The Bronze pack includes all card types, on a Bronze level, same for Silver and Gold, each pack giving you the corresponding level of player card per your pack choice. A Bronze pack will run you 500 in game coins; if you spend 40 Xbox Live points you could buy three Bronze packs. A Platinum pack where your high level players reside is a whopping 9,000 coins or 240 XBL points. You don’t have to buy anything at all. You can play a lot of games and earn a few hundred coins per game but people are likely going to get impatient and pony up some extra cash.

You're allowed to have a maximum of 55 player cards in your possession at one time, leaving space for 45 other cards—such as playbooks, stadiums, coaches, uniforms, injured player recovery and contract extensions. Most of the cards listed above are self-explanatory, with the exception of the recovery and contract cards. Injury is as it sounds – you use this card to bring a player out of injury instead of having to wait.

Each player has a game contract length on his card and once that number hits 0, if you haven't extended, he's gone. Contract length trends to vary by player level so your run of the mill players will start off with a longer contract whereas a star like Tom Brady will stick with you for three of four games and then bail if you haven’t used a contract card on him.

So there is a great deal of team management involved here even if it’s not like a franchise mode dealing with salary caps and such. Your team is constantly evolving (or devolving). You can also trade player cards (a good way to get ride of doubles) or use the auction. One note about doubles: there’s nothing stopping you from playing two of the same player, which is admittedly a bit weird. Having two star receivers named Randy Moss is…well it would be nice if that was changed before release

Once in a game, the play is the exact same as the Madden 10 we all know. You play through a standard game, online or against the CPU, and at the end of each game you're awarded coins depending on your performance. I had a kickoff return for a touchdown that netted me some extra coins, for instance, but many different situations exist for earning a little extra.

If you're getting burned out on Madden 10, this will certainly add a bit of spice. The card collecting and team design parts are interesting and, frankly, addictive and with the nature of the price model I’m sure EA Sports is banking on that addiction turning this free download into a nice little money maker.