The best Marvel Rivals Strategists for the current season are the heroes who came out of the Season 8 patch with their kits intact while the rest of the role got softer around them. Cloak and Dagger sit clear S-tier because nobody touched them and the patch nerfed their competition. Mantis kept her S-tier spot but in a different role – the damage-buff Mantis is gone and the dive-enabler Mantis is now her job. Loki ate one of the heaviest nerfs the game has shipped and is no longer a comp anchor. White Fox is the rising pick. Luna Snow continues her slow ride down the tier list.
Below is the Strategist tier read a boost team uses on ranked: who anchors a comp, who flexes into specific team-ups, which casual-meta darlings stop working at Diamond, and which Strategist to actually lock in solo queue when nobody else will pick the role. The Strategist seat is the highest-leverage solo-queue lock in Season 8 because the ult economy decides team-fights and the heal-share team-ups matter more than they did in Season 7.
The Season 8 Strategist patch in one paragraph
The Season 8 patch reshaped the Strategist ult economy more than it reshaped any individual hero. Mantis got reworked: Allied Inspiration’s damage buff dropped from 12% to 8% but it now grants a flat 100 movement speed to teammates. Loki ate the patch’s heaviest nerf: HP 3,500 to 3,000, Bend the Knee cooldown 8 to 15 seconds, mind-control duration halved. White Fox got ult buffs and rose into A-tier. Cloak and Dagger weren’t touched and rose into clear S-tier purely because the rest of the role got nerfed around them. The full balance log is in the Season 8 patch notes and the cross-role read is in the current season meta guide.
Strategist tier table for the current season
Diamond+ snapshot from two weeks into Season 8. The casual tier list flips on Invisible Woman, Jeff the Land Shark, and Luna Snow – all three are A-tier in Bronze-Plat lobbies because the dive meta isn’t enforced there and pure healing output wins out. Cross-check live pick- and win-rates on Tracker.gg’s Marvel Rivals leaderboards.
| Tier | Strategist | Best at | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| S | Cloak and Dagger | Solo-queue anchor, all ranks Plat+ | Untouched kit, rest of role got softer; ult economy pairs cleanly with Magneto + Devil Dinosaur |
| S | Mantis | Dive comps, Diamond+ | Reworked: +100 movement speed enables dive crash-ins |
| A | White Fox | Ult-window comps, Plat+ | S8 ult buffs; needs team to hold cooldowns for the right window |
| A | Adam Warlock | Coordinated dive, Diamond+ | Soul Perseverance team-up + revive utility; lost Mantis seat though |
| A | Luna Snow | Casual top pick, Bronze-Plat | Power-crept down for two seasons; Chilling Assault still relevant |
| A | Invisible Woman | Casual top pick, Bronze-Plat | Top casual healer per noping.com consensus; Fantastic Four anchor |
| A | Jeff the Land Shark | Beginner Strategist, all ranks | Most healing-focused kit in role; cleanest learning curve |
| B | Rocket Raccoon | Bronze-Plat flex | Untouched; Ammo Overload team-up with Punisher |
| B | Loki | Niche illusion comps | Hammered by S8 nerfs; no longer a comp anchor |
The best Strategist for your climb tier
Strategist picks shift by rank harder than any other role because the role’s job changes by rank. Bronze lobbies need pure healing output; Diamond+ lobbies need ult-economy timing. The right hero at one rank can be the wrong hero at the next.
Bronze and Silver
Forgiving healing output wins here. Invisible Woman is the casual top pick for a reason – her ult landing is generous, her healing is constant, and she’s evasive enough to survive bad team positioning. Jeff the Land Shark is the cleanest beginner Strategist in the game because his kit emphasizes healing over damage and the cooldown rhythm is the simplest in the role. Rocket Raccoon works as a flex pick if your team locks Punisher (Ammo Overload team-up scales his sustained DPS).
What not to pick: Mantis (her dive-enabler rework doesn’t work in lobbies that don’t dive), Loki (the S8 nerf makes him hard to keep alive at this rank), Adam Warlock (his utility wastes against uncoordinated dives).
Gold and Platinum
The transition tier. Luna Snow stops auto-carrying and Cloak and Dagger becomes the right answer because the lobby is now coordinated enough to punish Luna Snow’s slower ult cycle. Mantis becomes viable if your team locks a dive comp – the +100 movement speed is a real enabler when Spider-Man and Psylocke want to crash the backline. Adam Warlock’s Soul Perseverance team-up with Star-Lord and Mantis pulls weight if you can convince your team to coordinate.
Mid-page truth: if you’re stuck in Plat because nobody else queues Strategist, the role lock isn’t going to fix itself. Our Marvel Rivals Strategist boost team will run the climb on your account on top-tier Cloak and Dagger plus Mantis. Same MMR profile, real boosters, actual current patch – we’ll lock the role nobody else wants and the LP will come.
Diamond and Grandmaster
Cloak and Dagger first, Mantis second when the comp wants dive. White Fox third for the ult-window comps that need a held cooldown. Every Diamond+ ranked game right now is decided by which team’s Strategist holds the ult economy better – which is why the Cloak and Dagger pick rate at this rank is the highest of any Strategist in the role. Adam Warlock works in coordinated lobbies that can use Soul Perseverance.
The cleanest Diamond-to-GM run we tracked this season ran Cloak and Dagger in 80% of the booster’s games. The player wanted Luna Snow runs and we ran those on casual mode while still locking C&D in ranked. (Luna Snow is now what Mantis used to be: a beloved hero who keeps losing seasonal ground while the players who main her insist she’s fine. She’s not fine. She’s still playable in casual. Those are different things.)
Celestial and Eternity
The Cloak and Dagger plus Mantis pairing dominates the top of the ladder because the ult economy at Celestial+ matters more than raw healing throughput. The lobbies have the discipline to bait ults and the team-up coordination to make Adam Warlock’s Soul Perseverance with Star-Lord and Mantis a real comp construction. Loki shows up here as a counter-pick to specific dive comps but never as a default. The r/marvelrivals current-Strategist thread reads roughly the same way our top-rank boosters do: Cloak and Dagger first, Mantis second, everyone else in a distant pack behind.
Two-Strategist comp logic
Marvel Rivals expects two Strategists in serious comps and three patterns hold across Season 8.
- Cloak and Dagger + Mantis. The default Diamond+ pairing. C&D anchors the heal economy, Mantis enables dive repositioning, both ults bait cleanly off each other. This is the pairing to learn first if you’re solo-queuing the role.
- Cloak and Dagger + White Fox. Ult-window comp pairing. White Fox holds her ult for the team-fight window, C&D smooths the moment-to-moment healing. Best against backline-protect comps that don’t dive your Strategists.
- Adam Warlock + Mantis. Coordinated dive comp pairing. Soul Perseverance team-up with Star-Lord and Mantis (Adam revives, Mantis enables, Star-Lord finishes). Works only in lobbies that can communicate cooldowns – mostly Celestial+ in solo queue.
Strategist picks downstream of Vanguard picks more than the reverse – the Vanguard slot dictates whether the comp dives or brawls, and the Strategist pair has to match. For the upstream call on which Vanguard to lock first, the current Vanguard picks are the framing. For where these picks land at your specific tier, the Marvel Rivals rank ladder sets the climb-time and distribution context.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the best Strategist in Marvel Rivals right now?
Cloak and Dagger. Their kit didn’t change in the Season 8 patch and the rest of the Strategist role got softer around them – Mantis lost her damage buff, Loki ate the heaviest single nerf in the patch, Luna Snow keeps slow-dripping down the tier list. C&D anchor the heal economy at every rank Plat and above, and they don’t need team-up coordination to function.
Is Mantis still good in Season 8?
Yes, but in a different role. Her damage buff to allies dropped from 12% to 8% but she now grants a flat 100 movement speed to teammates. She stopped being a damage enabler and became a dive enabler. Pair her with Spider-Man, Psylocke, or any other Duelist that wants to reposition into the backline; stop pairing her with Hela or sniper Duelists.
Did Loki get nerfed in Marvel Rivals?
Heavily. Season 8 dropped base HP from 3,500 to 3,000, raised Bend the Knee’s cooldown from 8 to 15 seconds, and halved the mind-control duration. He’s no longer a comp anchor and the Loki-mirror lobbies that defined late Season 7 are gone. Play him as a counter-pick when the matchup specifically wants illusion utility, not as a default Strategist.
Is Luna Snow still meta in Marvel Rivals?
In casual lobbies, yes – she’s an A-tier pick. In Diamond+ ranked, no – she sits B-tier and the high-rank consensus is that Cloak and Dagger does her job better. The Chilling Assault team-up with Iron Fist or Emma Frost still gives her some ranked relevance, but as a default Strategist pick she’s been power-crept down for two seasons.
What is the best beginner Strategist in Marvel Rivals?
Jeff the Land Shark. He’s the most healing-focused Strategist in the role – less DPS-oriented than the others, more constant healing output, the cleanest cooldown rhythm to learn. He’s the right hero to learn the role on before you move to Cloak and Dagger for ranked.
What Strategist is best for solo queue?
Cloak and Dagger. They don’t need team-up coordination, the kit forgives positioning mistakes, and the ult lands without a teammate setup. If you’re the only one willing to lock Strategist in your solo-queue lobby (which describes most ranked games at every rank), C&D is the cleanest choice. Mantis is the second pick if your team’s running a dive comp.
Strategist is the most undervalued role in Marvel Rivals solo queue – lobbies that lock two Strategists win 8-12% more games than lobbies that don’t, and the Strategist seat is where Season 8’s ult-economy changes matter most. If your climb has stalled because nobody else will pick the role, boost the climb with our team. We’ll lock Cloak and Dagger every game and the LP will follow.