I must admit, I really don’t like snakes at all. The idea of a creature that can take me out with a single bite has never sat well in my mind, and I’m certainly in good company on that point. Samuel L. Jackson hates snakes—especially when they’ve been smuggled on board the fancy plane he’s in. Indiana Jones hates all snakes equally. There’s close to a century of snake-hating experience between the three of us, and that’s why it pains me to say that in this one particular instance I must break from the ranks of my fictional compatriots and express a certain fondness for snakes. Not real snakes, mind you, but a certain class of snakes slithering their way through Tactical Evolution even as we speak.
The Venom monsters and their field spell, Venom Swamp introduce a new way of destroying monsters to the game. In a way, it reminds me of how Slifer the Sky Dragon worked in the original Yu-Gi-Oh! TV series. Whenever it was on the field and a monster was summoned, Slifer would attack that monster’s DEF for 2000 points. If the DEF of the summoned monster was reduced to 0 by this effect, the monster would then be destroyed. Venom Swamp assaults the ATK points of monsters in a similar way. At the end of each turn, Venom Swamp puts a Venom counter on all non-Venom monsters, and as long as the card remains face up on the field, monsters lose 500 ATK for each Venom counter on them. Finally, any monster whose ATK has been dropped to 0 by this effect is destroyed. That’s the real killer. Many current strategies (along with many of the decks that people are probably building right now in preparation for September 1st) are completely ruined by this effect. Cards like Spirit Reaper are good for exactly one turn before Venom Swamp wipes them off the field. Between it and any other effects that place Venom counters on monsters, you could even wipe a field bare of Gravekeeper’s Spy and other common pests. Cyber Phoenix can’t escape its fate, and neither can recruiter monsters. Just three little counters make them vanish, leaving your opponent wide open to an assault.
The catch is that only face-up monsters can receive Venom counters. Not to worry though: there is a method for forcing monsters to show themselves, and we can shut down the upcoming Apprentice Magician/Crystal Seer control decks while we’re at it.
Monsters: 17
3 Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes
3 Venom Snake
3 Venom Serpent
3 Alien Shocktrooper
3 Cyber Dragon
2 Venom Cobra
Spells: 10
3 Venom Swamp
1 Terraforming
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Snatch Steal
1 Premature Burial
2 Venom Shot
Traps: 13
3 Damage = Reptile
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Ring of Destruction
2 Venom Burn
3 Ambush Fangs
2 Light of Intervention
I must say that this deck is quite a bit different from the ones that I normally build. Generally, I like to build my decks such that effect monsters drive the deck while the spell and trap cards support the effect monsters. A good example of this would be last week’s look at the Gemini monsters. The Geminis and their effects are what that deck was about. Cards like Birthright and Justi-Break were just there to back up the monsters and augment their unique properties. This week’s deck works very differently from the general model of spell and trap cards supporting monsters. In this case, it’s the effect monsters and traps that support the spell cards.
The deck is basically built around the effect of Venom Swamp that saps and destroys monsters with its Venom Counters. Swamp can put counters on monsters on its own, but in order to get enough counters to actually take out the monsters, Venom Swamp needs a little help. Venom Snake and Venom Serpent provide the extra bite necessary to get counters onto those monsters fast enough to remove them from the field before they become a real hassle, while Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes takes advantage of the lack of monsters your opponent will have as a result of Venom Swamp’s shenanigans. At the base of this poisonous pyramid are thirteen trap cards that make it possible for you to execute this counter craziness without having to deal with messy things like “tributing monsters” or “being attacked by the opponent.”
The major traps in the deck are Damage = Reptile, Light of Intervention, and Ambush Fangs. Ambush Fangs only works if one of your face-up Venom monsters is attacked, but that’s not a particularly difficult scenario to achieve thanks to Damage = Reptile and Light of Intervention. As I mentioned above, forcing all monsters to be played face up tears a gigantic hole in strategies based around cards like Gravekeeper’s Spy or Apprentice Magician—which is quite convenient since these two cards are likely to see huge popularity in the upcoming months. Forcing a deck that relies on flip effect monsters like Old Vindictive Magician and Crystal Seer to either commit monsters to the field meaninglessly or take direct attacks each turn is a good way to win, and being able to win against Apprentice Engine decks is sure to be a boon as soon as Crystal Seer becomes legal for Regional events.
The other bonus of Light of Intervention stems from the fact that it now allows (or rather forces) monsters that are played defensively to be summoned in face-up defense position. This allows you to get Venom monsters onto the field without having to leave them vulnerable to Nobleman of Crossout or in attack position where an opposing monster could maul them for a big chunk of damage. Regardless of how you choose to position your monsters, having them face up makes it possible for you to activate Ambush Fangs when they’re attacked, canceling your opponent’s battle phase and leaving him or her with one more Venom counter than he or she might have bargained for. Even worse for your opponent is that every time that duelist moves into the Battle Phase, he or she must contend with the possibility that you may be openly inviting an attack so that you can trigger the effect of Damage = Reptile.
The neatest thing about Vennominon is that he has an original ATK of 0 rather than a question mark. This makes it possible for you to special summon the monster from your deck with the effect of Damage = Reptile whenever you take any damage at all. Being able to summon an arbitrarily large monster that’s capable of reviving himself if defeated in battle is amazing, and being able to do it more than once per game is even better.
Vennominon also carries with him a particular air of fear, especially if you have any face-down spell or trap cards when you summon him. I’m pretty sure that by now, everyone has at least heard of Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes. Victory is nearly guaranteed if you can summon the snake deity, and smart duelists know this. They also know that the only way you can summon Vennominaga is by activating Rise of the Snake Deity whenever Vennominon is destroyed outside of battle. Thus, players will likely be trying to find ways of removing Vennominon from play rather than playing cards like Sakuretsu Armor or Smashing Ground. Brain Control and a Monarch is always a risk you’re going to have to take, but if you play things right, you can force the opponent to waste his or her Brain Control cards early on to get rid of the pesky little monsters you keep pecking away with, allowing Vennominon to force your opponent into bad plays caused by trying to avoid a card that isn’t even in the deck.
Regardless of all the other cool stuff packed in, my favorite trick in this particular deck has to be Venom Burn. The clever thing about it is that it doesn’t say whose monster you have to remove all the Venom Counters from. That makes your own monsters a fair target for the trap card, which removes all Venom Counters from a monster and then deals 700 damage to your opponent for each one. As you may have noticed, I’m playing a set of Cyber Dragon cards to add a little beatdown flavor to the deck, but unfortunately, Venom Swamp is more than capable of eating away at the metal menaces. The fact that they get weaker makes them prime targets for opposing attacks, and there’s nothing quite like flipping Venom Burn in response to an attack on your monster and removing all the counters that were sapping its strength. The end result is that you’ll most likely do 1400 damage to your opponent plus a little extra for your Cyber Dragon beating down his or her monster, all while leaving your opponent open to attack.
The Venom monsters are capable of some nasty and surprising things, so if you can get your hands on the new Tactical Evolution packs, this is one deck you should seriously consider checking out. Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!
Jerome McHale
jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu
NEXT WEEK: Wiping the field/cleaner than clean/has all my opponents/calling me mean.