All 12 Symbiotes in Magic Ranked

Venom, Eddie Brock | Illustration by Simon Dominic

Symbiotes and Venom have always been some of my favorite Spider-Man characters with great lore, not to mention the different characters the symbiotes have produced, with varying results.

There’s something odd about an alien being that comes to Earth and enhances a person’s capabilities, but at the same time making people go insane, get angry, or simply crave more and more power. Kinda like black works in MTG with demon pacts and the like. With Marvel’s Spider-Man, we now get symbiote creatures for the first time ever.

Today, we take a look at how symbiote characters were depicted in MTG, and most importantly, if there are any good cards we’ll want to add to our MTG decks.

Let’s go!

What Are Symbiotes in MTG?

Carnage, Crimson Chaos | Illustration by Lordigan

Symbiotes in MTG are creatures that have the symbiote creature type. These are mostly black designs, considering the selfish nature of the symbiote carriers, and as a mechanical tie-in, some symbiotes allow you to exile creatures from your graveyard and turn them into +1/+1 counters, similar to how scavenge works. Furthermore, there’s a little division between symbiote heroes and symbiote villains, and both themes are supported in the Spider-Man set in a different way.

For completion, there’s also Alien Symbiosis, a card that turns another creature into a symbiote for synergy purposes, but we’re only covering creatures here.

#12. Symbiote Spawn

Symbiote Spawn would a perfectly fine curve filler for Draft if it was available in the Draft format, but it might still be a card you’re even happy playing in your black decks. It trades and can later help your symbiote synergies, if any. This effect tends to be stronger when the life drain is guaranteed when the creature enters the battlefield (Vampire Spawn).

#11. Venom, Evil Unleashed

Venom, Evil Unleashed is another Limited-only card, although here you’ll want one or two per deck. The plus side is that it’s a good mill target, so you’re not unhappy if you mill this one or discard it. Besides that, it’s your typical 4/5 blocker.

#10. Venomized Cat

Venomized Cat is up next, and speaking of mill, here you get your mill upfront. Very playable card in more defensive and grindy Limited decks.

#9. Grendel, Spawn of Knull

Grendel, Spawn of Knull is the last Limited-only symbiote that's not available in Limited, and it’s a solid flier and deathtoucher that can get in and sometimes close games.

#8. Agent Venom

Agent Venom, our first rare, is a little stronger, and it reminds me of Midnight Reaper, a card that’s a little underwhelming today but still solid. The fact that this one has flash is a good upgrade so you can surprise your opponents during a battle and profit.

#7. Venom, Eddie Brock

Venom, Eddie Brock screams Starter Deck rare as a card that doesn’t do enough to see Standard play. That said, the card is a big beatstick, and if you can surround it with villains, you’ll also draw some cards. It’s playable in a villains deck if you want to build around this creature subtype.

#6. Symbiote Spider-Man

Black and blue creatures that draw a card on damage are okay, and this one looks very playable. But what I like the most about Symbiote Spider-Man is that you can add this ability to other creatures you control, on top of the +1/+1 counter. It’s very powerful when a 6/6 trampler can hit for 7 and you get a mini Dig Through Time effect.

#5. Venom, Deadly Devourer

A clear attempt at a symbiote commander, Venom, Deadly Devourer is the only card that rewards you for playing other symbiote creatures. You can build around it in a few ways, including high-toughness creatures and mill effects, and suddenly you can pay 3 mana to dump seven +1/+1 counters or so on a symbiote creature, or on this card, too.

#4. Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer

Reanimation plus a 5/5 creature with upside? Sign me up! Weird mana cost notwithstanding, this is very negligible in EDH, and Anti-Venom, Horrifying Healer is an excellent reason to play mono-white in EDH. Plus, if you have any sort of devotion going on with cards like Heliod, Sun-Crowned or Reverent Hoplite, this card should do the trick. There’s also the combo with cards like Pariah that redirect all the damage to this symbiote.

#3. Eddie Brock / Venom, Lethal Protector

Eddie Brock is interesting as a black 3-drop that can be versatile late in the game, and it adds more color identity via its Jund () transformation cost . Although it’s also tailor-made for Commander, this card can see play in other formats like Standard as a value creature that gets stronger later in the game, or even as a Jund card in Cube that you can play in B/x decks. Aristocrats enjoy these cards that bring back the fodder, too. 

#2. Gwenom, Remorseless

Gwenom, Remorseless gets a strong nod from MTG’s EDH community for its ability to be a Bolas's Citadel on legs. The effect is obviously very powerful, but the fact that the creature needs to declare an attack to use it is not. Decks that can grant it haste or blitz can surprise people out of nowhere, potentially winning the game on the spot.

#1. Carnage, Crimson Chaos

Carnage, Crimson Chaos sold me on the mayhem mechanic. If there’s a red and black aggressive card that discards and enables mayhem, this card will be a 3- or 4-of. The turns when you get to discard it and another 2- or 3-drop, cast this card for its mayhem cost, and put another creature into play will be very strong, indeed.

Best Symbiote Payoffs

There aren’t any cards that gets better the more symbiotes you play, so let’s be a little creative on this one. The only card that cares about symbiotes as a creature type is Venom, Deadly Devourer. Venom cares about high-toughness creatures in your graveyard, and in Golgari colors (), there’s Death's Shadow, Ancient Adamantoise, or Unhallowed Phalanx as ways to maximize the activated ability.

A mill-heavy deck and cards with mechanics like scavenge also add redundancy to the game plan. Some changelings or good old shapeshifters like Metallic Mimic won’t hurt either to have more symbiotes at your disposal.

Wrap Up

Grendel, Spawn of Knull | Illustration by Steve Prescott

And that’s about it for symbiotes in MTG folks. This is a creature type we probably won’t see again any time soon, that is, until MTG brings Marvel in full force again. There aren’t that many symbiote cards, and admittedly, most of them are throwaway Starter Deck cards. I’m hopeful that at least the three or four best ones will end up seeing some Constructed play. And I’d like to see a Venom design that was more antagonistic to Spider-Man.

What about you? Did WotC do right by the famous Spider-Man symbiotes, or was this a missed opportunity? Let’s discuss it in our comments section below, or over Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading, and may you enjoy your Marvel’s Spider-Man prerelease.