Sustained play...is it possible?

No one ever believes me when I say it, but Spiderman. 5 Purple is really very good at preventing incoming damage. A turn one purple match gives a 100 protect tile that mostly negates incoming match damage. Even if you never put a web tile on the board, one or two protect tiles will negate all but the worst cascades and criticals. Add to that good defensive play (by which I mean actually playing the puzzle) and Spiderman can last well over a dozen matches before requiring a heal, if he ever really needs one to begin with. His new healing rate works very well and can heal most of the damage taken in a match (-1 at a time...) between selecting opponents.

I use LThor/Spidey at 3/5/5 for each with the required character. They don't cover black, but most opposing teams don't either. I give Thor +3 Red/Yellow and finish most matches in under 4 minutes having taken around 500-1000 to Thor and negligible damage to Spidey and the required. This team gets me to 800 points easy, at which point it becomes tactics, boosts, timing, shields, and a healthy does of Sentry. But that is ok, because I usually enter this phase with at least 4 health packs. And I usually do it in under two hours.

Sustained play over 900 points is not a realistic concept. You will become a high value target for everyone over 700 and it doesn't matter who your team consists of at that point. The best defenses are, as previously described, high health characters like Hulk. I used to attempt runs on 1100 unshielded with Hulk/Thor/Sentry, but the results are not consistent enough to be a viable strategy for Alliance play.

Cragger wrote:

No one ever believes me when I say it, but Spiderman. 5 Purple is really very good at preventing incoming damage. A turn one purple match gives a 100 protect tile that mostly negates incoming match damage. Even if you never put a web tile on the board, one or two protect tiles will negate all but the worst cascades and criticals. Add to that good defensive play (by which I mean actually playing the puzzle) and Spiderman can last well over a dozen matches before requiring a heal, if he ever really needs one to begin with. His new healing rate works very well and can heal most of the damage taken in a match (-1 at a time...) between selecting opponents.

I use LThor/Spidey at 3/5/5 for each with the required character. They don't cover black, but most opposing teams don't either. I give Thor +3 Red/Yellow and finish most matches in under 4 minutes having taken around 500-1000 to Thor and negligible damage to Spidey and the required. This team gets me to 800 points easy, at which point it becomes tactics, boosts, timing, shields, and a healthy does of Sentry. But that is ok, because I usually enter this phase with at least 4 health packs. And I usually do it in under two hours.

Sustained play over 900 points is not a realistic concept. You will become a high value target for everyone over 700 and it doesn't matter who your team consists of at that point. The best defenses are, as previously described, high health characters like Hulk. I used to attempt runs on 1100 unshielded with Hulk/Thor/Sentry, but the results are not consistent enough to be a viable strategy for Alliance play.

Agreed. I started playing Spidey because he was the perfect colour complement to my Punisher (my first maxed 3*) and I have never looked back. I have to heal the Punisher only every 2-3 games and Spidey every 3-4 (barring 40-AP cascades by the Ai.) If you got a good board and can get 12+ blue AP it's easy to keep two characters perma-stunned at a time. Yellow Healing rarely comes into play, but I hope it causes trouble for my opponents while defending.

Multiple characters. I have 21 level 94 characters (that's where I've softcapped my 3*s, because it's funny to me), plus a few more I can bring up to there. That allows me to use a multitude of teams to split between PvE and PvP. I can play for 3ish hours most nights with little issue.

The hard simulator puts more of a strain on it, but overall that's the easiest way. I've never had a worthwhile CMags, so I'll never be spoiled, but at least I'm ready for this version.

There seems to be more team variety.

Thor, Patch, Sentry, Hulk, Daken, Hood, BP, Magneto, Punisher seem common in enemy teams.
Captain Marvel, Falcon, Spiderman, X-Force, Fury, Deadpool, BWGS, Torch, Psylocke, Captain America, IM40, Spiderman, Ares, mStorm, OBW are less common in enemy teams.
Beast, Loki, Doctor Doom, Ragnarok, She-Hulk, Invisible Woman are very rare.



Bracket stats -- the next time I'm in a bracket of 1000, I'd love to see a top 20 character breakdown for the 1000 teams I'm facing.
1000 -- Captain Marvel (required)
750 -- Hulk
713 -- Sentry
627 -- Daken
542 -- Patch
430 -- Hood
320 -- Magneto
....

Each character has a tile icon, so they could list the team each person used in the rankings.

Malcoran wrote:

Daken with Human Torch, not only sustain thanks to Daken tanking but also fun (at least for me). I wasnt using Patchneto but this combo is awesome for, even in pve its great.

Ok, forgot bout color change so nvm

I suspect HT and X-force will make a great duo team since X-force tanks both green and black. I'm probably a few months of ISO saving to know for sure though.