Turbowombat · 90
Looking at decklists, it seems like the Drax Protection strat is pretty much solved, right? You throw a Med Team at Mantis, Drax uses Shake it Off, mulligan to DWI Theet Mastery, then use Leading Blow and C.I.T.T. as much as we can get away with. But something about it always rubbed me the wrong way. Med Team is too expensive for Drax. It's a big ask. And why do so many of his decks run Clea?
Seriously, have you noticed a bunch of Drax decks run Clea? I imagine the thinking goes like this: She only takes one slot in the deck, but she can recur and block multiple times for cheap. Great! Not Great. If she shuffles back into the deck, then she's taking more than one slot in the deck. She just seems like she isn't on the decklist. If you play Clea 3 times on an average trip through your deck, then you're essentially running a 42 card deck. Given this, just run a 42 card deck with Victor Mancha, Daredevil, and Starhawk. You'll get the exact same results plus some cool abilities. /rant
Okay, so we want a deck that works the way Drax does. No planning, just do what the cards you draw tell you to do, baby! But what about Mantis? How do we keep her alive? Two words. Energy Shield!
Energy Shield on Mantis turns every energy resource in your hand into a zero cost heal for three damage (limit once per round). Yes, Med Team costs 4 ER and gives 6 Mantis activations, making it more efficient in the long term. But we're playing Drax here, we don't think long term, and anyone who's played Drax knows how hard it is to get that 4 ER down in one turn.
So now we need a deck with lots of energy resources. Well Defiance, Shake it Off, and Leading Blow fit nicely. But let's take a look at allies. Not a lot of energy in protection, but for cheap blocks in Basic, we have Beak, and Triage. Trait locked abilities we can't use, sure, but that just means they're the same as Clea would have been. What's important is we've now built out our blocking roster with basics, meaning all the 2-cost cards in our deck are basic. Which means we can now replace Genius and Strength with The Power of in All of Us which still plays as a double for C.I.T.T. and can power Energy Shield!
I haven't tried this yet, but you may even consider putting an Energy Shield on Drax once Mantis has hers. That gives Payback and Leading Blow the ability to prevent a damage in a pinch if absolutely necessary. Who knows, that one damage might save your life.
Jump Flip is there because, yes, I know we all love seeing big damage numbers, but Drax needs thwart.
Optional, if you're fighting a lot of minions I'd swap out Vivian for Victor Mancha. He's harder to play, not being Basic, but has an energy resource and can shut down a big minion for several turns.
It does make me sad not to run What Doesn't Kill Me in a Drax deck, but we're getting more value out of our cards by not discarding most of them as resources.
This deck has been tested on Expert Badoon and kicked its ass two-handed alongside a versatile Gamora deck (is there any other kind?).
Enjoy playing Drax the way he was meant to be played. Drax and Mantis kicking names and taking ass.