Cosmic Crucible - Defensive Setup (Season 8) | Marvel Church (2024)

Intro

Choosing a defensive setup for Cosmic Crucible is not an easy task. We get Victory Points based on the number of turns we take to clear the Stage and your remaining Health. This practically means the best teams should be left for Offense and that you should pick your Defense from the teams that remain.

Essentially, you must leave 6-7 strong teams for your Offense. Then you need to pick the best Defensive setups for each Stage from the rest of your roster. The most viable strategy for Cosmic Crucible is to make sure that you can beat any enemy setup as fast as possible and without casualties.

Your Defense is meant to slow your enemy down and decrease their efficiency score. You won’t be able to win with Defense only, that’s why picking teams for Defense is always secondary, first and foremost you must make sure that you have strong Offensive options.

We will provide you with Defensive team suggestions for every Stage, that will follow those principles.

Important – with every new Season or new Update, this page will be updated accordingly with the current defensive META.

Let’s begin!

Season 8

Season 8 is back to the standard 3-month duration and will feature a Rank drop on season end. As is common at this point, we have new Global Rules and new Stage Rules. Defensive teams can still be Exhausted, so there will be a solution against most of the defenses.

Global Rules for this season will remain centered on Cabal characters, while the Stage Rules will feature a Revive Stage, that applies Revive Once to Villain characters, a Stage where Ultimates have shorter cooldowns, a Stage that applies negative effects to all characters on turn end, and more. The Stage rules are open enough to allow for a lot of creativity, so even if this season is longer, new characters and new teams will often find a place in one of the Stages, and CC won’t feel stagnant.

Exhausted will function similarly to how it does in War, where after each attack the defending characters will get a 20% decrease in their primary stats(Health, Damage, Focus, Resistance, Armor). Exhausted Effect can stack, so after two failed attempts the defending enemies will have their stats decreased by 40%. That should help minimize the situations where players are unable to complete any Stage. Cancelled attacks will not apply Exhausted.

Quick Setups

If you don’t want to go in-depth here are 2 examples of Quick Setups depending on your preference, for more detailed information or more alternatives simply scroll down.

Defense Heavy Setup:

• Stage 1 – Secret Defenders + Noir (no Strange)
• Stage 2 – Mercs For Money + Black Knight (no Deathpool)
• Stage 3 – X-Treme X-Men + Rogue and Vahl (no Sunspot, Cyclops)
• Stage 4 – Spider-Society + Captain America (Sam) [instead of Noir]
• Stage 5 – Superior Six + Doom (no Slayer)
• Stage 6 – Hive-Mind + Super Skrull (no Venom)

Offense Heavy Setup:

• Stage 1 – Infinity Watch
• Stage 2 – P.E.G.A.S.U.S.
• Stage 3 – X-Treme X-Men
• Stage 4 – Out Of Time
• Stage 5 – Darkhold/Black Order
• Stage 6 – Spider-Society

Our Current Setups

Below you’ll find the Defensive setups that we use, alongside the teams that will carry out the Offense.

KanaMC; Level 100; TCP – 60 Million; League – Platinum I League :

• Stage 1: Out Of Time – 1,9 mil
• Stage 2: P.E.G.A.S.U.S. – 2,3 mil
• Stage 3: X-Treme X-Men + Rogue and Vahl (no Cyclops, Sunspot) – 2,4 mil
• Stage 4: Spider-Society – 1,8 mil
• Stage 5: Undying + Vulture and Taskmaster – 1,7 mil
• Stage 6: Hive-Mind + Super Skrull (no Venom) – 1,8 mil

Teams that will carry out the Offense:

• Superior Six (2 mil)
• Secret Defenders (2,1 mil)
• Masters of Evil (1.7 mil)
• New Warriors (1,8 mil)
• Cabal (1 mil)
• Knowhere (2 mil)
• Gamma (1,7 mil)
• Darkhold (1,5 mil)
• Death Seed (1,45 mil)
• Invaders (1,25 mil)
• New Avengers (1,5 mil)
• War Dogs (1 mil)
• Black Order (1 mil)
• Plug-and-play characters: Apocalypse (768K), Ikaris and Sersi (770K), Weaver and 2099 (700K), Omega Red (392), Doctor Doom (347K)

Kana(alt); Level 100; TCP – 48 Million; Diamond I League :

• Stage 1: Out Of Time + Zombie Juggernaut (no Black Knight) – 1,7 mil
• Stage 2: Black Knight, Old Man Logan, Quicksilver, Nick Fury, Phoenix – 2,3 mil
• Stage 3: X-Treme X-Men + Rogue and Vahl (no Sunspot, Cyclops) – 2,6 mil
• Stage 4: P.E.G.A.S.U.S. – 2,1 mil
• Stage 5: Darkhold + Hela (no Scarlet Witch) – 1,3 mil
• Stage 6: Spider-Society + Red Goblin (no Noir) – 1,6 mil

Teams that will carry out the Offense:

• Secret Defenders (2,4 mil)
• Cabal (1,4 mil)
• Masters of Evil (1.2 mil)
• Superior Six (2,1 mil)
• New Warriors (1,1 mil)
• Eternals (520k)
• Death Seed (1.25 mil)
• Gamma (1,4 mil)
• Black Order (1.1 mil)
• Tangled Web (Weaver, Noir, and 2099) (1 mil)
• Plug-and-play characters: Apocalypse (841K), Super Skrull (640K), Void Knight (413K), Doctor Doom (190K), Nova (412K), Emma Frost (101K)

Global Effects –The Cabal Of Evil

• Cabal Characters count as Masters Of Evil

On Defense, all Characters:

• Gain +20% Health and +10% Damage.
• After each completed attempt, gain +1 Exhausted. Canceled attacks will not add Exhausted.

All Cabal characters will count as Masters Of Evil characters this season, improving the MoE/Cabal mixed teams players already use or allowing them to try new variations. The most meaningful effect we are getting from the Passive abilities of MoE characters, which will now also affect Cabal.

Kang – needs all 4 of his allies to be MoE for his Passive to apply Vulnerable on turn. He will also apply Speed Up on Spawn for 2 Turns to MoE allies. And will increase their Crit Chance (+40%) and Crit Damage (+20%)

Titania – provides +50% Max Health to all MoE allies.

Ultron – will provide +50% Armor to all MoE allies strengthening their overall defenses.

Moonstone – provides +150% Focus to MoE allies. This will help your Cabal when they are applying negative effects, especially on big punch ups.

Absorbing Man – will increase the resistance of MoE allies by +50%. This might not be as good on Offense, but if you’re using Cabal on Defense, he can be a great addition.

Stage 1 – Field Medic

Stage Effects:

On Defense and Offense, All Characters:

• On Turn, clear Vulnerable from self and heal +20% of Max Health for each Vulnerable removed this way.
• Characters with Vulnerable gain -25% Resistance.

This Stage can punish you if your characters apply a lot of Vulnerable effects to their enemies but can’t eliminate them before they take their turns. So if you are using teams like Cabal or full MoE on offense here you need to be wary of the rules. Otherwise, the rules might not affect you as much but you can’t completely ignore them or you might get some surprise losses. Any strong defensive team will fare well in this room, as you want someone who can’t be beaten quickly.

Best Defense – Mercs For Money + Black Knight
Optimal Defense – Secret Defenders+
Budget Defense – Infinity Watch/Unlimited X-Men

Mercs For Money+

Characters left-to-right:

• Pandapool
• Old Man Logan
• Deadpool
• Deathpool / Black Knight / Spider-Man (Noir)
• Daken

As the newest team that also includes the latest Legendary character – Old Man Logan, this team has great stats, which will ensure that they pose a serious threat, especially if Logan is built up pretty high. This team has tons of Revives, Logan can gain a huge amount of Speed Bar so he’ll take a lot of bonus turns and deal huge damage, apply Trauma to his enemies, and even Stun them. While this team can be very effective here, the next Stage might be even a better fit for them.

Deathpool can be easily replaced if you want to save the full New Warriors for offense. Instead, you can use Black Knight or Spider-Man (Noir). Black Knight will offer protection, which will prevent enemies from targeting Logan early on (and Panda is too slow to protect in time). As for Noir, he can get his first turn early on, thanks to his Passive (if enemies spawn with Buffs), and he’ll Ult, which can apply Bleed. This Bleed will trigger Logan’s Passive and will increase the Speed stat of the Mercs team, making them even more dangerous. Both options are good, but you can also experiment and try different plug-and-play characters to keep your enemies on their toes.

X-Treme X-Men+

Characters left-to-right:

• Sunspot
• Nightcrawler
• Gambit
• Cyclops
• Forge

It can be the full X-Treme or a mix, you could replace Sunspot with Rogue or Dormammu. Or you could even drop Sunspot and Cyclops and use Dormammu and Rogue

X-Treme X-Men are a dangerous team under any circ*mstances and the heals they will gain if they have Vulnerable effects on them will just slow down your opponents even more. If you have a strong Rogue, using her here will give you a big advantage, as characters with Taunt often end up with at least a few Vulnerables, which means that once she takes a turn she’ll heal up and can keep Taunting and protecting the team.

Secret Defenders

Characters left-to-right:

• Photon
• Ghost Rider (Robbie)
• Doctor Strange [or] Noir
• Black Cat
• Ms. Marvel (Hard Light)

Secret Defenders are overall a great team and they have a mercy mechanic that will apply Deathproof when they fall below 30% Health, which can work well with the Healing mechanic of this Stage. Since there are plenty of counters for SD, you can spruce it up by swapping Strange out and replacing him with Noir, Morgan Le Fay, or some other great plug-and-play characters.

Infinity Watch

Characters left-to-right:

• Moondragon
• Phyla-Vell
• Gamora
• Nebula
• Adam Warlock

Thanks to their On Spawn Safeguard and Immunity, Infinity Watch can be good in any room essentially. They always end up slowing your opponents and causing them to lose efficiency points and this room can help them with that if IW characters end up having Vulnerable’s on, which normally should always happen unless the enemy switches their Iso’s to avoid applying Vulnerable entirely.

Alternatives

Darkhold – Darkhold also Spawn with Safeguard and Defense Up, which can slow down your enemies. And if Wong manages to get his Taunt off, he can be hard to get through.

Gamma – additional healing that the Stage rules can provide may make Gamma an okay option here since that could buy your Red Hulk enough time for him to Ult, which will definitely Slow Down your opponent.

Unlimited X-Men – can also end up doing good here, you can even replace Gambit with another X-Men or a plug-and-play character so that your full X-Treme team is available for another Stage.

Most of the existing counters for these teams will still work but may take longer, meaning your opponents will have worse efficiency.

Stage 2 – Blood Transfusion

On Defense and Offense, All Characters:

• On Turn, gain Bleed.
• Characters with Bleed, gain +5% Damage per Bleed
• When applying Bleed, gain Defense Up.

These rules can end up punishing players who apply too many Bleeds to the opponents because that can add a lot of bonus damage to your enemies and if they do not die from those Bleeds, their attack might prove devastating. But overall, those situations might be rare. To improve your chances of a successful defense it is still recommended to use a team that does not apply Bleed.

The Bleed damage that the room applies is based on the character Max Health that the Bleed is applied to.

Best Defense – Mercs For Money + Black Knight
Optimal Defense – Out Of Time
Budget Defense – P.E.G.A.S.U.S.

Mercs For Money+

Characters left-to-right:

• Pandapool
• Old Man Logan
• Deadpool
• Deathpool [or] Black Knight
• Daken

Old Man Logan provides a bonus of +30% Speed for his whole team if any enemy has Bleed, making this Stage perfect for Mercs For Money. Ideally, you want to replace Deathpool with Black Knight (or another strong pre-taunt) so that your enemies can’t get to Logan before he takes his turn.

If your Mercs For Money are strong, this Stage will always either lure out your opponents’ strongest teams, which can leave them vulnerable in another Stage or will simply get you victories.

Out Of Time

Characters left-to-right:

• Captain Carter
• Cosmic Ghost Rider
• Starbrand
• Captain America
• Black Knight

Thanks to Starbrand’s Passive, Out Of Time characters will Spawn with Immunity, so they won’t be affected by Bleeds the Stage applies. The team can hold their ground fairly well, and Black Knight can deal some serious damage to your opponents’ efficiency score. That said, Black Knight’s counters do apply Bleed to your enemies, which will gradually increase their damage, so existing counters will still work.

P.E.G.A.S.U.S.

Characters left-to-right:

• Rescue
• Iron Man (Infinity War)
• Kestrel
• Darkhawk
• Ironheart (MK II)

P.E.G.A.S.U.S. can be an okay budget option for this Stage. Initially, they are slow, but once Rescue takes her turn she can apply Immunity and Speed Up to the whole team, meaning that Bleeds won’t affect them as much. Alas, you also won’t have the bonus damage from Bleeds.

Alternatives

Infinity Watch can always be a good alternative for most of the Stages, this one included, same goes for Gamma

You could even use teams that have a lot of Deathproofs, meaning that they can afford to get a lot of Bleeds and can potentially deal some huge damage before dying, like Bifrost, Black Order, etc.

Even Secret Defenders may pull off a win because they gain Deathproof when they fall below 30% Max Health. The only issue is that SD apply a ton of Bleeds on their own, so your enemies may end up with big Damage boosts from the Stage Rules. And the Bleeds that the Stage applies do not trigger Robbie’s Passive, so he won’t gain bonus Speed Bar from that.

Stage 3 – Double Tap

On Defense and Offense, All Characters:

• On Succesful hit, if the primary target has Exposed, perform an additional attack against the target. This attack is based on the attacker’s Basic.
• Characters with Exposed have -20% Resistance.

The rules of this Stage are fairly limited, as there are only a select few characters that can apply Exposed in the game right now. Characters like Vahl, Nightcrawler, Super Skrull, and Mephisto. Mephisto can apply Exposed to all enemies with his Pact on Spawn, but on defense, the AI will always choose his Ultimate Pact, which applies Exhausted. So he won’t perform any better on this stage.

Vahl can apply Exposed with their Special on their first turn, but the cooldown is long so they won’t be able to use it again soon.

Nightcrawler’s and Skrull’s Specials also apply Exposed and the cooldowns are quite short, so if you want to utilize the Stage rules, using X-Treme X-Men with Super Skrull might be your best bet. You could throw in Vahl as well. Alternatively, you could use any good team here and sub in Skrull and/ or Vahl.

Best Defense – X-Treme X-Men + Super Skrull
Optimal Defense – X-Treme X-Men + Vahl
Budget Defense – Bifrost

X-Treme X-Men+

See Also

Marvel Strike Force X-Treme X-Men Team Guide - One Chilled Gamer

Characters left-to-right:

• Sunspot [or] Super Skrull [or] Vahl
• Nightcrawler
• Gambit
• Cyclops [or] Rogue
• Forge

Nightcrawler and Super Skrull can both apply Exposed with their Special attacks, the cooldown on those abilities is also relatively short, so in a prolonged fight, all of your enemies might end up having Exposed. So if you want to efficiently use the Stage rules, this team gives you the best chance.

The best team setup would be having Rogue in a corner, with Nightcrawler next to her. Forge is in the opposite corner, with Skrull and Gambit in the remaining two spots.

There is also the option of dropping Gambit (especially if you want to use Unlimited in another Stage) and using Vahl instead, this will add another Exposed to your arsenal. Or if you want to save Skrull for Offense, you could use X-Treme with Vahl.

Bifrost

Characters left-to-right:

• Loki (Teen)
• Sylvie
• Vahl
• Loki
• Beta Ray Bill

Bifrost is a great budget option for this stage because Vahl can apply Exposed with their special, and since the team is fully assembled Vahl will have some good backup. Most players also have this team built up for Raids, and perhaps Vahl is even bigger because of Dark Dimensions.

There are plenty of existing counters for Bifrost and they will still function here, but if the enemy underestimates the team or punches up too high, you may end up with a win.

Secret Defenders

Characters left-to-right:

• Photon
• Ghost Rider (Robbie)
• Doctor Strange [or] Vahl
• Black Cat
• Ms. Marvel (Hard Light)

Secret Defenders are very fierce opponents on their own, but if we add Vahl to the mix this team might end up doing some serious damage. Vahl’s Exposed will synergize well with this team since nearly all of them have strong Basic attacks. They are also fast and if they hit the target with Exposed enough times, Vahl’s will have enough energy for the Ultimate, which can revive so not having Doctor Strange won’t be an issue. You can also use Skrull instead of Vahl here.

Alternatives

Superior Six – Superior Six are incredibly strong in Crucible, and with Super Skrull instead of Slayer they might end up being the stronger defense, compared to X-Treme. But there is a better Stage for Superior Six, that’s why it’s not recommended to use them here if you are intent on using them on defense at all.

You could also just use any strong team here, that isn’t needed elsewhere, and add Vahl or Skrull into the mix. Or completely ignore the Stage rules and place any good team here.

Stage 4 – Under The Weather

On Defense and Offense, All Characters:

• On Turn, clear all negative effects from this character.
• On Turn end, gain Defense Down, Offense Down, Slow, and Disrupted.

The best team for this Stage would be a team that can apply Immunity to themselves early on, or have more than 1 Turn of Immunity on Spawn and can prolong or re-apply it later. That will be true for both, Offense and Defense. To make matters worse, you can even have someone who can apply Trauma early on, meaning that enemies won’t be able to clear the negative effects on turn.

Best Defense – Spider-Society+
Optimal Defense – Out Of Time
Budget Defense – P.E.G.A.S.U.S+

Spider-Society

Characters left-to-right:

• Peni Parker
• Ghost-Spider
• Peter B. Parker
• Spider-Man (Noir)
• Spider-Man (Pavitr)

Spider-Society can be great for this room because they have tons of positive effects on Spawn, including Speed Up on Pav, which he can apply to his allies soon after. Peni’s Passive will also allow her to remove negative effects of an ally that Blocked an attack, and her Special will also apply Immunity, which will protect the team from the Stage Rules. After the initial round of immunity wears off, Peter B will have his Ultimate ready to go off, which will also apply Immunity.

You could also replace Spider-Man (Noir) with a good plug-and-play character. Captain America (Sam) is a great choice that will work well with the team.

Out Of Time

Characters left-to-right:

• Captain Carter
• Cosmic Ghost Rider
• Starbrand
• Captain America
• Black Knight

Immunity that Out Of Time characters have on Spawn will make them a good option for this Stage, (thanks to Starbrand) As a backup option, Captain America can also apply Immunity with his Special, so this team should be mostly protected, as long as your enemies do not flip your buffs.

P.E.G.A.S.U.S.

Characters left-to-right:

• Rescue
• Iron Man (Infinity War)
• Kestrel
• Darkhawk
• Ironheart (MK II)

P.E.G.A.S.U.S. can be a budget option for this stage as well. It will all come down to Rescue because her Ultimate can clear all negative effects and apply Immunity. Due to the fact that PEGASUS characters can gain reflexive Speed Up from Iron Man’s Passive, Rescue can end up taking her turn fairly quickly and if the enemy didn’t take out PEGASUS after their first wave of attacks, they might regret it. To introduce some more variables, you can replace Darkhawk with Dormammu, Doom, etc.

Gamma

Characters left-to-right:

• Brawn
• Abomination
• She-Hulk
• Red Hulk
• Hulk

Gamma can be considered for this if you don’t have anything better, She-Hulk’s Passive will activate after the team gets hit 5 times and will throw all of those debuffs back at the enemy. Brawn and Red Hulk will start with Immunity on, and Brawn can cleanse his allies and will apply Immunity to them after his first turn.

Alternatives

Infinity Watch gain only 1 turn of Immunity on Spawn, which means that after their first turn they will lose Immunity and the Stage will apply all of those debuffs, making IW a bad team for this stage so best to use them elsewhere.

Unlimited X-Men can do okay here, they will spawn with Safeguard and Defense Up, so will have some protection, and once Dazzler takes a turn she can flip all negative effects into positive.

Stage 5 – I’ll Be Back

On Defense and Offense, Villain Characters:

• On Spawn, gain Revive Once at 50% Max Health

For this Stage, you want to use a strong Villain team on Defense, the Revive Once will either help make your team even stronger, so that enemies waste their efficiency, or will allow your team to win entirely.

Best Defense – Superior SIx + Super Skrull
Optimal Defense – Darkhold+
Budget Defense – Black Order+

Superior Six

Characters left-to-right:

• Lizard
• Doctor Octopus
• Kraven The Hunter
• Green Goblin (Classic)
• Spider-Slayer [or] Super Skrull

For this stage, you want a team that consists of Villains, and Superior Six are all Villains so they will benefit from the Stage rules and will gain Revive Once. They are a hard team to beat as is, and they have only a few reliable counters. But if you include Super Skrull with them, that list gets even shorter, especially considering that they will have Revive Once. This team might be the one that will get you the most wins, either directly or indirectly, by pulling the strongest team to themselves and leaving your opponent with fewer offensive options for your other Stages.

Cabal +

Characters left-to-right:

• Namor
• The Leader
• Iron Patriot

Cabal is a very powerful Villain team, and this season they can be even scarier on defense, because this season they will have the Masters Of Evil tag, meaning that you could use Absorbing Man to increase the team’s Resistance, and Titania, to give Cabal +50% Health. Titania can also be fast in Crucible, so if she’s a Raider and crits on her attack, Cabal will gain Speed Up and your opponent might be in trouble after that.

The only point against using Cabal on defense is that they are a very powerful Offensive team, and if you include Kang and Titania, they could potentially counter any defensive team this season. But if you feel like you have enough offensive options, you can use them on defense.

Darkhold

Characters left-to-right:

• Wong
• Strange (Heartless)
• Scarlet Witch
• Morgan Le Fay
• Agatha Harkness

Darkhold can still be a good, or at least decent defensive team. Even though most players got used to them and have reliable counters, having Revive Once can mess up your attack if you don’t time the kills right with Weaver, or if you’re normally using another team. While it probably won’t cause a lot of losses, it can have an impact on your opponent’s efficiency score.

Scarlet Witch can be replaced by a strong Villain character you have left, Doom is a good option, or Omega Red. Dormammu will be redundant since they will already have Revive Once from the Stage rules, and you can’t have two Revive Once at the same time.

Black Order

Characters left-to-right:

• Ebony Maw
• Cull Obsidian
• Corvus Glaive
• Proxima Midnight
• Thanos

Black Order can be tough to get through because Thanos gains 100% Speed Bar early on and he will have a lot of positive effects, some of which he’ll share with his allies. With Revive Once, they can slow your opponent down even further. This team likely won’t end up winning much, but as a budget defense, they can do okay.

Alternatives

Hive-Mind – while only half of the team is a Villain, the one character that matters most in this case – Red Goblin is a Villain too. Red getting a Revive Once is important because he has a Passive mechanic that can also Revive another Hive-Mind ally. So the Villain Hive-Mind characters will be protected by the Stage Rules, and the Heroes can be Revived by Red Goblin. This can buy you enough time to deal a lot of damage to your opponent and trigger Carnage’s Passive.

Death Seed – Can be considered here since they’re mostly Villain, with the exception of Phyla. But you could replace her with someone else.

Undying – might also be a decent option, as long as you pair them up with some other strong Villains. Vulture will fit well here and Doom can be the fifth.

Stage 6 – Super Charged

On Defense and Offense, All Characters:

• After using an Ultimate Ability, spread all Positive Effects to Adjacent Allies
• Ultimate Abilities cost 2 less Ability Energy

This Stage is familiar to long-time players because we often see variations of the “Ultimates are cheaper” mechanic in CC. This time the spin is that after the Ultimate attack, that character will spread all of their Positive Effects to adjacent allies. A great team for this Stage would be one with devastating Ultimates and a lot of positive effects.

Best Defense – X-Treme X-Men
Optimal Defense – Spider-Society
Budget Defense – Infestation

X-Treme X-Men

Characters left-to-right:

• Sunspot [or] Super Skrull [or] Quicksilver
• Nightcrawler
• Gambit
• Cyclops [or] Rogue
• Forge

X-Treme will be a good fit here because they have some strong Ultimate abilities. Nightcrawler Spawns with Speed Up and will use his Ultimate on his first turn, which will also apply Speed Up to all allies. This will allow Forge to take his turn promptly, and he will apply even more positive effects to the whole team. Using Super Skrull, Dormammu, or Quicksilver here can also be very beneficial

Mercs For Money+

Characters left-to-right:

• Pandapool
• Old Man Logan
• Deadpool
• Deathpool / Black Knight / Spider-Man (Noir)
• Daken

One of the most important abilities on this team is Logan’s Ultimate, which will activate his Claws Out mechanic. This makes him extremely dangerous and while he won’t use it on his first turn, he will be much closer to it than in other Stages.

Infinity Watch+

Characters left-to-right:

• Moondragon
• Phyla-Vell
• Gamora
• Nebula
• Adam Warlock

Infinity Watch can also be a good option for this Stage, Nebula starts the fight with Speed Up and uses her Ult early, which means that she’ll spread all of her positive effects to her adjacent allies. The others also have some strong Ultimate abilities and they will be able to use those on their first turn.

You could also replace Phyla or Moondragon with Quicksilver. QS is overall a strong character and his Ultimate can be pretty dangerous, so he will slot in well with this team.

Hive-Mind+

Characters left-to-right:

• Void Knight
• Gwenom
• Venom [or] Super Skrull
• Carnage
• Red Goblin

Hive-Mind characters have some strong Ultimate Abilities, specifically Red Goblin’s Ultimate is fairly strong, and he can use it every second turn in this room. If coupled with Super Skrull, this team can be even more dangerous. Skrull will start with his Ultimate, which will deal a lot of damage, and if anyone on the enemy team falls below 25% Max Health, Carnage’s Passive will trigger and his team will gain bonus Speed Bar.

Spider-Society

Characters left-to-right:

• Peni Parker
• Ghost-Spider
• Peter B. Parker
• Spider-Man (Noir)
• Spider-Man (Pavitr)

Spider-Society can also be very good here because they have powerful Ultimate attacks and a lot of positive effects. Pav will start with his Ultimate, which will apply Speed Up to his teammates and can deal a lot of damage, then Peni can stun an enemy and flip all positive effects on your opponents, after which Ghost can use her Ult, dealing a lot of damage, too. As always, you could also replace Noir with a strong plug-and-play character.

Secret Defenders

Characters left-to-right:

• Photon
• Ghost Rider (Robbie)
• Doctor Strange
• Black Cat
• Ms. Marvel (Hard Light)

Secret Defenders can be an interesting choice for this Stage, while normally you want Photon or Black Cat to start with their Specials, they will use their Ultimates here first. If we place Black Cat between Robbie and Ms.Marvel or Photon, that can spread her 9 Deathproofs to her allies and make things more interesting.

You could also replace Strange with a plug-and-play character, like Quicksilver, Dormammu, etc. You could even use Big Time here, placing him adjacent to Robbie and Black Cat. Big Time will take his turn early and will start with his Ult, which should spread his Speed Up to his adjacent allies.

Out Of Time

Characters left-to-right:

• Captain Carter
• Cosmic Ghost Rider
• Starbrand
• Captain America
• Black Knight

Have a lot of positive effects they can get early on, and some characters, like Captain Carter and Captain America, will start with their Ultimates, which will spread those buffs.

Alternatives

Black Order can also slot in well on this stage, and so can New Avengers and Infestation if you have any of the teams big enough.

in terms of other alternatives, you could use any other strong team that has a lot of positive effects and dangerous Ultimates.

Additionally, you can make a ragtag team of strong characters, and use Spider-Man (Big Time) with them. He Spawns with Speed Up and after using his Ultimate, he can spread that to his adjacent allies. The same principle can apply to Tangled Web, where Spider-Man 2099 spawns with Speed Up.

Conclusion

Season 8 is back to the old duration – approx 3 Months, so the most of the fun will come of having new teams and new characters. The first such team is Mercs For Money, where Old Man Logan can cause some mayhem. With more teams and characters coming in the future.

The Stage rules are fairly open, so we shouldn’t end up with situations where it grows dreadfully stagnant and everyone uses all of the same defenses.

Once Season 8 ends, we will experience a drop in our Ranks, so we need to use this time to climb as high as we can. We will keep a close eye on Defensive trends and what works best for each Stage and will update this page when we find anything better. We are also open to your suggestions, the best place to contact us is on our Discord.

Thank You for supporting Marvel Church