
Marvel Rivals Season 9 Guide: Jubilee, The Hood & More
Season 9 nuked the old Team-Up system. Two abilities per hero, no forced partners, and a tier list ranking every combo from broken to bin-worthy.

NetEase looked at the old Team-Up system, decided it was too easy to understand, and lit it on fire. The Marvel Rivals Season 9 team-up tier list below exists because the mechanic you memorized last season is gone, replaced by something bigger, messier, and considerably more capable of ruining your ranked climb. Every hero now carries two abilities instead of one shared gimmick, and nobody is required to babysit a specific teammate to get value anymore. Read the rules, skim the tiers, then go lose anyway: at least now it'll be for new reasons.
The premise is simple, which is suspicious for this game. Every hero has two Marvel Rivals Season 9 team-up abilities, picked before the match and swappable only from the spawn room, so no more frantic recalculating mid-fight. Choosing one activates its Base Effect regardless of who else is on your team. If the specific partner hero happens to be present, the ability upgrades into its Enhanced Effect: stronger, flashier, and generally the reason your opponents will start typing angrily in chat.
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Translation: you get a floor no matter what. The ceiling just happens to require a friend.
|
Concept |
What It Means |
Why You Should Care |
|
Base Effect |
Works with zero coordination, zero partner required |
You are never a dead pick anymore |
|
Enhanced Effect |
Triggers only with the listed partner hero on your team |
Turns "fine" into "unfair" |
|
Swap rule |
One ability equipped at a time, changeable only in spawn |
Commit before the fight, not during it |
|
Rotation policy |
No more seasonal rotation: abilities stay, balance patches instead |
Learn it once, suffer with it forever |

The scope of the rework is why everyone's guide, including this one, reads like a syllabus. A Marvel Rivals Season 9 Vanguard team-up now exists for all 13 tanks, doubled into 26 total abilities. Duelists got the heaviest homework: 27 heroes, 54 abilities, and a strong chance you'll forget half of them by Tuesday. Strategists come in lighter with 24 abilities across 12 healers, which is still more than anyone asked for.
|
Role |
Heroes |
Total Team-Up Abilities |
|
Vanguard |
13 |
26 |
|
Duelist |
27 |
54 |
|
Strategist |
12 |
24 |
This is the part you scrolled here for, so here's a ranking of the standout Marvel Rivals Season 9 Strategist team-up, Duelist, and Vanguard picks based on how much damage, disruption, or unfair sustain they hand out. Everything else that didn't make the cut is presumably fine, in the way a participation trophy is fine.
|
Tier |
Team-Up |
Heroes |
Why It's There |
|
S |
Villain's Illusion |
Loki / Hela |
Loki steals a dead enemy's entire kit. Killing a Duelist and becoming them mid-fight is not balanced, it's a personality disorder. |
|
S |
Fastball Special |
Hulk / Wolverine |
A giant green man throws a smaller angry man at your face. Physics-defying, ego-destroying. |
|
A |
Vitality Pact |
Adam Warlock / Mantis |
Two respawn anchors on one team. Death becomes a scheduling inconvenience. |
|
A |
Magik's Bind |
Magik / Doctor Strange |
Shackles three enemies instead of two. Great for people who enjoy watching others suffer in groups. |
|
A |
Gamma Charge |
Iron Man / Hulk |
Free damage buff plus a self-bubble ultimate. Iron Man gets to be reckless without consequences, as usual. |
|
B |
Firestorm Rework |
Human Torch / Storm |
A returning ultimate upgrade. Solid, familiar, unlikely to make anyone rage-quit. |
|
B |
Rocket Network / Vibranium Mech |
Peni Parker (choice) |
A genuine trade-off between personal defense and team utility. Refreshingly not overpowered. |
|
C |
United Siblings |
Invisible Woman / Human Torch |
Turns a shield into fire damage. Cute, situational, won't carry you anywhere. |
|
C |
Chaos Greatsword Charge |
Magneto / Scarlet Witch |
Requires energy management most players will forget mid-fight. Good on paper, ignored in practice. |
Rankings reflect early testing and the announced ability effects. Official numbers land with full patch notes, so treat S-tier as "probably about to get nerfed."
Every Marvel Rivals Season 9 team-up system overhaul claim you've read is not exaggerating: this is the largest structural shift the game has had since launch, and it lands on the same patch as a full roster of buffs and nerfs. Reading the Marvel Rivals Season 9 patch notes in isolation won't save you, because a hero's raw numbers now interact with an entirely new ability layer. The result is a Marvel Rivals Season 9 meta that will look different by the time you finish this sentence than it did when you started it, and anyone claiming certainty about tier placement this early is guessing with confidence.

Season 9 nuked the old Team-Up system. Two abilities per hero, no forced partners, and a tier list ranking every combo from broken to bin-worthy.

Season 9 nuked the old Team-Up system. Two abilities per hero, no forced partners, and a tier list ranking every combo from broken to bin-worthy.

Season 9 nuked the old Team-Up system. Two abilities per hero, no forced partners, and a tier list ranking every combo from broken to bin-worthy.

No. The base version works alone; the partner only unlocks the stronger enhanced version of the ability.
Only from the spawn room, and only between the two abilities your hero already has equipped.
No. They're permanent now, adjusted through regular balance patches instead of seasonal removal.
Duelists, with 54 new abilities across 27 heroes, more than double any other role's total.
No. It reflects early testing; expect shifts once full numbers and cooldowns are officially confirmed.


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