Heroic Quest #4

Scenario: Venom
Difficulty: Heroic 1
Total Attempts: 27
Heroes Used: Psylocke (14), SP//dr (10), Colossus (3)
Number of Rounds in Winning Game: 12
Modular Sets: recommended/default ones
Win Date: 09 Nov 2023

I started my journey for this scenario with Psylocke and I ended with Psylocke. Even on heroic and even with steady, of all the heroes that could keep a villain confuse-locked, it would be Psylocke.

The Scenario

Alter-Ego Problems

This scenario throws a lot of alter-ego problems/opportunities at you mainly because of the Down to Earth modular set: Common Criminal, Volunteer Work, Friends and Family, and Loose Ends which keeps getting your obligation Body Swapped. Not only can she reliably (and relatively safely) go to alter-ego, but then she's in the right form to deal with the alter-ego problems.

Extra Activations

There are soooo many extra activations in Venom and I felt it even more because of heroic. There are 8 extra villain activations (22%) of the deck. 1 in every 5 cards! And when you're getting 2 encounter cards each turn you have a 40% chance of seeing an extra activation every turn... gross. I had plenty of turns where both of my encounter cards were extra activations.

Tooth and Nail

Priority #1 for this scenario was getting rid of Tooth and Nail turn one. You can remove the threat with damage or normal threat removal. The fact that she has built-in piercing with her Psi-Katana's was a major boon. I would almost always shoot for using a basic ATK with +1/2 ATK to remove the starting tough, do 2/3 damage to Venom, AND remove 2/3 threat off of Tooth and Nail.

Options

• It was guaranteed if I drew any of the Flurry of Blades (basic 2 ATK followed by 6 damage) or Mental Detection (5 threat followed by basic 3 THW or vice versa).
• Vivian could blank it to buy me an extra turn.
• Mental Detection was also flexible if I also drew another ATTACK card or ally. Then I could do some combo of basic ATK, 3 threat from Mental Detection ( and draw 1 card), and the rest from another ATTACK or ally.

Bell Tower

Ultimately, I believe that focusing on this was what won me the game. I spent the first 12 out of 14 games with her feeling out Venom and just kind of spinning my wheels. I would regularly get to stage 3, but something would always happen as I was trying to close out the game. This is why I ended up trying SP//dr and Colossus for a bit. But the main takeaway from the first 12 games was that I didn't focus enough on Bell Tower. I actually straight up ignored it.

First off, I kept revealing Guard the Bell Tower and I kept thinking how bad that would be to lose all of my hard work in building up chime counters. Then I thought how it could just be a "blank", non-harmful encounter card if I didn't focus on chime counters.

After recognizing my sin in turning away from Psylocke and coming back to her, I decided to change tactics and actually go for Bell Tower. What a difference it made! I made significant progress in Psylocke's game 13 and I could really feel it was possible to beat Venom; I was close! I won the next game, game 14. The reason why though is because she could easily put more than 3 chime counters on it before flipping it. Psi-Bow Attack (4 damage) and Flurry of Blades (4-6 damage); her basic ATK plus an ally attack, etc. The ringing Bell Tower was doing work twofold: (1) extra damage with each damage dealt and (2) preventing damage from Venom's huge attacks. I'd often need the counters to prevent damage, because of all of the extra activations mentioned previously. It also saved my butt a few times when Swinging Assault would get revealed when I was in alter-ego and I wasn't as prepared.

The Heroes

Other Heroes

I got close with SP//dr one game, but the issue with both was their lack of being able to clear Tooth and Nail in the first turn or two. The starting tough on Venom was really hard to remove to double dip on damage and threat removal. The extra encounter card in the first few turns was too much. SP//dr fared much better than Colossus though in general.

Card Hot Takes

• Psi-Bow Attack was wonderful against Venom (III) since he has retaliate, but Psi-Bow Attack has ranged.
• The Cerebro/Professor X combo was clutch and I tried to pull it off as often as possible, even if I didn't get the block from him first. His 3 THW and confuse were ALWAYS valuable.
• Target Acquired to help with all of the nasty boost abilities. I included all 3 to theoretically combo with Training Regimen. I could pull one to just play or it could be used to help deal with Common Criminal. The reality was I rarely, if ever, played Training Regimen. Frankly, it was too slow.
• Crew Quarters was the sleeper and surprisingly good. I tried to play it every game and it usually always saved me. It gave me enough passive healing to not have to exhaust to REC, which was huge since her big 3 stat ATK/THW is so valuable.
• Psionic Training was the only upgrade of hers I ever played and it was for the confuse.
• The aggression allies were all great to clear Enraged Symbiote's along with Relentless Assault. They're so annoying...

Past Heroic Quests

• Doctor Strange vs. Thanos
• Ironheart vs. Loki
• Miles Morales vs. Sandman