Powerscaling: Venom

Venom is one of those interesting miniatures who has been in the game for a very long time and who hasn't really changed much. 

The game has shifted around him, but at no point has Venom truly been a dominant character in the meta. 

His weaknesses are obvious: energy attacks really hurt, and with no ways to move himself around on his card he can feel slow. Often, the best way for the opponent to deal with Venom is to either burn him down with some of the strong energy attack characters that are quite common right now or push and throw him away from the action and force him to spend time walking back into relevance.

However, the potential upside for Venom is huge.

As the first 'clapback' character, once per activation when Venom is attacked he can spend two power and then make an attack back at the opponent. Note that this does not have to be Symbiote Tendrils (though it can be and if it is the opponent will get bleed during their own turn, which can be huge) it can also be We Are Venom, which will potentially enable Venom to heal back the damage he just took.

I have had games where the opponent simply could not chew through Venom fast enough. If they are coming in at range 3, even being an energy attack is often not enough to guarantee a daze since he has a respectable 7 health and if he has 5 power he can hit back for 7 dice himself.

If your opponent doesn't have a way to displace Venom and send him away, this can quickly spiral into a cycle of attacking him, powering him up, and letting him snack back - either immediately or in his own turn. My personal best has been healing 7 on his front side (a 4 and a 3), then again for another 2 on his injured side - meaning that in order to KO him my opponent would have had to do more damage to my 4 threat Venom than they would if I had brought Hulk.

Venom occupies a slot alongside Spider-Noir and Amazing Spider-Man in the Web Warriors roster where you are pretty happy to have him attacked, working best in a brawl where he can sit on a point, hold an extract, and dare the opponent to try and take it from him.

Unlike them, though, Venom can also displace opponents with both Klyntar Rage and Web Snare, enabling him to potentially pull and throw two enemy models off the point that he is sat on. His big issue with this is power; it is unlikely that he's going to consistently have the power to do both this and have his clapback with We Are Venom online at all times, but the threat is there and if he is being ignored completely by your opponent he has the potential to spike high with his builder and then start throwing people around in classic Web Warrior fashion.

The last piece of his kit is potentially the most interesting if also a little niche. Symbiotic Instincts means that opponents are not able to modify defense dice when they are attacked by Venom. Characters who are relying on defensive rerolls or cover to provide their protection don't get it against Eddie! This makes him dangerous into the mirror (though Web Warriors are pretty well-suited to just displace him constantly rather than engaging him in a straight up fight). There are other teams where this makes some difference, though if you're taking him into Shield, Guardians of the Galaxy or Inhumans you'll want to try and control the matchup carefully as they couple their defensive rerolls with some good long-range energy attacks, which are the number one thing that Venom hates to see.

Venom brings with him a card that I consider almost mandatory if I'm running him:

Lethal Protector allows Venom to take an attack that is targeting a friend of his within range 3, and place within 1 of that target.

Again, the big issue here is power - if he is paying 2 power for the card it is likely that he'll only have the power to hit back with Symbiote Tendrils rather than the more exciting We Are Venom attack unless the opponent hits him very hard, since he needs to pay 2 for the card, 2 for the So Many Snacks superpower and then 3 for the attack.

For this reason I try to have Venom grab an extract early so that he is forcing the opponent to focus on him, then save the card for when they try to throw him away and displace him on his injured side where he's likely to have a little more power to play with. However, if you've got him in a situation where you just can't keep him on a point, being able to jump back into the fray out of activation can be worth it on its own - especially if he tanks a shot that might have dazed or KO'd one of your more fragile characters.

Venom makes good use of both the Miles leadership, which helps his 2 energy defense not hurt quite so badly, and the Web of the Spiderverse where his medium sized base lets him hop and can help with his movement issues. I don't think I would ordinarily run him under Amazing Spider-Man, just because his power economy is so tight already and spending additional power hurts.

Then again, he is also a character able to potentially benefit from Masked Menace across multiple activations, so perhaps it may be worth some experimentation with him in that slot - he also really loves the All Webbed Up turn, as it means his clap-back builder becomes 7 dice and a 9 dice We Are Venom becomes much, much more likely to feed him back the health he needs to snowball into a terrifying threat.

The last cute combo I enjoy with Venom is teaming him up with Gwenom. Although it can be tough to keep them in the same spot of the board, because Gwenom is extremely mobile and Venom just isn't, if they do occupy the same space and someone tries to attack Gwenom, she can use Sacrifice or he can use Lethal Protector to put the attack onto Venom, and then he gets to hit back with So Many Snacks and she gets to hit them with Pick On Someone Your Own Size. Getting two attacks in your opponent's activation is punishing, and the threat of it is often enough to make them reconsider engaging with the pair entirely.

I will say again - I think Venom has some very bad matchups in the meta right now, and I think they're going to get worse. Mighty Avengers bring a ton of long range energy attacks, so do Guardians of the Galaxy, and whilst he can potentially ruin Kang's day if he closes and gets his attacks in, denying those rerolls, Kang can ruin his day right back. Successful Venom games are games where you've been able to force or bait out your opponent to attack him but not do quite enough damage to take him down, and I think all those teams are able to chew through him with minimal effort.

But if you can avoid his worst case scenarios, Venom can absolutely be an anchor for your team in a way a lot of other Web Warriors don't want to be, and if you can get his power train rolling he will feel like a real King (in black).

My final grade for Venom is H for Hungry! For power and for your opponent's juicy, juicy models. Keep him fed and he'll keep you happy!

Of course you also know that H is for... HONK!