Every Marvel's Midnight Suns Character Ranked
Firaxis Games, the studio behind classic strategy franchises like "Civilization," and "XCOM," surprised the Tactical RPG community at Gamescom 2021 when it announced their development of "Marvel's Midnight Suns." This new foray into the superhero genre for Firaxis was labeled as, "the biggest game [they] have ever made," and the final product reflects that.
"Marvel's Midnight Suns" is a tactical, turn-based RPG similar to the playstyle of "XCOM" titles. However, "Marvel's Midnight Suns" lends its roster of iconic characters to a playable list through a unique core mechanic: deckbuilding. That's right, every superhero in the game has their own customizable deck, which serves as the game's action economy. Using the roster of 12 playable heroes (Morbius, Storm, Venom, and Deadpool have all been announced as DLC characters), teams are formed of 3 heroes and their own customized decks.
As a result, ranking each hero in "Marvel's Midnight Suns" is not absolute — every hero has relative power based on who their teammates are and how their decks are customized. Some heroes have amazing synergy together, while others will constantly step on each others toes. For the most part, every hero is viable for most difficulty settings, so take the following rankings with a grain of salt. Ultimately, these rankings are based on total power potential of each character.
13. Nico Minoru
One of the lesser-known cast members of "Marvel's Midnight Suns," Nico Minoru, unfortunately comes in last place when it comes to overall power. Even so, she is still a versatile character with a wide range of healing and damaging abilities. Her passive ability, And Another One, allows Nico to pop off by getting free card draws if she is able to stay at 100% health. Nico will get a randomized effect on her spells with every turn, making her the only hero with constant randomized effects.
Consistency and self-reliance are big advantages for heroes in "Marvel's Midnight Suns," and sadly, Nico Minoru is sorely lacking in both of these crucial categories. Don't be mistaken, she can absolutely snowball an encounter quickly, provided she gets lucky with passive draws and all her randomized effects line up properly. However, these ifs often turn out to be liabilities more than assets, especially when compared to the consistency of other heroes.
Her best cards are Witchfire and Swarm. Witchfire can be recast after it KOs an enemy, making Nico Minoru one of the best combo finishers in the game. Swarm is her go-to early game nuke that can high-roll into one of the highest single-target damage spells at the common rarity level.
12. Captain Marvel
In the comics, Captain Marvel is overpowered compared to other superheroes. "Marvel's Midnight Suns" tries to realize this blistering strength by making Carol Danvers into a tank who can dish out damage with the best of the game's roster.
Her playstyle completely revolves around the use of the skill Go Binary, which increases the damage she does by a whopping 100%. It does come with a downside, however, in that Go Binary wears off after taking a certain amount of hits. And that is where Captain Marvel's main issue comes in: she's designed to be a tank who holds the attention of attacking monsters, but she also needs to use Go Binary and not get hit in order to maintain her insane damage buffs. This results in a linear playstyle for Captain Marvel that sees players using Go Binary at the start of an explosive offensive turn. That is basically all a Captain Marvel team composition is good at: the character is designed to be heroism-hungry and requires the support of the rest of her team to be truly effective.
At least she is one of the easier characters to build an effective team around early, because Captain Marvel's deck has Go Binary as a set-up and Photon Beam as a finisher, both in the common slot. The combination of those two spells in the early game should spell the end of just about any encounter.
11. Blade
In "Marvel's Midnight Suns," Firaxis keyed in on Blade's relentless nature, making him the most singularly focused damage dealer in the game. Want a character who can shred an encounter entirely on his own while healing himself in the process? Well, Blade is the character for that hack-and-slash playstyle.
Damage dealers in the "Marvel's Midnight Suns" meta are, by design, greedy heroes. The rest of the team is likely set up to enable a damage dealer to get the job done. As it turns out, a good offense is a good defense. Blade, however, is probably the most greedy out of any of the other damage dealers. He demands large card economy like other damage dealers, but he provides no utility besides doing damage because his other core mechanic is Bleed. Bleed stacks are good at dealing more damage, especially when it comes to attacking a single boss, but there's not much else to him. This makes Blade's playstyle somewhat linear and severely limits his deck-building options.
Blade is another early game all-star who has a simple-to-execute game plan and very playable cards from the very start. Stake is Blade's early game staple that does a ton of damage while almost fully healing him. This alone makes the card good enough to win most early game encounters.
10. Captain America
Tanks in "Marvel's Midnight Suns" are designed to soak up the attacks and attention of the enemies in order to let the rest of the team shine, and Captain America exemplifies that role. Out of every character in the game, Captain America is by far the most durable–he can generate the most block, taunt the most enemies, and withstand the punishment while generating advantage of his own.
That all sounds great, so then why is he towards the bottom of the rankings? Well, Captain America offers the least in terms of offensive capabilities, at least relative to the other tanks. At the end of the day, winning missions generally revolves around taking down the bad guys. Although setting up a defensive turtle shell can be useful in dealing with these encounters, it's generally better to have a great offensive than a stronger defense. This simple fact makes Captain America's extreme proficiency with defense less valuable as encounters get harder throughout the game.
By no means, however, is Captain America a bad character. He can slot right into almost any lineup and allow the rest of them to shine by executing a defensive game plan with low card economy. Shield Bounce is his deck's main enabler, granting a mass taunt to enemies it bounces to, and it can be the backbone of any good early game party.
9. Hulk
The green mutant-giant, also known as Bruce Banner in his human scientist form, isn't a playable character in "Marvel's Midnight Suns" until almost the very end of the game. A large part of party and deck customization in "Marvel's Midnight Suns" happens through missions, where players make important decisions on what cards to upgrade. Hulk, unfortunately, doesn't really get to benefit from any of that advanced deck-building unless the player is suiting up for a New Game Plus run.
When the player finally unlocks Hulk, though, he does seem to live up to what would be expected of him–i.e. does Hulk actually smash? Yes, as it turns out: Hulk does, indeed, Smash in "Marvel's Midnight Suns." His playstyle is quite similar to that of Captain Marvel; he tends to be the focus of the enemy's attention while also packing enough of a wallop to wipe out an entire encounter on his own. Where Hulk shines and Captain Marvel fails, however, is in his kit's self-synergy: Hulk has a Rage mechanic that powers him up as he gets hit more, whereas Captain Marvel's Go Binary mechanics are negated when she's taking damage.
As such, Hulk has the potential to be an extremely powerful tank that uses up his team's Heroism for massive finishers. This can be tricky to pull off and is ultimately is a high risk/high reward balancing act, but the devastating results speak for themselves.
8. Scarlet Witch
The world-breaking powers of Scarlet Witch are communicated splendidly in "Marvel's Midnight Suns," in which most of her abilities are built around Area of Effect (AoE) spells.
Her passive ability, Wrong Place, Wrong Time, offers a chance to debuff enemies close to her, which necessitates playing Scarlet Witch as a frontliner. She also has spells that buff her party in AoE reactions, making it advantageous to clump up as a party. This counter-intuitive positioning style makes Scarlet Witch a tricky character to include in a team, especially in more crowded battles, but her powers can be absolutely devastating.
The most effective use of Scarlet Witch comes from abusing the Marked status, which her Hex Mark ability allows her to bestow moe easily than any other character. KO'ing a Marked enemy refunds a Card Play for the round, meaning that Scarlet Witch can Mark lots of enemies and then chain together a devastating round with tons of free actions. Therefore, Scarlet Witch has one of the highest damage ceilings in the game.
7. Iron Man
The character who launched the MCU into the cultural force it is today all the way back in 2008, Iron Man is also one of the most unique heroes in "Marvel's Midnight Suns." Keeping true to his inventive nature, Iron Man is a hybrid damage dealer with access to plenty of utility spells.
Deck-building with Iron Man is dictated by the Redraw mechanic, which gives his cards bonuses when redrawn, as well as his passive, I'll Handle This, which grants additional Redraws when 3+ Iron Man cards are played per turn. This means that teams with Iron Man will have most of its Card Plays and Redraws dedicated to Iron Man. However, he doesn't let his expensive card economy go to waste, as he can deploy a plethora of devastating attacks and effects.
Iron Man especially shines as the centerpiece damage dealer, with cards like Air Superiority enabling him to damage literally every enemy on the map. He is the only character with that type of unlimited AoE potential. Precision is probably Iron Man's most important card, as its Redraw effect on the next card played perfectly fits with Iron Man's scaling gameplay. Iron Man's greatest upside — a Heroism and card economy sink — is also his greatest downside. If a team isn't well-built around Iron Man, then he can totally find himself outclassed in damage dealing by other less-resource dominant heroes.
6. Ghost Rider
Ghost Rider is the ultimate glass cannon character in "Marvel's Midnight Suns." A glass cannon is self-explanatory: a powerful weapon of destruction that is itself fragile. Ghost Rider fits this description because many of his abilities sacrifice life points for empowered damage dealing.
He is one of the more tricky characters to play correctly, but once the player is comfortable taking risks and building teams around Ghost Rider, he certainly pays them back. His kit has nice self-synergy, since he can both open up a Hellmouth and knock enemies into them. Meanwhile, his Soul Collector mechanic gives him more power as he slays more enemies — and when Ghost Rider is on the team, he is probably the one who is going to be getting the last hits on most KO's.
Most importantly for the early game, his Hell Ride Heroism sink is one of the best in the game. Rampaging a flaming car through the battlefield is both fun and effective. All in all, Ghost Rider has one of the highest potential power levels, but only if a proper team is built around him. If he is used just as a tag-along damage dealer, he quickly becomes one of the worst characters in the game, simply because he cannot support himself.
5. Wolverine
The iconic never-say-die berserker of the "X-Men" franchise is done justice in "Marvel's Midnight Suns," in which Wolverine's tenacity and ferocity are on prime display. He is built as a drain-tank and much of his survivability comes down to how much damage he is able to inflict on the enemies in one go.
Compared to the other tanks in the game, Wolverine is the best at providing protection for the team while being a threat himself. Captain Marvel and Hulk have much higher damage potentials, but they require a whole team to built around them. Also, Captain America is much more durable, but he can't chain attacks and self-resurrect like Wolverine can.
His unique abilities, like Rapid Healing, enable advanced gameplay options for players taking on harder difficulties where planned deaths are sometimes tactically required. Meanwhile, Chain Swipes might feel weak in the early game, but once upgraded, Wolverine will operate like a true damage dealer with extreme survivability.
4. The Hunter
Firaxis Games, building out "Marvel's Midnight Suns" as a tactical RPG, knew the game needed some form of personalized player progression and customized character models. That is where The Hunter steps in — a brand new superhero whose looks and playstyle are completely up to the player. Where the rest of the playable roster has 10 cards to chose from building their decks, the Hunter's deck can be chosen from a total of 30 cards. The Hunter has access to a Light path, Dark path, and Power path, each of which boasts 10 cards of their own.
As such, ranking the Hunter is the hardest because they simply have the most variables, but this high level of customization is also the Hunter's greatest strength. What the Hunter excels at, at least when compared to other heroes, generally shines through in the Light path. Other supports in the game do not have access to the sheer number of pure healing spells as the Hunter does in this configuration, easily making a pure-Light Hunter the best healer in the game.
Suit up an early Hunter deck with modal cards like Holy Flame that can be used either offensively or defensively, and that flexibility will prove invaluable. Other staples, like the simple Heal, make the Light Hunter one of the most effective low-card cost supports in the game.
3. Magik
Magik's gameplay identity is entirely based on repositioning enemies throughout the battlefield through the use of her signature Limbo Portal ability. These portals manipulate the spatiality of encounters far beyond the capabilities of any other character, giving her unique prominence within the hero roster.
Tactics-based RPGs are already heavily rooted in a core strategy focusing on the turn-by-turn positioning of each character on the battlefield. "XCOM" expertly uses a cover system to emphasize the importance of positioning, and "Marvel's Midnight Suns" privileges the strategy of positioning by having characters end their movement after Card Plays for the player run out for the round. As such, having acute awareness of everyone's position on the battlefield is one of the most important strategic considerations.
Magik takes those very considerations and turns them into playful opportunities to unleash crazy combos on enemies. Many of the game's most powerful attacks, like Ghost Rider's Hell Ride or Captain Marvel's Photon Beam, rely on AoE setups, and Magik is by far the best character for making sure those abilities hit as many targets as possible. Also, her aptitude for repositioning enables her to take advantage of terrain-based advantages like environmental attacks. At the end of the day, Magik's kit allows her to manipulate the game state into advantageous positions more than any other character, making her one of the best in the game.
2. Spider-Man
Spider-Man, everyone's favorite invoker of great power and great responsibility, takes the cake as the game's best damage dealer. As previously covered, damage dealers in "Marvel's Midnight Suns" occupy a resource-hungry position. They are typically the Heroism sinks, but Spider-Man eschews these conventions for a much more efficient playstyle.
Spider-Man's decks emphasize chain attacks, environmental attacks, and effective crowd control on a budget. Chain Strikes are great at spreading out damage amongst a large crowd of enemies, preparing them for a finishing blow. And this is where Spider-Man's self-synergy really shines: he can get lots of enemies low, then can use Heroism-free environmental actions through the Opportunist card to finish them off.
None of the other damage dealers will take close to as many free actions as Spider-Man, and he gets to do them without even spending Heroism. Therefore, Spider-Man can consistently dish out lots of damage, finish off enemies without Heroism, and generate huge free-action advantages. As a result, Spider-Man is the most self-sufficient and consistent damage dealer in the game.
1. Doctor Strange
Capping off the list of most powerful characters in "Marvel's Midnight Suns," Doctor Strange is capable of things no other characters can pull off in the game. He enables great offensive strategies by encouraging advanced team-wide deckbuilding.
Doctor Strange's passive, Greater Good, generates Heroism every turn, already giving him incredible utility for simply existing in the battle. On top of that, Doctor Strange has access to Agamotto's Gaze, which may be the most powerful card in the game. It refunds the last two played attacks, generates Heroism when played, and also gives the player an extra Card Play at the start of the next round. Now, pair that effect up with just about any damage dealer and they enter a god-like mode. The redraw efficiency, extra Heroism, and extra Card Play makes Agamotto's Gaze the most team-empowering card available to players.
His overall team utility doesn't end there, as cards like Astral Meditation unlock Combat Item and Redraw strategies like no other hero, and even a common like Blessing of the Vishanti grants 50% extra damage to every attack in hand. Playing with or without Dr. Strange is probably the most different experience in "Marvel's Midnight Suns," and as such, he is the most powerful. Put bluntly, Doctor Strange is the gasoline one can add to a team to get its fire roaring.