Venom Ally Swarm

Description

I've been having some really strong results so far with this deck and wanted to share it! This deck is quickly becoming my favorite true-solo deck thanks to how good it is at both thwarting and dealing damage while taking very few attacks from the villian. Plus that same versatility transfers great into a multi-player game where you can end up fulfilling whatever role the party needs on each turn.

Basic Goals

The basic goal of this deck is to get out as many allies as you can while using Venom's diverse options to handle whatever the villain is throwing at you.

You want to get out your 3 weapons ASAP. Multi-Gun and 2xVenom's Pistol while increasing the ally pressure. Early on its ok to sacrifice an ally that hasn't gotten their full value yet to block an attack while you are still stabilizing.

As the game goes on and your ally swarm grows, you will want to generally stop utilizing an ally on their final HP so that you can use them to block an attack. Sometimes this will take the form of a "death queue" where you have several allies in play all waiting for their chance to die to a villian's attack.

But 11 allies? Really?

Yes! The goal is to always be playing allies (multiples if possible) every turn!

Why only 1 Make the Call?

As good as Make the Call is, the major problem with it is that...

• We almost always have allies to play thanks to running so many of them, so u are often drawing it into hands where you already have many options.
• It effectively increases the cost of any ally played through it by 1. This is normally very worth it, but since our deck has so many ally options the increased cost to get one back out doesn't feel nearly as impactful.
• It doesn't work with the amazing new "Welcome Aboard".

"Welcome Aboard"

This card is awesome! You can effectively think of it as a double resource for allies. The only downside is remembering to only use 1 on turns where you draw multiple (although you can still discard the others as bland single-resources). As noted above, this does NOT work with Make the Call.

Why The Triskelion and Knowhere?

Originally in this deck I was only running Knowhere, but after much testing I actually wanted the second The Triskelion option because I was hitting a lot of situations where I was stuck on 3 allies for a long time while waiting to draw Knowhere. By having 2 options to draw you get to double up your chances to get to that crucial 4 allies, but also have the 2nd card in there for late-game where you might actually find yourself spiking to 5 allies more often then you'd think.

How should I mulligan?

High value cards to keep in your opening hand:

• Venom's Pistol and Multi-Gun, these cards are great to see in your opening hand! You want to get to having all 3 of your weapon options out ASAP, so seeing one early is huge. These are the cards you will often want to aggressively mulligan for.
• Project Rebirth 2.0, this card is amazing. Plus if you play it in your opening hand remember to use it to draw a card!
• Groot Groot is a great ally to get out early as he represents 2-3 blocks against most villains. While you are stabilizing he is one of the best early ally drops.

Cards you should almost always pitch in the starting hand:

• Team Training, this might come as a surprise but I almost always pitch this card. It really starts to shine once you draw into it with multiple allies already on the board and already having your Knowhere or The Triskelion out. Before getting one of those 2 you end up needing to have allies die to make room for the massive amount you'll be drawing.
• Lead from the Front, You really only want to draw this card once you have 3-4 allies out. This card is really a game-ending card and not something you want to use early very often.
• Run and Gun. You only really want to play this card when you have all 3 weapons out or in a pinch. Its a pretty weak early game card.

Specific Ally Advice

Gamora. This ally is SO strong. You kind of just have to get over the fact that she is going to discard parts of your deck because her ability is so strong. At worst it gets you an extra resource, at best it draws into a "Welcome Aboard" and allows you to play down another clutch ally!

Groot. This ally is a very strong blocker. Groot normally represents 2-3 blocked attacks.

Drax. Originally I just included this ally because of the synergy with Knowhere. I usually don't think this is a very strong ally, but playing him in this deck has really made me re-evaluate him! He frequently gets to do a lot of damage to the enemy (12-15 depending on if you played out Team Training) and can also be a blocker in a pinch at the cost of some of that damage.

Maria Hill. Maria should almost always be the target of your Rapid Response in multiplayer games as giving everyone an extra card is so strong.

Hawkeye. Best ally in the game. He also handles your obligation card's bottom resolution for the cost of one counter (which is great), or 90% of your Shadow of the Past for all 4 of his counters. In a minion-heavy encounter I would prioritize taking hits to the face before blocking with Hawkeye until he is out of counters.

Squirrel Girl. I've had several games where I've drawn Shadow of the Past and it was immediately handled by this ally plus Multi-Gun. Just a generally strong all-around ally. At worst her text box can be thought of as 2 damage and cancelling an enemy attack for 2 resources. That's a pretty great deal, and you often get even more out of her!

Potential Substitions

Nick Fury Originally this card was in the deck, but I cut him because he didn't feel like he flowed with the general game plan or cost structure of the deck. If I was going to run him again I'd consider cutting Mockingbird to play him.

Make the Call. I've been testing cutting down to a single Lead from the Front and running 2x Make the Call instead. I think this actually may be a good play, but I haven't gotten to try it out enough yet to see.