Defending Without Defending

Drax loves protection builds to allow him to heal and stay in Hero form, making the most of 3 vengeance counters. However, I always found the problem that he wants to both defend and basic attack. If you are not blocking enough damage you end up losing and without basic attacks Knife Leap and DWI Theet Mastery go unused.

Time to master the art of defending without defending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H-FiCIMh20

Defending

The way to avoid the issue is to use events such as Defiance. It triggers a defence without having to exhaust and means that you know exactly how much damage the villain attacks will do. Then, you can use a combination of Judoka Skill, Booster Boots, and Energy Barrier to reduce the damage to 0, allowing you to trigger Unflappable and Hard to Ignore too.

The simple alternative is to just use Parry. Once you have 3 vengeance counters it will stop 8 damage. It is worth holding onto this card at the end of your turn if you have it. Jocasta is included simply to get an extra use of Parry.

The defence allows you to trigger Unflappable and Hard to Ignore without exhausting. With 3 vengeance counters you also draw one from Drax.

Note that although Booster Boots is excellent here, be careful using it while DWI Theet Mastery and Unflappable are still in the deck.

Another option is Shake it Off, which may seem strange as it does not work with Unflappable. However, I was finding the extra damage mitigation was needed, especially for villains with high attack. You also often take more than one attack in a round, meaning you can take a hit with tough and defend another to trigger Unflappable. For example, if you use a tough in the villain phase, you can then Taunt and defend in the player phase. Using minion attacks to play Shake it Off works well. If taking a villain attack you can reduce the damage down to one with your upgrades.

Healing

This part is pretty standard for Drax decks - use Mantis and Med Team to keep Drax healed and avoid ever having to flip to Alter-Ego. This helps to keep threat down and lets you make the most of the 3 vengeance counters. The Night Nurse is important because of Drax's obligation Memories of Another Life. You always want to pick the stun rather than the Alter-Ego option. So The Night Nurse basically mitigates it completely.

Render Medical Aid is actually a great upgrade for this type of Drax deck. It helps to recover damage you often take early on in the game while setting up or waiting for Mantis. With this you can often wait until the 2nd pass through your deck to play Med Team.

Drawing

The other Drax issue is that he really needs key cards such as DWI Theet Mastery and Mantis. With all of the damage mitigation you can afford to play Taunt and "Fight Me, Coward!". Those in combination with Unflappable help to cycle through your deck and dig for those important cards.

Taunt is a nice improvement for Drax, it helps to speed up the early game to set up while building vengeance counters, or to draw his events late game. Note that with 14 health and all of the heals you can sometimes afford to just take attacks without any defence.

Threat

Thwarting is still a weak aspect of Drax, but the allies do help. If you are not taking too much damage Mantis can help and the 2-thwart from Jocasta and Rocket Raccoon are invaluable. With those and Hard to Ignore you can usually stop the main scheme. Then, Intimidation is useful for clearing side schemes although you cannot always deal with them immediately.

Attacking

You may have noticed that Leading Blow is missing, which is usually a Drax staple. I was finding that in solo you have plenty of damage already from Payback and Knife Leap. Plus, basic attacks can hit for up to 5 damage.

The other issue is that Leading Blow is a dead card if Drax becomes exhausted from having to defend or an encounter card. With a small hand size this becomes a huge problem. Therefore, I have Limitless Stamina instead, as it ensures that you can play your attack events and gain cards from DWI Theet Mastery.

Gameplay Tips

For the mulligan you want to prioritise DWI Theet Mastery, Unflappable, and Mantis. Early on you do want to basic defend while building counters and getting upgrades out, you don't have to worry about attacking at the start.

With a bit of set up you can start dealing damage when possible. Keep threat under control with allies or Intimidation, minions can be dealt with using basic attacks or Knife Leap.

Late game the deck becomes quite thin. Taunt really helps to cycle through to get Drax cards such as Parry and Intimidation. At this point you can avoid most attacks while dealing huge damage with Knife Leap, Payback, and basic attacks.

Other Considerations

You can change the upgrades a bit depending on the scenario. If the villain attack isn't too high can drop a Judoka Skill or Energy Barrier. Also consider Clea and Ironheart if there is too much damage and you need extra defends. In some scenarios with retaliate or other damage sources, Shake it Off will not be great, can replace with allies or other defence events.

If you wanted to use this in a multiplayer game you could focus a bit more on damage and add Leading Blow back in.