Drax The Destro... I mean The Taunter!

Drax The Destroyer. Our big green (not Hulk) brute who is always ready to pick up a fight as long as it's not a dance battle. He enjoys slashing and dicing and can take a point-blank hit from Iron Man's giant blaster and survive (or at least he says so). He is really fun to play and easily occupies the top 5 of my favourite heroes in Marvel Champions TCG.

For those who are not familiar with the comics, Drax has been killed numerous times (including by his daughter Moondragon - obviously unresolved daddy issues here). As Drax is Too Stubborn to Die, he has been resurrected every time. After his last resurrected (I believe this was the last one), Drax boasts an even higher level of strength, but suffers a brain injury, making his personality more childlike. And this is the Drax we have in here. A lot of power and survivability, not as much brain.

To keep the theme of resurrected Drax, this deck has no crazy-to-execute combos and/or mechanics for which you must spend a lot of time preparing and meet complicated conditions. It is a very Drax deck: you hit me - I hit you, but harder. And then I hit you again, and again, and again etc... It's simply a blood-bath.

So how does the deck work???

Well... it works like Drax... the more beating we take, the more vengeful we are. We don't want any chump blockers, or defensive cards to increase our defense or decrease the attack of the Villain.

In this case, why do we need Gamora in this deck?

Well, just like Mantis, Gamora is a support card. Although Drax loves his knives, we do not have Piercing damage on either of them, so Gamora is the piercing queen of the deck, removing Tough status cards from enemies (and yes, I know she does not have piercing damage herself). Plus, when Gamora attacks or thwarts, Drax will get an additional event card in his hand.

And for Mantis, she is Drax's healer. Both Gamora and Mantis have 3HP, so the two Med Team in the deck are meant for them, not for Drax. Drax has Mantis, The Night Nurse and more to look after him.

What else?...

Drax has 4 ways to make the villain attack him 2x "Fight Me, Coward!" and 2x Taunt. Each of those will give Drax a Vengeance counter (or a card draw if Drax already has 3 vengeance counters), a card draw (or 3), 2 of them will also ready Drax, and all of them synergies with Shake it Off, Payback and Parry.

By a rule of thumb, supported with extensive testing, you will have all 3 of your Vengeance counters during the player phase in the 2nd round. And if you are very unlucky and Mantis is hiding somewhere on the bottom of your deck having a nap, What Doesn't Kill Me, Parry and Shake it Off will keep you healthy until you wake her up.

Then you just do what Drax does best: Attack! Attack! Attack! Attack!... You got the gist of it.

• And how many times per phase we can attack exactly???

Well... Drax can ready twice with "Fight Me, Coward!", 3 times with Leading Blow, 3 times with Limitless Stamina, 2 times with What Doesn't Kill Me and once with C.I.T.T.. So, 11 ways to ready Drax and attack. And thanks to DWI Theet Mastery, each attack comes with the benefit of a card draw. Combine this with the rest of the effects of those cards, plus Drax Hero Response, Taunt, Avengers Mansion and Gamora, the precise answer is not clear, but it's somewhere between A LOT! and A BUTTLOAD!

• "How about Avengers Mansion? Drax has a hand size of 4, he can't play a 4-cost card..."

True! But you see, with Taunt, "Fight Me, Coward!", DWI Theet Mastery and Drax's Hero Response, the hand size is not an issue in the slightest. If anything, you will find yourself with more cards than you can spend... This is why you have a C.I.T.T.! Because no one likes to horde cards when you can spend them for an additional swing at the Villain or a minion.

• "In this case, why not Symbiote Suit?"

Drax does not have a built-in way to deal with treachery cards, and I don't find Get Behind Me! to synergise with the deck as much as it should. You can swap the 3x Leading Blow with 3x Get Behind Me!, but I am not happy with the value I receive for the cards I play this way.

• "Why Specialized Training? Drax already struggles with threat removal."

Drax loves to attack. Specialized Training can give him +1 attack, and one card draw per player phase. In single-player, even if you get the side scheme early, you can place it on the board and leave it there until you can clear it with one Intimidation. In multiplayer you have your buddies to help you.

• "Why no Unshakable?"

I think The Night Nurse is better for this deck as you can use it on your two Ally-Support cards, but this point can be argued. If you believe Unshakable is the better option, please do swap the two cards.

• "Why Deft Focus?"

For the single purpose of paying for Limitless Stamina. As you guys pointed out correctly, that Drax has only a hand size of 4, I encourage people to have both Deft Focus and Helicarrier in the deck. This way all the more events can be played every round, without having to spend other events to play them.

One card to change Deft Focus for is Superpower Training. This will give you another way to secure DWI Theet Mastery.

• "The double resources cards look a bit out of place in this deck..."

True again! It does look like The Power of Protection should be a better fit for the deck, as the cards which will be cycled and cost more than 1 are all Protection cards. I prefer the double resources as this helps with the set-up for Gamora, Mantis, Avengers Mansion, C.I.T.T., Helicarrier and Too Stubborn to Die. Plus, a single double resource card can be spent for C.I.T.T.. Which, after testing, I found to be more important than having more reliable ways of satisfying the resource condition for What Doesn't Kill Me.

• "What is the biggest challenge for this deck?"

  • In single-player (true solo): low main scheme threat threshold. For Intimidation to be effective, it might take a turn or two. This can be very problematic when you need to thwart the main scheme plus side scheme(s). If you would play true solo, you might want to consider Bait and Switch instead of Leading Blow.

  • In multiplayer: Ronan the Accuser and any other Villain with a high health pool and Retaliate. It has happened that in some 4-player games, I was not able to perform all the attacks I could during the players' phase because of Retaliate.

For any further questions and/or suggestions, please refer to the comments section below.

I hope you guys have plenty of fun with this deck doing what Drax does best!

Thank you for reading.

Cost curve average: 1.20