Cosmic Crucible - Team Counters (Season 7) | Marvel Church (2024)

Intro

In ourCosmic Crucible-best Defense Teamsarticle, we suggested what teams are justified to be placed on CC Defense. This page will offer Counters for the defenses that we suggested as well as the most popular defenses you might encounter

IMPORTANT – As the new Crucible Season starts things may change quickly and this page will be updated continuously. Step-by-step descriptions of Counters and Video Guides will be added as the Season goes on.

Explanation

On each Stage you will see the name of the Defensive team and a list below, with possible counters. At the Top of the page, we have a list of Teams and with a simple click on the team’s name, you will be instantly transferred to their list of counters with a brief explanation for each counter. Next to each counter team, you will see a symbol representing Punch Ups.

Here is the list of symbols:

• 10% Punch Down – ▼
• Even match up – ⊜
• 5% Punch Up – ▲
• 10% Punch Up – ▲▲
• 20%+ Punch Up – ▲▲▲

Season 7

Season 7 introduces new Global and Stage Rules but it also keeps the best recent addition – Exhausted Effect

[Exhausted Effect]After each Defensive victory, that team will have Exhausted applied to them. The Effect can stack up, each time reducing the stats (Damage, Armor, Resist, Focus, and Damage Reduction) by 20%. So if the defensive team manages to defend itself 2 times, then by the third battle their Stats will be reduced by 40%. This Effect cannot be cleared. Canceled Attacks Do Not apply Exhausted.

Global Rules keeps the focus on Cabal as the marquee team this season, while Villains gain some small bonuses when paired with Cabal (they will gain Barrier on Turn).

Cabal’s bonuses will allow them to apply Vulnerable effects on a successful hit, which can allow for different Iso combinations for Cabal this season. Global Rules will also improve the damage of Cabal by +200% when they drop below 25% Max Health, which will make their attacks even more dangerous.

Every counter listed below should function as intended based on our experience and theory-crafting. But as the season goes things will change, we might find some counters work better, others worse, so this page will be constantly updated, which is especially true for the first couple of weeks of the season. Our goal is to make the best Counters List so feel free to contact us on Discord if you find a good defense or counter that is not yet listed.

Stage 2 – Raid On Crucible

On Defense and Offense:

• Room counts as a Raid
• Lower Resistance and Healing by 50%

Possible Defensive Teams in Stage 2 (click on the team’s name to scroll to the them):

• Bifrost
• P.E.G.A.S.U.S.
• Spider-Society
• Hive-Mind
• X-Treme X-Men
• Rebirth
• Invaders
• Death Seed

Bifrost

• Hive-Mind ▲▲▲ (Video Here)
• Death Seed ⊜
• Death Seed + Apocalypse (instead of Psylocke) ▲▲
• New Warriors ▲ (Video Here)
• P.E.G.A.S.U.S. ▲ (drop Kestrel and use Apocalypse/Super Skrull)

Death Seed – start the battle by using Magneto’s Special on Sylvie, then follow up with Archangel’s Special or Ultimate on her (if she’s low health – Special). The focus is to eliminate her quickly and gain the Speed bar advantage.

After that, you should use Dark Beast’s Ultimate on Vahl. Important to note that you need T4’s invested in Dark Beast’s Passive since he will always flip positive effects into negative on an enemy with the highest speed (Vahl in this case). His Passive and his Ultimate give you a good enough chance to land an Ability Block on Vahl. And if you follow it up with an Ultimate from Nemesis, Vahil will also have Trauma applied to them. If you get to this point, the win is almost certainly yours. You might lose 1-2 characters to Beta Ray Bill’s Ultimate, but if you focus down Vahl then not much can go wrong. If Vahl is much bigger than your strongest DS members, but other Bifrost members are low, you can eliminate them first, just make sure to keep Vahl Ability Blocked. Additionally, if Vahl resisted Dark Beast’s Passive and still has Immunity when you get to his turn, use his Special on Vahl instead. Normally that will buy you enough time to Ability block Vahl later.

New Warriors – will depend entirely on Gwenpool’s opening attack. If her Special Ability manages to flip Immunity on everyone, most importantly on Vahl you will win. At that point, you can focus on Vahl and use Firestar’s Ultimate, and Deathpool’s Special, then just go through the motions. Since Gwen’s Opening attack is crucial, it’s worth giving her the Skirmisher Iso class.

P.E.G.A.S.U.S. – as another Raid team, Pegasus will have the Speed advantage and will be able to win vs Bifrost before they can do anything. The most important thing here is to drop Kestrel because if you do end up taking Kestrel in, that’ll trigger Teen Loki’s Passive Ability and will apply Safeguard to everyone, at which point you lose. Instead of Kestrel, you can use Apocalypse or Super Skrull and they will help carry the fight. Its possible to win using other options, but its less reliable.

Hive-Mind – start with Void Knight’s Special on Sylvie, which will prevent her from doing a mass rewind on your team. At that point, you need to start hitting the weakest Bifrost members until they drop below 25% Health. This counter works best if the enemy team is unevenly built and some characters are weaker (Loki, Loki Teen, Sylvie, etc) because then your Hive-Mind will be able to get them low Health and that will generate a lot of Speed Bar for your team, which will allow you to control the fight and win.

One good thing to do is to hide Gwenom in a corner, opposite the character with the highest Health (usually it’s either Venom or Void, pay attention to who gets Taunt on Spawn in Raids) Place Red Goblin and Carnage next to that character. That way, after you use Void’s Special on Sylvie she will use her Basic, which rewinds the Speed Bar a little. And because of the placement, she won’t hit Gwenom which will allow Gwen to take a turn before Red Goblin, and she will apply Offense Down to everyone, which means that their counterattacks won’t hit as hard.

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

• Bifrost ▲▲▲ (Video Here)
• Superior Six + Apocalypse (instead of Spider-Slayer/Lizard) ▼
• P.E.G.A.S.U.S. ▼▼
• X-Treme X-Men ▼▼▼

Bifrost will win, because once Kestrel takes a turn they gain Safeguard, on top of already having a bunch of positive effects, including Immunity. This means that enemy team won’t be able to cause a lot of harm, and once Sylvie takes a turn the fight is won. Focus on eliminating Rescue first, and then the others.

Pegasus mirror match will be a coin flip as to who gets to take the first turn, you or the enemy. If it’s you, once your Darkhawk rewinds them with his Ultimate you’re going to win, as long as you eliminate Rescue quickly. If the enemy gets to take the first turn they will deal some damage but as long as they don’t target Rescue, you can still win. That said, it is safer to do this on a punch down.

Spider-Society

• Hive-Mind + Super Skrull/Apocalypse (instead of Venom) ▲▲
• Bifrost + Super Skrull (instead of Beta Ray Bill) ▲▲
• Cabal + Kang and Titania ▲
• Bifrost ▼▼
• Hive-Mind + Spider-Man Pavitr (instead of Venom) ▼▼

X-Treme X-Men

• Hive-Mind ▲▲▲ (Video Here)
  • Hive-Mind (if X-Treme have Dormammu) ▲▲ (Video Here)
• Bifrost ▲
• P.E.G.A.S.U.S. ▲

X-Treme X-Men can be vulnerable early on, while Forge still hasn’t used his Ultimate. If you Ability Block him and eliminate him first, it will be easy to deal with the rest as well. Hive-Mind is the best option for this since Void Knight will be able to apply Ability Block to everyone and once they Forge is gone they’ll crumble. Pegasus will also have the overall Speed advantage, and Ironheart can start by using her Ultimate on Forge, which will Stun him. In terms of Bifrost, Sylvie will take her turn before Forge, and can rewind the whole team, after which you can Ability Block Forge and eliminate him.

Hive-Mind

• Cabal + Kang and Titania ▲▲▲ (Video Here)
• Bifrost + Deathpool (instead of Beta Ray) ▲▲▲
• Bifrost ▲▲
• Secret Defenders ▲
• Secret Defenders + Apocalypse (instead of Dr. Strange) ▲▲▲

Cabal + Kang and Titania can win easily, even on big punch ups. Kang will go first because he will gain bonus Speed Bar from Hive-Mind spawning with Speed Up. His Passive attack will remove Speed Up from Hive-Mind, and after that use his Special on the character with Taunt, that, or the Striker follow up, should deal enough damage to drop that target below 50% which will clear Taunt. After that, use Titania’s Ult to Ability Block Void Knight. Once Cabal members start to take their turns the fight will be over.

Bifrost will quickly gain Safeguard, once Void Knight takes a turn, which will make this fight an easy on. The focus should be on taking down Red Goblin first, and then everyone else. Additionally, do not summon minions with Loki. And make sure that you don’t have any very weak characters that stick out, your TCP should be more or less balanced between the 4 Bifrost members, while Vahl should be the biggest.

Bifrost with Deathpool will have the Speed advantage because of Deathpool’s Passive and Sylvie will take the first turn. After that it’s pretty easy, just focus on getting Ability Block on Void, and eliminating Red Goblin first. This counter can even work if Hive-Mind has Super Skrull instead of Venom.

Secret Defenders will prevent Hive-Mind from Spawning with Speed Up (Black Cat’s Passive), which allows Ms. Marvel to be the first to take a turn. Use her Ultimate on Void Knight to rewind him, then either Stun him with Black Cat or Ability Block him with Robbie. The focus is to eliminate Red Goblin first, then Void Knight and Carnage. Make sure not to use very weak characters, if Strange is under-leveled you can replace him with any well-built character that you won’t need anywhere else.

Rebirth

• Bifrost ▲▲▲
• Hive-Mind ▲▲▲
• X-Treme X-Men ▲▲▲
• P.E.G.A.S.U.S. ▲▲▲
• Superior Six ▲▲▲
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲▲
• Masters Of Evil ▲▲
• New Warriors ▲▲
• Secret Defenders ▲
• Death Seed ▼▼
• Tangled + Eternals ▼▼

When fighting Rebirth in this Room, you need to be the one to take the first turn, and the task is to Stun/Ability Block or eliminate Carter because if she gets to her first turn she will apply Safeguard to her team, and once Cap America Taunts they will have a great defensive position, which might net them a victory, or at the very least they will eat away at your efficiency points.

Death Seed

• Bifrost ▲▲▲
• Hive-Mind ▲▲▲
• X-Treme X-Men ▲▲▲
• P.E.G.A.S.U.S. ▲▲▲
• Superior Six ▲▲▲
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲▲
• Death Seed ▲▲▲
• New Warriors ▲▲
• Masters Of Evil ▲▲
• Darkhold + Rhino (instead of Scarlet Witch) ▲
• Secret Defenders + Rhino (instead of Doctor Strange) ▲

Invaders

• Bifrost ▲▲▲
• Hive-Mind ▲▲▲
• X-Treme X-Men ▲▲▲
• P.E.G.A.S.U.S. ▲▲▲
• Superior Six ▲▲▲
• Masters of Evil ▲▲▲
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲
• New Warriors ▲▲
• Death Seed ▲▲
• Eternals +3 ▲
• Gamma ▲
• War Dogs ▲
• Darkhold ▲
• Rebirth ▼

Superior Six

• Super Skrull + Doom + 1 Villain + 2 Heroes ▲▲
• Superior Six + Apocalypse (instead of Spider-Slayer or Lizard) ▲▲
• Superior Six ▲
• Out Of Time ▼▼

Secret Defenders

• New Warriors ▲▲▲
• Superior Six ▲▲▲
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲
• Out Of Time ▲▲
• Secret Defenders (without Strange) ▲▲
• Masters Of Evil ▲

If Secret Defenders have Noir instead of Strange, New Warriors might fail, to negate that you can replace Dagger with Lizard or any pre-Taunt, and place that character in a corner.

In a Secret Defenders mirror match you want your Hard Light to go after the enemy Hard Light, that way you will remove that Taunt from them (and not the other way around). So if the enemy team uses full SD, you can drop Strange and use someone else, which will force enemy Hard Light to go first. After just focus on eliminating Robbie first.

Out Of Time

• Superior Six ▲▲
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲
  • Cabal+Doom+Omega Red ▲▲▲ (Video Here)
  • Cabal+Doom+Vulture ▲▲▲ (Video Here)
• Undying + Apocalypse + Void Knight ▲▲
• Secret Defenders + Void Knight/Apocalypse (instead of Dr. Strange) ▲▲
• Hive-Mind + Apocalypse (instead of Venom) ▲
• New Warriors ▼▼
• Hive-Mind ▼▼▼

• Masters of Evil ▲▲▲
• New Warriors ▲▲▲ (Video Here)
• Out Of Time ▲▲▲
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲
• Secret Defenders ▲▲
• Unlimited X-Men ▲▲
• P.E.G.A.S.U.S. ▲

Gamma + Apocalypse

• Superior Six ▲▲▲
• Secret Defenders + Apocalypse ▲▲▲
• Secret Defenders + Quicksilver ▲
• Apocalypse + Nova + Doctor Doom + Cable + Pre-Taunt ▲

Rebirth

• Superior Six ▲▲▲
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲▲
• X-Treme X-Men ▲▲
• Hive-Mind ▲▲
• Masters Of Evil ▲▲
• New Warriors ▲▲
• Unlimited X-Men ▲▲
• Secret Defenders ▲▲
• War Dogs ▲
• Black Order ▼
• Death Seed ▼▼
• Tangled + Eternals ▼▼

War Dogs

• Superior Six ▲▲▲
• Masters of Evil ▲▲▲
• Gamma ▲▲
• Tangled Web+2 ▲▲
• Unlimited X-Men ▲▲
• Black Order ▲▲
• Infinity Watch ▲
• Darkhold ▲
• Eternals + pre-Taunt +2 ▲
• Death Seed ⊜

New Avengers (full or with Nick Fury)

• Masters Of Evil ▲▲▲
• New Warriors ▲▲▲
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲▲
• Superior Six + Vulture (instead of Slayer) ▲▲▲
• Out Of Time ▲▲▲
• Hive-Mind ▲▲▲
• X-Treme X-Men ▲▲
• Darkhold ▲▲
• Gamma ▲▲
• P.E.G.A.S.U.S. ▲▲
• Secret Defenders ▲▲
• War Dogs ▲▲
• Eternals +2 (with a Pre-Taunt in a corner) ▲
• Black Order ▲

Stage 4 – Unstable Energy

On Defense and Offense,VillainCharacters:

• Ultimate Abilities cost 2 less Ability Energy
• Lower Max Health by 25%

Possible Defensive Teams in room 4 (click on the team’s name to scroll to them):

• Superior Six+
• Hive-Mind+
• Super Skrull + Doom + Vulture +2
• Black Order

Superior Six

• Superior Six + Super Skrull (instead of Spider-Slayer) ▲▲▲
• Super Skrull + Doctor Doom + 1 Villain + 2 Heroes ▲▲
• Superior Six + Apocalypse (instead of Spider-Slayer) ▲
• Super Skrull + Nova + Vahl + Hela + Pre-Taunt ▼
• Eternals + Doctor Doom + Spider-Man (Noir) + 2 ▼

When using Super Skrull with Doctor Doom, place Skrull in the corner and Doom next to him. Start with Skrull’s Basic on Lizard, then use Special on Green Goblin (Classic). Skrull will take 2 turns one after the other, and Green Goblin will counter after both attacks, the splash damage from those counters should trigger Doom’s Passive, and after you use his Ultimate, he will take 3 turns, and then Skrull will take 3 turns, that should be enough for the win.

Eternals/Noir/Doom counter works by similar principles as the above, Noir will take the first turn and if you use his Special, he will gain enough Speed Bar to take another turn. He should be placed in a corner and Doom next to him. After Doom gets triggered by Goblin’s counters, he will give Ikaris +300% Turn Bar. (Ikaris needs to be GT18)The damage from Ikaris should be enough to clear the team, focus on taking out Doc Oc first.

Super Skrull/Doom/Vulture +2

• Superior Six + Apocalypse (instead of Slayer) ▲
• Super Skrull, Vulture, Emma Frost, Doctor Doom ▲

Hive-Mind

• Superior Six ▲▲▲
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲▲
• Masters Of Evil ▲▲
• Hive-Mind ▲
• Void Knight, Emma Frost +3 (damage dealers or strong controllers) ▼
• Tangled Web + 2 ▼▼

Hive-Mind + Super Skrull (instead of Venom)

• Cabal + Kang and Titania ▲▲
• Superior Six + Super Skrull (instead of Slayer) ▲
• Super Skrull + Vahl + 1 Hero and 2 Villains ▲
• Super Skrull + Vulture + Doctor Doom + Cable +1 ▲
• Cabal + 2 Villains ▲
• Superior Six ▼▼▼

Black Order

• Masters of Evil ▲▲▲
• Superior Six ▲▲▲
• New Warriors ▲▲
• Out Of Time ▲▲
• Unlimited X-Men ▲▲
• Darkhold ▲▲
• Gamma ▲
• Infinity Watch ▲
• Black Order ▲
• Tangled Web+2 ▲
• Eternals + Loki + pre-Taunt +1 ▲

Stage 5 – Flash Bang

Darkhold(full or with Quicksilver instead of Scarlet Witch)

• Superior Six▲▲▲
• Secret Defenders + Apocalypse (instead of Dr. Strange)▲▲▲
• Apocalypse+Nova+Kestrel+Cable▲▲▲
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲▲
• Tangled Web + Kestrel + Iron Man (Infinity War) + Nova▲▲
• Secret Defenders▲▲
• Out Of Time ▲▲
• Apocalypse+Doctor Doom+Nova+Cable▲▲
• P.E.G.A.S.U.S.▲
• Tangled Web + Nova + Korg + Thor (Infinity War)▼

Infestation

• Masters Of Evil ▲▲▲
• New Warriors ▲▲▲ (Video Here)
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲▲
• Out Of Time ▲▲▲
• Superior Six + Vulture (instead of Slayer) ▲▲▲
• Secret Defenders ▲▲
• Darkhold ▲▲
• Hive-Mind ▲▲
• Gamma ▲▲
• Death Seed ▲▲
• Infinity Watch ▲
• Eternals + Red Guardian ▲
• Unlimited X-Men ▲▲
• War Dogs ▲▲

War Dogs

• Superior Six ▲▲▲
• Masters of Evil ▲▲▲
• Gamma ▲▲
• Tangled Web+2 ▲▲
• Unlimited X-Men ▲▲
• Black Order ▲▲
• Infinity Watch ▲
• Darkhold ▲
• Eternals + pre-Taunt +2 ▲
• Death Seed ⊜

Death Seed

• Superior Six ▲▲▲
• New Warriors ▲▲▲
• Unlimited X-Men ▲▲▲
• Masters of Evil + Rhino (instead of Ultron) ▲▲
• X-Treme X-Men ▲▲
• Infinity Watch ▲
• Gamma ▲▲
• Death Seed ▲▲▲
• Tangled Web + 2 ▲▲▲
• Darkhold ▲
• Rebirth ▼▼

Secret Defenders+

• Superior Six ▲▲▲
  • Superior Six ▲▲ vs SD, MLF, Dorm (Video Here)
  • Superior Six ▲▲▲ vs SD with Noir (Video Here)
• New Warriors ▲▲▲ (use Lizard instead of Dagger if SD has Noir)
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲▲
• Masters Of Evil ▲▲▲
• Secret Defenders +1 (instead of Dr. Strange) ▲▲
  • Secret Defenders with Lizard vs SD with Dorm ▲ (Video Here)
• Void Knight + Apocalypse + pre-Taunt + 2 ▲▲
• Super Skrull + 2 Heroes + 2 Villains ▲

Out Of Time

• Superior Six ▲▲
• Undying 3 + Apocalypse +1 ▲▲
• Cabal +2 Villains ▲▲
• Undying + Apocalypse + Void Knight ▲▲
• Secret Defenders + Void Knight/Apocalypse (instead of Dr. Strange) ▲▲
• Hive-Mind + Apocalypse (instead of Venom) ▲

List of Video Counters

Week 1 Video

• [St 1] Masters Of Evil (1,6 mil) VS Darkhold+Quicksilver (1,8 mil)
• [St 1] Cabal with Morgan Le Fay and Omega Red (1,2 mil) VS X-Treme with Dorm (no Gambit) (2 mil)
• [St 1] Masters Of Evil with Namor and Iron Patriot (1,5 mil) VS X-Treme with Rogue (2,2 mil)
• [St 2] Hive-Mind (1,5 mil) VS X-Treme X-Men (2,1 mil)
• [St 2] Hive-Mind (1,5 mil) VS Bifrost (2,2 mil)
• [St 2] New Warriors (1,6 mil) VS Bifrost (1,8 mil)
• [St 3] Superior Six with Vulture (2,1 mil) VS X-Treme with Rogue (2,1 mil)
• [St 3] Cabal with Doom and Omega Red (1,5 mil) VS Out Of Time (1,9 mil)
• [St 5] New Warriors (1,6 mil) VS Infinity Watch (1,8 mil)
• [St 5] Secret Defenders with Apoc and Void (2,6 mil) VS Out Of Time (2,3 mil)
• [St 6] Superior Six (2 mil) VS Secret Defenders with Dorm and MLF (2,3 mil)

Week 2 Video

• [St 1]Superior Six VS X-Treme with Rogue
• [St 1] Secret Defenders with Super Skrull VS X-Treme X-Men with Rogue
• [St 1] Tangled Web with Kestrel VS Bifrost
• [St 1] Tangled Web with Red Hulk, Archangel, and Emma Frost VS Tangled Web and Undying
• [St 2] Hive-Mind VS X-Treme X-Men with Dorm
• [St 2] Hive-Mind VS Bifrost
• [St 2] Bifrost VS P.E.G.A.S.U.S.
• [St 2] Cabal with Kang and Titania VS Hive-Mind
• [St 3] Cabal with Doom and Vulture VS Out Of Time
• [St 3] New Warrior VS Gamma
• [St 3] New Warrior VS Infinity Watch
• [St 4] Masters Of Evil VS Cabal with Doom and Omega Red
• [St 4] New Warrior VS Darkhold with Quicksilver
• [St 4] Masters Of Evil VS X-Treme X-Men
• [St 4] Secret Defenders with Apocalypse VS X-Treme X-Men with Rogue and Black Knight
• [St 5] New Warrior VS Infestation
• [St 5] New Warrior VS Unlimited X-Men
• [St 5] Cabal with Red Hulk and Kang VS Superior Six with Mysterio, no Green Goblin Classic
• [St 6] Superior Six VS Secret Defenders with Spider-Man Noir
• [St 6] Secret Defenders with Lizard VS Secret Defenders with Dormammu
• [St 6] Superior Six VS Secret Defenders with Dormammu
• [St 6] Tangled + Nova and Undying VS Bifrost with Nova and Thor (IW)

Conclusion

This list is going to be updated continuously, especially in the first couple weeks of the Season. If you find any counters that didn’t work properly or you have some questions/suggestions visit our Discord.

Marvel Strike Force is constantly changing and we will do our best to keep up with the game, and once we get used to the new season you can expect Video and written step-by-step guides on how to counter the trickiest Defenses.

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