Doctor Strange mains are using portals to trick entire Marvel Rivals teams into jumping off a cliff. In a recent match, half of my team died within seconds. Moments earlier, they had been standing beside me, tagging walls and using emotes to pass the time.
Suddenly, they were ragdolls flailing off a cliff. They had been “Doctor Strange’d,” I soon realized. Marvel Rivals boasts a 33-hero launch roster, each with unique abilities, but none pack as much comedic potential as Doctor Strange’s “Pentagram of Farallah” portal spell.
Similar to Overwatch’s Symmetra, Strange’s portal allows him to create entrance and exit points, useful for quick team positioning. However, unlike Symmetra’s solid oval portal, Strange’s portal is more dynamic—you can see, shoot, or walk straight through it like in Valve’s Portal games.
Doctor Strange’s portal shenanigans
This visually striking effect turns deadly when Doctor Strange players start to deploy one portal at the enemy spawn door and the other at the edge of a cliff. If they’re particularly devious, they align the view to make the portal exit appear as solid ground. It’s not perfect—alert players will spot the portal outside the spawn—but it’s effective enough.
Inattentive players starting on autopilot might overlook the portal or the mismatched terrain and take one step too far, plummeting off the cliff. This trick highlights an aspect of Marvel Rivals that stands out: the playful, flexible abilities leading to inventive gameplay. While the game has issues with balance and chaotic fights, NetEase has nailed one thing: abilities that encourage players to experiment and find new, hilarious ways to outwit opponents.
Another instance of creative gameplay involves Jeff the Land Shark, who transitioned from an adorable healer to a team-wiping menace once players discovered he could eat enemies and hurl himself off a cliff, taking the opposition with him. Marvel Rivals continues to inspire players to explore the potential of each hero’s abilities, resulting in both laughter and frustration within matches. For all its flaws, the game’s capacity for inventive tactics is truly something special.
