Tips for beating Polaris

Liljoeyjojo

I've just come back to the game and just see Polaris everywhere. I'm hoping some of you may have a reliable strategy to beating her consistently that I might use?

I'm at the point of Shield Sim and other PVP where I am skipping a whole bunch to find a non Polaris team because the chances of me beating a team with her in it feels like a 50/50.

I often will use Medusa, C4rol and De4dpool and sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.

I am missing Sabretooth, Polaris and Juggs and most 5 stars, and am somewhere in 4 star land with all 3's champed and 15 4 stars champed. I am focused on getting these characters over time but it will be months before that happens.

What are peoples go to strategies to beating a Polaris team WITHOUT using Sabretooth, Polaris, Juggs or 5 stars?

ThisisClemFandango

You need someone with a good stun, if you stun her and then concentrate on knocking her out you'll have an easier time. Polaris is very much a glass cannon

HoundofShadow

Who are those 15 champed 4*?

R3G as a tank
3* Hawkeye to gain purple and blue ap to stun her
3* Carol as a damage sponge to gain 5 red ap and 3 black ap

Medusa with a stunner and a good true heal is perfect.

Kolence

Medusa is an OK counter, if not mirror matched. Sometimes, a bad board or enemy cascade will happen...
Carnage can help Medusa. Someone with a blue stun as third. Gamora, Mr. F. Sending Polaris airborne might work too, but really, you want to have blue, green actives while Medusa will use purple to flip all those tiles. And keep hitting her while she's inactive, so stun is much better. 

KGB

If one of your 15 is Grocket then he, 4Carol, 4Deadpool can do it as long as your first move has Grocket or Carol making the match. Then 4Pool will drop a few CD's and Carol will boost those strikes from Grocket so that you can potentially kill her on turn 2.

KGB

Akoni

I have found that it depends on who Polaris is teamed up with. Here are the most common:

A. Versus Polaris and Groot/Rocket

1. Polaris and Medusa works well. Focus on stunning the enemy Polaris. Take out Polaris first, then Grocket, then the 3rd wheel.
2. 5* Carnage's auto-matches are good. Team him up with Polaris, Medusa, or Beta. Take out Polaris first so she doesn't spam off of a cascade.

B. Versus Polaris and Medusa

1. You can mirror with Polaris and Medusa, but this time focus on stunning Medusa as often as possible. Take out Polaris first, then Medusa, then the 3rd wheel. FYI, a single Blue/Purple stockpile dramatically speeds things up requiring only 2 Blue matches to fire Polaris' stun. It also helps you fire Medusa's Purple later.
2. Any stun heavy team using the strategy in B.1.

C. Versus Polaris and Juggernaut

1. Stun Juggernaut as soon as possible. They both eat away at your health, but Juggernaut's AOE will crush you fast with Polaris' Strike tiles. Juggernaut also dampens damage to himself, except when he's stunned. Once Polaris is downed, hit Juggernaut with everything you have. Keep stunning him if you can. An active Juggernaut tanks and causes every match on the board to deal AOE damage.

D. Versus Polaris and Kitty

1. Skip.
2.  <sigh> If you must, go with a damage-focused team that doesn't care about special tiles. Worthy Juggernaut and America Chavez is one of my favorites. Avoid Karnak unless you've had him in the gym for awhile. His health is too low to keep him in the game very long unless he's jacked (a 3rd wheel healer isn't worth it). 

E. Versus Polaris and Beta

1. Though this one is very winnable, I often skip it because it takes FOREVER. You can pair Polaris with Medusa. In this case, you want to match your own special tiles as often as possible. Medusa's healing will keep your Polaris alive. Stun BRB as often as possible to prevent him from firing his Blue which will dramatically slow the game further. Whenever possible, use Medusa's purple to steal tiles. Repeat this strategy over and over. Polaris will slowly burn away the target enemy's health. Take out Polaris, BRB, then the 3rd wheel.
2. ***I have not tested this one as I do not have a decent Kitty.*** Kitty, Polaris and 4* Wasp should work well. Theoretically, Kitty will minimize damage while you gather AP for Wasp. At the same time Polaris will swarm the field with friendly Shields. Fire Wasp when ready to switch Shields to Strikes and enjoy the experience of holding an atomic bomb in your palm. Polaris, BRB, then the 3rd wheel is the order to take them out.

F. Versus Polaris, Beta and Medusa

1. You're screwed. Mirror with your team, if possible. The problem is Medusa heals a lot and fast so you MUST stun Medusa to win this game, but BRB slows the game down causing your stuns to expire before you can take anyone out. All the while, Polaris is dealing passive damage and spamming the field. If you mirror, boost like crazy. You're in for a game of attrition. Hold onto your Blue and Purple AP. Match as much Blue, Purple and Green as possible to keep it out of enemy hands. Wait until the field is completely swarmed with tiles so that BRB can't use his Blue to place Countdown tiles. *Warning: if BRB can't fire his power, Polaris will fire hers. Don't let her stun your Medusa or Polaris.* Next, sun the enemy Medusa so she can't heal. Fire your Medusa's Purple to steal enemy tiles. Now focus as much damage as possible on Polaris before she can swarm the board. If you have enough, fire BRB's Green. Take out Polaris, Medusa, then BRB last.

HoundofShadow

He doesn't have Polaris.

You forgot Sabretooth. He wrecks Polaris and R4G. I heard that some Polaris players got owned by Throg pretty hard. So, he's a good potential in the future.

Kitty and Polaris is actually easy. Use America Chavez and a 5* with ap boost and target Polaris first. Karnak will trigger Kitty's repeater. Your Juggernaut could eat some damage because he doesn't reduce damage from Polaris' passive power. If you have Kitty @ 5 purple, this team is very easy. Let her Circuit Breaker down Polaris.

Back when I was in 4* land, I used America Chavez and Juggernaut/Karnak/Ghost to deal with such Kitty or Medusa teams. They are t
team match damage. Even Talos got a spot here.

Akoni

HoundofShadow said:

He doesn't have Polaris.

You forgot Sabretooth. He wrecks Polaris and R4G. I heard that some Polaris players got owned by Throg pretty hard. So, he's a good potential in the future.

Kitty and Polaris is actually easy. Use America Chavez and a 5* with ap boost and target Polaris first. Karnak will trigger Kitty's repeater. Your Juggernaut could eat some damage because he doesn't reduce damage from Polaris' passive power. If you have Kitty @ 5 purple, this team is very easy. Let her Circuit Breaker down Polaris.

Back when I was in 4* land, I used America Chavez and Juggernaut/Karnak/Ghost to deal with such Kitty or Medusa teams. They are t
team match damage. Even Talos got a spot here.

I completely overlooked the fact that he's just getting back into it and doesn't have a Polaris. Now I feel like that person who replies "Hi" then realizes they were talking to someone behind you. Nonetheless, all of my suggestions might be worthless if liljoeyjojo doesn't have any of the aforementioned characters.

Sabretooth is a common one. Good catch. I am sure there's a lot more that I overlooked. As mentioned, I don't have Kitty, so my experiences with her are limited. I'm actually missing a lot at the top compared to many players, so I tend to hold my own with creative builds and match selection. I thought about focusing my efforts on building Kitty, but decided Okoye would be better for now.

Thanks for the tips.

AlexR

Advice for the future: Focus on building Sabretooth first. Sabretooth all by himself single-handedly will allow you to easily handle any Polaris/GRocket variants which is the vast majority of Polaris teams. Neither Polaris mirrors or Juggs are specifically needed to combat most Polaris teams, but Sabretooth very much is.

As for now:

vs the common Polaris/GRocket teams, without Sabretooth, dust your old pre-Bishop Gritty and GRocket counters off-- Kraven, Dazzler/GRocket, Rogue to soften/sponge hits to give you time + cheap stuns, etc. Beelining to stun Polaris is probably the way to go, though 4* Deadpool-punching can also work out yeah. As KGB said, Deadpool/C4rol/Grocket can work although it's somewhat risky.

Any time Polaris *isn't* teamed with a tile generator like GRocket, it's usually not that hard unless RNG hates you (and sometimes it does, because it's RNG). So any pvps where it's just Polaris/Kitty or Polaris/Medusa, you can usually handle just fine with a quick stun team. Like, Iceman/Vulture does perfectly fine with it barely taking damage unless you're particularly unlucky. Beeline to stun (or to battery via Vulture) and stun Polaris with aggressive prejudice. Without starting tiles, she's harmless so you have a lot of leeway to stun her and focus her down before she gets any tiles.

Vs Polaris/Carnage/Medusa, I've had success with 4* Deadpool/Medusa/Kraven. Kraven keeps the tiles debuffed, Deadpool punches Polaris every turn until she's gone and Medusa gives healing off enemyCarnage's friendly tiles in the meantime.

Vs BRB/Polaris. This is the most annoying and hardest for me personally. I had some okay results with Kraven/4*Thanos-based teams (Kraven for debuffing, 4* Thanos for safely removing the protect tiles without giving BRB AP), but it's not 100%. Polaris-mirror/Medusa/Kitty works the best, so this is the only team where I do actually Polaris-mirror match. But it's still really annoying and I mostly skip it.

Beeline to Sabretooth with shards. Having a working Sabretooth is like the most important thing in 4* pvp these days. He's the most efficient, compact, 1-character delete-Polaris/GRocket teams package there is.

KGB

@AlexR - Since this player lacks all the current Meta (Polaris, Juggs) it would be really bad to focus on Sabretooth first since he's a niche character (useful against Grocket teams).

They should absolutely focus on getting Polaris and Juggs champed before Sabretooth and if it was me, I'd also champ America and Karnak too before Sabretooth.

Personally I beat all enemy Polaris / Grocket (or Polaris/Carnage etc) teams handily with my own Polaris / Grocket so I never need to run Sabretooth.

KGB

AlexR

@KGB: 4* pvp consists of almost exclusively Polaris/GRocket. America, Karnak, Polaris, Juggs, none of them make these teams as reliable and easy to climb on as Sabretooth.

It might be good to note that I come from a similar place as OP; I returned to the game after a hiatus and lacked all the newest meta picks like Polaris, Karnak and Juggs. I did have America and Sabretooth.

And I can tell you Sabretooth by himself made the current meta so, so easy to climb on. He's like an auto win button for Polaris/Grocket.

By now I've champed my own Polaris and almost Juggs. I use my own Polaris almost exclusively in PvE. When I tried mirror matching Polaris/Grocket vs Polaris/GRocket, I found it a lot more vulnerable to RNG than Sabretooth. You're feeding enemyPolaris more special tiles so one unlucky enemy cascade, and enemyPolaris destroys you. It can work, but is vulnerable to RNG. Juggs is useful against Karnak teams (and for PvE, obviously). 

None of them have anything even remotely on Sabretooth in terms of efficiently climbing on Polaris/Grocket meta. I still run Sabretooth in ALL season PvP events now and to get to 2k pts in Sim. If I climb to 900 pts, you can bet the last 300 pts Sabretooth was heavily used for easy Polaris/GRocket climbs. To the point where I'm like "c'mooon, only 100 pts to go until 900, AHA, a PolarisGRocket team! C'mere you easy points! Didn't even need a health pack. Where's the neext one?"

Now, Polaris really helps in PvE, so there's an argument to be made there to prioritise her for her general OP usefulness. Depends on your priorities, I guess. But if OP is doing okay in PvE and mainly wants to improve their pvp experience, I def recommend Sabretooth first and I stand by that.

Taganov

I like Mr.F and Medusa for a pick 2. Many heals, deadly stuns, good chance at combeback in case of an unlucky cascade.

Liljoeyjojo

HoundofShadow said:

Who are those 15 champed 4*?

R3G as a tank
3* Hawkeye to gain purple and blue ap to stun her
3* Carol as a damage sponge to gain 5 red ap and 3 black ap

Medusa with a stunner and a good true heal is perfect.

I have R4G as 1/5/2.

I have Peggy to stun who is pretty helpful for climbing at the moment.

C4rol, Medusa and De4dpool are my current Sim climb trio.

KGB said:

If one of your 15 is Grocket then he, 4Carol, 4Deadpool can do it as long as your first move has Grocket or Carol making the match. Then 4Pool will drop a few CD's and Carol will boost those strikes from Grocket so that you can potentially kill her on turn 2.

KGB

Oh wow this blew my mind!! My R4G is 1/5/2, and I have only tried it a couple of times and it requires a health pack or two each time, but this is a great way to get a quick win against a Polaris and R4G team before shielding. Ive managed to win both times with this method and worked great. Thanks so much for this!

AlexR said:

Advice for the future: Focus on building Sabretooth first. Sabretooth all by himself single-handedly will allow you to easily handle any Polaris/GRocket variants which is the vast majority of Polaris teams. Neither Polaris mirrors or Juggs are specifically needed to combat most Polaris teams, but Sabretooth very much is.

Beeline to Sabretooth with shards. Having a working Sabretooth is like the most important thing in 4* pvp these days. He's the most efficient, compact, 1-character delete-Polaris/GRocket teams package there is.

I can see how Sabretooth would be valuable to face Polaris, but I just dont see him in 9 out of every 10 PVP defensive teams which tells me something - While Sabretooth may be great to attack Polaris teams, he doesnt seem to be at the same level if I was to focus on my next 4 *. I am currently focusing on Polaris because she just seems to be the Meat at the moment in PVE and PVP, fits a lot of teams, is great offensively and defensively.

I was even looking to then move onto Juggs, Karnak and Chavez before Sabretooth - Maybe ill keep thinking on this, but definitely going to work on Polaris next - Thanks for the comments though I love reading everyones perspective an opinion it really helps!

Taganov said:

I like Mr.F and Medusa for a pick 2. Many heals, deadly stuns, good chance at comeback in case of an unlucky cascade.

I dont have Mr F developed enough, but Medusa is champed and really helps. Unfortunately when my opponent has Polaris and Medusa, it trumps my Medusa and something else - I try to match away their special tiles, but they get healing so its a lose/lose.

Liljoeyjojo

Just wanted to follow up on this post discussing Polaris counters. I've trialled a few different strategies over the past few months.

C4rol, De4dpool and Grocket were great to start in helping me counter Polaris. Quick, but burned through 1-2 health packs each time.

Of the new characters, I tried Throg and he was fun but not consistent, and getting the Green together was a bit slow for me. Looking forward to trying a fully covered Morbius who I've heard will be amazing against Polaris.

Once my Polaris was a little more developed, I transitioned to Polaris/Medusa and this also seemed slightly more effective. Get enough Purple and enemy tiles, flip the board or stun and game over. Also good for hopping in PVP.

During the past week with Polaris boosted I really struggled with using Medusa as she died too quickly. So i used mirror Polaris and Grocket boosting blue/green and all AP. One blue match and I could stun Polaris. The problem is that if opponent Polaris got even a small cascade, my Polaris was dead or close to and I couldn't get through the match.

So Im now finally working on Sabretooth and I gotta say - @AlexR you were right. Sabretooth is AMAZING against Polaris/Grocket. I guess anything + Grocket is enough. I still only have a 3/1/0 level 111 Sabretooth and he and Polaris can easily take down Polaris/Grocket. I was a bit scared to use Sabretooth with so few covers, but its laughable how easy it is. Looking forward to using him fully covered!

Sekilicious

It will be interesting to see how Morbius fits into this meta. Will he replace Sabertooth? Will one bring both? After reading the forums, if he fits well enough with Karnak or boosted 4* he might make bringing Polaris more hazard than a boon. Probably not. We will see I guess 

Akoni

Liljoeyjojo said:

Just wanted to follow up on this post discussing Polaris counters. I've trialled a few different strategies over the past few months.

C4rol, De4dpool and Grocket were great to start in helping me counter Polaris. Quick, but burned through 1-2 health packs each time.

Of the new characters, I tried Throg and he was fun but not consistent, and getting the Green together was a bit slow for me. Looking forward to trying a fully covered Morbius who I've heard will be amazing against Polaris.

Once my Polaris was a little more developed, I transitioned to Polaris/Medusa and this also seemed slightly more effective. Get enough Purple and enemy tiles, flip the board or stun and game over. Also good for hopping in PVP.

During the past week with Polaris boosted I really struggled with using Medusa as she died too quickly. So i used mirror Polaris and Grocket boosting blue/green and all AP. One blue match and I could stun Polaris. The problem is that if opponent Polaris got even a small cascade, my Polaris was dead or close to and I couldn't get through the match.

So Im now finally working on Sabretooth and I gotta say - @AlexR you were right. Sabretooth is AMAZING against Polaris/Grocket. I guess anything + Grocket is enough. I still only have a 3/1/0 level 111 Sabretooth and he and Polaris can easily take down Polaris/Grocket. I was a bit scared to use Sabretooth with so few covers, but its laughable how easy it is. Looking forward to using him fully covered!

When using Polaris/Medusa against Polaris/Grocket, the best strategy I've found is to target the enemy Polaris over the others. Focus on matching specials, Blue, then Purple in that order. As soon as you have 7 Blue, fire it targeting Polaris to prevent the enemy from getting more specials. At this point you're swarming the field and can shift your matching priority to Blue, Purple, then specials. After Polaris goes down, target Grocket. Once Grocket is down, take down the third wheel. Use Medusa's Purple anytime there are a decent number of enemy specials or save it as a back-up.

When using Polaris/Medusa against Polaris/Medusa, use the same strategy EXCEPT:

1. Target Blue, Purple, then specials the entire match. When matching specials, your own are more important than the enemy's.
2. You want to stun Medusa as soon as possible. While the enemy Medusa is stunned, continue to focus on Polaris. Your Medusa will continue to heal your team while dealing damage. The enemy will continue to deal damage, but without healing, it becomes a war of attrition.
3. As soon as Polaris goes down, hit Medusa with everything you have. If you have a second stun, use it. If you can fire Medusa's Purple, do it. She needs to go down fast.