The trailer for Marvel Rivals season three was unveiled on July 1, and Jean Grey/Phoenix and Blade are officially the next two heroes joining the roster. With back-to-back Duelists charging into battle, I'm curious who you're more excited to play.
Phoenix and Blade have drastically different play styles, with one harnessing telepathic and fiery magical powers and the other tapping into vampiric abilities and dishing out deadly melee damage. They're about as opposite as can be for two characters fulfilling the same role, so I'm interested to see who will end up being the more popular pick.
A lot of it ultimately comes down to what their abilities are, how effective they are in battle, and how they flow with the rest of the team. We won't know the answers to any of this until they're officially out, but based on what we do know about them as characters and what they showed off in the season three trailer, we can certainly speculate.
Phoenix was confirmed to be the first character launching with the start of season three during the latest dev diary, so she'll be the first new unit to join the roster. Of the two characters arriving throughout this season, she's who I'm more excited for and the one I think might make an overall bigger impact.
I love playing any characters with telepathic and magic powers, so Phoenix is much more suited to my playstyle than Blade. Her skillset, which we so far know includes a unique chain reaction mechanic, harnessing the Phoenix Force, lending her powers to Wolverine with a fresh Team-Up, and the ability to clear away enemy summons based on the season three patch notes, also seems like it could massively shake up the battlefield and redefine the meta. She seems to have real potential to become one of the most impressive and flexible Duelist units if done right.
After a lengthy and well-deserved nap in Wakanda, Blade is also finally ready to join the action, although his debut won't be for another month after season three begins, when the second half is released. Most of Blade's abilities and kit have already been leaked, so we have a solid idea of what his skillset is expected to look like.
Although he looks absolutely awesome, Blade's alleged skillset isn't really all that exciting to me, nor does it seem like a set of abilities that is going to massively impact the game. All of his leaked skills seem to be mostly generic melee attacks. His ultimate is the only real part of his kit that sounds intriguing, as it supposedly allows him to unleash his vampire form and either steal health or prevent healing from happening.
He sounds cool, but outside of his ultimate, I don't see him being a really big player who shakes up the game long term. I could be wrong, though, and after how long we've had to wait for Blade to arrive after he was initially teased, I sure hope I am.
As a Strategist and Vanguard main, I'm not super thrilled about the arrival of back-to-back Duelists. It's at least nice that they are extreme opposites, as this makes the arrival of two members of this class a bit more bearable. Phoenix is also one of my favorite characters, so I can't be too mad about her joining the roster.
I do wish we'd even out the roster a bit before adding two Duelists in a row, though. My ideal release format would actually be only Strategists and Vanguards for a bit to even out the roster, then a consistently rotating schedule between the three moving forward. It's already hard enough to get other players to jump on these two roles—especially Vanguard with the flying meta—and two fresh Duelists are only going to make this issue worse.
So, Destructoid, what do you think? Are you looking forward to playing Phoenix or Blade more, and which one do you anticipate will have a bigger impact on the game overall? Let us know your thoughts.
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