Venom, Lethal Protector

what this deck wants

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Utility

• 
  A BGR reanimator-ramp midrange deck built around Eddie Brock's ETB reanimation and his flip into Venom. Eddie returns a MV-1-or-less creature from the yard every time he enters, so you're cheating small value bodies back constantly, while the real payoff is dumping fatties like Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, Worldspine Wurm, Terror of the Peaks, and Etali, Primal Conqueror into play via reanimation and ramp. It wins by beating down with oversized threats, comboing off with Aggravated Assault + a big mana engine, or grinding out the table with recursion and aristocrat value.

power, speed, and what the deck is made of

Computed from deck data

the cards that carry the deck

Computed from deck data

Engines

Tutors

Protection

Spot Removal

Board Wipes

Graveyard & Recursion

Card Draw

Ramp

Tutors

Protection

Spot Removal

Graveyard & Recursion

how the game unfolds

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Ramp

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  EARLY: land a mana dork (Birds of Paradise, Ignoble Hierarch, Delighted Halfling, Fanatic of Rhonas) or Sol Ring/Arcane Signet, and set up the graveyard with Entomb, Sylvan Tutor, or self-mill. MID: cast Eddie to Reanimate a cheap creature, or fire off Reanimate/Animate Dead/Persist to cheat a bomb into play; Sneak Attack and Monster Manual also dodge mana costs. Deploy Goreclaw or Selvala to power out the top end. LATE: close with a giant swing — a hasted Ghalta, an Etali cascade, or the Aggravated Assault infinite-combat kill. Greater Good and Terror of the Peaks turn your big creatures into card and damage engines while you grind.
• 
  Ramp 12 — REPEATABLE acceleration: dorks (Birds of Paradise, Ignoble Hierarch, Delighted Halfling, Fanatic of Rhonas, Selvala), rocks (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Talisman of Resilience, The Soul Stone), and land-fetch (Farseek, Nature's Lore, Three Visits). Burst 4 — ONE-SHOT spikes: Dark Ritual, Jeska's Will, Old Gnawbone (Treasures on combat damage), Tinder Wall. The curve is bimodal: 12 cards at 0-1 and 16 at 2 (the ramp/enabler shell), then a huge 14-card cluster at 6+ (the payoff fatties). Average CMC 3.65 is inflated by that top end — the deck is designed to skip the middle by ramping or reanimating straight into the 6+ bombs. Gas comes from Greater Good, Selvala, Anticausal Vestige, and recursion engines like Phyrexian Reclamation and Riveteers Ascendancy.

what to keep, what to ship

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Ramp

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  Keep 3-4 lands with at least one accelerant — a dork, Sol Ring, or a fetch — since the top-heavy curve punishes stumbling. A hand with a graveyard-setup piece (Entomb, Vampiric Tutor, Sylvan Tutor) plus a reanimation spell (Reanimate, Animate Dead, Persist) is a premium keep even if it's light on payoff, because tutors find the rest. Ship hands that are all fatties with no ramp/reanimation to bridge to them, and ship 1-2 land hands without Sol Ring or a dork.

how it ends

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Utility

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  Reanimate or ramp into a fatty and beat down — Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, Worldspine Wurm, or Primeval Protector carry the aggro plan, boosted by Goreclaw and Rhythm of the Wild for haste.
• 
  Infinite combat via Aggravated Assault + Old Gnawbone or Aggravated Assault + Selvala, Heart of the Wilds — untap for endless combats and swing for lethal (also generates infinite mana/Treasure).
• 
  Terror of the Peaks + Warstorm Surge turn every big creature ETB into direct damage; combined with reanimation loops this can burn the table out.
• 
  Grind incremental value with Eddie recursion, Greater Good, and aristocrat sac outlets, then close with a Savage Beating- or Seize the Day-fueled double-strike alpha strike.

pieces that lock together

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+

→∞ mana

attacking makes Treasures that pay Assault's untap cost, yielding infinite combats, infinite mana, and infinite Treasure.

+

→∞ mana

Selvala's tap makes enough mana to re-pay Assault repeatedly for infinite combat phases and infinite mana — best with a big creature to feed her.

+

→drain the table

MV 1 or less

Eddie Brock recursion loops with cheap creatures (MV 1 or less) plus a sac outlet like Greater Good — bounce/recast Eddie to Reanimate value bodies each time, fueling draw and aristocrat drains.

counsel and common errors

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Tutors

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  Sequence graveyard setup before reanimation — Entomb/tutor for the right target, then Reanimate or Animate Dead; don't cast Eddie into an empty or fatty-only yard, since his ETB only hits MV 1 or less.
• 
  Hold Aggravated Assault until you have Old Gnawbone or Selvala plus a mana surplus — telegraphing the combo invites removal, so protect the piece with Heroic Intervention or Lightning Greaves first.
• 
  Respect your two board wipes only (Damnation, Toxic Deluge) — you're light on catch-up sweepers, so don't overcommit fatties into open mana against combo/control tables.
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  Use Terror of the Peaks and Warstorm Surge as reach: they let reanimated ETBs and sacrificed bodies deal damage even through blockers.
• Flip Eddie to Venom only when you can afford the {3}{B}{R}{G} sorcery-speed cost and want the bigger body — usually a mid-combat power play, not turn-one priority.
• 
  Don't waste tutors (Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Worldly Tutor) grabbing lands unless mana-screwed — save them to assemble the Assault combo or find a specific answer/payoff.