Agent of Acquisitions 2.0 (CoH '26)

Venom Leadership, but not focused on allies. Not your own allies, anyway. This deck flexes Guardians of the Galaxy to Voltron other people's allies at the table, and "refunds" every upgrade you plan. Your table should really enjoy this, especially if the other players are running key allies or ally-centric events, like:

Aggression - Boot Camp, Team Strike, As One!, Wolverine, Dust, Bug, Thor, She-Hulk, Tigra

Justice - Gunboat Diplomacy, Problem Solvers, Mutant Peacekeepers, Chamber, Husk, Hawkeye

Leadership - Mass Attack, Mission Planning, Sidekick, Cameo, Strength in Diversity, Band Together, Teamwork, Unified Strike, any voltron-target ally (like Beta Ray Bill, Giant-Man, Adam Warlock, Iron Man, Ronin, Fantomex, or Yondu)

Protection - Stand Together, Stronger Together, Rogue, White Widow, Warlock

'Pool - Get Rage-y, Headpool, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Kidpool

Guns. Lots of Guns

The principle is pretty simple: Get Guardians of the Galaxy out as soon as possible (Lots of weapons in the deck besides Venom's own to hopefully not discard both copies during setup), then Voltron other player's allies.

• Venom's first goal isn't to impact the board state directly, but to amplify the allies that will. He has to stay alive to do that. Luckily, Venom's defense game is also strong. Draw a card when you're attacked and then use Grasping Tendrils to cancel it... or defend for 4 with your two Venom's Pistols.
• Venom's economy is also above average, with his symbiotic bond ability and Clarity of Purpose when you can get it allow you to spend health to play out lots of one-cost upgrades. Venom's healing game is strong, so between a recovery stat of 4 and Project Rebirth 2.0, you can usually full-heal with a trip to alter-ego.
• two of these (Comms Implant and Laser Blaster) are Guardian specific, but any ally can be an Honorary Guardian once you get rolling.
• I'm not worried about the high card count here, because as long as there are allies to play upgrades on, you will deck pretty fast every time. Guardians of the Galaxy is bonkers card draw. Your hand never FEELS full, but if you count the number of cards you see in a turn it's usually 8-10.
• If these allies finally use up all the extra health you've given them, or block an die, or get discarded... their upgrades come back to your discard pile to be acquired again.
• if you manage to put out even most of these upgrades onto the board, awesome. You're probably on the way to winning the game, and now Venom has a lean deck composed of 3 good allies and lots of above-average events! Helicarrier is a great way to ensure that Venom gets the kicker for his events as well.
• the math of Voltron builds is already strong. Lets use Angela as an example: 1ER plus a minion. She has 2 attack and 3 health, for a potential 6 damage, or 4 damage and a block. But if you add Honorary Guardian, now she's 8 dmg. Laser Blaster and Inspired? Now she's 16 damage. Add Reinforced suit? Now Anglea, which cost your friend next to nothing to play has 4 attack (with overkill) and 6 health... 24 potential damage. Normally, this would've cost you collectively 8 ER (Anglea, then the four mentioned upgrades), but with Guardians of the Galaxy giving you rebates, we're down to 4 ER and a minion = 24 (potential) damage.

Special Acquisitions

If your friends are bringing other certain Traits to the table, you can sideboard some other cards

• if soneone is an Avenger (which is a pretty good chance), have them make Venom an Honorary Avenger. Then you can pull in your own Honorary Avenger cards (it's just free real-estate) and most prominently the new darling, "Avenge Me"
• if that doesn't seem like your schtick, anyone running Avengers allies can benefit from Sky Cycle and Power Gloves
• if any other players are running X-men (also a decent chance), their allies might benefit from Danger Room Training and Advanced Suit (Dust is a standout for this play)
• aggression players might want to bring some upgrades that Venom can't, like Enraged or the powerfully synergistic Energy Spear.
• if anyone is running a key Aerial ally, Wingman is cheap and can "heal" them by exhausting another of their Aerial allies. Add Sky Cycle for a bonus.
• if you're not adding in extra upgrades, a few Get Ready or "Welcome Aboard" are easy/cheap ways to help the table, and Ready for Action can keep your Groot game strong.

I'll be bringing this deck to CoH '26 along with these others:

• Justice Like Lightning - Quicksilver Justice
• Switchboard Domino - Domino Leadership
• Lethal in Pink - Winter Soldier 'Pool
• Stronger Than Ever - Ghost Spider Protection (by Castlefrank47
• Golem 2.0 - Drax Protect-gression
• Brain Drain - Phoenix Justice

Let me know what kind of Boot Camp or Cameo/Sidekick deck you are bringing and come find me.