In the chaotic battlegrounds of Marvel Rivals, few team compositions can seize control and dictate the flow of engagement with the devastating elegance of the Storm, Scarlet Witch, and Doctor Strange triumvirate. When their powers intertwine, they forge an unbreakable chain of crowd control (CC), capable of dismantling enemy formations and securing objectives with chilling efficiency. This guide will dissect this high-synergy, high-impact strategy, providing the critical numbers, precise timings, and advanced tactics necessary to transform these "Architects of Control" into your match-winning symphony of stuns, vortexes, and dimensional traps. Prepare to perma-CC your foes and witness the battlefield bend to your will.
While this composition doesn't rely on a direct, game-altering Team-Up ability between all three, it's worth noting the "Arcane Order" passive Team-Up between Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange. With Doctor Strange as the anchor, he gains an additional 100 maximum health.1 This subtle boost to survivability for one of the key controllers is a welcome advantage, allowing him a little more resilience as he weaves his reality-bending spells.

The Architects of Control: Core Ability Breakdown
Understanding the individual components is paramount before orchestrating the symphony. Each hero brings a unique and potent form of control, and their specific ability statistics are the bedrock upon which this lockdown is built.
Storm – The Eye of the Vortex: Gathering the Gale
Storm, the Omega-level mutant with mastery over weather, serves as the primary initiator and grouper for this composition. Her ability to command hurricanes and lightning sets the stage for her allies.
Storm transforms into a mobile hurricane, dealing consistent damage to nearby enemies while moving at lightning speed. Storm gains CC immunity during the ultimate and a massive bonus health increase to ensure any leftover enemies wouldn't be able to catch her in a vulnerable position.
Jeff-Nado (Ultimate Team-Up): This is Storm and Jeff's signature ability. It's a powerful crowd control Team-Up in Season 2.5, combining Storm’s vortex with Jeff’s ultimate to pull enemies in and trap them at the center, where Jeff swallows anyone caught inside. It creates a mobile, high-impact CC zone that punishes grouped enemies.
While Storm isn’t fully a traditional crowd control (CC) hero in Marvel Rivals, her unique abilities make her an exceptional enabler for CC-focused teammates. Her hurricane can swipe away enemies, break formations, and set up combos by damaging opponents into tight areas, essentially acting as a soft CC tool with immense teamfight value. While it doesn’t stun or immobilize on its own, the consistent displacement and zone control it offers makes it much easier for allies like Hulk, Namor, or Scarlet Witch to land their high-impact CC ultimates or combos. Storm changes the shape of a fight not by locking enemies down, but by forcing them into awkward positions they can’t recover from quickly enough.
Moreso, her movement and damage amplification doesn’t just enhance raw stats, it changes how your team can control the flow of battle. Heroes that rely on timing and proximity for their CC effects benefit enormously from the tempo Storm provides. In poke-heavy or dive comps, her buffs allow CC heroes to force engagements on their own terms, catching enemies before they can disengage. While she might not root, stun, or suppress directly, Storm plays a pivotal role in enabling CC to land cleaner, hit harder, and contribute to faster kills, making her one of the most tactically impactful picks for any team looking to dominate through coordination.
Scarlet Witch – The Mistress of Hexes: Weaving Chaos
Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, brings her reality-altering chaos magic to layer stuns upon the enemies.
Fires a projectile which generates a spherical Force Field that periodically stuns enemies. The field delivers intermittent stunning rather than continuous control, creating strategic timing windows.
Dark Seal (Ability - E): This is Scarlet Witch's primary CC contribution to the lockdown. She fires a projectile which, upon impacting an enemy or terrain, or by pressing E again, generates a spherical Force Field that periodically stuns enemies caught within its radius.
Scarlet Witch is the quintessential crowd control (CC) dealer in Marvel Rivals, and her kit is perfectly tuned for controlling team fights. Her Dark Seal periodically stuns enemies caught within its radius. This zoning tool interrupts enemy rotations and punishes aggressive positioning, giving her team windows to capitalize. Her channeled Reality Erasure (Q) is a massive area-of-effect ultimate: she slowly charges for 4 seconds, gaining a 100‑HP shield, then unleashes a 15 m sphere of chaos that deals up to 750 damage, vaporizing surrounding enemies. When supported or protected, this ultimate can devastate grouped foes and reset fights instantly.
Now, bring Storm into the equation, and Scarlet Witch’s CC becomes even more deadly. Storm’s ability grants nearby allies bonus movement speed and increased damage, allowing Scarlet Witch to reposition faster, land her Dark Seal more consistently in the right spot, and channel her ult with better follow-up timing. With amplified damage, her stuns and ultimate hurt harder, especially when enemies are already softened by another CC or consistent poking damage that Storm provides. The synergy doesn’t stop there: Storm’s tempo boost makes it easier for Scarlet Witch to flank, reposition mid-fight, or retreat, maximizing the utility of her Mystic Projection phases. Together, they form a high-synergy pair: Storm sets the pace, and Scarlet Witch controls and punishes the enemies, locking down fights in ways neither could alone.
Doctor Strange - The Master of Dimensions: Bending Reality
The Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange, provides the ultimate layer of control and strategic depth with his mastery of mystical arts and dimensional manipulation.
Separates the souls of nearby enemies from their physical bodies. These souls are immobile, and any damage they take is transferred directly to their corporeal forms, creating an unparalleled burst damage window.
Doctor Strange’s ultimate, Eye of Agamotto (Q), unleashes a powerful burst in a 10 m radius that stuns all enemies for 3 seconds, projecting their souls outside their bodies. While in this spectral form, players can target and damage these souls directly - any damage dealt to them is reflected back into the enemies' physical bodies, making it both a potent crowd control and burst-damage tool.
The Eye of Agamotto functions as more than just a control ability; it's a potent damage amplifier. The unique mechanic of transferring all damage dealt to the separated souls directly to the enemies' health pools makes this 3-second window an unparalleled opportunity for coordinated burst damage from the entire team. With targets completely immobilized and vulnerable, this phase of the lockdown is often where kills are decisively secured.
Pentagram of Farallah: This ability offers unparalleled strategic repositioning and trapping potential. Doctor Strange opens a pair of portals between two chosen locations, allowing all units, allies and enemies alike, to travel through them.

Invisible Woman - CC Anchor: Shields, Stealth & Disruptions
Susan Storm, better known as the Invisible Woman, is a strategic support who plays a crucial role in crowd control (CC)-oriented team compositions. While she doesn’t bring traditional stuns or disables, her versatile toolkit allows her to create space, displace enemies, and protect teammates. These tools make her a powerful enabler for CC-heavy allies like Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange.
Grants brief invisibility and healing over time to allies within the field. Enemies entering the boundary are slowed, offering both an escape tool and a coordinated initiation setup.
Psionic Vortex is one of her main CC tools. It sends out a vortex that pulls in enemies, deals damage, and applies a powerful slow. This makes it excellent for grouping opponents into a tight area, perfect for follow-ups like Storm’s ultimate or Scarlet Witch's splash damage.
Force Physics allows Invisible Woman to reposition enemies through push or pull effects. This utility lets her separate high-priority targets, feed enemies into Scarlet Witch’s Reality Erasure ultimate, or peel for allies during a dive.
Guardian Shield deploys a forward-facing energy shield that slows enemies who pass through it and heals nearby teammates. It’s an effective zoning tool during objective fights and can be used defensively to protect fliers like Storm while she pokes or prepares her ultimate.
These synergies allow Invisible Woman to fill in the gaps of a CC comp. With Invisible Boundary, she can stealth her team right before a coordinated initiation, enabling Doctor Strange to cast Eye of Agamotto unchallenged, or giving Storm cover to ride in and activate her ult mid-air. Meanwhile, Scarlet Witch benefits from the setup time and protection Sue provides, ensuring her zoning and burst ultimate are used at peak value.
Executing the Lockdown: Step-by-Step Synergies & Overlap Windows
The true artistry of this composition lies in the seamless chaining of these powerful abilities. Each phase builds upon the last, creating a cascade of control that leaves enemies helpless.
Phase 1: The Gathering Storm (Initiation)
- Storm Initiates with Omega Hurricane: Storm is typically the primary initiator. She activates Omega Hurricane, transforming into a vortex that damages (or pulls with the special Jeff team-up) enemies within an 8m radius. During this, she benefits from 450 bonus health and crucial CC immunity, ensuring she is not interrupted.2
- Optional Pre-cast - Storm's Goddess Boost: For a smoother initiation, Storm can activate Goddess Boost (Tornado Mode) 1-2 seconds before ulting. This grants her and nearby allies a movement speed buff to close distances or position optimally, and applies a slow to enemies in a radius. The 8-second duration of Goddess Boost will comfortably cover the 5-second Omega Hurricane, making enemies easier to catch and retain within the vortex.
Phase 2: The Hex Field (Layering CC)
- Scarlet Witch Casts Dark Seal: As soon as Storm has burst into enemies' backline with Omega Hurricane (typically 1-2 seconds into the Hurricane's duration), Scarlet Witch should cast Dark Seal into the epicenter of the vortex.
- Overlap Window - Hurricane & Dark Seal: For approximately 4 to 4.5 seconds, enemies are subjected to Storm's continuous damage from Omega Hurricane and Scarlet Witch's Dark Seal, which pulses its 0.5-second stuns every 1.25 seconds within its field.
Phase 3: Soul Bind (Securing Control)
- Doctor Strange Casts Eye of Agamotto (Q): Doctor Strange should unleash Eye of Agamotto on the clustered, pulled, and intermittently stunned targets.
- Timing Considerations: Ideally, Eye of Agamotto is cast to coincide with the first or second stun pulse from Dark Seal, or as Omega Hurricane nears the end of its 5-second duration. This ensures a seamless transition of control. Eye of Agamotto boasts a 10m radius, easily encompassing targets caught by Storm, and its Soul Separation effect lasts for a potent 3 seconds.
- Overlap Window - Dark Seal & Eye of Agamotto: If timed well, the 3-second Soul Separation from Eye of Agamotto can overlap with the latter part of Dark Seal's field duration, potentially catching enemies with another 0.5s stun pulse while they are soul-bound. If Omega Hurricane is still active during the initial cast of Eye of Agamotto, its effects will further ensure that targets have a hard time escaping the soul-binding effect.
Phase 4: The Veiled Setup (Invisible Woman's Contribution)
- Pre-fight Stealth via Invisible Boundary: Before Storm initiates, Invisible Woman protects Storm with her auto-attacks and Guardian Shield. This allows Storm to begin Omega Hurricane in relative safety, while Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange can safely position for follow-up casts. The shield also slows enemies entering it, softening potential counter-dives.
- Psionic Vortex to Anchor Targets: As Storm enters the enemy formation, Invisible Woman casts Psionic Vortex to pull and slow enemies in place. This helps ensure that both Scarlet Witch's Dark Seal and Strange's Eye of Agamotto land on grouped, slowed targets without them scattering.
- Force Physics for Target Isolation: During or after the main CC combo, Invisible Woman can use Force Physics to push away tanks or pull squishy targets deeper into danger. This fine control helps isolate stragglers or peel for teammates.
- Invisible Boundary to the Rescue: While her allies channel ultimates or recover after casting, Invisible Woman can drop Invisible Boundary to block enemy fire and save her teammates in a vulnerable position, reinforcing team presence in contested zones.
Invisible Woman’s contribution lies not in raw CC but in timing, protection, and setup. With her toolkit, your team can initiate in safety, hold enemies in place longer, and layer abilities without fear of being interrupted or scattered. She is the silent architect behind the CC chain’s success.
CC Chain Timing Sequence
This sequence possesses a distinct rhythm: Storm's continuous initiation, Wanda's Dark Seal provides pulsing stuns, and Strange's Eye of Agamotto delivers complete immobilization for the kill window.
Phase 4: The Portal Trap (Strategic Extension/Isolation - Situational)
Doctor Strange's Pentagram of Farallah, with its lengthy 180s cooldown, is a high-stakes ability reserved for decisive moments.
- Aggressive Setup: Pre-fight, Strange can place an exit portal in a strategically disadvantageous position for the enemy (e.g., an isolated corner, near an environmental hazard, or even off-map if geometry allows for an instant kill). The entrance portal can then be placed near the team. As Storm initiates Omega Hurricane, a coordinated push could force enemies through the portal.
- Advanced Portal Tech – Surprise Angle Ult: In highly coordinated play, Doctor Strange can cast his portal, then dive through it and trigger his ultimate mid-teleport. This allows Strange to emerge behind enemy lines or over the battlefield with zero reaction window, catching foes completely unaware. This tactic turns his ult into an unblockable ambush with no escape chance. Alternatively, Strange can synchronize his portal placement to deposit Scarlet Witch right on top of enemies just as she activates Reality Erasure. Her ultimate then detonates centered in the fray, an elite combo that high-skill teams can pull off for devastating CC and burst synergy.
- Choke Point Bypass/Creation: Pentagram of Farallah can be used to teleport the entire team past a heavily defended chokepoint, allowing them to initiate the CC combo from an unexpected angle. Conversely, portals can be used to pull enemies into a choke, amplifying the combo's effectiveness.
Anti-Cleanse Warfare: Dominating a Prepared Enemy
Even the most potent CC chain can be disrupted by enemies with CC immunities. Anticipating and outplaying these defensive measures is key to consistent success. The visual cue of a "Golden Health Bar" on an enemy indicates they are currently CC immune and should be noted immediately.
Recognizing the Threats: Common CC Breakers
Several heroes possess abilities that grant them immunity to crowd control. Many heroes gain CC immunity during their ultimate animations or for the entire duration. Notable examples include:
- Storm.
- Hela.
- Bucky.
- Venom.
- Hulk.
- Magneto (immune to stuns).
- Cloak & Dagger.
Specific "Unstoppable" Abilities:
- Emma Frost: Her Diamond Form grants 8 seconds of "Unstoppable" status along with 30% damage reduction. Her ultimate ability not only silences enemies but also keeps Emma herself immune to CC throughout its full duration.
- The Thing: His passive, Unyielding Will, makes him permanently immune to launch-up, knock-back, and other displacement effects. His Yancy Street Charge grants him immunity to stuns and displacements during the charge animation.
- Hulk: His Indestructible Guard generates gamma shields for himself and nearby allies, making them CC immune for up to 2.5s or until the shield breaks. This can be a crucial save for a teammate caught in the initial CC.
- Magneto: His Metal Bulwark can be cast on an ally, granting them a shield that makes them immune to stuns and CC for up to 2.5s or 300 shield health.
Counter-Strategies: The Art of the Re-Lock
Dominating a prepared enemy requires tactical finesse:
- Baiting Defensives: Before committing the full combo, use poke damage or feign an engagement to pressure enemies into prematurely using key defensive cooldowns like Emma Frost's Diamond Form or Hulk's Indestructible Guard. Patience and keen observation of enemy habits are vital.
- Staggering CC Application: Against targets known to possess a single-use immunity, avoid layering all CC abilities simultaneously. For instance, initiate with Storm's Omega Hurricane. If the primary target uses their ability to run off, wait for it to expire, then follow up with Scarlet Witch's Dark Seal or Doctor Strange's Eye of Agamotto. This demands higher coordination but can effectively punish isolated defensive plays.
- The Overwhelm Tactic: For enemies with brief CC immunity windows (e.g., during a short dash), the sheer cumulative duration and layered nature of your combo might outlast their protection or catch them as their immunity window closes.
- Target Prioritization: Identify enemies who lack reliable CC immunity or whose defensive abilities have very long cooldowns. Focus the initial lockdown on these vulnerable targets to secure an early elimination and create a crucial numbers advantage.
- Saving the Best for Last (Strange's Ultimate): Doctor Strange's Eye of Agamotto is a game-changing ultimate. If a high-priority enemy activates their own ultimate to become CC immune, disengage briefly if necessary. Once their immunity expires, trap them with Eye of Agamotto to punish their aggressive play.
Hero | Immunity Ability | Type & Duration | Lockdown Counter-Strategy |
---|---|---|---|
Emma Frost | Diamond Form (Shift) | Unstoppable, 30% DR, 8s | Bait out; wait for duration to end; focus other targets if active. |
The Thing | Unyielding Will (Passive) | Displacement Immune (always) | Immune to knock-ups and knock-backs. Dark Seal & Eye of Agamotto can still CC him if he's in range. |
The Thing | Yancy Street Charge | Stun/Displacement Immune (during charge) | Avoid CCing during charge; CC before or after. |
Hulk | Indestructible Guard | CC Immune Shield (self/ally), 2.5s | Break shield quickly; bait out; CC targets not shielded. |
Hulk | Hulk Smash! (Ult) | CC Immune (during transformation & Monster form) | Disengage during ult; re-engage when it ends. Eye of Agamotto can potentially cancel it if timed before full immunity. |
Magneto | Metal Bulwark | Ally CC Immune, 2.5s/300 HP | Focus Magneto himself or break shield; bait out. |
Multiple | Various Ultimates | Often Full CC Immunity (duration varies) | Bait ult; disengage & re-engage; some ults have cast times that can be interrupted before immunity starts. |
Advanced Tactics: Positioning, Choke Points, and Map Exploitation
Beyond the core ability sequence, environmental awareness and strategic positioning elevate this composition from effective to truly dominant.
Leveraging Choke Points
This CC lockdown thrives in confined spaces. Narrow corridors, doorways, and tight objective areas significantly amplify the effectiveness of Storm's Omega Hurricane, as enemies have severely limited escape paths. Scarlet Witch's Dark Seal can blanket an entire chokepoint, guaranteeing multiple stun applications. Doctor Strange's Pentagram of Farallah becomes exceptionally potent here; it can be used to bypass a heavily defended choke, allowing the team to initiate from an unexpected angle, or, more aggressively, to pull enemies into a choke point where the CC chain awaits. For instance, on maps like Tokyo 2099: Shin-Shibuya, the final payload chokepoint, often heavily contested due to close defender spawns, becomes an ideal kill zone for this composition if control can be established.
Optimal Team Positioning
- Pre-Initiation: Storm requires either a safe vantage point for Omega Hurricane or a swift entry, potentially facilitated by her Goddess Boost. Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange should be positioned within effective range to immediately follow up on Storm's ultimate, but should avoid clumping together to minimize vulnerability to enemy AoE counter-attacks. Storm's ability to hover can provide advantageous angles for initiating Omega Hurricane, though she becomes a visible target; the 450 bonus health during her ultimate is designed to mitigate this risk.
- During Combo: Once Storm successfully engages enemies, Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange need clear lines of sight to deploy Dark Seal and Eye of Agamotto accurately. The rest of the team must be poised to unleash maximum damage into the vortex, especially during the 3-second Soul Separation window created by Doctor Strange.
Map-Specific Exploitation
Certain map features naturally favor this composition. The tight rooms and corridors of Yggsgard: Royal Palace, or the narrow pathways during payload escorts on maps like Tokyo 2099: Spider-Islands, offer prime opportunities. Understanding map layouts to identify these "natural funnels" is key. Furthermore, Doctor Strange's Pentagram of Farallah allows for the creation of "artificial chokes." By strategically placing portal exits in small, enclosed rooms or near environmental hazards, Strange can forcibly teleport enemies in Omega Hurricane into a pre-defined kill box, turning open spaces into temporary deathtraps. This elevates the portals beyond mere traversal tools into active components of the CC setup.
- Devastating team fight control
- High elimination potential
- Strong objective control
- Excellent choke point dominance
- Psychological warfare advantage
- Flexible engagement options
- Ultimate dependent
- Vulnerable to CC immunity
- Requires precise coordination
- Long cooldowns on key abilities
- Susceptible to spread formations
- Poor performance in open areas
Become the Master of Control
The Storm-Scarlet Witch-Doctor Strange CC lockdown composition is a testament to the tactical depth achievable in Marvel Rivals. It offers an unparalleled ability to dictate engagements, secure objectives, and dismantle even the most coordinated enemy teams. The satisfaction derived from flawlessly executing this chain, watching enemies pulled, stunned, and soul-bound into oblivion, is immense.
However, mastery is not achieved overnight. It demands diligent practice in timing the intricate sequence of abilities, clear and concise communication (especially for the high-stakes plays involving Pentagram of Farallah and for coordinating anti-CC strategies), and a keen understanding of enemy cooldowns and capabilities. This Marvel Rivals CC comp is a powerful weapon. By internalizing the principles laid out and fostering a disciplined crowd control team Rivals mindset, players will be well on their way to orchestrating decisive victories and becoming true masters of control on the battlefield. Take this knowledge, refine your execution, and let order emerge from chaos.