I think this was another effect of the 900 lb. gorilla Gambit was. He was as close to plug and play as MPQ gets. It made us mindless ones as we just waited for our ap gen and the drain of their ap to tilt the situation then we barreled to victory.
We are now back to the way it was before M. LeBeau arrived. You would take damage. You were never 100% sure of victory until both 5* or boosted 4* were gone. You had to consider the board and think if it was unfavorable enough you had to play defense.
i hated the automatic win condition Gambit brought to the game. I am losing more, spending more on healthpacks, and never happier playing.
It will become easier as we unshackle ourselves from the Gambit automaton and have to actually drive again.
It might be a bit more random, but it’s also a lot more open to a variety of teams.
Case study.
I run Thor/JJ/Okoye in Sim. I got my 2k reward, and have since been knocked back down to 1500 - so clearly, clearly, there are teams that can beat JJ/Thor.
Going through the current retaliation nodes (and teams that are beating me as I type this, haha), these are some of the teams that defeated the so-called ‘meta’ duo (all 5*):
Thor, DD, AA
Thor, Cap, AA
Thor, Okoye, DD
Spidey, DD, OML
Gambit, BB, JJ
Thanos, Panther, DD
I’m sure there might have been one before this latest group, but there isn’t actually a Thor/JJ team among them.
Those two are not unbeatable and - more importantly - they’re defeatable with a range of other teams. You don’t need your own Thor/JJ combination to take them down. (As with Gambit, most of the time.)
Thor/JJ are a little annoying in PvP because you don’t get to choose a decent third party member, but I still get people hitting me and winning. So, again, people are clearly still able to destroy them there, too.
Don’t ‘match and pray’. Think about teams that can go against them, or that have a good skill set / power interaction of their own. Nothing is auto-win on defense anymore. It’s great.
I climbed in the last PVP and shield at 1000 with 1 hit that the enemy lost to me. I take random teams through entire climb then switch to gambit bolt near end. I run gambit 5/4/4 now and use bolt yellow on him. I was running him 5/5/3 because I find his black just gets matched away most of the time so I do not rely on it. Having him 5/4/4 I think is fine as it gets you 3 red ap and slightly less dmg. The red damage is not actually THAT bad compared to other 5*. You generate some AP, create 3 charge tiles and do some okay damage. If your charge tiles you blow up are purple or red then the damage will be much better.
I was on the fence at selling gambit but decided to actually try him in last few PVP and find him to be fine now.
Are you suggesting JJ be nerfed after the Thor?
Why always with the ‘nerf’ hints/suggestions lately? How about some useful suggestions that add more checks and balances to the game. If JJ’s traps are to powerful how about adding a passive to 5* hulk which when he steps on a trap that damage is negated and he goes nuts smashing everything in sight (clears the board with no AP gain). Or perhaps Archangel has a passive that he is immune to traps since he flies over the terrain and even allows him to see traps. I’d much rather see more planning added in the game where if you fight character ‘x’ you might want to counter with character ‘y’. Is Thor’s half/health self is to powerful?.. then add to doc oc a long lasting 5* stun with a ‘side-affect’ of healing the stunned character to 55% health. Or of course we could nerf all 5* characters worthlessly into being equally bleh.
Nerf them all!!!
I like that as a theoretical idea, but the problem is that most people in 5* territory only have a select few 5s that are champed and usable. Lots of people have 90% of the 4s and could counter in a system like that, but with 5*s most people would just have to continue using their strongest overall team and push through.
If they wanted people to be able to counter opposing teams with appropriate squads, they’d have to make those characters much more easily obtainable.
Wait you didn’t sign up for Marvel RNG Quest?
So far I have run JJ/Thor AA/Thor, GR/Thor, DD/Thanos, Panthos, JJ,AA IWcap/Thor. I have not really used PP or 5Eye in PVP yet but have considered it. Overall it has been fun, but frustrating.
You end up to use more health packs than before becuase with 5* health the enemy is more likely to get a power to fire. With Gambit his AP denial would keep AP down and once you downed the enemy gambit you were clear sailings. The 5* tier is now deep and strong. I understand the OP feeling like it is not in tour control since beating Gambit teams was wait for gambit to fire red and purple then you start firing your red and purple. Now you can take a lot more damage and the simple strategy is no longer there.
i prefer this meta as I wanted to use more of my 5* and if it means trying new teams and dying a couple times I’m good with that.
I believe that was a sarcastic callback to an utterly insane thread demanding 5* Thor be nerfed.
I was certainly curious how this was all playing out post-Gambit nerf, I appreciate the insight from all of you. I have 6 fully covered 5-stars now, and for the most part none of them are being talked about as serious options for climbing. Main people I’m seeing are:
Thor - 3/3/2, not happening anytime soon
JJ - 2/5/0, LOL
DD - 4/3/5, cover is coming after 7 more Kingpin covers, but not BH’ing him currently
Thanos - 4/5/3, would need to get Gamora to 340 to finish
Okoye - 2/3/3, my odds aren’t horrible given how much longer she’ll be in tokens, but still low
Black Bolt - 3/3/4, Medusa would finish him at 360, she’s 307 now 
OML - 5/3/2, XFW would finish him at 360…he’s at 280
It sounds like DD & Thanos could potentially be viable, but they’re nothing to the Thor/JJ combo, or Okoye it sounds like. With the return to full dilution I was seriously considering going ahead and making the jump, since who knows when I’ll finish these newer 4s. But at the same time I didn’t want to move up with a 5-star roster that’s just going to get clobbered in PVP.
@BoyWonder1914 I’d save up and focus on getting Okoye+Loki. Seems like a viable duo. Maybe BH her and spend all your CP on LTs once Cap leaves and Loki is in.
Or if you’ve got any kind of CP hoard maybe try the upcoming special store. Could finish off Thor and BB if you’ve got enough. I’d also push for that final DD cover (either via Kingpin or BH). He’s pretty useful, especially with the constant heal once he hits 50%.