Big changes are coming to Team-Up abilities in Marvel Rivals with the arrival of Season 2. This update will introduce new synergies, modify existing ones, and remove some pairings altogether. Certain characters have also been reassigned to different Team-Ups, which will affect their optimal pairings. Players will need to adapt as they explore the new dynamics and discover the strongest team compositions.
Looking ahead, the character release schedule for Season 3 will be quicker, suggesting that Team-Ups will become more varied in the future. However, Season 2 will see the removal of some previously existing Team-Up abilities, maintaining a limited number of synergies. Developers have expressed their desire to avoid rapid accumulation of Team-Ups, so we can expect further removals in the Seasons to come.
Which Team-Up Abilities Are Being Removed?
Farewell to Familiar Synergies
When Season 2 launches on April 11, 2025, two Team-Ups will be taken out of the game:
- Metallic Chaos (Magneto + Scarlet Witch)
- Voltaic Union (Thor + Captain America or Storm)
Once these Team-Up abilities in Marvel Rivals are removed, they will no longer activate when the involved characters are selected for battle. Given that Team-Ups rely on anchors, Scarlet Witch and Thor will forfeit unique synergies that contributed to strong team dynamics. For instance, Magneto will no longer be able to generate a large sword that fires magical projectiles through his Team-Up with Scarlet Witch, significantly limiting his damage output.
Among the characters affected by these removals, Captain America stands to lose the most. Thor and Storm will retain multiple Team-Ups in Season 2, with Thor still connected to Hela and Storm able to combine her Ultimate with The Human Torch’s abilities. While Captain America will gain a new Team-Up in Season 2, losing his pairing with Thor limits his damage potential with shield strikes.
New Team-Up Abilities Coming in Season 2
Form New Connections with New Characters
To balance the removals, several new Team-Ups will be introduced in Season 2, especially with the addition of characters like Emma Frost in Marvel Rivals. The effectiveness of these new Team-Ups will need to be discovered as players experiment with various character combinations. Expect three new Team-Ups in Season 2:
- Arcane Order (Doctor Strange + Scarlet Witch)
- Stars Aligned (Captain America + Winter Soldier)
- Mental Projection (Emma Frost + Magneto or Psylocke)
In the first Team-Up, Doctor Strange acts as an anchor for Scarlet Witch, enhancing her chaos abilities with his mystic arts. When this Team-Up is active, Scarlet Witch’s Chthonian Burst becomes Magic Burst, a new skill that allows her to hold down the attack button to unleash a flurry of magical missiles toward a target for a limited duration.
The second Team-Up, Stars Aligned, showcases a unique collaboration between Captain America and Winter Soldier. While active, both characters can use a new ability called Stellar Impact, allowing them to confirm an interaction before crashing into one another, resulting in a substantial shockwave that deals damage and slows down enemies nearby.
When Captain America and Winter Soldier are teamed up in Season 2, Winter Soldier will also gain access to a new ability alongside Stellar Impact, allowing him to launch forward toward an ally and slam his mechanical arm into the ground, inflicting damage to nearby enemies upon landing.
The final Team-Up appears when Emma Frost serves as an anchor, where Magneto or Psylocke can summon illusory projections of themselves, similar to Loki’s clones in Marvel Rivals. These Duplicate Illusions can cast their abilities independently, disorienting foes while causing offensive and defensive skills to activate twice—once for the original character and again through the Mental Projection.
Existing Team-Ups That Are Changing in Season 2
Fewer Characters and New Additions to Classic Pairings
In addition to the new and removed Team-Ups, several existing synergies will undergo modifications in Season 2. Four Team-Ups will see adjustments in the form of character additions or deletions, changing who benefits from specific team combinations. For example, some Team-Ups will add characters to unlock new abilities when paired, while others might lose benefits associated with having an anchor present.
The following table outlines which Team-Ups will change in Season 2, the characters involved, and any new abilities or effects that result from these changes:
|
Team-Up |
Characters |
Removed or Added Characters |
Changed Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Dimensional Shortcut |
Removed – Psylocke |
None; the Team-Up remains the same, and current characters can still activate it. |
|
|
Ammo Overload |
|
Removed – Winter Soldier |
None; the Team-Up remains the same, and the current characters can still activate it. |
|
Chilling Charisma |
|
Removed – Namor |
None; the Team-Up remains unchanged, and the current characters can still activate it. |
|
Gamma Charge |
Added – Namor, Removed – Doctor Strange |
Namor’s squid turrets now unleash a homing beam of gamma energy to automatically target enemies. |
The removal of characters from Team-Ups opens up opportunities for more unique team formations, as fewer characters are tied to specific pairings. This change allows you and your teammates to explore a greater diversity of compositions for your next match.
Many Team-Ups will remain unchanged in Season 2, so you can still rely on familiar synergies even if these adjustments disrupt your traditional strategies.
Fortunately, characters removed from certain Team-Ups still have other synergies available. For instance, Psylocke can now team up with Emma Frost through the Mental Projection ability, while Winter Soldier can partner with Captain America to compensate for losing Ammo Overload. The new Team-Ups ensure that nearly every character can maintain some unique synergy with another hero or villain chosen by your allies.
The various updates to Team-Ups this new Season are likely just the beginning, especially as Ultron comes into play mid-Season, which will undoubtedly lead to fresh synergies. While some alterations to Marvel Rivals Team-Ups may seem minor, their significance will become apparent as more Seasons bring even more changes to character pairings.
