At Shonen Jump Championship Chicago 2007, Teddy Webb was pitted in a first-round feature match against Anthony Alvarado. Teddy was playing a Vennominaga deck, and he did surprisingly well against the seasoned veteran. Since then, not much has been done with the Snake deck. Today, we’re going to make Reptiles a competitive archetype for tournament play. After all, the deck is worth less than $75, and its best card has an effect that basically reads "you win the game." There’s no reason that a little innovation can’t take them the whole nine yards.
We’ll be approaching our build a little differently than Webb did, focusing on quick thinning of the deck to generate fast and consistent summons of Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes. There’s a lot of synergy to be had within the deck, and you’ll find some nice combos that you might not have recognized before.
I highly recommend this deck for new players, or for duelists who enjoy summoning a single overwhelming monster. Compared to other strategies, there aren’t as many difficult decisions to be made while playing, so it’s a great learning tool. At the same time, the intricacies of the deck can make a good introduction to other, more complicated decks for a newer player.
The Monsters
The monster lineup is a lot of fun. There are only two monsters that seem out of line here: the two copies of A Cat of Ill Omen. Special summoning Vennominaga requires you to play Vennominon and activate Rise of the Snake Deity. You’ll find that playing a Vennominon is easy, but getting to the trap can be difficult. For this reason, we’ve added the Cats to search our deck for the trap and set up the combo.
Skreech is a card overlooked by most players trying to make this deck. It can send two copies of either Gogiga Gagagigo (a very fun card name to say) or Gale Lizard to the graveyard, thinning the deck and making for a stronger Vennominon and Vennominaga play. The only way to destroy Vennominaga is for the duelist owning it to run out of Reptiles in the graveyard, and Skreech makes that very difficult. Skreech serves two purposes: thinning the deck drastically and fueling your graveyard.
We’ve chosen to run Gogiga Gagagigo for two reasons: it’s a Water-type Reptile, meaning it can be sent to the graveyard with Skreech, and it has exactly eight level stars, meaning you can discard it for Trade-In. Gale Lizard serves a similar purpose, being filtered into the graveyard quickly and having an effect that can slow the game down and allow you to play your combo. If you go first and your opponent sets a monster, you can even flip the Gale Lizard and poke for some damage.
Obviously, the real focus of the deck is Vennominaga. Once you play her, she’s practically unstoppable. She can’t be targeted by effects, she can’t be destroyed if you have Reptiles in the graveyard, and she has an alternate win condition effect. This card is ridiculous, which is why it’s supposed to be hard to play. Fortunately for us, we’re going to make it easy.
The Spells
The spell lineup is focused on drawing cards and fueling the graveyard. Snake Rain speeds the game along, quickly fueling your graveyard and thinning your deck. Hand Destruction and Trade-In will allow you to discard dead cards or Reptiles to rifle through your deck and draw to your combo faster.
Remember that Vennominon can be special summoned, as long as it isn’t by a monster effect. That means sending him to the graveyard can make for a very easy special summon. We have one copy of Monster Reborn in the spell lineup to bring him back, and the trap lineup is going to compliment that.
The Traps
The trap lineup is focused on speed. The three copies of Rise of the Snake Deity are part of the deck’s win condition (though you’ll find it easy enough to win with Vennominon if you get 
stuck without Rise).
The three copies of Limit Reverse allow you to special summon Vennominon or Skreech from your graveyard, depending on what you’ve done so far. Whenever you draw this card, you’ll probably have the choice between special summoning an incredibly large monster or fueling the graveyard . . . so you can eventually special summon an incredibly large monster. Remember that activation of Rise of the Snake Deity requires that Vennominon be destroyed. If you special summon your Vennominon using Limit Reverse, you can simply shift the Vennominon to defense position and destroy him yourself!
The three copies of Snake Whistle allow for quick abuse of Skreech. Your opponent attacks Skreech and you’ll be special summoning another from your deck while sending two copies of Gale Lizard to your graveyard. Damage = Reptile serves a similar purpose, but you’ll often want to special summon a copy of Vennominon instead of Skreech.
All this special summoning from the deck and sending cards to the graveyard thins you for future draws. Don’t forget that effects such as this make cards like Trade-In, Hand Destruction, and Upstart Goblin much more powerful. Instead of starting your turn by drawing cards, wait a turn until your deck is thinned by about 20–25 percent. That makes your draws much more consistent.
1 Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes: $40
3 Skreech: $8 each, $24
3 Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes: $3 each, $9
Total + Commons: $73
This deck is fast and fun, and many opponents won’t even know what your cards do. The first time you bring this deck to a tournament, you’ll probably have an opponent laugh, take your card, read it, then exclaim "broken!" before handing it back. You’d be surprised how powerful unknown cards can be when put in the right deck. At the very least, you’ll make a splash at the tournament and remind the other players that you’re an innovator and a real duelist.
—Ryan Murphy