Zombie Venom: Decks & Tips for the New Card
Apparently when you zombify a symbiote, it gets, like… glowing green eyeballs all over? Are those eyes? At least one of ‘em is… probably. Anyway, this card mashes together two archetypes that might seem contrary at first blush. They’re exactly what you’d expect from Zombie Venom: Horde and Destroy.
Here is everything I'm excited to try with Zombie Venom.
How Does He Work?
His destroy features a new type of targeting based on a card’s position at Venom’s location. He’ll target the face-up card in the earliest position, excluding himself.
His Horde ability applies every time one of your other cards is destroyed.
Best Synergies
Zombie Giant-Man is the big payoff card for Horde decks, effectively doubling every contribution Zombie Venom makes to the Horde.
Regular ol’ Destroy cards help trigger Zombie Venom’s ability. Carnage can rack up three kills for just two Energy.
Zombie Venom’s goal is to hand out lots of small buffs. Whenever that happens, Venus is a great synergy.
Death Fractured Frontier brings back all the stuff you’ve destroyed. There’s cool stuff you can do with that, but I especially like it with Zombie Venom, for reasons I’ll explain alongside the deck.
While Zombie Venom is our first card that explicitly bridges Horde and Destroy, there are already Horde Destroy decks thanks to Firehair. She doesn’t have particularly high synergy with Zombie Venom, but they’re both happy to have you shred your other On Reveal Horde cards to pieces.
Zombie Nova comes out next week. We’ll cover him in more depth then, but it’s so close that I’d feel remiss not to acknowledge a second bridge card. Playing just the two of them (Nova then Venom) yields an 8-Power Horde.
Lauren’s Day One Zombie Venom Decks
HorDestroy
Firehair is the original Horde Destroy card. She can help feed the Horde and also copy Zombie Giant-Man to become a serious threat herself.
Zombie Venom converts all those destroys into Power for the Horde. Even +4 extra Power can be significant if you’re able to multiply it a few times with some combination of Firehair, Adamantium Infusion, Zombie Giant-Man, and Arnim Zola.
Horde of Hordes
With Zombie Venom on the board, every Horde you destroy is instantly replaced. The goal is to repeat that a bunch of times, so you have three or four Hordes in your graveyard. Bring them back with Morgan Le Fay or Death Fractured Frontier, and then every Horde ability you use will buff them all!
Hordes are always created in a different location from where the Horde ability was used. That means one should never spawn on Zombie Venom’s lane. Zombie Blade and Tombstone are also good to play there. Maybe it should be the right location to support Zombie Sentry?
Is He Worth It?
Looking for a new flavor of Horde or Destroy? Regardless, if the hybrid appeals to you, Zombie Venom is such an easy yes. The specific archetype is young and only has a few key cards, with Zombie Venom as the single strongest bridge connecting Horde and Destroy. Plus, he’s required for the version using Morgan Le Fay and Death Fractured Frontier.
If you’re not interested in Horde Destroy, he’s a safe pass. He’s playable in other types of Destroy, but those lists tend to be pretty tight. He plays for a decent amount of Power if you can trigger his Horde ability at least three times, but it’s hard to imagine a Destroy deck where Zombie Venom is better than regular Venom, Deathlok, and Killmonger. Weapon X gets the closest, as it specifically wants you to destroy as many cards as possible. Extra scaling from Zombie Venom is a win if the opportunity cost isn’t too high.
For what it’s worth, I think Horde Destroy is going to be both strong and fun. I’ll be playing with Zombie Venom right away, and eagerly awaiting Zombie Nova next week.
Paid subscribers will find several more Zombie Venom decks below the paywall. He’s pretty narrow, but I was surprised how many different directions you can take him. Join today to support written Snap content and see my Zombie Venom deck that doesn’t run any other Horde cards!
As always, special thanks to SnapComplete for providing our blue-border card art. Once enough games have been recorded, head over there to see what decks the data say are best for Zombie Venom.
