Alright it's that time again.
Time for some more theory craft team ideas.
This one is very thematically appropriate. Last one was kinda thematic too with the two characters having long limbs but this one is more so.
Firebrand + Arthur + Mind (Power stone as secondary option)
Now I know what you are thinking, you are probably like "oh wow, two GnG characters on a team, how original!!!" I mean sure thematically it's kinda obvious but I feel this particular team has some synergy and pair up well with the Mind Stone.
I think most people consider Firebrand a good character from Marvel 3 and Arthur a low tier character but with good assists. Certainly you could even play this duo in Marvel 3 and do fine at lower levels of play as Firebrand is a decent to good point character and Arthur is a good anchor, then you just needed someone in the middle to round out the team.
Let's start with how these two characters have changed although we have limited information on both of them:
*Arthur - The biggest change to him is that he has a ground dash. This transforms him completely. Now he can actually move away from opponents or even rush them down a bit with his fast overheads. The other big change to him is that his Gold Armor break is an invulnerable state and he CANNOT be OTG'd during it. So no more getting punished into a full combo for Gold Armor expiration though it will give enough time for them to get in and set you up but we still have Tag system for something like that. And finally, Arthur is just faster all around in terms of his projectiles and mechanics like the DUD just help him out a lot.
*Firebrand - We don't know if the unblockable is still in the game and I am just going to assume it isn't because paired with the tag system it would clearly be too busted. He might still have a good overhead game without Luminous body or he might not, I am going to assume that he can somewhat mix people up high low if they are locked down (since most characters can). His H fireball projectile now goes up and comes back down in a parabolic form. He has a new tornado move that seems to be good for controlling space and you can throw a fireball into it to create a giant flame pillar. The Tornado is also useful for combos and potentially good as a pressure set up for tags. Aside from these he doesn't appear to be changed too much although he does have a new cinematic LVL3.
Now let's talk about how the new system mechanics benefit both of these characters.
*Tag system means that moves like the charged Hell Swoop, Bon Voyage, the new Tornado/Flame Pillar and the parabolic fireball (or even air fireballs) are now usable as psuedo assists which means that Firebrand is no longer a point only character with garbage assists. The fact that Firebrand is mostly an airborne characters helps a lot with this as in Marvel 3 he could only use his ground moves as assists. Arthur was already a great support character and now he will be an even better support character because he can use aerial Crossbows or his Trident for tag set ups. DHCs shouldn't be a problem either as Firebrand can just get in position after the Bracelet super of Arthur.. only issue I see for DHCs is if Firebrand does his Flame super at super jump height then Arthur cannot really super jump and do Bracelet super as it's not air ok (but his LVL3 should work). Firebrand already worked well off of Arthur's Daggers in Marvel 3 and now he has more tools to use with Arthur where as now Arthur can use some of Firebrand's tools as well. Finally, Arthur's get off me tools are now much more effective with a tag system as they can be made safe (his Heavenly Slash and counter moves specifically).
*Universal OTG system helps out Firebrand a lot as he has limited OTG capability and same for Arthur. Firebrand usually relied mostly on his ground and wall bounces to do damage so it wasn't a big issue for him but for Arthur it's a big deal.
*DUD jumps are massive for both characters. It helps out with their zoning and their mix ups. DUD jumps are particularly effective on smaller characters and both of these are small characters meaning that Firebrand and Arthur can force overheads with the DUD jump. Arthur can also make great use of DUD jump for his zoning as his regular jumps are floaty as hell. This allows him to keep low to the ground while changing the angles and lines of his projectiles.
*Advance guard kinda hurts both of these characters quite a bit because they both rely on singular hitting projectiles for their zoning/offense and it can get easily reflected back. Firebrand is less affected because he doesn't lean as heavy on his fireball game.
*Lowered chip damage and chip scaling hurts Arthur mostly especially the chip on his Bracelet super. No chip kill without hypers also hurts Arthur as he can't effectively get the final hit and he has to rely on chip kills heavily. Firebrand isn't too bothered by lowered chip as he didn't have a big chip component to his game plan. However, normals chipping against air borne enemies helps out Firebrand a lot as he is often in those types of situations where he is pressuring enemies trying to chicken jump him. It should be noted that if Arthur tosses multiple projectiles then only the last projectile can be reflected back, if they reflect an earlier projectile then it just negates the last projectile instead of reflecting it back.
Now let's talk about how the Mind Stone helps these characters and why I chose it over the others (Power Stone is a good secondary option for both and might even be better in the long term):
Mind Surge: Neither characters has a command grab and for someone like Firebrand this is very useful as he can use it both in the air or on the ground to augment his mix up game. Players are rarely looking for a command grab from these characters which makes it a bigger threat. Arthur can also use this if someone is too close to him and then it sort of doubles as a get off me move if you get the read right. If you whiff the command grab then you can just tag into Firebrand and try to command grab again although a happy birthday situation might occur so you would have to calculate your decision appropriately.
Mind Storm: This is where things get interesting. Both of these characters can be very meter hungry. Firebrand has TWO install hypers, a LVL1 version and a LVL3. This makes Firebrand among the most effective characters at dumping meter even if his LVL3 install hyper might not be too good. At 4 bars Firebrand can burn all 4 bars instantly and then recover it all back with the Mind Storm within seconds. This makes Firebrand particularly powerful with the Mind Storm unlike other characters in the game.
Arthur has a very powerful Gold Armor install hyper that buffs the durability, hit stun and damage on his projectiles, making the other universal mechanics in the game less effective (there is rumor that Arthur's Gold projectiles cannot be reflected back as they could as "High" durability projectiles). But he can also spam meter on his Goddess Bracelet hyper. This is less effective in this game on block but is still good to punish tags and get two characters in or to set up mix ups for Firebrand. In addition, Arthur also has a LVL3 that is NOT a cinematic which means he can throw it out if he has meter to burn and not get punished for it. His LVL3 is also a great tag set up for Firebrand although very expensive. With the Mind Stone Storm ability, you can make use of all these meter options of Arthur and combine with Firebrand's for some devastating results.
Power Surge: Power surge acts like another get off me option for both Firebrand and Arthur. It also gives someone like Arthur more combo options as he lacks a wall bounce himself. The surge is nice for both but not the main reason why you would want to use this gem for them both.
Power Storm: Firebrand is already a very pressure heavy character and with the Power stone's advance guard negation he would become a monster with it especially when combined with Luminous body. Arthur has limited ways to stick to his enemy but with the Power stone he would be able to do so. Both characters benefit greatly from the Power Storm and Arthur's zoning game becomes very powerful with the Power Storm too as you get more chip damage and way more damage on hit if you land hits. However, unlike the Mind stone you would have to be more conservative with your meter when using Power stone in general.
Synergies:
Now that we have talked about how these characters work with the mechanics of the game individually, let's talk about how they work together.
Every time Arthur makes the opponent block his projectiles on the ground even if he himself is in the air, it's an incoming mix up opportunity for Firebrand via tags. If Arthur lands a hit with a projectile, Firebrand can get in quick with Bon Voyage for a combo confirm.
This work in the opposite direction time too. Every time Firebrand makes the opponent block his swoops, Bon Voyage, demon missiles, fireballs, tornado or his flame carpet type move... it's a mix up opportunity for Arthur because he has a scary instant overhead game. And because they both have the Mind stone, they both have the command grab option on top of this.
Arthur's Heavenly Slash and counter can be tagged into Firebrand to better get combos off them (though Arthur can do it solo too, this just provides an extra layer of safety on it).
Firebrand's projectiles aren't very threatening but if he is close to landing a fireball he can tag and Arthur can throw more projectiles or even do his Bracelet super to confirm from full screen away. This is not going to be that common but it's a tool that Firebrand has available to him which is getting damage from long ranged fireballs if he can predict it.
In Mind Storm, Firebrand becomes a god mode type character activating both Luminous body and his helper super to pressure the opponent and gain neutral advantage. Because of this stone, both Firebrand and Arthur can play more freely with their meter even though other characters have to play far conservatively with their meter. That means more mix up opportunities for Firebrand via Bracelet hyper. Arthur himself can burn a lot of the meter given to him by the Mind stone ability. Let's not forget about the free LVL3 that you can get from the Stone activation so even after burning close to 7 meters, Firebrand can still tack on a cinematic LVL3 at the end or Arthur can burn his LVL3 if a hit wasn't landed.
Again this is not some top tier, meta breaking team. This is just a for fun team with some cool stuff to them. This team is significantly harder to pilot than the other team I posted and you will be taking a lot of losses online with this because it features two relatively low damage, low HP characters with a significant learning curve especially for Firebrand. But this team also has a higher ceiling you can reach because you would actually have to learn how to control Firebrand's LVL3 because you are going to have a lot of opportunities to actually use it.