WE are Venom...and these are my friends

So the background on this deck is pretty cool. My two kids play with me: my daughter (10) and my son (8). They asked me if they could create a deck each and because I am an amazing Dad, of course I said yes. I honestly didn't expect them to be that great, but they were both fun. My son made a Hawkeye Aggression deck and my daughter made a Venom Justice deck.

I tried and I tried, but I just wasn't feeling the Hawkeye deck. But...there was something about that Venom deck that made me want to keep coming back for more. It was fun, but it needed work. So I spent the past 2 months working on it! I also really wanted to see if it made sense to put Eddie Brock Venom, into the deck...and I am happy to report...IT DID!!!

Villains this deck has beaten:

Expert: Ronan, Mysterio, Magneto, Ultron, Stryfe, Sentinals, Loki, Claw, Green Goblin, Absorbing Man, Nebula, Hela, Collector 1, & Sinister Six.

I have not played all the villains but these are some that I enjoy playing versus and have had a lot of success with!

This deck is literally my GO TO DECK now! If I am ever struggling with a villain (I only play on expert, so it definitely happens from time to time), I just take this deck out and it's lights out. Most recently, I was having a hard time with Loki and this deck overcame insane obstacles, you are going to love playing this deck.

General Info

This deck wants to build up its board. Once the engine is complete, it runs so smoothly. And Venom has a lot of tools in the deck to start with that allow it to really get going. Oh and also 2 Venom's are better than 1 :).

You need to be willing to adapt with what you have and what you are going up against. Playing Loki on expert I had to dump my Multi-Gun, which did not feel good at all but if i didn't, it would have been a much tougher game and I might have lost.

Another example of this was when I was playing vs Stryfe. Make sure you understand how the villain works. I needed chump blockers out and also wanted to push down the threat. I focused on setting up allies to help deal with the threat and deal with the potential big hits from the villain. I was able to confuse and stun him, go down build my board and then remove the side scheme which made the next part much easier. I had to be aware that he now had Stalwart and change the game plan, but I was already set up!

Just try to keep an open mind and not put this deck on autopilot.

I would say that this deck is easy to learn and medium difficulty to master. And once you master it...its next level fun.

Mulligan

Your mulligan priority changes each game. Venom can focus on thwarting or focus on putting out damage right from the start. That being said depending on the villain and what's in your hand you are going to want to think about using Flash Thompson's setup action to discard cards until you discard a weapon upgrade and add it to your hand. Having at least one of his Pistols or his Multi-Gun first turn can be really helpful.

The other card you are looking for in a mulligan to get started early is Project Rebirth 2.0, this card is PHENOMENAL, don't sleep on this! Most of the time if you go down to AE you will use it to heal, but you may hang on to some cards, like an Ally you want to put out. You may just need 1 more resource, use Project Rebirth 2.0 to get another card to play that Ally! Also healing at the end of your phase and then at the beginning of your next phase prevents exhausting your hero, which allows for more damage or thwarting!

Typically you don't need to open the game with Beat Cop or Under Surveillance unless it is very specific circumstances so feel free to get rid of those. Helicarrier early is circumstantial.

Depending on the villain it can make sense to hang on to Grasping Tendrils in your opening hand to shut down the villain or to stop the Infinity Gauntlet from going off.

The point I am trying to make is that there isn't 1 or 2 cards you MUST HAVE every game. Understand who you are playing and Mulligan for the best cards to help you in the situation you are in. This deck has SO many answers.

Setting Up Your Board

This deck wants to build out it's board. Once the engine is complete, it runs so smoothly. The best part is, Venom has a lot of tools in the deck to really get it going fast. His board is rather cheap aside from Multi-Gun, and remember that in Hero Form you can generate a wild resource for 1 life. Do not be afraid to use this, I use it at least once every round. And this can be used in both phases, the villain and the player phase.

There are a lot of ways to get your board started. If you start your opening hand without any Weapons, depending on the villain you may want to start discarding to find one. Also remember you have Locked and Loaded to go find a Weapon.

Some villains and modes will have cards that have you discard a support or upgrade. You don't want to lose your Weapons so sometimes you may want to put out an upgrade/support just to protect your board like Skilled Investigator or Target Acquired and not use it.

There are a lot of ways to protect the board and once the board is set up, it's a machine that dominates.

Allies/Friends

This deck has A LOT of allies and this is very much on purpose. We are utilizing the allies to help us deal with the scheme and villains for extra damage and to chump block when needed.

I am not going to go through all of them, but I want to talk about a few of these allies and why they are so great in this deck.

Bishop works well because we will get attacked and we want to take advantage of his ability to add counters for damage. I tend to use him to thwart 2x and then pop off with 6 damage. You might not always get him to max damage and do not be afraid to pop him at 2 or 4 damage.

The allies are mostly low cost, and this is intentional and because this deck is so heavy in Justice, we can get some of these out for free with The Power of Justice or someone like Dazzler much easier.

Quake and Eros provide some great tempo swings, which is why they made the deck and of course, meat bags.

Wiccan is sooo good in expert because he really gets value from his ability. You typically will put out 2 damage after a thwart and sometimes as much as 4!

Most of the time you will not want to put out Venom until the final push or close to it. He is a BEAST and can change a game, but if you put him into play too early, you may be overwhelmed by the additional Hazard. And against the wrong villain the extra encounter card could be problematic.

Combo

One of the most satisfying moments when playing Venom is when you use Grasping Tendrils to prevent an attack, which also stuns the enemy and if your board is set up, you can trigger Spider Sense in the process. Yes that is correct, you can trigger the effect because the villain is initiating an attack!

I'm not sure if i would call this a combo as much as a great way to play Venom. You make your attacks, go down to AE, heal up with Project Rebirth 2.0 and end your turn. You draw 6 cards and then on your next turn you draw another card and start in AE with 7 cards, go up and utilize your Hero Form ability to generate a resource to play so many cards!

DON'T FORGET you can use his ability EACH PHASE so you can use it in the villain's phase and your phase. This is important because you will be able to use it to cover the cost of an aggression resource when playing Grasping Tendrils.

The most obvious combo with Venom is utilizing your two Pistols and your Multi-Gun and then utilizing Run and Gun to ready everything back up again!

REMEMBER that dealing 2 damage and removing 2 threat are not attacks or thwarts so you can use them even if you are stunned or confused or if there is a guard or patrol card in front of you.

Final Thoughts

I absolutely LOVE this deck! I cannot stop playing it. I feel like it is broken. I am also able to easily get my board set up almost every game and once its up and running, it flows so nicely. I hope you enjoy this deck as much as I have!

I should be posting videos over the next month on my youtube channel of playthroughs! https://www.youtube.com/@thepwisthepw