Alien Being Annihilates Portions of New York: Venomous Game-Play from Everyone’s Favorite Symbiote (AKA Venom from the Top Rope)

Dear Readers,


Today I would like to discuss something so foul, so creepy, so alien that he has plagued the MCP community since his inception: Venom. Venom is a fan-favorite character that sees great play in the game due to his general bulk, control elements, and his ability to hand out a little thought of status effect in Bleed. In today’s article, I would like to look at his stats versus other 4 threats, his role in-affiliation, some tactics I use with him, and where he plays nicely outside of affiliation.

The Stats

To begin, Venom has a beefy 13 HP across both his healthy and injured sides with a solid 4 physical and 3 mental defense. Paired with Great Responsibility, Venom is a premier physical tank that likes to work on his own or with a partner to take a side (more on this later). Venom, however, really struggles with Energy based attacks (as is comics accurate). This means that factions like Guardians, some Avengers lists, and even Black Order take down our favorite symbiote fairly quickly and I wouldn’t recommend playing him into these factions as a result unless you have a game-plan to keep him safe. Energy is, luckily, the rarest of the attacking types you will encounter in the game at the moment, but when your entire enemy force has it then it hurts that much more.


Venom’s small movement is offset by his medium sized base, which is fantastic for our purposes as it doesn’t hamper his actual mobility too much while also allowing for him to better block a point and zone out enemy characters. What this size base also does is it gives you better options for reaching opponents on secures, especially B secures. Unfortunately, being size 3 kept Venom out of the auto-push nerf club, so he still gets punted by the likes of Captain America, Black Panther, and Shuri.

Venom’s attacks are fairly straight forward and, frankly, pretty great. R3 on any attack immediately boosts its effectiveness and stock in my book as this allows for safer trades against most attacks. Symbiote Tendrils is a great builder that automatically applies the often overlooked Bleed status effect. A lot of people discount bleed, but one of the best things you can do to damage your opponent is to make the damage automatic, especially when that damage does not rack up power for your enemies. This attack in combination with Venom’s web pull ability creates opportunities for constant assaults on the enemy that not many foes are ready for. We Are Venom is also R3 for 3 power and gives Venom that extra bit of tankiness he needs to stand up to pretty much any foe on the table. The problem with this comes in the form of dice. Do not count on this doing anything. I repeat, when you do this skill you are probably going to generate 2 -3 life at most if you are lucky. I say this just because of the nature of the attack type: physical. Many characters have high physical defense, abilities that allow them to use another stat for physical defense, or just have a flat -1 to damage. Or, they have all of these things. This means that We are Venom as a skill is not as consistent as it may seem at first blush with its 7 dice. It being a dice based attack also means that you may spike and generate 6 HP from the 1 last one you were standing on and obliterate your opponent in one strike while you lick your lips seductively over your teeth and say We are Venom to your opponent (don’t be that guy or gal by the way. Web Warriors have class). You will notice that I praise Symbiote Tendrils but am a bit wary of We are Venom; this is because Symbiote Tendrils is free and automatically does its effect of placing bleed on your enemy.

Venom’s abilities are, to put it mildly, fantastic. A size 3 terrain and character throw at Medium and a R4 push at Medium are a fantastic way to keep your opponents right where you want them. So Many Snacks Snacks allows for out of activation damage on your opponent at the range that matters. Symbiotic Instincts means your damage is smoother and better counted on, plus, if I remember correctly, it gives him pseudo ignores cover. All-in-all, his abilities are fantastic at what he wants to do - be king of the hill and damage enemies.

Venom the Pro Wrestler

Venom’s abilities lend themselves to being on your own and winning fights 1v1. Venom makes a great side holder as he can sometimes 2v1 depending on the enemies and your playstyle, and he definitely holds his own against the majority of the roster solo. If your enemy is dedicating a 6 threat character to fight him, that is a character you don’t have to worry about making Miles’ face an Edvurd Munch painting. Venom also works as a fantastic control piece, making the enemy fear R4 pulls and medium ranged throws to a good chunk of the roster from a bulky based character.

A few of the strats I like to use are the following:

Off the Ropes - After enemy activation > Web Snare > Symbiote Tendrils > Symbiote Tendrils.


This combo requires 2 power, but boy does it hurt. Wait to out activate your enemy and then pull them off of the point. A medium pull through Venom should be enough to keep Venom on the point and your opponent outside of scoring range. From there, you are free to tack on damage to your enemy. The following turn, your enemy has to make a choice: do they try to burst down a powered Venom who can just hit them with So Many Snacks or do they give up a turn to get back on point to just be pulled off again next time Venom activates.

From the Top Rope - After enemy activation > move > Web Snare > Move

This combo is best done on B scenarios where you can reliably move up (and with Wall Crawler as one of your abilities you will never be hampered by terrain…not that it matters since Venom crawls towards his opponents, but it could matter if you used things like Endurance Training) and then move back onto your own power. I really like this on infinity formula as I can do it every single turn. I get power, my opponent gets to starve. It truly is a fun time. For me. Not them.

Cage Match - After enemy activation > Web Snare > Symbiote Tendrils > Symbiote Tendrils > Klyntar Rage

If you truly right now need someone away from you/dead you have this 5 power power move to utilize. You should be able to keep your enemy within 2 at most ranges when you utilize Web Snare to still be within range for Klyntar Rage. This gives you 2 medium displacements of your enemy in one activation. You now get to choose where to throw your enemy, which could be a farther distance away or to just deal 1 damage to them and possibly more into another enemy. This also works if you are near terrain and just need your opponent to take a few more damage. A size 3 piece of terrain will automatically deal 4 damage and you can leverage the idea that only about 3/8s of the sides of a dice are successes on dodge to do some mental math as to how much damage you will deal as to whether or not you want to keep your enemies close or dead.

You will notice for these combos I use I always want to go after my dueling partner has activated. This means that I can better keep the tempo of the fight in my favor, but it also means that they can’t just move back onto the point. A medium pull isn’t going to prevent any character from just double moving back onto the point. The goal of playing Venom is to force your opponent to either fight or let him just score. If Venom is able to hold an objective or 2 for 3 turns, that is 3-6 points on his own. That is anywhere between rough a fifth to almost a third of what you need to win the game. But, if you go before our enemy, they now have a chance to negate all of your hard work. Venom hits hard, but he isn’t Corvus or Magneto. He isn’t going to One Round many characters. He is going to wound them and make their lives miserable. Played right, he will win many fights through continued assaults and the off healing he gets when he is bloated for power.

We Are Venom - If you have more than 2 (4 is generally my sweet spot depending on what I want to do with my enemy’s placement) and I have been injured, I will sprinkle in We are Venom into the mix to get some healing off. When I said earlier that you shouldn’t rely on it too hard , what I mean is that the 2-3 damage you heal from it is like a modified Medpack or Patchup. These cards are restricted for a reason, and Venom has access to a modified version of it on his spender. Just don’t get to mad if the result is less than optimal.

Venom makes for a superb single person duelist that punishes enemies for being too close to him. I think he may be one of the few people that completely ruins Doctor Voodoo’s day in one on one combat as the good doctor can’t escape him and will slowly bleed out. If Doctor Voodoo gives Venom the Brother Daniel Token, it only speeds up his demise. All Venom needs is 2 power to drag you back to him within range of getting eaten. Ronan is an absolute nightmare for him as he has access to both a good energy attack and the ability to Judge Venom, which decidedly limits his viability.

Lethal Protector

Lethal Protector is a fantastic Venom card. However, I am finding that I am taking it less and less on wider and wider scenarios. I need Venom to stay on a point, and removing him to protect someone else hurts his ability to be the champion of a spot. If Venom had a true medium move, then I wouldn’t mind it as much, or if he got an automatic So Many Snacks from the deal like Heroes for Hire got a free throw. But, as it is, I am looking at things like Climbing Gear, Indomitable (can we please talk about how this got through?), and Mission Objective for cards that may have better impacts on the game.

The Problem with Venom

I have spent a lot of time praising Venom and singing his praises in this article. I still believe every word I have said from a competitive sense. However, if you want to be competitive, I think that there may be someone who does Venom’s job just as well, if not better. I will start by saying that I did not come to this conclusion on my own. This was after an interview with Mike DeLuca, LVO champion of 2022 (keep an eye out for a future Black Order Podcast for the full 30 minute interview) that I was able to see the inherent problem with Venom. He is slow. For a game that only has 6 rounds maximum, Venom’s innate speed messes with his viability when you need to start impersonating an Imperial Guard Platoon Commander and get him moving. Black Panther on the other hand does not have this same issue. He is a long mover with great defenses and can push up to size 3 off of points for free. He also has a self-throw that does not damage him to deal more focus damage and to get him to places even quicker. Under Miles’ leadership his Mantle of the Black Panther ability also gets to re-roll skulls if he is with an objective. I love Venom so much that I have 2 of them. However, I think if you want to be more optimized you are probably going to go with Panther. You don’t benefit from All Webbed Up and you don’t have Lethal Protector, but Panther is more durable and has better mobility for the same cost.

Out of Affiliation Inclusions

I think Venom really shines in 2 places: Avengers (Steve Rogers) and Midnight Sons. Venom plays very nicely with Blade in order to give Blade more bleeding targets for his abilities to kick in. In addition, the aforementioned speed issue is smoothed over by Bump in the Night. Under A Day Unlike Any Other, Venom enjoys Snacking and Snaring for 1 each turn. I think that these two affiliations enjoy having Venom pull people in to get cratered by a Ghost Rider or Hulk and have someone to reliably hold a point. Sure, he loses Miles’ re-rolls, but the affiliation bonuses more than make up for the lack of a single re-do on a defense dice.

Closing Thoughts

Venom is a lot of fun and I think when played properly he is a true menace on the field. He does well in a duo or single situation on the map and can create some major problems, especially for those teams that focus more on physical attacks such as Brotherhood (well, until this past release at least) and Wakanda. He falls hard to Energy based factions though, so watch those sonics and fire. Overall, I think the competitive scene has left our precious symbiote behind, but he still has some great table play for most games. Note, I still think Venom is a competitive option, he is just being edged out by threats that do his job or something like his job slightly better.

Till next time Webslingers