Summoning powers from a different dimension, Magik is one of the strongest Duelists in Marvel Rivals. She wields an absurdly large sword that gives her a ton of damage and horizontal range, and she has the mobility tools to be an assassin hero who hunts unsuspecting players from the shadows.
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Marvel Rivals: Magik Hero Guide
Here’s how to dominate the battlefield with Magik’s devastating greatsword in Marvel Rivals!
Magik’s kit is powerful, diverse, and open to creativity, letting her use the map layout to her advantage and garner quick kills. She’s also one of the few melee Duelists in the game who can regularly contest against Vanguards thanks to her monstrous DPS. Nonetheless, her high pick rate doesn’t mean she’s without flaws, and exploiting key weaknesses will certainly help you make short work of her.
How To Counter Magik
Magik’s playstyle is fairly simple in the grand scheme of things — stay hidden near enemy territory, find isolated targets, and charge in for the assault. Her Soul Sword, Magik Slash, and Umbral Incursion have incredible damage output, resulting in a blitzing fast time-to-kill (or TTK) that can end you in mere moments.
As for her movement and escape routes, Magik’s Stepping Discs are a remarkable multipurpose ability that can let her teleport a short distance. When she steps inside the disc, she’s briefly invulnerable to all incoming damage on top of receiving bonus health, and the fact she can chain two discs with minimal downtime allows for an easy retreat.
Magik can also follow up her Stepping Discs with one of two attacks: Eldritch Whirl and Demon’s Rage. These attacks offer strong crowd control, with the latter ability, in particular, severely hindering slower foes like Vanguards.
Thus, the definitive way of countering Magik is reinforcing your close-range defense by placing traps or staying close to your team. Although terrifying in one-on-one encounters, she simply doesn’t have the firepower to tackle more than one enemy at a time. Magik relies on positional openings, and if you’re actively blocking those opportunities, she can’t enter the field without putting herself at a massive risk.
Specific and effective traps include things like Peni’s mines, Namor’s octopi, and Groot’s walls, which deal extra damage on top of restricting Magik’s maneuverability. If you want to opt for the defensive path, you can use stuns and other evasion techniques to keep yourself safe.
How To Counter Magik As A Vanguard
Magik’s one of the few Duelists in Marvel Rivals that shreds top-tier Vanguards like Doctor Strange and Magneto because of her melee attacks and high damage output. Thus, when looking at the category, there’s no denying that Peni Parker is the strongest counterpick against the queen of Limbo. Traps, snares, damage — she has all the means to go up against her, trivializing her abilities and slashes.
The optimal way to tackle Magik as Peni is to stay in the backline, deploy the Spider-Nest, and once she gets close enough, immobilize her with the Cyber-Web Snare and watch the nearby drones and mines decimate her HP.
As for other heroes in this role, your best bet is to stick with melee Vanguards and use abilities that either obstruct Magik’s line of fire or apply a movement debuff. Hulk and Thor, for instance, can use their Radioactive Lockdown and Lightning Realm, respectively, to keep Magik vulnerable for a longer period. Groot, on the other hand, can summon his walls to cut off Magik from both her targets and teammates.
However, your main duty as a Vanguard is to stay close to your Strategists and Duelists when fighting an aggressive Magik player. You have a better chance than anyone to withstand her attacks and abilities without immediately dying, which is crucial since she can’t stay in the open for too long.
How To Counter Magik As A Strategist
Strategists are the primary target for an antagonistic Magik, so you’ll need to stay alert if you see her in a match. Generally, you can avoid her assassin-like nature by using stuns and other escape mechanics, like Luna Snow’s Absolute Zero and Mantis’ Slumbering Spore, but your main strategy should be sticking close to your Vanguards so they can soak up damage while dishing some out.
The last thing Magik wants is to dive into a congested area; it lowers her chances of not only getting a kill but also running away afterward. As a Strategist, you can utilize this fact by letting Vanguards like Peni Parker set up traps around you or Hulk to give you extra protection. Though conventional and simple, these tactics will ensure you’re neither cornered nor segregated, and they work well against other melee Duelists, too.
How To Counter Magik As A Duelist
Magik’s vertical and horizontal mobility is significantly better than other melee Duelists in Marvel Rivals, but weak when you consider the entire roster in this role.
Therefore, her natural counterpicks are your standard, high single-shot damage ranged Duelists like Hela, Hawkeye, Namor, The Punisher, Moon Knight, Winter Soldier, Star-Lord, and Black Widow. Aerial Duelists like Iron Man and Storm will also stay far outside Magik’s line of sight, though it can be challenging to actually attack her since she’ll be either hiding away or strafing through portals.
Out of the ranged Duelists, Namor is definitely the go-to hard counter to Magik because of his octopi and reputation as an exceptional anti-dive hero.
Among melee Duelists, Mister Fantastic and Black Panther are surprisingly good thanks to their unique counteracting options. You can consistently keep the pressure on her with Fantastic’s Flexible Elongation ability, while the Wakandan king can easily dash past her attacks. Still, squaring off against Magik as a melee hero can be dicey, so examine her playstyle before you engage.
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