Marvel Rivals is a constantly evolving game that has many roles and positions for players to fill, but there's none more prevalent than the Duelist. Each Duelist has different goals: some tend to flank and go for the back-line weaker enemies, while others go with the team and off angles to deal front-line damage. No matter how they impact the team, each Duelist has clear goals and tends to achieve them to varying degrees of success.

While it is possible for each Duelist to work, the introduction of Season 1.5 (also known as the mid-season updates) has shaken up the meta quite a bit. Alongside the introduction of the Human Torch, there were plenty of balance changes that made certain characters much stronger while limiting others by quite a bit. As long as it works for the team composition, there's a good chance to make any Duelist work in most scenarios.

20 Black Widow

“Plasma Burst!”

Black Widow, while being one of the few snipers, is sadly one of the weakest Duelists in Marvel Rivals. While she has decent defensive tools and a fairly good ultimate after the most recent buffs, she still lacks one-shot potential, which is detrimental to her role. Black Widow's kick provides great tools against melee flankers but not enough to completely deter them and her sprint, while great for repositioning, isn't ideal when trying to escape a lot of situations.

That being said, Black Widow can perform an amazing team-up with Hawkeye that gives her very easy damage to specific targets using his afterimages. She has also found some success using a more aggressive melee-focused style, but even in those cases, she's still not quite as good as other Duelists.

19 Iron Fist

“Qì Guàn Cháng Hóng!”

Iron Fist has seen a lot of success in Season 1 as a flanker in Marvel Rivals, but with the recent nerfs to his flanker playstyle to push him towards a front-line fighter playstyle, it has left him in a confusing state. His nerfs targeted his base damage in almost every area, meaning he takes longer to kill strategists and fellow Duelists. That being said, he gained percentage damage to his Yat Jee Chung Kuen, which allows him to do quite a lot of damage to tanks when given free time.

Unfortunately for Iron Fist, the damage he deals to tanks is still not quite enough to justify playing him in a front-line style, so this does end up being mostly a nerf to his flanker style of play. But don't fret, he's not fully out of the works due to his amazing team-up with Luna Snow. It not only provides him additional damage, but gives her a very useful skill for dealing with flankers herself. With how common Luna Snow is as a , players will be able to have this active in most matches, which is a great benefit to both characters.

18 Mister Fantastic

“Fantastic!”

Mister Fantastic is a very interesting Duelist in the landscape of Marvel Rivals, as he doesn't fit the normal role of your average Duelist. While most Duelists focus purely on damage, Mister Fantastic focuses on defensive tactics and acts more as an off-tank, making him closer to a Vanguard rather than a Duelist. Unfortunately, that does mean that he tends to falter in his role, though when played as a replacement for a Vanguard he can shine quite a bit.

Mister Fantastic works best with his wife, the Invisible Woman, as they have a team-up which allows him to press an ability which creates bonus shield health for his missing health, which works perfectly for his Vanguard-like playstyle.

Going into Season 1.5, Mister Fantastic also received quite favorable buffs to his kit, especially to his ultimate, which does much more damage for players who are more accurate with their bounce hits. His other buff to his ability, Flexible Elongation, actually enhances his Vanguard playstyle quite a bit, which helps his character in general, but not quite as a Duelist.

17 Scarlet Witch

“Pure… Chaos!”

The Scarlet Witch is a rather underrated character in Marvel Rivals, as she tends not to be played to her full potential by a majority of the player base. Even then, she isn't the strongest but definitely has her place in the meta, especially after the buffs to her ultimate, which provide her with more protection when using it. She also has the ability to be very flexible with her playstyle, potentially being both a flanker and a front-line damage dealer.

She also has a very favorable team-up with Magneto, not only increasing her own damage by 10%, but also providing Magneto's great sword a powerful ranged attack. Magneto, being a fairly popular tank, means that players will be able to activate this team-up in more games than not, which is great for both characters.

16 Spider-Man

“Look Out For The Amazing Spider-Man!”

Spider-Man is a very iconic and mobile Duelist in Marvel Rivals that focuses on a flanker-type playstyle. His gameplay is incredibly versatile, and he's seen as one of the hardest characters in the game to master, which unfortunately doesn't do him any favors. While Spider-Man is incredibly difficult to play in Rivals, he doesn't actually provide as much as other characters, who are much easier and consistent to play.

Spider-Man excels at maps where he can traverse along the rooftops and pull people off the edge of the map. He did receive a small buff to his damage, but due to the nature of his abilities, he remains a fairly suboptimal pick among the majority of the players. This is combined with the fact that he needs Venom's team-up for his best one-shot combos, which means he's vulnerable to not getting kills when Venom is not present on his team.

15 Squirrel Girl

“Squirrel Stampede!”

Squirrel Girl is an incredibly simple Duelist who's quite easy to play and deals a lot of damage to both the front and back line of the enemy team by using loose projectiles and shooting bouncing acorns. While she's a fairly decent damage dealer, she lacks anything special that puts her above other Duelists. She also gets her ultimate fairly quickly compared to other Duelists, but it lacks the direct power of other Duelist ults.

Squirrel Girl unfortunately didn't receive any buffs coming into the mid-season patch, meaning she remains a middle-of-the-pack Duelist. But due to her ease of use and great damage that's easy to apply, she remains a staple for any comp that's looking for a general-use Duelist.

14 Moon Knight

“The Moon Haunts You!”

Moon Knight is a great long-range Duelist in Marvel Rivals, who has both great mobility and damage. He can play in the back-line of his team or play as a flanker, especially if someone else on the team is playing Cloak and Dagger, which allows Moon Knight to create a zone where he becomes invisible and regenerates health. This means despite Cloak and Daggers nerf in the mid-season patch, Moon Knight actually received a buff to gain even more sustain while using their team-up ability.

Moon Knight has fairly easy ways to deal damage, including his Ancient Ankh, which, when targeted with his left or right click, will essentially target nearby enemies automatically. Since most of his abilities already bounce, this causes a well-placed ankh and, with the proper ammo fired into it, to absolutely decimate an enemy team before they can react. Unfortunately, Moon Knight did receive some nerfs to his ultimate in the mid-season patch, which caused it to get fewer kills per game on average.

13 Human Torch

“Supernova!”

The Human Torch is the newest addition to Marvel Rivals, and has had a fairly good start by being a strong mid-range flying character. His primary fire works similarly to a shotgun, so despite being a flying character, he's very effective at close range. He's also quite fast in the air and has the option to quickly engage or disengage with his ability Flaming Meteor.

The Human Torch doubles as a zoning character who can control areas quite well due to his alternate fire combined with his pyro-prison ability. This means that it's best to constantly corner characters with zones of fire so that allies get in close range with relative safety.

Not only is his kit incredibly reliable, but he has great team up's with Invisible Woman and Storm. Invisible Woman's team-up allows him to be safe and regenerate health as bonus shields, which makes him even harder to kill as a flying character. Meanwhile, Storm and The Human Torch team up to utilize both of their ultimates to dramatically increase their damage, allowing them to even kill Strategists through their ultimates.

12 Psylocke

“Chō No Mai O Kurae!”

Psylocke is an incredible mid-range flanker in Marvel Rivals who can deal high damage in a short burst, then quickly get out by using dashes or invisibility. She also has a team-up with Magik known as Psionic Disc, which allows her to return to her previous position, which acts as another form of escape. This team-up was also recently buffed in the mid-season patch, giving her more health regeneration upon rewinding time with Psionic Disc.

Psylocke is one of the more difficult characters in Marvel Rivals and requires great accuracy to use effectively. This is due to the fact that landing hits will decrease the cooldown of her skills, which enables her mobility to be used more proactively.

Psylocke also has a very powerful ultimate, which is great for forcing enemy Strategists to counter with their own ultimates or else they risk quickly dying to her ultimate, Dance of the Butterfly. Given the current state of the meta, she remains okay but can struggle versus flying characters, especially due to how prevalent they are after the addition of the Human Torch. However, she can still quickly assassinate any flying characters who dare get low to the ground, and she can do the same to most Strategists and Duelists in the cast.

11 Black Panther

“Tremble Before Bast!”

Black Panther is a melee character who depends on combos and resets to tear through an enemy team. By using his Vibranium Mark, he can reset his main dash ability and can easily combo multiple characters with ease. Black Panther excels at flanking, but also dashing through entire teams and whoever he can get his mark on.

While Black Panther seems quite difficult, his combos are fairly easy to get used to with a little practice. By going into the training room and practicing the basics, it shouldn't take long for most players to get used to his basic combos.

Similarly to Psylocke, he has a team-up with Magik that allows him to return to his original position and regenerate some of his missing health. While he doesn't utilize it as well as Psylocke, it's still very beneficial to have, especially if the player messes up and doesn't get a reset on his mark. Black Panther, unfortunately, has two very distinct weaknesses, and that's dealing with flying characters and the fact his ultimate is rather weak. However, this doesn't stop him from being a menace to anyone who stands before him.