Avengers Academy - Shadowcat & Phoenix

Avengers Academy features a PVP team that is easy to acquire and works at lower level brackets.  It'll have a budget, low level focus for the items, and won't use items that are no longer in the rotation at the time of printing.

Shadowcat Kitty Pryde (Infiltrator):
ISO-8:  Steady
The Shadowcat alternate costume is unfortunately critical to this build working, you really need the benefits of starting phased and Strike from the Shadows to make this work.  With the Mind Link from Phoenix up, Kitty will protect and counter nearly every attack thrown at her.

First round, you can Call Lockheed, hopefully on a tactician to get Combat Reflexes for more counterattacks.  Call Lockheed doesn't break phased, so you'll have another turn to dish out some painful counterattacks before you break phased with Sneak Attack, which hits exceptionally hard.  Use Shadow Kick if you have Already Phased, and use Phased Attack to set back up once the debuff falls off.

Phoenix (Blaster):
ISO-8:  Mercurial and Chaotic (see Agent note) or Violent (after 125)
Use Mind Link on Kitty to set her up to protect/counter attacks, and then start focus firing someone with your mind-bullets!  One thing to be aware of is if it looks like someone is going to drop soon, you likely want to make sure you have enough stamina on phoenix to use her Phoenix Fire, so that might mean preemptively recharging.

Phoenix has Psychic Energy attacks, very good for focus firing past protects or onto other phased targets like Agents using Sinister Sceptre, or opposing Kitty Pryde.  Additionally she has a Stun which can be helpful for protecting Kitty once she's had to break Phased.

Infiltrator or Bruiser Agent
ISO-8:  Mercurial and Chaotic (see Agent note)
Key items:
Sudden Support
Goblin Glider (or Custom version)

One thing about this team is that ISOing your team is very particular:  You must make sure that Kitty has the highest max HP between the Agent, Phoenix and Kitty for the AI to properly Mind Link onto Kitty like you want during the setup of the team.  Since the AI always mind links the character with the most HP remaining, that will often be Kitty since she starts the fight phased (barring psychic shenanigans).

Otherwise, this Agent is set up to have one bit stealthy hit on a key opponent.  With three stealthy characters you can often remove a troublesome Agent or Rescue before she gets a chance to remove your Mind Link or Strike from the Shadows, which lets you have free reign to run over them in a flurry of counterattacks.

Summary

Total CP Cost:  65 for Ktty, plus up to 80 for White Crown Phoenix, putting this team around 145CP for the better setup.  You could spend slightly more and get Infiltrator Phoenix, but I currently prefer the Blaster variety.  If you see a ton of Rescue, it might be worth the extra CP though.

This team is fairly buff reliant:  If the opposing team strips your buffs before you get a chance to really act, it can be devastating.  Still, it has a lot of play and is quite the fun team to use.  Phased is very powerful, and if you can take advantage of it you can use it to survive teams that are set up to one shot you fairly easily.

Heroism: Phoenix

Dark Phoenix
(artist: John Byrne)

Introduction

Phoenix is available from the store for a bargain 48 CP, and has been since the beginning of the game.  Jean Grey is one of the most popular of the original X-Men, first featured in Uncanny X-Men #1 as Marvel Girl.  Her Phoenix persona didn't appear until Chris Claremont's run on Uncanny, and the Dark Phoenix "saga" is one of the iconic moments in Marvel history, being retold numerous times in the cartoons, as well as in X-Men 3:  Last Stand (for better or for worse).

She's also unique in Marvel Avenger's Alliance:  Her Phoenix 5 costume is the only costume that is unique to the game, having appeared nowhere else in Marvel comics, television, or film.

If you're interested in more about Phoenix, the Dark Phoenix run on the 90s X-Men cartoon is excellent, available on Netflix Instant, and features a ton of Cyclops saying the name Jean.  I suppose you could also watch X-Men 3, if you're into that kind of thing.  It's my wife's favorite of the X-Men films, but I can only speak to my previous memories of the film, as I haven't gotten around to rewatching it in time for the writing of this article.  And those memories tell me you're probably better off watching the cartoon.  Or you know what?  Maybe you should just take my word for it, or perhaps get a Marvel Unlimited subscription to read the comics.

Phoenix

Unique to M:AA, her Phoenix Five costume.
(The Comics featured Namor, who is for
legal reasons not in Avengers Alliance.)

Phoenix as mentioned before is a bargain:  She also has several alternate costumes, White Crown Phoenix and Phoenix 5 Phoenix.  The Phoenix 5 costume is a limited time only costume, having most recently been available during the Phoenix Five sale earlier this month, but it is arguably not as good as her always available White Crown costume.  Between her costumes and base abilities she has access to three classes:  Tactician, Blaster, and Infiltrator.  I personally use Blaster White Crown Phoenix, but you may find you prefer Infiltrator, or possibly even the Phoenix Five Phoenix as a Tactician.  Each has their own distinct advantages.

Her White Crown ability is that Phoenix Five refreshes Death and Rebirth, which allows her Phoenix Force powers to revive the first ally (including herself) that dies with 25% of their max HP.  It also unlocks her Phoenix Fire level 9 ability, a catastrophic attack that hits all enemies, does significant damage, applies soulfire to remove buffs, and removes debuffs from your team.  The ability to 'scroll' with her power as well as keep your team alive makes her one of the premier aggressive support team members in the game, and learning to play around her abilities and kill her before she can Phoenix Fire is a significant part of higher tier PVP.  She's also great in PVE, unlocking a premium mission, and is one of the first heroes I suggest new players to buy if they're looking to get into PVP while still playing PVE.

PVP Strategy:  Using Phoenix

On Attack

Phoenix has several attack abilities, each with their own applications.  Often, players are attracted to her Level 2 ability, Telekinesis, for the 60% chance to stun, and overlook her Psi Blast as being "just damage".  However, Migraine is a very powerful ability reducing the next attack's damage from the afflicted target by 30%, which is great for keeping your team alive through something like Modern Thor's Call Thunder, or other large aoe attacks (including opposing Phoenix Fire).  Additionally, Psi Blast is a psychic attack which makes it act stealthy, allowing you to ignore protect and counterattack abilities such as Rescue's Magnetic Attraction.  This can be used to pick off weakened targets or to attack targets weak to Phoenix.

Always available.
Always good.

Her Mind Link is another ability that recently received a buff making it a Quick Action.  Mind Link adds Focused to your team, but more importantly turns the target party member with Mind Link into a protector.  If you have an Agent with a Sinister Scepter, or a series of counterattack items, or are partnering with Kitty Pryde, you can set up teams that counterattack while being immune to damage.  You can also use this to spread the damage around, making it harder to focus fire individual team members who survive a single round.  This can also be used to help trigger Phoenix Fire.

Phoenix Fire is the big whammy:  A huge, hard hitting AOE that strips debuffs from your team, buffs from the opposing team by applying the Soulfire DOT, is catastrophic and cannot be protected or countered, and rarely misses (it can still be negated by special attacks).  This is what turns Phoenix from a good character to a great one:  She can take you from a losing position and catapult you ahead quickly. With White Crown Phoenix this refreshes Death and Rebirth allowing your team to remain alive even longer, possibly long enough to fire off a second Phoenix Fire if the opposing team lives that long

On Defense

Phoenix's AI prefers to Mind Link onto the character with the most remaining health:  It's for that reason that if you are running a Phoenix team that features Kitty or an Astral agent, you should consider only ISO-equipping that character with HP, to increase the chance that Phoenix will properly give the protect to the character you want soaking up hits.  Her AI is pretty darn decent, it will use Phoenix Fire whenever possible, and now that Mind Link is a quick action it doesn't always waste turns spamming useless buffs.

PVP Strategy: Facing Phoenix

It's something like this...
except with arguably better animation.

Fighting Phoenix is an important skill that will test you, particularly as you try to push into the later leagues (Vibranium and Adamantium).  The most important trick is to prevent Phoenix Fire from being used.  The best ways to do this are with specific crowd control abilities, and properly timing your focus fire so that you can trigger Death and Rebirth and then kill Phoenix before she has a chance to act again.  This means knowing the exact damage ranges of your abilities, being a bit lucky not to unintentionally kill characters with big crits, or spamming stuns on Phoenix after you trigger Death to hopefully keep her stunned for the round when she would fire off Phoenix Fire, allowing you to kill her.  Enough DOTs on her can also prevent her turn from happening, assuming that she's not partnered with a character or agent that can remove those DOTs.

She's very hard to kill with Psychic attacks, so keep that in mind if your plan is to attack her that way.  The most dangerous Phoenix teams feature protectors, making it very hard to target her on the critical turns.  Try to have an AOE ability or two you can use to hit her if she has a protector up, or have Stealthy attacks (or Psychic Energy from your own Phoenix, perhaps) to hit her when she's "down".

Phoenix is a top tier defensive hero, so expect to see her often, and learn to play around her.  Hopefully, you'll start seeing some success once you develop that important skill.

Avenger's Academy: Nightcrawler & Phoenix

Avengers Academy features a PVP team that is easy to acquire and works at lower level brackets.  It'll have a budget, low level focus for the items, and won't use items that are no longer in the rotation at the time of printing.

Swashbuckler Nightcrawler (Infiltrator):
ISO-8:  Steady
Shadow Dance >> Triple Threat, with his Night Kick if you absolutely need to stun someone critical (like Modern Thor), and Ambush to trigger bleeds once they're stacked on a target.  Repeat as needed.

White Crown Phoenix (Blaster or Infiltrator are both fine):
ISO-8:  Steady
Phoenix is fairly straightforward.  Mind Link Nightcrawler if he has (or will easily get) combat advantage, otherwise whoever has the most HP is a good choice.  I often only attack with Mind Blast, since it allows you to avoid protects and cannot be countered.  Telekinesis is good if you absolutely need to stun someone.

Once Death and Rebirth triggers, use Phoenix Fire ASAP and watch the opposing team burn!  If you have White Crown Phoenix, this will give you another Death and Rebirth which is pretty nice.

Bruiser Agent
ISO-8:  Steady
Key items:
Curative Reach
Brutal Claw

Brutal Claw is available through the store, as well as mission gear from 3-5 (epic boss) and 4-2.  It applies a bleed and Ravaged, which with Nightcrawler's alt costume allows you to bring a lot of pain really quickly.

Curative Reach allows you to heal your team, and is available in the mid 20s.  It's a staple almost all the way through the low and mid level pvp scene, allowing you to keep your team alive long enough to set up and do damage.

Other items are of your preference:  I am fond of things that provide shields to help keep Phoenix and Nightcrawler alive longer.  Magnetic Field Generator is a particularly good one, from the epic boss in mission 4.4.

Summary

Total CP Cost:  160 if you buy both alt costumes with their cheapest choices, 96 without costumes.

This team is slightly more expensive than the last one I featured, but it has one advantage:  The costumes aren't 100% required to run this team.  They are certainly a huge improvement, but the base characters aren't useless, unlike some costumes which really make or break the characters.

This is a very defensive team, that wants to play the long game.  Use this team if you see a lot  teams with a Tactician running around, because it can quickly mop the floor with them thanks to Nightcrawler.  If you are seeing heavy (2-3) tactician teams, you may want to run the Infiltrator Phoenix instead.

DISCLAIMER:  At the time of writing, Swashbuckler Nightcrawler is bugged, and his Ambush is not proccing Hemorrhage.  I still believe he's fine to use, but be warned.

Featured Team: White Crown Phoenix // Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde)

White Crown Phoenix (Infiltrator):
ISO-8:  6 Mercurial, 2 Spry
Your plan with Phoenix is to Mind Link on Kitty, then either move mind link between your agent and kitty as they are phased, or attack with one of her attacks.  If someone dies, Phoenix Fire.

Shadowcat (Infiltrator):
ISO-8:  8 Steady
Your basic plan with Shadowcat is to use Call Lockheed first round, then Sneak Attack to break Phased, Shadow Kick next round, then use Phased Attack to repeat the process.  Try to make sure to use Call Lockheed on a tactician to get Combat Reflexes.

Bruiser Agent (or Infiltrator, use Blaster WC Phoenix if so)
ISO-8:  8x Forceful
Sinister Scepter
Neurotrope // Norn Stone
Scroll of Nomaj // Angolob // Shepherd's Staff
Arc Reactor Charge // Sudden Support

This Agent is specifically designed to buff the party and have things to do while it hides under Astral Form.  Ideally, you get to open after Rescue or their Agent use their buff removal, so you can go Neurotrope >> Arc Reactor Charge >> Sinister Scepter, and put a huge hurt on someone.  This stuns your agent, but conveniently enough, you're hidden behind Astral Form and can only really be attacked by psychics.

Budget Setup:
(Custom) Only for Killing
Digital Decoy
Curative Reach
(Custom) Posessed Pistol

This setup is designed to be an aggressive one:  Only for Killing applies Mental Anguish much like Emma Frost, so use it on characters who will attack primarily with their first action, otherwise, either apply Digital Decoy (do this the turn before Shadowcat will be unphased) or unload with the Possessed Pistol.  You can use Posessed Pistol to set up devastating Sneak Attacks with Shadowcat.

Summary

Strengths

This team is a very powerful defensive team, and the ISO-8 are set up to take advantage of the AI as much as possible by making sure that Kitty's HP is higher than the Agent's and Phoenix.  Phoenix's AI will mind link the character with the most HP, and much of the time that will be Kitty, allowing you to string counterattacks if your opponent doesn't know what's up.  This team also is fairly durable even if they do know what's going on, since the agent and Kitty are often invulnerable and Phoenix has multiple resurrection effects.

On offense, this team can punish teams without both Rescue and an Agent with scrolls, getting numerous counterattacks and being immune to most attacks as they do so.

Counters

This team is very soft to psychic attacks, as well as a sustained buff removal team like Rescue and an agent with scrolls.  Rescue's AI is very soft, but on defense this team struggles against her.  You want to focus fire down Phoenix, making sure to kill her twice with back to back attacks to prevent her from using Phoenix Fire.

Rating

Offense:  B+

Defense:  A-

Featured Team: Rescue // Phoenix

Heroic Age Rescue -Tactician

ISO-8: 8x Deft (Health/Defense/Evasion)

White Crown Phoenix -Infiltrator

ISO-8:  5x Steady (Health/Attack/Accuracy), 3x Mercurial (Evasion/Attack/Accuracy)

Agent - Bruiser

ISO-8: 8x Chaotic ISO-8
Armory:  This comp will work with many type of armory balances, but I prefer ones that lean towards attack, since this team is naturally strong defensively and needs the extra punch.

Optimal Gear:

1. Warbringer's Axe
2. Scroll of Angolob // Scroll of Ocerebi Nomaj
3. Neurotrope
4. Blade of the Guardian // Kuzuri

Starting Player Gear

(This is intended for players who are new to the game, and do not have access to gold items, limited edition items, or the like.  Consider it the "budget" recommendations, although I will recommend many customized items from epic bosses, so expect to do a bit of farming.)

1. Curative Reach
2. Custom Magnetic Field Generator
3. Custom Bolt Action 4-Bore
4. Custom Only For Killing

Team Strategy:

Rescue has a lot of stamina and with luck you will have Neurotrope give her regenerating stamina, so your plan for her is to always use Flyby Attack (unless you have Exhaustion, this is very important) and then either her Protector Protocor or Reconstruction.  Use Status Reset whenever the opposing team has buffs that either allow them to pierce your defenses, or if you have bleeds/multiple DoTs that you need to get off of Rescue.  Your natural debuff removal should make it so you don't often have to use this defensively, but rather as an offensive tool to keep your opponent's team off balance.

Phoenix can be used to keep up the wall of protects, usually using Mind Link on herself if you have optimal gear, or the Agent if you are using the gear without Limited Edition items.  She also is your primary form of offense, so don't be afraid if you are not taking a lot of damage to just spam attacks like Telekinesis or Psiblast.  She has Psychic attacks so you can attack people through protects, and while this will not be your primary method of attack sometimes you can use this to finish off a weakened team member.

The Agent's job is much like Rescue's:  Spam buffs, protect and counter, and depending on which attack weapon you use, apply generalized or attack through protects.  If you are using the Blade of the Corruptor route, then both Phoenix and the Agent can ignore protects and hammer on specific targets.

The fun really begins when your first team member triggers Death and Rebirth.  Phoenix Fire refreshes, allowing you to severely wound the opposing team, and is yet another source of debuff and buff cleansing.  Often, Phoenix Fire combined with the solid healing from Rescue and the defensive nature of your team will allow you to get multiple uses of Phoenix Fire and make it frustratingly hard to defeat your team.

Summary

Rescue and Phoenix are one of the better AI-controlled defense teams around.  They often sequence their attacks decently, and have an advantage against teams that do not have sustained burst, like other Rescue teams.  Similarly, this team beats many of the older popular teams like Torch/Strange, making it ideal for low level PVP if you happen to have unlocked Rescue.  It does suffer from being slow to use and hard to focus fire, which means that it is not an ideal aggressive team, but it is definitely one of the better AI teams and worth considering for your defensive lineup.

Ranking:

On Attack:  B

On Defense:  A-

Counters  

Want to beat this team?  The best ways of doing so involve strong Scrappers to assault Phoenix, and stealthy/psychic attacks to ignore Rescue's attempts to defend her.  This does present the problem that their agent is a Bruiser.  Other approaches involve characters that break shields or remove buffs, or exploit shields.  Try team compositions that include either Shatterstar, MK 42 Iron Man, Juggernaut, Thundra, Hercules, Union Jack, and similar.  They often have the tools or the durability to survive the relatively low offense of these teams and either buff themselves enough to break through, or remove Rescue's protects/shields and pound away.  Other approaches that I've used successfully include using Wolverine to keep constant pressure on Phoenix since he has a Stealthy attack with a follow up, along with Tactician Widow to make sure you're going to crit along with her ability to both stun Phoenix and ignore Protects.