Easy gives unlimited re-spins, so use it if you want to hand-pick a specific dream squad. Medium's 3 re-spins force some real decisions about which slots matter most. Hard gives you none: whoever you spin is who you're playing with, which makes for the most honest test of a squad.
By Year rates a player exactly as they were that season, including the rough years. Prime always rates them at their career-best. If you want a genuinely tough, era-accurate squad, play By Year. If you want the strongest possible XI regardless of when each player peaked, play Prime.
Capping your spend at £1m stops you filling every slot with the single highest-rated player available. It's the setting that rewards balancing a squad rather than stacking it.
With 18 counties and any year in Blast history in play, depth matters more than any single spin. A squad of big names from mismatched eras can still lose to a balanced XI with real death-bowling and a settled top order. Don't judge a squad on paper, judge it on how the XI actually splits across bat, seam, spin, and finishing overs.
Seamers thrive in English conditions, spinners dominate across South Asia, and flat, batting-friendly pitches in the subcontinent favour whoever's holding the bat. The same XI that steamrolls at home can get exposed away. Check the conditions before you set your XI, not after.
A high draft rating fades fast if a player's form craters mid-series. Track who's actually delivering runs and wickets, not just who was rated highest on spin day, and be ready to rotate when an off-pitch event lands on someone.
A five-match Ashes inside the six-series cycle can make or break your table position on its own. Treat it as the series to peak for, since a bad Ashes is hard to recover from before the WTC Final.
Your squad's majority nation decides who you represent in the tournament, so a run of spins that drifts toward one country can quietly lock you into a side you didn't plan for. If that matters to you, keep an eye on the split as you draft, not just individual ratings.
With one innings per side and no draws possible, a single bad over can decide a match outright. Prioritise a settled top order and a finisher who can close out a chase under pressure over raw squad depth.
Form shifts match by match across the tournament, so rotating your XI through the group stage to manage workload can leave you fresher for the Super Sixes and knockouts than teams who ran the same XI into the ground.
The squads that win consistently are rarely the ones stacked with the highest-rated names. They're the ones where the XI's roles actually fit together: an opening pair that can bat time, enough seam and spin options to cover any conditions, and one player who can be trusted to finish a match. Draft for the XI you'll actually field, not the highest total rating on the sheet.