It may be overwhelming to look at the whopping 56 characters and wonder where to start when building a competitive team, butMarvel vs. Capcom 2wasn’t built with balance in mind. Most characters in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 are rather irrelevant in terms of tournament play, so you only have to learn a few characters to create a competitive team.
This is a rewarding game to learn, and usually the characters with the highest skill gaps are also the best ones. Even if you’re interested in playing lower-tier characters, you should consider how to play the basics of the best teams so you can learn what they can and cannot do.
10Mega Man/Cable/Tron Bonne
One of the more unorthodox teams of mid-tiers is Mega Man/Cable/Tron Bonne. Mega Man is a character whose stock is rising. Mega Man’s projectile game is perfect for knocking top tiers like Magneto and Storm out of the air. Mega Man is also one of the few characters that has one-frame attacks, giving him the ability to trade a close range with Magneto. Tron Bonne has an assist that does a ton of damage when timed correctly, making hersynergize well with the majority of Marvel vs Capcom 2’s large roster.
Because Mega Man is so good at building meter, he makes for the perfect battery to tag in Cable, who has a one-frame super that can combo into itself three times. Mega Man works well with Tron Bonne, as he can pin opponents into the corner and keep them in long hit stun for Tron Bonne’s damaging projectile assist.
9Magneto/Storm/Psylocke
The most iconic team in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is Magneto/Storm/Psylocke. It is heavily associated with therushdown archetype in fighting games, utilizing Storm and Magneto’s multi-dimensional flying abilities and high dash speeds to overwhelm opponents' defenses.
Due to the offensive nature of Magneto and, to a lesser extent, Storm, they benefit significantly from a strong anti-air, which is where Psylocke comes into play. Though Psylocke is a decent character on point, she is usually used exclusively as an assist character to help set up combos.
8Cable/Sentinel/Captain Commando
This is the go-to team for most beginners looking to have a top-tier setup. Once you learn how to execute Cable’s hyper viper beam super in the air, you can achieve a 100 percent combo without having to master any difficult sequences.
Sentinel is more mechanically advanced than Cable due to learning how to fly and unfly at will for better combos, but it has the best stats in the game. Sentinel boasts the best range, high aerial mobility, powerful projectiles, most health, and his normal attacks deal chip damage. Even without knowing Sentinel’s best techniques, he remains a difficult character for others to handle.
Captain Commando’s anti-air assist covers the entire screen vertically and is a great tool for controlling space. However, Captain Commando’s fighting ability is nothing special, so it’s advisable to tag him out whenever possible.
7Rogue/Colossus/Ken
Perhaps the best mid-tier team, this aggressive rushdown group doesn’t require a high skill cap to execute. Rogue is fast, has solid damage, and features an unblockable move to mix up opponents. Colossus’s jumping head-butt super looks goofy but is highly versatile and can deal a lot of damage.
Ken’s Shoryuken is fully invincible, which allows him to interrupt a lot of the opponents' attacks. Ken’s Shoryuken assist also sends the opponent away full screen, giving Rogue and Colossus —who lack good reversals— some breathing room. Alternatively, Ken’s Tatsu assist covers horizontal ground, and can put the opponent in hit stun long enough to follow up with a damaging combo.
Considering how much easier it is to drop combos with characters like Storm and Magneto, this is an excellent team for those who are still learning the technical aspects of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 but want to compete.
6Spiral/Cable/Sentinel
Spiral is a tricky character that not many people play due to a lack of understanding and her status as a less popular Marvel character. She has powerful projectiles in her knife attack that deal serious chip damage, along with one of the best teleports in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, allowing her to evade danger.
Cable and Sentinel are both top-tier characters that also have strong projectiles with powerful chip damage. Spiral/Cable/Sentinel is a team that can keep aggressive characters like Iron Man and Magneto at bay.
5Sentinel/Strider/Dr. Doom
Sentinel/Strider/Dr. Doom has a different pace from most of the hyper-fast teams in Marvel vs. Capcom 2. It revolves around Strider’s super, which has him throw energy orbs when you press the attack button. This trap pins down most opponents, leaving them vulnerable to getting chipped by Dr. Doom’s and Sentinel’s projectile-oriented assist.
Strider is likely the best character from the Capcom side simply because of his synergy with Dr. Doom. However, Strider’s damage output without Dr. Doom is severely underwhelming, and he has one of the lowest health bars in the game.
4Anakaris/Cable/Dhalsim
Anakaris is one of the trickiest characters to play against. He has an ability that turns you into a useless doll, and he can use Dhalsim to help combo you into an infinite loop if you’re not careful. Dhalsim is one of the hardest characters to use, as he is execution-heavy, has low health, and relies on more situational setups for his large combos. However, he offers great mobility, long-range pokes, and high-damage aerial combos that can rival top tiers.
The main drawback to this team is that Anakaris and Dhalsim are both fragile. A simple slip up and they’re probably going to get knocked out. Anakaris and Dhalsim do not use much meter, so having a character that can dump it is useful. Cable or any other character that has spammable supers are a good pick. Alternatively, people like to use SonSon with Anakaris.
3Magneto/Storm/Sentinel
Most strong teams in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 usually have a third character as a designated assist, but Magneto/Storm/Sentinel goes the route of having three of the strongest on-point characters. Storm and Magneto are the two fastest characters, with an aerial dash that can go in eight different directions, making it easy to hit crossover characters. It’s the speed and high skill cap of this team that makesMvC 2 one of the best fighters, despite the character imbalance.
Sentinel has a very good assist, in addition to arguably being the best on-point character. The biggest downside to this team, aside from not having a top-tier assist, is that Magneto and Storm take quite a long time to learn, and it can be overwhelming to learn both of them from scratch.
2Sentinel/Storm/Captain Commando
Storm and Sentinel are the best flyers in the game, and as a result, they can bully most grounded characters with aerial pressure. However, both Storm and Sentinel can also easily escape their opponents and re-enter the battle when they have full meter.
Storm has a maneuver that allows her to fly in one direction three times, in addition to her default flying ability. Sentinel’s incredible speed and long-range pokes mean that chasing him runs the risk of getting kicked back. Captain Commando is there to maintain aerial dominance and punish other assists.
1Magneto/Iron Man/Psylocke
One of the most execution-heavy but incredibly potent teams, Magneto/Iron Man/Psylocke is a glass cannon team that revolves around high damaging combos. Magneto is there to overwhelm the opponent without having to use any meter and can hopefully use his supers to make a strong tag into Iron Man.
Iron Man seems like a projectile spammer on the surface, but he has a 100 percent combo built in. It’s very easy to mess up Iron Man’s infinite combo, but if you get it down, you can go toe-to-toe with top-tier characters. Often, these two are paired with Sentinel, but considering the firepower you already have, a character with a strong assist like Psylocke may provide better combo opportunities.
