This right here. Just murders that team as long as you get Hulk out front.
I guess some lessons just need to be learned the hard way. 
They’re not going to be very durable when the opponent is quintuple-dipping on Grocket’s strikes by round 2, thanks to free Carnage attack tiles.
Not the first time this was brought up on the forum, and the most effective team has been named several times, but at some point in a previous discussion someone suggested Thing/4* Wasp/Medusa. Try to not make the first match with Thing, try hunt for yellow to invert his protect tiles.
It’s a little more health pack intensive than Carol/Rulk/4* R&G (I suppose, have not really tried that team so far. Guess I should…), but I find it gets the job done for the 1700 to 2000 climb in Season Sim. This is just a reasonable alternative for those that may want to try something else.
Yeah but honestly you can clear the board the strike tiles in a few turns, but then your back to full health by making matches. Once medusa gets stunned by Mr. F your good. So yeah the team may struggle but it can go up against it fine with the caveat of the right board.. I haven’t had to deal with the gamora grocket medusa team in quite some time but they really never gave me a hard time.
If you can clear the strikes, and after a ‘few turns’ you’ve lost someone, maybe two. Also, Medusa and Mr. F are burst healers so even if you do win it’s not like you’re saving yourself any health packs.
Don’t get me wrong, Carnage/Medusa/Mr.F are (in my opinion) one of the top 3 strongest 4-star teams. I leaned on them heavily for quite a while. But they are not a sensible counter to Grocket/Guardian/Medusa. I got slaughtered every time I attempted it and when I saw a cardusa team in sim I chose Grocket/Guardian to take them out every time with ease.
Also pairs amazingly with Shuri. I put off champing Reed forever, but when I actually champed him he became a favorite 4* of mine.
I actually use C4rol, Grocket and … Hulk. As in 3* Hulk! Have him tank, his anger countdowns go out that (unlike XPool and Rulk) do AoE damage AND create a bunch of green that will do subsequent damage! And of course C4rol boosts the strikes from Grocket. Who’d a thought, a version of Hulk in this game that actually serves a purpose?
rulk always needs a health pack after that match. sometimes he doesn’t take THAT much damage, but a lucky cascade easily takes a 50%+ hp rulk out.
no way im playing a third match without health packs, or you guys have another version of him
Rocket, Gamora, and Kraven makes short work of those teams. Try to protect the enemy strike tiles, and match Medusa’s countdown whenever you can. Kraven’s passive combined with the friendly strike tiles makes short work of the enemy team.
Medusa / Mr. F / Thing is a “slow but steady” team to take them down. As long as Thing doesn’t make the first match, he’ll drop his protect tiles on the first attack, which all but neuters Rocket’s strikes. Then you can match the rest away, gaining AP as you go for Reed’s blue stun and Thing’s green nuke. And if they match any of your protect tiles away, you get double burst heals plus green AP for Thing.
It’s junk on defense but nearly a guaranteed win against that ever present team on offense.
This thread is awesome. That team plagues the game for every one who tries any amount of PvP… So to see all of these suggestions is very cool and insightful.
To be honest, I was using Medusa/Lockjaw/Carnage for a while. I’d have to use health packs, but Lockjaw tanked and dealt damage back pretty often, especially after a Hair meddle. Just got tired of using the team after a while. Time to try a few of these suggestions!
Main Event Hulk/Medusa/Chavez might be a fun offense against this team, and MEHulk is coming up boosted soon. Make sure that you have your Main Event at 5/5/3 so that he crashes in and ideally gathers up AP for chavez while clearing out some of 4ocket’s strikes. then every turn he’ll do a random swap of 2 pairs of tiles which may or may not help you. Medusa should keep you going with AP/burst health as enemy specials get matched, and gamma powerbomb, particularly when boosted, is maybe my favorite move in the game for spectacular effect.
I wish I still saw this team, my PvP life would be so much easier.
I got to 2000 points in Shield Sim yesterday just chasing every Medusa/Rocket/Gamora (or other Guardian) match I could see
Carol/Rocket/Red Hulk is my jam - most matches, Carol and Rocket don’t even take damage, except for the occasional board without a single purple/red/green match available.
The nice thing about this team (and the one where XPool replaces Rulk) is that it adds lot of easy retal matches for the Rocket/Medusa/Gamora team (which I run to 1700 then switch to the Carol/Rocket/Rulk) because they are so weak on defense (target Carol first, Rocket second and Rulk 3rd and in all likelihood Rocket/Rulk will be stun locked by Gamora’s Blue thanks to matching enemy strikes).
So it’s a win-win all around for adding points / easy wins for everyone.
KGB
agreed - I was quickly knocked back about 150 points
Up until the very recent update to practically-unlimited saved covers, most of the four-star characters in this thread so far (XFDP, Thing, Mr.F, Rulk) were my least-covered characters.
My solution has generally been Daken, three-star Hulk, and four-star Cap’n Carol. I need a health pack after almost every round, but only one, and only for Hulk. And, once i stop finding Rocket teams, I stop needing Hulk, so I really only need (n-1) health packs overall.
As others have mentioned, a nice side-effect of rolling this team is that whoever I attack gets basically a “cupcake” to retaliate against since, after all, they’re mostly three-star characters. And then I get some, too. Overall points go up throughout the breaker, making it that much easier to hit progression early and go back to forgetting sim exists.
Why not this team:
OML + XFDP + Valkyrie
Just let them hit OML, who heals, and then hit them back with XFDP and free strikes from Valkyrie
As long as the 4* tier player has a yellow OML, sure. I’m sitting her with a 5 black, 2 red OML, so mine is pretty neutered.
Side note, that 3* hulk, Danvers, rocket combo is really good. Does the trick every time.
Try it. I lived in 4* land with this team for months. It’s almost impossible to die with this team. They ain’t fast, but damn if they ain’t resilient.
And it pretty much full heals every time one of them is matched (Medusa + Mr.F both heal on special tile match). The secret to the team is to NOT use the standard load-outs on most of the chars.
Carnage should be 5-5-3. Medusa at 5-4-4 (Maximize her healing, be able to steal all special tiles), and Mr. F at 5-5-3 (max his stun, protects, and heal).