of making 2 or 3 transfers when activating your Wildcard, maybe reconsider if it is really necessary or if you could just use your free transfers over the next couple of Gameweeks.

You are looking to improve your team, and maximise the value added when utilising your Wildcard. Build a team full of players that you believe, based on team and individual form, performance history, expected minutes and their upcoming fixtures, will provide high level value over the coming 3-8 Gameweeks, rather than just the Gameweek you are in.

Reasons to replace current players in your FPL team could be:

• The player is not getting enough minutes. That could include a player who is not a guaranteed starter or is rotated a lot. You want players in your FPL team who starts nearly every game and does not get substituted often.
• The player is injured for a long enough period that they should be replaced.
• It’s a premium player who isn’t producing returns worthy of their price-tag.
• Goalkeepers and Defenders who are playing in poor defensive teams that concede a lot of chances and rarely keep clean sheets. Defenders with high level attacking output have greater value.
• Midfielders and Forwards who play in teams that do not create a lot of quality chances and do not consistently score goals. These are likely teams in the bottom half of the league table.
• On an individual level, Midfielders and Forwards in poor form, who are not in the attacking role you may have anticipated or are not high level chance creators or goal threats are ones you will want to replace.

 

Wildcard Strategies:

Analyse fixtures and form:

Before activating your Wildcard, review the fixture list of the players you want to target as well as their expected minutes and role in their team. Target players with a solid run of fixtures, whose teams are performing well in the key metrics, and they themselves are performing well. Avoid selecting players who are rotated often, have a difficult upcoming schedule or players whose teams are not performing well.

Sit tight for key minutes:

FPL vets tend to sit tight for international breaks or significant moments in the season (such as a big double Gameweek) or for the unfortunate time your team has multiple key injuries.

Scout for upcoming Double Gameweeks:

Double Gameweeks happen when a team plays twice in a single Gameweek. Utilising a Wildcard to get players with double Gameweeks that are around the corner can provide a huge advantage to your team and help managers climb those rankings significantly.

Prioritise long-term value and returns:

Keep away from short term / transient fixes. While utilising your Wildcard, the focus should be on owning players you feel can perform reliably and provide returns consistently and over longer periods of weeks or preferably multiple months.

 

Mistakes to Avoid When Using Your Wildcard

Ignoring team balance: Don’t spend a lot on premium players while ignoring the remainder of your team and filling in the holes with poor assets on bad teams. Keep a balance within your lineup with premium players along with quality cheaper assets with consistent minutes and production.

Ignoring your bench: Guarantee your bench has at least two players who can contribute in the event of injuries or squad rotation.

Chasing recent point hauls: Make sure to build your team with players who have good data and have produced points over longer sample sizes. Try not to get caught up in the recency bias of adding a player who has just had a big haul in a recent Gameweek, but has bad underlying metrics or and has not produced consistently all season.

Utilising your Wildcard too soon: Unless you believe you have made grave errors in judgement with your original team, fight the temptation to utilise your Wildcard in the first few weeks out of boredom or impulse. The best time to use your Wildcard is when it is necessary or you believe can provide your team immense value over the coming weeks or months.

 

FAQ’s:

 

Conclusion

The Wildcard chip in FPL require’s some research and preparation to maximise the benefit you can gain from it. By understanding when and how to utilise them, you can recover from tough periods of the season, profit greatly by transferring in multiple players that are now a must-own, prioritise players from clubs who are performing well with enticing upcoming fixtures or solve an injury crisis within your team. By utilising your Wildcard in these key moments of the season, you are maximising the value of the Wildcard chip and positioning yourself for a strong post-Wildcard run of Gameweeks.

 

Last updated: 17/06/25

 

 

Other chip articles:

• What are FPL chips – the basics: https://ingenuityfantasy.com/fantasy-fundamentals/what-are-the-chips-and-when-is-the-best-time-to-use-them/
• What is a Free Hit in FPL: https://ingenuityfantasy.com/fantasy-fundamentals/free-hit-chip-guide/
• What is the Triple Captain chip: https://ingenuityfantasy.com/fantasy-fundamentals/triple-captain-chip-guide/
• Free Hit vs Wildcard – What’s the Difference: https://ingenuityfantasy.com/fantasy-fundamentals/free-hit-vs-wildcard-what-is-the-difference/

 

 

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