Greetings HeroClix Masterminds!

Now that we’ve had a chance to see what’s in the upcoming Venom set, I’ve been itching to build. 

Here's something I cooked up with the new Eddie Brock (ve016) and his trait, "MAN OF A THOUSAND SECOND CHANCES", which reads,  "At the beginning of the game, remove a character with 'Venom' in its name from your Sideline, turn them to any click, and place them on this card. // Eddie Brock can use the displayed standard powers of the character on his card. 

We're going to keep this one modern, but thanks to the new set, there is no shortage of options for Eddie to choose from. There is one particular option I've been obsessing over. I'm talking about the 2×2 beauty weighing in at 300 points, the Colossal of the Cretaceous Period, Venom T-Rex! 

We're looking at 24 clicks of wall-shattering, fang-chomping, symbiotic silliness for the low cost of one Eddie Brock and a little bit of support. The goal here is to get our Venom all the way to click 1, now they can do a bit of healing of their own, but we're going to need some help. 

The Build 

Click here to view the build.

Eddie Brock (ve016) needs to go down. Whether it be by our effects or our opponents, the whole point of the team is to turn Eddie into a Dinosaur. We have several ways to damage ourselves, and Eddie's plasticity on the back half of his dial can make him an annoying tie-up piece. 

Wolverine, Lord of the Vampires (st051) is a fantastic attacker. We get great potential raw stats and no special powers, making it a strong counter to popular meta elements like Legacy Black Panther and Halt Mutant. His first special trait makes it much easier to stay on theme (Vampire Brood), and this team can really benefit from going first.  

Ramonda (bp208) doesn't mind taking a click or two of damage as her 18 defend moves up to a 19 on click 3, so she's a great figure to heal Wolverine with the X-Men TA. She also has Support, along with Free: Support, giving us a couple of chances to heal our dinosaur. The Black Panther TA is a welcome addition for the wildcards, too. 

Dr. Curt Connors (spv013) could be another Ramonda, but we'll take the Perplex here, along with a longer dial if we need someone to suck up some clicks. He can copy either the Avengers TA or Black Panther TA. 

Scarlet Witch (m400KQ-004) gives us access to all of the support powers we're looking for, like Telekinesis, Perplex, Probability Control, and Outwit that we so desperately need, and Copycat (micnb001) makes it twice as nice. 

Black Symbiote (spv008a) is another good piece to soak up damage and can give Venom Rex Super Strength and Steal Energy. 

Steppenwolf (b006) is here to give us leadership when Wol Vamp heals past his leadership clix. There are other options for cheap leadership that won't break theme, like Fenix (WK 

Diabolic Bargain (cltrOS008) is an easy way to damage Eddie if our opponent won't do it for us.  

Soul Siphon (cltrOS007) is another opportunity to heal V-Rex for free and damage the Black Symbiote. This can also be used to damage Eddie if needed. 

Concealed Costume (veOS004) keeps our Thunder Lizard from going extinct before we have a chance to heal him. 

Alien Hunger (veOS005) gives us the most potential to heal the big guy, a perfect blades roll can lead to double digit clicks thanks to his Devour special power and Chomp trait. 

The last 2 sideline spots go to Animal Man and Venom T-Rex. I avoided adding most of the top-played pieces in the current meta, but I'll put Animal Man on every team until they tell me I can't. Wolverine, LotV can grab an offensive power like Super Strength or Close Combat Expert (giving him a 15 attack 6 damage) for the Alpha and either Combat Reflexes, Shape Change, or Impervious for the ensuing counter strike. 

With the remaining 15 points, we'll equip the Indigo Ring (lls008) to Ramonda to squeeze out a little extra, and Scarlet Witch can be equipped with the Ring of Telekinesis (DNDX-s004) for free, so that's a no-brainer.  

The final 5 points will be used for the Snake Pit effect terrain, as we can always use more ways to ping Eddie and the Black Symbiote. Dino Venom would love the extra healing, so the Heart Shaped Herb makes sense. I always like having some 2×1 Elevated Terrain to break up adjacency or get that last click of damage, so the Shelf gets the last spot. 

The Strategy

Now the strategy here is pretty straightforward: Heal up our Vampire. Make a Dinosaur. Heal the Dinosaur. If we go first, we have the chance to use the X-Men TA on our Wolverine at least three times. I recommend using Eddie, Black Symbiote, and Ramonda. Scarlet Witch can Free: Telekinesis to place the Snake Pit under Eddie. We'll have to use one of the Perplexes into Scarlet Witch's range, and we can put the other two into Ramonda's Defense, as she's the only figure that may have to give up First Turn Immunity. The fourth action can be used to either pick up the Shelf with Wolverine or Power: Telekinesis Ramonda back to safety. 

We can't know for sure what the opposition will do, but there isn't much they can do to take us off course. Our second turn should be used to heal the Lord of the Vampires, hurt Eddie, and score some points. 

 At the beginning of Turn 2, Eddie will take a Click from the Snake Pit, and you have the option of using Diabolic Bargain to do an additional damage. With 2 uses of the X-Men TA, we only have about a 45% chance of taking damage both times, so hardly a guarantee that we'll be able to KO Eddie this turn, but we have Soul Siphon in our pocket if the pressure is on. 

Lord of the Vampires should be on Click 1, and a clear line of TK gives him full map reach. His high raw stats and Precision Strike with Exploit make him a threat to most pieces in the game. Send him out to erase a threat and score some points. With all the perplexes and Animal Man, we'll have no problem getting his Defense to a 23 and his Attack above 15 with up to 6 damage on two targets.  

If Eddie missed taking damage on one or both of the X-Men TA rolls, you might find a situation to save Soul Siphon, but getting Venosaurus out early is beneficial in most scenarios. We'll generate Venom T-Rex from Eddie's card on click 22.  You'll heal 1 click from Concealed Costume, and an entire turn of IMMUNE means the dial is only going to be clicking in the right direction this turn. Ramonda will get a Free: Support here doing 2-4 clicks of healing. If you haven't used your Soul Siphon, you get another 1-3 clicks, while also KOing Black Symbiote to give Steal Energy and Super Strength to your Terrible Thunder Lizard.  

Your last action of the turn should be used to heal even more, either by attacking or using Power: Support from Ramonda for another 2-4 clicks. Healing from the Herb should get you another click at the end of the turn, leaving you with a fully healed Vampire and an IMMUNE Dinosaur around click 15-13 with potential to be as high as click 3. Any remaining perplexes should be used to keep Ramonda safe, as she has the best chance to get us all the way to top dial.  

At this point, you just need to land the plane. Anything can happen from here, but trust the plan, and life will find a way.