Deck Doctor: Tastes Like Burning?

 

I was recently asked about a throwaway comment about a deck name I had referenced during an interview I participated in earlier this year. If you are curious as to that interview you can CHECK IT OUT HERE:

The deck? A little nugget named Venom Burn.

Venom burn is a potent mix on a unique interaction on an often overlooked game mechanic. That mechanic is Evasion.

“Evasion” is a keyword that represents a payment power on a character. That payment power reads, “Stun this character >>> At the start of the recovery phase this turn, recover this character.”

 The interesting interaction with this mechanic is when you evade a character, recover it somehow, and then evade it again. You end up with TWO recovery effects pending at the start of the recovery phase. This stackable recovery chain can prove to be very useful when you look at cards like Johnny Blaze <> Ghost Rider, Damned.

Regular? Or extra Crispy?

 

 

 

So with this thought it mind, Venom Burn was born. we needed the ability to ready Johnny multiple times, as well as a means to recover our selected target multiple times for a frankly ridiculous amount out of combat, non-negatable (he doesn't target) endurance loss. Even better? The deck's first appearance was the MTU release City Champs. which means we found a way to reliably pull it off within a single set.

 Lets walk through our combo pieces to fuel this Ghost Riding list that seeks to burn harder than Uncle Ted's story about Saigon:

What we needed was some solid trickery to ensure each needed element was met. And Marvel Team-up Delivered!

Readying Tricks:

 

Recovery Tricks: 

And Consistency Tricks:

       

So this took us to a 3 team list. Spider-friends, Underworld and Marvel Defenders. This ideal setup firing properly on all cylinders allowed us to live the dream of A Johnny Blaze activating multiple times, on a 5 drop Venom, promptly evading and recovering with either Strange Love or Undead Legions and then chaining evasion to each recovery trigger at the END of the turn for an UNGODLY amount of high value burn. To put it in perspective, 2 ready tricks and a SINGLE recovery trick will inflict 60 Endurance loss to an opponent. since you will burn opponents for 15 endurance per stun twice, then twice again at the start of recovery trigger.

While there is ABSOLUTELY a list that is likely going to do this better, smarter or faster by moving to Golden-Age options, I'll leave the single set list to allow for some ambiguity. (and to make the readers do SOME of the work!)

So lets have at it, shall we?

BYOS Venom Burn

CHARACTERS
4x The Dwarf, Soul Broker
4x Wong, Mystical Manservant

4x Black Cat, Nine Lives
2x Night Thrasher, Dwayne Michael Taylor

4x Umar, Sorceress Sublime

2x Blackheart, Black King
2x Johnny Blaze - Ghost Rider, Damned

4x Venom, Lethal Protector

PLOT TWISTS
4x Ritual Sacrifice, Team-Up
1x Stark Tower, Team-Up
4x The Order
4x Strange Love
4x Undead Legions
4x Death's Embrace
3x Consulting the Orb

LOCATIONS
4x Empire State University
3x New Baxter Building

EQUIPMENT
3x Ego Gem, Unique * Infinity Gem

 

As you can see the list focuses entirely on setting up with almost no thought outside of the burn engine. Dwarf will help ensure our team-upsa re live early. Wong helps pad out curve options optimally. Black Cat provides hand fixing as night Thrasher also locks in our needed affiliations. and Blackheart and Johnny finish things off. Blackheart is a solid turn 4 play if the aim is protecting your characters. On your kill turn, it also makes for a great sub target for Johnny.

Ego gems, New Baxter and ESU all serve to provide key needed cards as well as fuel your hand for the wild amount of discards this deck needs.

Missing a key card? Roll the dice on Consulting the Orb. So many games have been locked in by landing that recovery trick you were missing, or the order.

What hurts this list:
Resource hate. Period. Gotham Knights can also tax your payment effects with some bully negates in a pinch. But clutch team-up removal just turns this deck off. So buyer beware! Want to deal 100+ damage while laughing at your hapless opponent? This is the deck for you. Will it make your playgroup diverse? give options for outplay, Make for fun multiplayer, or generally make players love you?

No chance in hell. But the list does one thing and it does it faster and safer than many other options.

Just ask Uncle Ted if the Herpes was worth it.