Venom

Venom Monsters, featured in the release of "Tactical Evolution," are a small series of Reptile-type monsters intended to be used alongside the Field Spell card, "Venom Swamp." "Venom Swamp" places "Venom Counters" upon all monsters except Venom Monsters at the End Phase of each player's turn, weakening them dramatically and destroying them once their ATK hits 0. The penultimate Venom monster (though not technically a member of the archetype due to name spelling), "Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes", is easily summoned and gains ATK for each Reptile-type monster in the Graveyard, and if it is destroyed by a card effect, the Trap Card "Rise of the Snake Deity" can replace it with "Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes", a card that is practically invincible once in play and which can initiate its own special victory condition, by inflicting Battle Damage to the opponent three times (which, given Vennominaga's ability to increase its own ATK, might not even take that long).

Since they rely upon Reptiles being sent to the Graveyard, Venom decks are at their most vulnerable when remove-from-play strategies are used, like "Dimensional Fissure". Venom deck users are also at risk of losing Life Points early, since the only reliable methods for quickly summoning "Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes" from the Deck involve taking Life Point damage (either via "Damage = Reptile" or "Damage Condenser".) All other Venom monsters happen to have low ATK for their level as well, so it is difficult for a Venom user to take the offense to the opponent early, especially if "Venom Swamp" is not yet on the field.

If you combined these cards with the other Reptile Archetype, Aliens, you might get a powerful Deck Type. It may also be a good idea to combine them with the recently released Reptilianne Archetype since both strategies involve lowering the opponent's attack points to 0.

Playing Style
The Venom deck is a powerful deck that focuses on lowering the opponent's monsters' ATK with Venom Swamp and summoning Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes. Since Vennominaga's ATK is dependent on the amount of reptiles in your graveyard, cards like Foolish Burial and Snake Rain are important in this deck, and the deck is vulnerable to cards like Big Burn, Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure and Soul Release. Also, there are not many Venom Monster Cards, so a hybrid with other decks is inevitable.

Strengths
"Venom Swamp" is able to quickly weaken and eventually destroy any monster. Also, even if "Venom Swamp" is not on the field, "Venom Burn" can inflict serious damage to a player's Life Points.

In addition, the ace card of this deck, "Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes", is almost invincible since it cannot be destroyed by any means except by battle, and can only be removed from the field by the effects of "Volcanic Queen" and "Lava Golem".

Weaknesses
The deck relies on "Venom Swamp" for Venom Counters to have any effect on monsters, so if "Venom Swamp" is destroyed, Venom monsters' effects are useless. In addition, summoning "Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes" is difficult since you need to summon it with "Rise of the Snake Deity", meaning that a mere "Seven Tools of the Bandit" or even "Malfunction" can ruin your chance to summon "Vennominaga".

Also, "Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes" and "Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes" are weak unless there are Reptile monsters in the graveyard, so cards such as "Dimensional Fissure" and "Macro Cosmos" can easily ruin the entire deck strategy. So It's good to include "Imperial Iron Wall".

The main weakness of the Venom deck, however, is the low ATK points of most Venom monsters. This means that your opponent can easily just summon a monster to destroy your Venom monster, ignoring "Venom Cobra". Because of this, cards like "Ambush Fangs" and "Negate Attack" are essential to this deck.

Another weakness of this deck is the "Zombie World". This card should make Vennominaga's ATK 0, plus when destroyed there would be no reptile monsters to remove for bringing her back. To stop this its important to have a "Field Barrier" protecting your "Venom Swamp".

Tips
It may be wise to include "Evil Dragon Ananta" in case too many monsters are removed from play.

To protect "Venom Swamp", it is important to include cards like "Field Barrier". "Terraforming" can also help increase the chances of drawing out "Venom Swamp".

Include at least 1 copy of "Snake Rain". This card allows you to potentially send 4 (5 if you discard one as a cost) reptiles to the graveyard, strengthening "Vennominon" and "Vennominaga" by at least 2500 ATK points. Since most Venom monsters are weak, "Damage = Reptile" is a great addition to this deck.

To protect Vennominaga from "Lava Golem" and "Volcanic Queen", "Mask of Restrict" is also a great card to include.

You can use "Solidarity" if you need more ATK power for your Venom monsters.

Monsters

 * Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes
 * Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes
 * Venom Serpent
 * Venom Boa
 * Venom Snake
 * Earthbound Immortal Ccarayhua
 * Venom Cobra

Spells

 * Allure of Darkness
 * Venom Swamp
 * Viper's Rebirth
 * Trade-In
 * Snake Rain
 * Venom Shot
 * Burial from a Different Dimension
 * Attack Pheromones
 * Solidarity
 * Field Barrier

Traps

 * Offering to the Snake Deity
 * Rise of the Snake Deity
 * Snake Deity's Command
 * Damage = Reptile
 * Limit Reverse
 * Venom Burn

Important Support

 * Attack Pheromones -- For Vennominaga to inflict battle damage upon the opponent more easily.
 * Evil Dragon Ananta -- In the event that attempting to summon Vennominon or Vennominaga fails, this card can be very powerful as a backup by removing from play all Reptiles in the Graveyard.
 * Snake Rain -- Sends 4 Reptiles to the Graveyard from the Deck, powering up Vennominion or Vennominaga by 2000 ATK. In addition, if you discard a reptile monster for the cost, that's another 500 bonus attack points.
 * Damage = Reptile -- Allows the easy summon of Vennominon, since its original ATK is 0. Make sure to have at least a few Reptiles in the grave before summoning him with this, however.
 * Snake Whistle -- Summons another low-level Reptile when one you control is destroyed by effects, which can be handy.
 * Damage Condenser -- Allows the summon of Vennominon in the event you do not have any Reptiles on the field at all.
 * Destructive cards that target your own monsters -- Since Rise of the Snake Deity cannot activate in response to cards that would remove Vennominon from the field without destroying it, it is usually more reliable to destroy Vennominion yourself. The Trap Card Offering to the Snake Deity was specifically designed for this effect.  Tribute to the Doomed, Offerings to the Doomed and Hammer Shot are some of the other better choices for this.  Note that cards like Thunder Crash won't work, since they cause Rise of the Snake Deity to miss its timing.
 * Non-Venom Reptiles -- Vennominon and Vennominaga benefit from any Reptile in the graveyard, not just Venoms. Some of the better ones to include in a Venom deck are Reptilianne and Worm monsters.
 * Vengeful Bog Spirit -- Prevents monsters from attacking on the turn they are summoned. When Venom Swamp is in play, this will weaken opposing monsters by 1000 ATK before they are able to make their first move. If you have a face-up Venom Boa, this will ensure that almost any non-tribute monster your opponent summons will be destroyed before they even get a chance to use them.
 * Stumbling -- Another great card like Vengeful Bog Spirit to make monsters lose 1000 before attacking, and combined with light of intervention means that your opponent can only summon monsters in face up defence position... the downside being so can you. This can cause problems without venom swamp or if they have a monster which can survive long enough with enough attack to destroy your defense position venoms, however unlikely that is.
 * Light of Intervention -- Venom Swamp can't place counters on face-down monsters--with this, even a defending opponent will be losing their monsters rapidly.
 * Final Attack Orders -- Will allow Vennominon and especially Vennominaga to inflict battle damage upon the opponent most easily, especially since Vennominaga cannot be equipped with a card that would grant it piercing damage. Make sure to activate Final Attack Orders only when ready, however, as most Venom monsters are quite weak compared to most monsters.
 * Solidarity -- Boosts the ATK of your "Venom" monsters, which alleviates their main survivability issue. If you use this card, you cannot use non-Reptile-type monsters, although not many would fit into this deck anyway.
 * Viper's Rebirth -- If you're using Solidarity, use this card as well. The best use of this card is to summon Vennominon and let it destroy itself, thus triggering Rise of the Snake Deity. Also, since the effect takes place during the end phase, summoning Vennominaga is faster.
 * Venom Burn -- Helpful if you're racing your opponent for damage and you need that last little push for the win. A particularly useful strategy is targeting your own monsters. If you're running non-venom beatsticks like Evil Dragon Ananta or Earthbound Immortal Ccarayhua, it instantly brings them back to full strength and hits your opponent hard for damage in a devastating one-two blow.
 * Metal Reflect Slime -- A very useful stall card. Not only is its 3000 DEF capable of blocking attacks from most monsters (a trait that is powered up by Venom Swamp's ATK-reducing ability), but its 0 ATK makes it immune to Venom Swamp. This will keep it on the field both for defending against your opponent and accumulating Venom counters that you can use as ammo for Venom Burn.

However,adding Reptile-type monsters is a disadvantage because while Venom Swamp is on the field not only your opponent's monsters will have Venom Counters,your monsters will have Venom Counters if the monsters you added aren't Venom.This will cause your monsters to be destroyed.Although,you can use Venom Burn and take out the Venom Counters from your monsters and inflict damage to your opponent.