How do you fight Gritty-Bishop?

bbigler

I've been trying to figure this out as it is all I see in the high point range of Shield Sim (so no snarky comments about using the skip button). This is more of a personal challenge because I can still hit 2000 points just fine. Like many people, I climb using Gritty-Medusa, then set Gritty-Bishop on defense and float between 1700 - 2000 points. I imagine there are many others that find this team difficult to fight. So, I wanted to explore the possible ways to counter this team. 

First I tried Gritty-Dazzler. I targeted Bishop and matched Black to make Dazzler tank, she then gets hit, stuns Bishop and removes enemy strikes. Problem solved right? I then continue to target Bishop to kill him before the stun wears off, but during those turns the enemy Kitty is eating my Strikes with Circuit Breaker. By the time Bishop is down I have 3 strikes left and a full health Kitty to deal with. Eventually, the enemy Kitty eats all my specials and then blows up. The rest of the match didn't go well. I did win but I needed health packs.

Next I tried Gritty-Bishop.  On their 1st turn they stunned my Bishop.  I then got a lucky cascade and took out their Bishop, but he produced a ton of blue for Grocket to put down his repeater. So now I'm dealing with that plus a full health Kitty buffing and eating specials. I proceed to take down Grocket and then Bishop comes back online to stun Kitty. I win a few turns later, but need some health packs.

The mirror-match puts you at a disadvantage because on their first turn, Kitty buffs and Bishop may have produced enough Blue for a stun. Plus, Kitty is a perfect counter to Kitty, which is bad for you. 

I guess I could try Bishop + Peggy + XFDP?  I should be able to stun Bishop and Kitty very quickly, but who do I take down first? Will it lose momentum?

Maybe Gamora + Grocket + Dazzler? Use Dazzler to stun Bishop and remove strikes, then hopefully get Blue fast enough to stun Kitty and keep the pain-train going? Gamora's good at making specials in case Kitty keeps eating them all. 

Maybe Bishop + Gamora + Kitty? It seems like you could get a stun lock pretty quickly, which gives your Kitty enough time to eat all their strikes. And Kitty could buff all the specials Gamora throws down. 

Any ideas are welcome.

Dormammu

I have never seen this team in the Sim, but if I did I would just Okoye/XFDP/Drax 'em to death.

bbigler

Dormammu said:

I have never seen this team in the Sim, but if I did I would just Okoye/XFDP/Drax 'em to death.

This team is everywhere in the 4* to single 5* champ MMR range.  Brute force doesn't work very well because Bishop can stun your guys immediately.  And when he dies, he gives Grocket enough Blue for his repeater which double-dips on the beefy strikes (in addition to match damage).  There's 2 problems to solve: Kitty constantly buffing strikes and Bishop intercepting all big hits and producing tons of blue.

spidyjedi84

Bishop, Iceman, Rogue? 

Iceman gets a 4 turn stun on whomever he builds a snowman again with 6 AP and then generates a 6AP mini nuke. Rogue can keep the team from collecting AP in their strongest colors. And Bishop generates Blue to feed Iceman, plus can damage when he takes damage. And his Yellow can take out special tiles and put down shields he converts into blue tiles.... Focus hard on Kitty, period, ignore their Bishop. Kitty is always the biggest threat on any Gritty team until the special tiles are cleaned off the board.

Pyram7

Silver surfer is immune to stun. 

tiomono

I have been running gritty with black suit spidey. 

6 blue stuns bishop for one turn if he is not already dead from gritty. I usually eat one stun unless they decide to put out rockets blue. Any gritty team is pretty easy with black suit spidey.

JFisch

If you're using 4s, don't target Bishop so he won't trigger from damage. If you're using 5s, bring people who ignore stun (Surfer, Ock) or punish it (BP, Strange).

Also, Thano5.

Dormammu

bbigler said:

Dormammu said:

I have never seen this team in the Sim, but if I did I would just Okoye/XFDP/Drax 'em to death.

This team is everywhere in the 4* to single 5* champ MMR range.  Brute force doesn't work very well because Bishop can stun your guys immediately.  And when he dies, he gives Grocket enough Blue for his repeater which double-dips on the beefy strikes (in addition to match damage).  There's 2 problems to solve: Kitty constantly buffing strikes and Bishop intercepting all big hits and producing tons of blue.

It would work. Bishop isn't going to be able to stun until turn 2. By then he'll be dead if you either bring +2 TU AP with, or if you get a TU match-3 right off the bat.

TURN 1 Bishop is going to hit you with his red passive on your first match (after taking 1800 damage), spawning an XFDP countdown for roughly 4600 damage (with Drax's help). Then the AI will match, and trigger another XFDP countdown for another 4600 damage. So with those two countdowns (and Okoye's initial match damage) you've already done roughly 11,000 damage.

Bishop has around 16,000 health, right? 16,000 - 11,000 = 5,000 health left.

But with just 2 TU AP for Okoye's black, you're adding 2800 damage twice on each countdown (one for XFDP, one for Drax's follow-up). In other words, Bishop is down before turn 2.

jackstar0

BSSM is one counter, he just needs to not tank the hits when Bishop is going to stun. 

Thanos is another. If you can overwhelm Bishop quickly with your team, the resulting damage should nullify most of what they were doing and if Grocket is still alive, he should also fall quickly and hopefully by then you have Kitty all but dead.

jackstar0

Dormammu said:

bbigler said:

Dormammu said:

I have never seen this team in the Sim, but if I did I would just Okoye/XFDP/Drax 'em to death.

This team is everywhere in the 4* to single 5* champ MMR range.  Brute force doesn't work very well because Bishop can stun your guys immediately.  And when he dies, he gives Grocket enough Blue for his repeater which double-dips on the beefy strikes (in addition to match damage).  There's 2 problems to solve: Kitty constantly buffing strikes and Bishop intercepting all big hits and producing tons of blue.

It would work. Bishop isn't going to be able to stun until turn 2.

Watch out for cascades... that undermines the whole plan.

HoundofShadow

What's the level of Gritty-Bishop that you are seeing? How many covers do those Kitties that you encountered have?

ThaRoadWarrior

I'm seeing this team everywhere, and I'm seeing it with some shockingly high-level Bishops (289) paired with max-champ 4ockets and 460-ish Kittys, which seems excessive for my single-champ 5* MMR. I have no good counter to the Kitty meta right now, so i have to skip until I find something I can win against. This has led to me mostly having to grind 40 wins if I want the 4* since champing Gho5t Rider, which is not my fav

My own Kitty is 2/2/0 and my Bishop is 209 with 12 covers, and my BSSM is like 1/0/3 or something useless. I've tried battery + stun teams, and I can occasionally win with them, but it's rough for me and puts a hard-stop on my climb when I land in this block of opponents. usually around 830pts in a regular PVP is where I start getting served up nothing but Gritty teams, and then around 1600 in Sim is when I get nothing but Gritty/Bishop teams.

My Hulk teams almost work to cascade the strkes away - Main Event/Rulk are the ones I've attempted. I suppose 3* Hulk might do it, and feed Gho5t Rider too, but it's not a sure thing.

I like the idea of Okoye/XFDP/Drax, but I don't have any of them champed yet. My Okoye at 5/2/1 375 is functional enough, but I still need to spend the iso to put XFDP over and my drax is 2/5/5 with a few saved on him. 

Malcrof

Moving to Roster and Character help.

GrimSkald

ThaRoadWarrior said:

I'm seeing this team everywhere, and I'm seeing it with some shockingly high-level Bishops (289) paired with max-champ 4ockets and 460-ish Kittys, which seems excessive for my single-champ 5* MMR. I have no good counter to the Kitty meta right now, so i have to skip until I find something I can win against. This has led to me mostly having to grind 40 wins if I want the 4* since champing Gho5t Rider, which is not my fav

My own Kitty is 2/2/0 and my Bishop is 209 with 12 covers, and my BSSM is like 1/0/3 or something useless. I've tried battery + stun teams, and I can occasionally win with them, but it's rough for me and puts a hard-stop on my climb when I land in this block of opponents. usually around 830pts in a regular PVP is where I start getting served up nothing but Gritty teams, and then around 1600 in Sim is when I get nothing but Gritty/Bishop teams.

My Hulk teams almost work to cascade the strkes away - Main Event/Rulk are the ones I've attempted. I suppose 3* Hulk might do it, and feed Gho5t Rider too, but it's not a sure thing.

I like the idea of Okoye/XFDP/Drax, but I don't have any of them champed yet. My Okoye at 5/2/1 375 is functional enough, but I still need to spend the iso to put XFDP over and my drax is 2/5/5 with a few saved on him. 

I learned how good this team is last season when I saw, no kidding, a 480ish Kitty,370 R&G, and I'm pretty sure a 370 Bishop.  It completely destroyed my Thor/Okokye/Jessica Jones team.  Completely.

I've been mucking about in the Sim.  It's definitely a solid team, even against 5*s.

ThaRoadWarrior

People having Bishops that good already is blowing my mind. He's been out for... a season? 2? I guess people with thousands of heroics are doing alright lol

GrimSkald

ThaRoadWarrior said:

People having Bishops that good already is blowing my mind. He's been out for... a season? 2? I guess people with thousands of heroics are doing alright lol

I set mine my sole 4* BH a week ago - I now have him at 284 (3 draws so far.)   So it's not impossible, not even hard, to have one in the 280s, it's  a max champ one that represents a serious investment.  My best guess is several buy clubs at least - 40 packs do have an enhanced BH %.

Dormammu

My Bishop is already 280-something thanks to the fact that he was in tokens when I pulled my hoard trying to get Kitty. Timing is everything.

ThaRoadWarrior

I pull as I go; I came out of his launch with a 1/1/2, so I feel like I'm doing alright with a 4/3/5 lol.

Jogibb

Don’t think this will help you because not many 5* but 5* panther and 5* black widow both punish the enemy for stun. You could also silver surfer and bishop for tanking and healing. Pair those two with kraven for a fun idea. 

Jogibb

Another counter with 4* would be bishop, vulture and rogue. 

ThaRoadWarrior

I started taking Valkyrie into fights against un-champed kitty matches, and I can win them. Somewhat counter intuitively, spamming out special tiles keeps her countdown busy rather than becoming a liability. That was in matches in Red Shift where Switch always had a CD out, which made the team particularly vulnerable to them until i could easily get more on the board.