Tigra Preview In Marvel Champions & S-Tier Venom Aggression
FFG has just released their preview of the new Tigra hero, and it’s clear there’s a theme for all the recent aggression-leaning heroes. Minions, which Thor struggled to get in the beginning, are now one of the keys to winning in aggression. Thor and Valkyrie both were minion-based heroes, and they both struggled to get into the higher ranks of heroes, and sometimes still do.
And now we have Bucky and Tigra entering the scene, and they’ve changed the minion game for Marvel Champions.
Tigra and Venom in Marvel Champions. Credits: FFG and Marvel
The New Aggression Strategy
Bucky brought some crucial cards to the minion game, notably Firepower and Man On The Wall. Firepower can knock out waves of enemies or deal a lot of damage to one enemy. Meanwhile, Man On The Wall can bring out high-cost cards for very little. The downside is that it is restricted to Soldier traited identities, which Thor and Valkyrie should both have and would massively benefit from, but they can’t take the card. It feels like it’s made for them, and they both are soldiers, but they both miss out on it.
Meanwhile, we don’t yet know what all the Aggression cards will be for Tigra, but her kit is amazing for any kind of minion-based scenario. She has her own copy of Man on the Wall in her kit, and it feels like this is what they wanted Thor to be. There were rumors swirling around that they had to nerf Thor during development, and I wonder if this is where all his overpowered kit ended up.
Some of the new Tigra cards previewed by FFG (Credit for card images: FFG & Marvel 2025)
Minion tutoring is now the new hot thing. And while Bucky and Tigra do seem to very much like it, one hero can take advantage of it far more than anyone else.
Enter Venom.
S-tier Venom Aggression
Venom has always been one of my favorite heroes. Back before Sinister Motives released, I had set myself a challenge to use the same Venom deck to beat every single scenario in true solo. And for the most part, I did. It was a Venom Justice build, and it worked against every scenario except Ultron and Ronan. They both had a little too much going on for a Justice deck to handle it (at the time), and I had to switch to a Venom Aggression deck to beat both of those.
I still was able to beat them, however, and the fact that Venom was still able to do it even with a different deck felt good.
Venom did not need any significant upgrade. His access to the guardian allies, his Multi-Gun that can handle just about anything, and being able to defend for 3 when Groot isn’t out to defend for him gives him a lot of advantages that he didn’t have before.
Now, however, he’s absolutely insane.
There’s no other way to describe the crazy turns I’ve had with him. Between the Symbiote Suit, Man on the Wall, and Face the Past, the playtesting I’ve been able to do has resulted in multiple turns going through what’s left of my deck. You can draw a large number of cards, play at least one Run and Gun for free with Man on the Wall, and Drawing Nearer is an amazing obligation to keep on Venom with no repercussions.
Some of the best cards to run with Venom (Card images from FFG and Marvel).
Sure, the little symbiotes have Guard and Patrol. It could not matter less.
You want to trigger Pursued By The Past as much as possible with this deck. Standard III makes the game easier and more winnable with the new Venom Aggression. It was a complete accident that I drew Drawing Nearer, but I was quite pleased to do it once I had. And then I realized there was absolutely no reason to ever get rid of it. It was a blessing rather than a curse, and I had an extremely loaded Hall of Heroes by the end of it.
And then there’s the other new card that came with Bucky: Firepower.
Firepower is a good card generally. However, a lot of weapons may or may not be worth the cost of the card. It’s very similar to Fusillade, which deals 5 damage instead of 3 per weapon. Fusillade costs one extra and can only target one enemy. Firepower can take a fleet of enemies, and if you wanted to play Honed Technique, Firepower can do 4 damage to each enemy, for a total of 12. It’s ridiculous, and Venom can take better advantage of the card than any other hero.
He usually has three weapons on his body comfortably, and dealing 3 damage with any of them is a significant upgrade from their base abilities. Throw Jarnbjorn on him with a Side Holster, and you have another 3 damage without the added requirements to use it. Additionally, Venom can run 3 Energy Spears easily, and, at least for me, Rocket Raccoon could get up to 8 ATK with Overwhelm if you have a Boot Camp out (which is much cheaper or even free with Man on the Wall). And you still get the benefit of the Energy Spear even if it’s exhausted, so if you have all three out, you don’t even have to exhaust Venom’s weapons.
On top of all of that, Run and Gun makes this card even more bonkers. With your potential 20-card draw, you could easily end up with multiple copies. At that point, if you’re playing true solo or even with one other player, you’ve likely won the game. Most villains are less than 20HP per player, and two Firepowers can do 18-24 damage (if you have Honed Technique), and if you also have the Run and Gun, that’s more than enough.
The scenarios where a lot of thwart is needed can be handled with the Multi-Gun + Venom’s basic abilities while you get set up. You’ll have plenty of Energy Spears and a Jarnbjorn to keep the board clear. Then you just have to wait for the right turn to gather up your Hall of Heroes tokens and strike.
You can see my full decklist below. While you could definitely take it down to 40 cards and tweak the specifics, I went through my deck multiple times in quick succession, so I didn’t feel like more cards were hindering me.
It’s an insane deck, and it feels far too powerful. I’m having a blast, but I’d like to hear your thoughts. Let me know what you think of Venom!
If you’re interested in more FFG-related card game chat, check out my post about ancient artifacts in Arkham Horror: The Card Game.
