[Top 5] Marvel Strike Force Best City Teams

What is a city team? That’s a great question! City is a trait used to designate where the hero resides. There are only 3 options: city, cosmic, and global. These traits are used primarily for dark dimension and certain raids but may appear as part of limited-time events.

5. Heroes for Hire: Colleen Wing + Iron Fist + Luke Cage + Shang-Chi + Misty Knight

If you have a little extra gold, you can hire these heroes for your helicarrier.

While they’re not the best team, they do have some redeeming qualities when it comes to war. Shang-Chi has the most diversity because he is often used for Dark Dimension or plugged into other teams as a high-damage toon. 

I used to be really high on this team, but it has lost some of its luster over time. As a full team, they are most useful in war. I’ve kept my team in a mid-power range compared to my other teams, but you’ll often see high-powered versions in war defense.

Heroes for Hire Strengths

• War - This team was the original team-to-beat in war defense. Many people still have them on defense since there are still not a ton of counters for their massive amounts of charges. The charges on each character allow them to heal and revive until the charges are expended.
• Raids - In the city-specific Greek raids, they will hold their own. They don’t have any ability enhancements for raids, but their synergy helps keep them alive.
• Cosmic Crucible - Your best shot here is to have them on defense when the room bonuses benefit city toons.

How Heroes for Hire Works

• Colleen Wing - She is going to make the enemy team bleed. Each of her abilities focus on applying bleeds to enemy characters so they can die from passive damage.
• Iron Fist - He is your healer. Iron Fist is guaranteed to keep your team kicking with healing abilities and a passive that increases max health stats.
• Luke Cage - He is the fortifier. He’ll grant your team defense up while taking the brunt of the damage. Not only does he take damage, his abilities apply taught, deflect, and death proof to allies to prevent them from taking damage.
• Shang-Chi - This is the toon that’s going to do the most damage. His damage output combined with AOE abilities makes Shang-Chi pack the biggest punch.
• Misty Knight - Misty does high-power attacks to single enemies. Have her focus on the strongest characters because she also applies ability block, stun, and disrupted. 

4. New Warrior + Black Cat: Cloak + Dagger + Gwenpool + Firestar + Black Cat

Firestar is ready to light up the opposition.

New Warriors are still one of the better teams you can use in almost any gamemode. The only caveat to this group is that their main members are city with one exception – Deathpool. Deathpool is what completes this team and makes them the most powerful, but if you’re limited to city-only toons, you’ll need to sub in one of your strongest city characters. 

In this instance, I typically sub in Black Cat. She may not be mystic, but she’s one of the best city characters.

I use this team in almost every mode except Arena. Well, maybe not this exact version. I’ll keep Deathpool in the mix instead of Black Cat, but based on her versatility, she can be useful in many situations. 

I’ve taken every member of, with the exception of Gwenpool, into Dark Dimension so they’re all powered up to gear tier 18. I’ll probably end up taking this crew into the next Dark Dimension since I’ll have to expend less resources to get them ready.

New Warriors + Black Cat Strengths

• Cosmic Crucible - You’re going to want to keep this team in your attack arsenal because their abilities are amplified in Cosmic Crucible. It makes punching up easy.
• Dark Dimension - I don't usually like putting an entire team as viable in Dark Dimension, however, I’ve taken every member of this team into dark dimension because of the massive amounts of debuffs.
• War - If you pick your matchups wisely, you’ll always be able to find a use in war for this team.

How New Warriors + Black Cat Works

• Cloak - This man, combined with Dagger, will buy you a lot of time in battles because he applies multiple random debuffs to the entire enemy team.
• Dagger - She is Cloak’s partner in crime that will apply defense down to the enemies and clear positive effects when cloak is on the battlefield. 
• Gwenpool - The female version of Deadpool has similar abilities. She is able to do relatively high damage and clear positive effects from enemies. In Crucible, she doubles down by adding positive effects to your team.
• Firestar - You’re going to want her powered up because she will take advantage of all the debuffs applied by the others. Her attacks hit hard and also apply offense down.
• Black Cat - She is quick and applies trauma and stun on her first turn. She’ll quickly debilitate enemies. While this isn’t her main team, her use of trauma and her passive not allowing bio characters to spawn with speed up make her useful on any team.

3. Hive-Mind + Anti-Venom: Venom + Gwenom + Carnage + Red Goblin + Anti-Venom

It's like Green Goblin except red.

Hive-Mind is the newest addition to the city landscape, and they do not disappoint. Unfortunately, not every member of High-Mind is 100% city because of the fan-voted Void Knight. 

I like this team in general. Back in the day, I used the Symbiotes for bio raids, so it was exciting when they got repurposed into another bio raid team. They are still my highest used team according to my Legacy Reel. I simulate raids with the Hive-Mind  team so I rarely user control them.

I’ve subbed in Anti-Venom in place of Void Knight to keep the team completely city. 

Hive-Mind Strengths

• Raids - This team is full bio which makes them do excellent in the bio portion of raids. Thankfully, they live up to their purpose.
• Cosmic Crucible - I frequently use this team in Crucible because of their speed. Since they are most likely powered up for raids, they translate well to smacking defenses in Crucible.
• War - Along the lines of Crucible, they have the same benefit in War with being a quick-hitting team.

How Hive-Mind Works

• Venom - He’s going to control the battlefield by spreading debuffs. He’s also going to apply a few debuffs of his own with ability blocks and bleeds.
• Gwenom -She focuses on clearing barrier on the enemy team and providing it for you team. Her abilities work to enhance your team while tearing down enemies. 
• Carnage - Carnage manipulates speed bar. He’s going to keep your team striking often. One of his best attacks deals increased damage per negative effect on the enemy which can really hit hard if you’re concentrating on a certain enemy.
• Red Goblin - He’s a nontraditional healer/cleanser. His role is to manipulate debuffs on both sides of the battlefield and use them to his advantage. He’ll clear debuffs from your side and send them to some unsuspecting enemy. Then he’ll throw some regenerations around your side of the field. 
• Anti-Venom - Anti-Venom was added to this team because he adds a ton of healing and cleansing to an already sustainable team. All of his abilities benefit symbiote allies so it makes him an easy choice to place with Hive-Mind.

2. Superior Six: Lizard + Doctor Octopus + Green Goblin (Classic) + Kraven the Hunter + Spider-Slayer

They're the superior of the Sinister Six.

This team is a powerhouse. They work together so well that they can be mixed into any game mode and have an impact. It’s hard to beat this team with its sustain factor in offense or defense.

Green Goblin (Classic) is actually one of my favorite toons in the game. He has a lot of utility to be slotted into different teams, and I see him often in arena defense. I don’t use him there myself, but I’ve considered it.

Kraven the Hunter is a really cool character. When I heard he was coming to MSF, I did a little research on him and liked his story. The others are all solid characters, but having Doctor Octopus being reused as a legendary was great since I had him powered up for Dark Dimension. In case you didn’t know, this team consists of two legendary characters which tends to make it pretty overpowered. 

Superior Six Strengths

• Cosmic Crucible - Superior Six is by far the best team in Crucible. Other teams can’t touch them without a major punch down, and even then it’d still be difficult to beat. Their abilities are primed for Crucible and it shows particularly on offense.
• War - This team is a regular in my war offense. I use them to take out many of the staple war defenses. 
• Mix and Match - If you don’t have a particular character unlocked or powered up, each of them also contain the Sinister Six tag so they’ll have synergy with any of the others. It may not be quite as strong with the subs, but you’ll still be impressed. 

How Superior Six Works

• Lizard - Lizard provides a lot of bonus effects on his abilities. In particular, his ultimate will copy and clear negative effects from your team while applying disrupted to enemies.
• Doctor Octopus - I use him as a healer. On top of that, he gets pretty beefed up summons that he can gain charges for big damage.
• Green Goblin (Classic) - He manipulates speed bar so effectively that basically your entire team will have a chance to hit before the enemy team has a chance to move.
• Kraven the Hunter - He deals big damage and applies really nice debuffs. His attacks all hit multiple enemies making him ideal for wiping out enemies quickly.
• Spider-Slayer - This toon is probably the most forgettable of the group. His main function is to provide a damage increase with his passive and offense ups.

1. Superior Secret Defenders: Black Cat + Doctor Octopus + Green Goblin (Classic) + Ghost Rider Robbie + Ms. Marvel (Hard Light)

Get rid of Photon and Doctor Strange, and you'll have yourself a nice city team.

Okay, so this is the top of the list mostly because of it having three legendary characters and being impressive in arena.

If there’s a tough team in any mode, I’m calling on this gang to take care of it. I’ll often swap out a few characters for Apocalypse or Super Skrull for a stronger team, but they’re not city. I have all of these characters maxed out for a reason.

In my opinion, they have the best debuff pool with high speed and synergy. They are attackers for me, but I’ve seen them often in defense also. Regardless of where you run into this team, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll need a second attack to defeat them.  

The only counter that I’ve found is a mirror or with a mythic or legendary character swap. I also panic a little bit if I have to fight them in Crucible because I feel like I’m going to lose. It really doesn’t get much better than this team, even if the outfits aren’t my favorite.

Secret Defenders Strengths

• Arena - It’s not often that you see a team being the Arena meta, but this team takes the cake. You could definitely sub a character or two for someone with a little more power, but this team is one of the best.
• Cosmic Crucible - Again, this team can be used to combat basically any of the meta teams. It’s an amazing attack team. 
• War - The above applies here too. They are an amazing attack and defense team. They’re hard to beat.

How Superior Secret Defenders Work

• Black Cat - She is quick and applies trauma and stun on her first turn. She’ll quickly debilitate enemies with her increased speed bar
• Doctor Octopus - I use him as a healer here too. He gets summons that can help alleviate damage and give you additional attacks.
• Green Goblin (Classic) - He manipulates speed bar so effectively that basically your entire team will have a chance to hit before the enemy team has a chance to move. When he gets offense up, it’s game over for enemy teams. 
• Ghost Rider Robbie - Another quick character, Robbie gains speed up when bleed is applied to enemies. Guess what? All of his abilities apply bleed. Not to mention that his attacks are perma-kill, meaning that he makes enemies dead and stay dead.
• Ms. Marvel (Hard Light) - Like her Ms. Marvel counterpart, she is slower and will taunt when times get tough for your team. She heals herself and applies barrier which allows her to keep taking the brunt of the damage.

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