41) Captain Marvel (Galactic Warrior)
797 
709 
620 
394
101 
94 
86 Health: 60,586
Recommended Build: 5/3/5
Alternate Build: 3/5/5 (if you value possibly instant green damage over quicker strikes)
Carol was easily one of the most anticipated and hyped characters before her release. With Marvel heavily promoting their first female superhero film, we all knew she was coming well before she was officially announced. With her 4* counterpart already being one of the best characters in the game, the hype train for the 5* was off the charts. She was going to change the meta! What we ended up getting was a far cry from that. While not awful, Carol is a slow character due to her reliance on repeater tiles, countdown tiles and going airborne. She also has low damage numbers (even without the delays) and happens to share active colors with some of the absolute best in the game. Thus, what you get from Carol is a character who can be fun with the right partners; but ultimately not competitive. A letdown for those expecting her to make a titanic shift to the game.
Captain Marvel’s red (Mean Right Hook) costs 8 AP and has her place a 2-3 turn repeater tile that does about 5800 damage and places 2-3 small strikes (strength 266). The passive component of her power states that she gets 2 yellow AP when a strike is destroyed by something other than a match.
Event Horizon (green) is Carol’s passive that sees her flexing her muscle as a green battery. Unfortunately she needs more time in the gym. She puts down a 3-turn repeater that generates 3 green AP. That’s +1 AP per turn, if the repeater survives… which it very often doesn’t. But it’s free… so whatever. When her team has 10 green AP, the power becomes Photonic Rush- a 10 AP active ability that depending on covers, places a 1-2 turn countdown or deals instant damage (6643 at all 3 levels). She then destroys a random row (leaving friendly tiles in tact) and will then destroy additional rows for each friendly tile in the initial row destroyed (again… leaving friendly tiles unharmed).
Captain Marvel’s yellow (Got Your Six) is in my opinion her best power, which is great given the lack of great yellow damage dealers in the tier. Danvers sends either herself or an ally of your choosing airborne and when the character lands, they burst heal for about 5400 health and Carol deals about 12k damage to the target. That’s pretty good return for the 8 AP this ability costs. The only issue is that arguably her only good ability has a hard counter in Archangel (mentioned later).
Similarly to Ghost Rider (also mentioned later), Carol is one of those characters that would most benefit from a 5/5/5 build as she loses a lot when she drops any cover below 5. Usually, when effects are delayed in MPQ, or there’s a risk of them not going off at all, you get a bigger payout. Carol bucks this trend as her damage is lower than other characters, her strikes are weaker, and her AP generation is slower and harder to pull off. Compare her to someone like Beta Ray Bill (discussed way later) who is similar, but does his stuff with protects instead of strikes. He gets 2 AP when either team destroys a protect tile (by any means) and he starts the game putting them on the board. Carol’s damage is lower and delayed. She gets AP if only her team destroys a strike tile without matching it. And she has to wait forever to get strikes on the board. She had high health and match damage, which has been one of her biggest compliments since release. But power creep seems to have taken that advantage away, as most characters released since her have outdone her in that department (some excessively so). One thing to note as well is that Carol shares a minimum of two colors with each of the top six characters in the game (obviously those characters are discussed much, much, later). So if you have any of the tippy top, her use goes way down. That said, if you’re just playing for fun or really truly don’t have better options (doubtful), she’s not bad to throw on a team. So while she is useable, if you happened to miss out on her, you didn’t miss much.
Pairings:
My absolute favorite partner for Carol is Green Goblin. He fortifies all her repeaters/countdowns to help ensure you get something back for the AP you spend; while Gobby Glider and Pumpkin Bombs can do huge damage, which Carol isn’t great at. Carnage, Bill and Iceman despite overlap can all be great for spamming the board with special tiles to allow you to get the most out of her green active ability (Polaris as well a tier below). Jessica Jones can similarly put strikes on the board for Carol while providing a nice black nuke.
**#****40) Silver Surfer (Skyrider)**
586 **
521**
456
294
74
68
63 Health: 47,471
Recommended Build: 5/5/3
Silver Surfer is the original charged tile specialist 5*. He is not a very good 5* by any means due to eons of power creep that have occurred since his debut. While he once had a niche that elevated him in the tier (being unstunnable), power creep took that from him too (Hi Apocalypse!).
Silver Surfer’s blue (Perfect Being) is where his niche once lied. He has a passive component to this power that states he cannot be stunned. This can be pretty huge against certain characters (but is much less necessary since Bishop’s reign of terror has ended). The active part of this power costs 9 AP, true heals Surfer a large amount (10-14k), and charges 3-4 tiles in a color of your choosing. This power is great for a tanky tank. Stay up front, shrug off stuns, absorb hits, and heal back up. Unfortunately his match damage is so laughably bad that he very often can’t do the one thing this power is designed to do!
Surfer’s red (Cosmic Beam) is his best active ability and his one real damage-dealing power. So you’ll want this one at 5 covers where he does about 9500 damage for only 7 AP. He also puts 3 random charged tiles on the board when he fires this ability.
Surfer’s black (Silver Singularity) is a pricey 12 AP power that puts a 3-turn “black hole” on the board. Each turn it ticks down, the hole destroys 4-5 adjacent tiles. When it “implodes” it does around 5-8k damage. Overall, you are spending a ton of specific AP in order to get a ton of random AP back (from the destroyed tiles) and do middling damage. This power is not really worth the effort, considering the other amazing black abilities in the tier.
Silver Surfer is ultimately a support character who- due to power creep- now needs way more support than he gives. His red ability is okay for the cheap cost and his blue passive makes him a hard counter to stun-lock teams (assuming you can keep him up front which is not an easy task). It is for these two reasons that Surfer could occasionally find use on a team against certain opponents. Unfortunately for Norrin, another character in the form of Apocalypse was released who has no problems tanking, does 2-5x more damage on red for the same cost, has an excellent black, and happens to be unstunable when paired with a mutant (bye bye niche!). So if you need stun immunity and don’t have Apocalypse, Surfer might work in a pinch if you can keep him up front. However, he has two mediocre/slow active abilities, is laughably bad on defense, and more often than not just heals, does small damage, and puts charged tiles on the board. If ever there was a character desperate for an upgrade to match damage, health and AP costs, this cosmic being would be it!
Pairings:
Given their proclivity for charged tiles, Storm and Black Bolt are two great partners that can make use of the charged tiles Norrin spits out. Storm specifically often ends up with more black AP than she can use, so Surfer can assist with an outlet there, even if it isn’t a great power. He also gets to tank red/blue with them which helps out against stun-heavy teams where you want him up front. Surfer’s stun immunity and true heal also make him an ideal pairing with Thanos, as he is the only character that can negate both of the friendly drawbacks of Court Death (being stunned and taking damage). Thor can act as a decent battery for Surfer, while Daredevil and Norrin also make a sneaky good full rainbow true-healing duo.
#39) Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes)
722
642
562
363
91
84
77 Health: 57,846
Recommended Build: 5/3/5
Alternate Build: 5/5/3 (with stronger black users)
Ghost Rider does two things decently well. One, he is a potentially okay battery once you pay the cost to get him going. And two, he has a good black nuke. His main problem is while solid, and by no means bad, all of what he does is mostly done better by many others ranked above him. His powerset, while creative, is somewhat wonky, and most of his abilities work better in theory than execution.
Rider’s green (Hell Ride) is the unique power that puts him on the map and sets him apart from others in the tier. It’s a cool ability but it often works better on paper than in practice. For 9 AP, Robbie places 3 green repeater tiles that each destroy up to 3 surrounding tiles in his primary colors each turn. Destroyed tiles do 3x damage which is a nice little bump. While this can be great battery, often times the tiles get stuck in places with hardly any red/black/green around them and/or they will quickly “burn” to the bottom of the board where they sit. It’s a power with high variance for sure. When you look at the other faster, passive, and/or more reliable batteries, coupled with the fact that green is probably the best color in the tier for active abilities, this power starts to look bad by comparison.
Chain Whip is Robbie Reyes’ red (yay alliteration!) active ability. For 7 AP he stuns his target 1 turn and places a countdown tile. The stunned character is now “marked” and while the countdown is out, whenever they make a match, they take ~1600-3800 damage depending on covers. This is an ability that is easy to avoid on defense as you can just match the non-targeted character’s tiles. On offense it can add some nice chip damage as you get to choose who tanks on the opposing team. While his countdown is out, his power becomes Judgement Day. For another 7 AP, Robbie removes the countdown and does 8-13k damage. So if you have the requisite 14 red AP, can keep the tile hanging around long enough, and can hit on Judgment Day before it expires, the damage can add up. It’s just a convoluted path to get there.
Ghost Rider’s black (Damnation) is probably his best power. While not as creative or unique as the other two, it’s probably the best bang for your buck. For 10 AP he does ~15k damage to the enemy. If you hit the enemy who has done the most damage, he does closer to 20k instead. While this ability is good, Doom, Jessica Jones, Apocalypse, and Green Goblin (all ranked higher) all do black nukes arguably better. Especially since the character you want to hit is not always the one who did the most damage.
Overall Robbie is one who is conceptually great, but has a lot of shortcomings when you actually play him. More than perhaps any other character (except maybe 5* Carol), I believe he would benefit from a 5/5/5 build, as he loses a lot by dropping any of his abilities below 5. If that were his default he’d be much better than he is. As it stands, he’ll mostly be a fun/filler character that you’ll enjoy if he falls in your lap, but he doesn’t have a “thing” that makes him worth chasing. Especially when there are other characters with his exact color scheme ranked above him (Hela, Carnage, Old Man Daken, Immortal Hulk).
Pairings:
Daredevil is a fun pairing with Ghost Rider due to the extra damage Sonar Strike can do when the repeaters are out and smashing up the board. The red stun is also super helpful if even for just a turn. Similarly, I enjoy Black Suit Spidey with Reyes due to the red stun allowing Spidey to get max damage from his blue (I actually enjoy all 3 together). While not scary on defense, Doc Strange is a really fun pair for full rainbow coverage. Despite strong black overlap, Doom works well with Ghost Rider due to his board shuffle giving Robbie’s repeaters some new life on the board. Heimdall can make Ghost Rider’s green cheaper, fortify the repeaters, and his yellow can help fuel it. Finally, Professor X can benefit from the cascades Robbie’s green provides. And when Professor fires his purple, he will more often than not be adding green and red tiles to the board, which Reyes can soak up!
#38) Cable (Nathan Summers)
713
634
555
353
91
84
77 Health: 57,701
Recommended Build: 5/ 5/3
Alternate Build: 3/5/5 (if you are building around special tiles)
Cable is a character who has a decent power set. Perhaps his best quality is his X-Men affiliation and the fact that he pairs well with a lot of characters (especially X-characters). His biggest drawback is the fact that he is expensive/slow, and all of his powers are pretty much done better by others. Still if you don’t have those other characters, or are simply looking for a decent blue/green/yellow filler, you could do a lot worse than Cable.
Cable’s Blue (Cyborg Strategist) is a bit of a wonky power. For a pricey 9 AP, Cable creates a 3-5 turn countdown tile. While it’s on the board, when you make a green match, he stuns his target 2 turns and turns 4-5 basic green tiles to charged tiles. The problem with this power is unless there is one enemy remaining (or you make a green match 5), the opponent gets first dibs on your charged tiles. Second, I wish the length of the stun went up by a turn at 5 covers. 9 AP just seems pricey for what this power actually does in execution, as you often get one match/stun out of it before it expires.
Green (Plasma Barrage) is without a doubt Cable’s bread and butter power, and is the one you want to ensure is at 5 covers. For 12 AP, Cable does some big damage (just under 22k). If he KO’s the enemy, any remaining damage is dealt to each of the remaining targets. Overall this is a cool ability that is just insane the one time of year he’s boosted. However, I think the cost is too high for the “potential” of hitting that character with 100 health and dealing 21k to everyone else. In practice that big hit can only happen one time, and only if you whittle them down just right. Every other cast is a bad return on investment. I give credit for the outside the box thinking on this one. It’s just a tad too expensive like his blue.
Cable’s yellow (Veteran Instincts) is the exact opposite of Plasma Barrage with regards to creativity. For 9 AP he creates 2-3 strikes (~500 strength) plus 1 for each ally in the fight. Nate is cooler than this! The passive portion of this power also states “when you make a yellow match, do something that Green Goblin does 3x as fast and for free”. Wait, no… “when you make a Yellow match, fortify 1 random friendly Countdown or Repeater tile”. There it is.
Overall, Nate has self-synergy on paper, but in execution it doesn’t work as well as one would think. That said I actually find myself playing him a ton (non-competitively) as either his color combo, powerset (especially his proclivity for stuns, charged tiles, and strike tiles) and/or both, make him an ideal partner for a lot of X-Men.
Pairings:
Professor Xavier is perhaps my favorite pairing with Cable. They have no active overlap, and Prof will shrug off more damage with Cable by his side. Gambit is a close second as they cover the full rainbow. The Ragin’ Cajun will deal some nice damage and help fuel Plasma Barrage with his red, while Cable can fortify Gambit’s countdowns by matching yellow. Kitty Pryde can boost Nate’s strikes (at the cost of her not dropping protects), while his presence makes her buff threshold go down one tile. Storm, despite massive overlap, works surprisingly well if you use his green and her yellow. Some non-X pairings I’ve enjoyed are Daredevil (who benefits from stuns and strikes), Jessica Jones (5 colors covered), Thor (fuels two of Cables powers), Beard Cap (again… covers 5 colors), and Apocalypse (5 colors again, plus the mutant affiliation makes Apocalypse unstunable). Lots of quality partners is why he is ranked as high as he is. Some slight number tweaks would have him so much higher!
#37) Wolverine (Old Man Logan)
624
554
485
314
79
73
67 Health: 42,480
Recommended Build: 5/5/3
Much like Old Man Logan himself, this character was once “the best in the world at what [he did]”, and is now an old broken down version of what he used to be. Even after his very controversial nerf, he still serves as a decent healer and strike tile creator. The problem is that even with Logan doing both things passively, there are people who are still somehow better at both of his specialties, making him quite expendable. He has a “transformation” mechanic that replaces all of his powers with crazy good abilities, but it takes him a ton of time to get there. In a speed-based game where seemingly everyone is bringing their fastest guns… time is not always on this old man’s side.
Logan’s black (Living Legend) is one of the simplest powers in the game. Spend 9 AP. Put down 4 strikes (strength 645). End turn (this part usually sucks). If he happens to be holding 12 yellow (yes that’s 20 AP total), then he gets a whole new set of powers. We’ll discuss Logan 2.0 later.
Yellow (Die Hard) was once his marquee power that had people from all tiers of play using him with just a single cover. Now, he can use this passive to shrug off even heavier 5* match damage, but not much else, as each turn he heals 1400 for each ally in the fight (so 2800 total). I’d just as soon bring Daredevil, Okoye or Doom if I wanted a healer.
Red (Reluctant Hero) sees Logan creating two strength 338 strikes when his allies fire a power, if there are less than 5 on the board. Given the special tile meta that permeates MPQ, this ability is probably his best one.
If Logan “transforms” (fires his 8 AP black while holding 12 yellow AP), all of his powers change to crazy good abilities. Black (Still Sharp) costs only 7 AP, does almost 14k damage, and destroys up to 4 friendly strikes, doing about 3700 damage for each. Wow!
Yellow (Old Habits) costs 6 AP, meaning it can be double-cast as soon as you transform (as you’ll be holding 12 yellow). Logan does 2600 AOE damage plus an additional 1275 for each enemy still standing (so almost 6500 AOE against a full team).
Red (Finish the Fight) is 2.0’s “expensive” ability that at 8 AP, sees Logan doing big damage (around 12k) plus additional big damage (around 9k) it he’s below a certain level of heath (40-60%). Given that Logan 2.0 doesn’t heal, it’s possible that extra damage will proc.
Overall, version 1 Logan is a very slow character that relies on his allies firing powers in order to contribute to a fight. He is meant to be played in long, drawn out matches that give him time to collect AP to do what he does best. Once transformed, Logan 2.0 is actually one of the faster characters in the game. I believe the developer’s strategy here was to make you struggle through first attacking a character who heals, lest you regret it when he transforms and rips your team to shreds. The problem is he is SO SLOW in his transformation, that I’ve never regretted leaving him for last (especially since he no longer heals with no allies). The other huge detriment to Old Man is he needs to take damage in order to heal it, and his pathetic match damage means many of his best partners take hits that would be better served for him. Still, at worst he’s good for early climbs and to eat some Court Death damage. While he is by no means a good character (especially compared to the “new guard”), the fact that he does two things for your team (strikes and heals) by virtue of existing and the fact that he can do something on offense if you work to transform him, places him higher than those below him on this list.
Pairings:
Despite being a mediocre character, Logan has some good partners that either benefit from or can amplify what he does. Kitty Pryde is an exceptional partner, as she can boost his strikes. Unfortunately 4* Rocket & Groot are a thing. Otherwise we’d see this pairing way more. I’d still suggest these two in a PVP where the 3* has quick fire abilities (like Vision). Professor X allows Logan to tank two colors and both can shrug off damage (Professor even more so thanks to Logan being an X-Man). Logan and any true healer that compliments his colors (Phoenix, Daredevil, Loki) are good for saving health packs on early climbs. He’s also good with maniacal villains who harm their teammates (Thanos/Carnage) as he can heal back that damage. Beta Ray Bill provides extra protection, two more active colors, and allows Logan to tank red/black. Finally, if you want to build around “the transform”, you can use Thor as an excellent yellow battery, while chasing black. The problem is Thor will usually tank all but yellow/black, so you might want to bring a third partner with new age match damage to cover for Odinson.
#36) Loki (God of Mischief)
696
618
541
344
89
82
75 Health: 53,841
Recommended Build: 5/5/3
Loki is a character with a decently strong kit, who can hold his own on a team. He has no awful powers, but doesn’t excel at anything either. His overall powerset screams “middle of the pack”, which is where he finds himself in these rankings.
For my AP, Loki has one of the best active purple (Shadowplay) abilities in the tier. For 7 AP, Loki spams the board with 4 black countdowns. Destroy one and two more take its place (Hail Hydra!). While these countdowns are out, the power becomes a 4 AP power called “Dagger Surprise”, which removes up to 4 of his countdowns and deals about 8900 damage for each. So you can play this as an 11 AP nuke, or if you are lucky enough with regards to spamming more countdowns, you can get a second 25k nuke for 4 AP.
For 11 AP, Loki’s green (Destroy Everything) puts down a 3-turn fortified repeater that does about 6600 AOE damage and destroys a random row (hopefully hitting some Shadowplay tiles along the way). This ability is ultimately way too slow to be considered effective. It obviously becomes more “worth it” the longer the match drags on and it’s out. While it’s fine as an “AP dump” there are far better greens in the tier.
Finally, Loki’s black passive (Feign Death) has him place a trap tile on the board when he is KOed. If matched by either team, Loki is revived with 45-62% health (true heal!), and he generates 1-2 green AP to help fuel his expensive repeater.
Loki is best used when you need an awesome purple ability in early climbs and either don’t have Professor X/Killmonger, or want to save Charles for the end climb/hops. Loki’s passive and a little luck can save on health packs and gives him some solid sustainability, especially if you are able to revive him a few times before he is ultimately downed for good. His purple alone makes him a solid third for many pick-3 teams as well.
Pairings:
The number one thing I look for in a Loki partner is an active black ability. You will be chasing black a lot to spam Shadowplay tiles, so it makes sense to have an outlet for that AP. Doctor Doom is an awesome partner for Loki in this regard, plus Doom’s board shuffle can often help get to a hard to reach Loki trap to revive him. Doom also works because he’s another early climb/true heal MVP (Old Man Logan can be used in a similar capacity, he just isn’t as good on offense or defense). Jessica Jones is another person with an excellent black outlet. Her strikes can fuel his AOE, while his countdowns can up the damage on her Body Check. Black Panther also provides a black AP outlet as well as some use for team-up AP, while Silver Surfer provides coverage in three colors (including black). Deadpool has an excellent red outlet, and a spammable black power- which is fueled by taking damage (did I mention Loki revives?!). Finally, Apocalypse is an excellent selection as his repeaters can boost Loki’s and he provides yet another amazing black outlet once that repeater spams protect tiles. Looking at non-black users, Hawkeye can benefit from any Shadowplay tiles that don’t get destroyed- fueling his powers when they expire. Heimdall is also an excellent partner who can fuel ShadowplayDagger Surprise, make them cheaper, and he provides red, blue and yellow AP outlets. Magneto, while not as good as Heim, also provides outlets in the same three strong colors and makes a decent pair.
#35) Magneto (Age of Apocalypse)
922
820
718
456
117
108
99 Health: 58,447
Recommended Build: 3/5/5
Before his debut, a 5* version of the master of magnetism was probably the most requested variant in all of MPQ. Unfortunately what we got was a whole lot of disappointment when granted our wish. While some panned him as Banner/Wasp level garbage upon his debut, I personally don’t think he’s THAT bad- which is sad, because if he were THAT bad, we could maybe hope for a buff one day. While clearly the worst character to come out in a very long time he’s just good enough to not get rebalanced and stay mediocre and forgotten about forever.
Magneto’s blue (Polar Coordination) costs 10 AP, converts 4 basic green tiles to yellow; and sends Mags airborne for 2-3 turns. When Magneto returns to battle he deals a slug of damage (~6000-8500) for every 3 yellow AP you have banked (max: 8 hits). While this power can obliterate the opponent under optimal conditions, the cost to do so is extremely high. 10 AP is a high cost on its own for a nuke that has no battery. But, to get the highest return on investment you ALSO need to hold 24 yellow AND wait 3 turns (or two turns and sacrifice damage per hit) for this power to pay dividends. While each hit can be boosted by the usual suspects (Okoye/Apocalypse)… those characters use yellow AP themselves to do said boosting (they also overlap Mags on red). While the roughly 67k damage you get for firing this under optimal conditions is nice, two of iHulk’s nukes (14 red) or anything Apocalypse does can get you there with much less hoops to jump through.
Magneto’s yellow power (Eternal Induction) costs only 6 AP and sees Magneto converting 3-4 tiles of a chosen color into protect tiles. If the power hits a friendly strike, attack or protect tile, he gives those tiles a small boost instead. While this is an adequate AP dump, the problem is you want him holding AP to stack hits for Polar Coordination. If that power relied on banking a different color (or this power wasn’t yellow), it’d be fine. But as it stands, firing this power means weakening his big nuke. Mag’s yellow also has a passive component, which for me, is the one thing that keeps him out of the trash bin. He makes protect tiles 30-40% stronger for EACH X-person on your team. There are over 10 5* with the X-tag (not to mention meta 4*s like Polaris and Juggs), so there are no shortage of great partners to beef up your protects.
Finally, Magneto’s red (Magnetic Inhibitor) costs 9 AP, creates two weak strike tiles and two 2-turn repeaters. When they tick down, the repeaters turn an enemy strike/attack/protect into a friendly strike tile. They also deal a decent chunk of damage (~5800 at 5 covers). This is another ability that clashes with Polar Coordination. When airborne, Magneto’s repeaters don’t tick down, and just sit there unfortified, waiting to be matched. While a bit counterintuitive, this is probably Mag’s best active power (it’s just unfortunate that it is costly and that there are plenty of better red powers in the game).
Ultimately, Magneto feels like a failed attempt at a counter-meta character who was dead on arrival due to how slow he is. His ability to both convert green and put protects on a color of his choice seem like a great option to shut down Immortal Hulk. That is, until you realize that by the time Mags has collected the AP needed to slow him down, his team was killed passively. Mags ability to convert enemy specials seems like a counter to Rocket, Bill, Polaris, Carnage, etc. That is, until you realize that by the time you collect 9 AP and then wait 2 turns just to nab 1-2 tiles, the board has been flooded with enemy specials. So why isn’t a slow, convoluted character with no self-synergy ranked lower? Essentially it’s his aforementioned yellow passive and new school match damage that put him above some lower tier 5s. If you play him for his red/yellow primarily and think of blue as something to cast in a pinch (instead of something to build around) he’s but not terrible. But the crazy amount of way better red/yellow users in the tier make him ultimately forgettable… which again is a real shame.
Pairings:
Magneto’s best role is likely going to be third wheel to Beta Ray Bill and Kitty (who unfortunately have better partners). Mags can make Beta’s tiles 80% stronger, allowing you to shrug off hits from passive AOE characters like Adam Warlock and Immortal Hulk on turn one, saving on health packs as Kitty buffs them each turn. While you are sacrificing the top/notch offense of Polaris or extra AP gains of Carnage by making Mags your third, you do get that stellar turn one protection. In pick 2, Mags doesn’t have that “must play” partner, which makes sense as his overall kit is clunky. If the essential is a special tile user, Kitty is an excellent pairing. Both do “special tile things” and benefit from X-Men affiliated partners. Continuing the X-theme, Xavier is probably Magneto’s best pick-2 partner as they cover four colors and boost defense by virtue of teaming together. Phoenix is nice as a red battery (as stated earlier, red is probably Magneto’s best active power). Looking beyond the X-Men, Green Goblin, while squishy, provides nukes on black/purple and can passively fortify Magneto’s repeaters. I’ve had some success with Carnage, despite red overlap. The idea is to have Magneto’s repeaters convert the enemy attack tiles that Carnage puts down. Daredevil is a serviceable partner, as he tanks two colors and can heal- which is needed as Magneto matches tend to be slower to win. Perhaps my favorite pairing that I’ve tried has been Yelena Belova. Since Magneto tends to be slow, having a character that slows the opposition down as well (while providing outlets on two additional colors) works surprisingly well. While none of these teams will put a dent in the meta powerhouse pairings, they are fun to play on early climbs.
#34) Gambit (Classic)
621
552
483
312
78
72
66 Health: 51,277
Recommended Build: 4/4/5
Alternate Build: 5/3/5 (if not pairing with other charged tile specialists)
Once upon a time, Remy Lebeau ruled the meta with an Iron fist like no one before or since. After much developer deliberation, he was hammered repeatedly with a nerf bat. What remains is a character that has tumbled down the rankings to middle of the pack. Gambit is now a double-edged sword, actively hurting teammates by blocking their purple/red actives and really limiting his team composition. However, with a very select few partners (discussed later) he can be pretty phenomenal still.
Gambit’s purple (Ragin’ Cajun) is a pricey 11 AP and sees him creating 3 countdown tiles that look to replace enemy attack/strike/protect tiles. When these tiles resolve, they do 8-10k damage each, which is pretty good IF you can get them to resolve (they usually all don’t make it).
Gambit’s red (Aces & Eights) is much cheaper at 7 AP. He destroys 2 charged or basic tiles (looking for the former first) and he deals around 3-4k damage for each charged tile he destroys. He then puts three charged tiles on the board. What this ultimately means is that on his own, the first cast of this power does almost nothing other than put some charged tiles on the board. But with the right teammates putting charged tiles on the board for him, he can spam you to death while simultaneously fueling his teammates (since you get AP for the destroyed tiles!).
Finally, Gambit’s black (Stacked Deck) is a passive power that places a 2-turn repeater when one doesn’t exist. When it resolves, Gambit gets 3 red and 3 purple AP (at 5 covers). Combined with his red, this makes Gambit a decent battery. However, he is mostly fueling himself due to a clause at the end of this power that states “Gambit’s allies may not fire Purple or Red Powers”. Ouch. Pretty selfish, Remy.
Overall, Gambit is bringing two things to the table. One, he has a decent purple nuke (albeit delayed by countdowns). Second, he pairs very very well with other charged tile specialists in the tier due to his red. With the right teammates he can destroy opponents. However, trying to stick him on a team outside of those that accelerate him can be a painful endeavor due to the last line of his power set. The Cajun would be much more fun to play and could be extremely versatile as a battery (though still not top tier) if this “block” were removed. But as it stands, Gambit’s lack of versatility is ultimately what drops him to mid-tier.
Pairings:
Tier 1: Storm, Black Bolt; tier 2: Cable; tier 3: Star-Lord, Silver Surfer, Hawkeye, Havok. Gambit’s tier 1 partners passively add charged tiles to the board, making Gambit’s red scary from the beginning. They also have no active overlap, making the “selfish” clause in Gambit’s black a non-issue. Cable similarly has no overlap, but relies on an active ability to put charged tiles on the board and get the ball rolling. This pairing is fun, because all of Cable’s charged tiles are green, meaning Gambit’s red directly fuel’s Cable’s powerful green. Tier 3 happens to be weaker characters in general (sans Havok), but they also have one power each that Gambit blocks, making them much less ideal pairings. So, Gambit’s “zone” is quite limited, but if he stays in his lane, he can be a monster. Outside his lane he is much slower, having to cast red twice to get it to do anything. He can still tag along with higher ranked characters that don’t actively overlap him like Doom, Beta Ray Bill, or even Black Suit Spidey (vs. strike tile teams) and do well enough. But those tier 1-2 characters are really where Gambit shines.
#33) Jean Grey (Phoenix)
550
489
428
276
69
64
59 Health: 42,480
Recommended Build: 3/5/5
Phoenix reminds me of that Kendrick Lamar album “Good kit… b.A.A.d numbers”. This pretty much sums up Jean in a nutshell. In her heyday she was an excellent red battery, a cascade creator, and had a top notch green AOE in a pinch. All of this is now done better by Thor (discussed later), so you don’t see Jean out and about that much. As it stands, she still has an excellent powerset (we can’t all be thunder gods), but having the worst match damage in the entire tier (especially when you want her tanking) hurts immensely.
Jean’s green (From the Ashes) creates a countdown tile when she is downed (even if she is stunned) that if resolved, revives her at about half health. This means that you essentially have to target her last… or just let the rebirth happen if there’s a bigger threat. Sadly, a 150% Phoenix’s health is still lower than many of the recent 5s. When she comes back to life, her green becomes Phoenix Force- a 9 AP ability that does 16k+ AOE damage to enemies and about 5k to her allies. This is some great damage for the AP, you just have to down and revive her to get there.
Purple (Psychic Rapport) is easily Jean’s best ability. For 8 AP she converts 7 basic tiles to red at 5 covers. This is great for triggering crits and cascades, and makes her an excellent red battery. She also has a passive that buffs friendly tiles (+624 each) and reduces enemy tiles (-520 each) on match 5s, which she is hoping to trigger firing this power.
Jean’s red (Psychic Flames) does low damage for the cost (~8800 for 9 AP), but also sees her putting down 4 strength 414 strike tiles. Unfortunately she also gives some very meaty attack tiles to her opponents (4 strength 1300 tiles!) if there are 5+ friendly specials on the board after firing this power. This makes the ability a double-edged sword where you have to think carefully about spamming all the red you collect. She is absolutely banking on the passive purple to help both buff her low tiles, as well as reduce their strong ones. The problem is that match-5s don’t happen super often, and are likely to occur BEFORE she fires this power (since the progression is purple into red).
Overall, Jean is a solid character. Her green passive is a great representation of her death/rebirth cycle and her green/red show her struggles controlling her power. She has some self-synergy where you want to chase purple- to fuel red- to spam specials- to buff with match 5s. Then, tank- die- revive- finish the opponent with a cheap team nuke. Her red could stand to be cheaper, less of a boost to the opponent and more to the player. Those critiques are all small compared to her having the lowest match damage in the tier and abysmal health. Phoenix dying and resurrecting is why you play her. But not tanking makes the dying part difficult to pull off (even coming in at half-health) unless paired with specific (usually older) partners, which can paint a target on your back. Another option is to play her as a red battery for other red users (and use green as an “in case of emergency” ability), though this is probably better in pick-3.
Pairings:
Though the meta has passed them by, Old Man Logan and Phoenix still make a fine pair for climbing early due to their true heal, strike tile synergy, and Logan shrugging off some of Jean’s friendly fire. True healers who don’t share too much active overlap in general (Doom, Heimdall, Loki, Okoye) could be options to mitigate Jean hurting her allies. Storm, is a good person to pair with her on a fun X-Men team due to the insane cascade potential of Phoenix purple and Storm yellow fired in succession. Deadpool, Magneto, Jessica Jones, Havok, Rescue and Immortal Hulk are good red outlets if you are looking to use Jean to fuel others. Hulk specifically is a dream pairing due to the damage he does to friendlies and his “must target last” clause allowing Phoenix to live a potentially longer life. But perhaps the best partner for Jean is Kitty Pryde (who unfortunately has better options). When Jean spams red, Kitty can get rid of the enemy attacks and buff the friendly strikes. While this team would be infinitely better without Kitty tanking 6/7 colors, they still make a good pair.
He’s really just a placeholder until I get a feel for Sinister and where he falls. And yeah I definitely thought of you when writing up Rescue and Ghostie. I know you are/were high on both, and was shocked how low they ended up being. I will say, I moved people around a ton right up until hitting post. And probably will again. Unchamped people that I don’t know if I have too high or low are Phoenix (though she’s almost champed), Star-Lord, and Bolt.