munkey8486 · 166
Drax has been my go to protection deck since I first starting playing the game. Though some of the cards in his deck may have changed, the ethos behind it has not. You may tell everyone you're playing Protection, but there's plenty of red paint under the recent coat of green. You're protecting your team only because it makes you a better killer. When my group decided to play Galaxy's Most Wanted I did toy with the idea of running Star-lord, but I knew I would probably end up going with my boy Drax. The Team is Rocket, Groot, Adam Warlock, and Drax.
Deck Briefing
This deck has five cards to get Vengeance counters on your turn, five cards that let you take a hit for someone else without having to turn sideways, six cards to give you Tough Statuses, seven cards that let you draw more cards, and eight cards that let you ready up. Drax is one tough cookie and he has a lot of ways to dish the damage back out. Mantis, Med Team, What Doesn't Kill Me, Render Medical Aid, and The Night Nurse are Drax's support team, he is gonna eventually take damage and these lovely people are gonna keep him standing through any amount of punishment. Also keeping him on his feet are Anticipated Attack, Establish Perimeter, and Shake it Off to dole out those tough statuses he loves so much. Desperate Defense and Unflappable are there to take advantage on his high defense and/or tough statuses to either ready him back up after a defense or help him draw more cards. Unflappable, Taunt, Gamora, and DWI Theet Mastery all keep cards flowing into your hand. I have Specialized Training in this deck because someone on the team needed it and I had the room to throw it in.
First Turns
Mulligan Priorities:
1. Something to get punched during your first turn: "Fight Me, Coward!" / Taunt
2. DWI Theet Mastery
3. Establish Perimeter / Render Medical Aid / Specialized Training
4. Drax's Knife / Drax's Other Knife
5. Mantis / Med Team
I'll always advocate for an aggressive mulligan. If I don't have atleast one kit card in my hand, I'll throw it all away unless something in that hand tells me it can help me get going. You really want to get all three Vengeance counters by turn two if you can so we are gonna search really hard for cards that will let you do that. Getting "Fight Me, Coward!" or Taunt are great openers, especially if you have something to help you mitigate that damage on turn one. DWI Theet Mastery will help you get more cards in your hand to mitigate his low hand limit in hero mode. Putting one of your side schemes down so you can activate Anticipated Attack is also wise since it's such a good card. Otherwise get out something to boost his turn to turn capabilities or a healing card. First two turns you're just doing damage where you can and blocking as much as you can for your allies.
Mid Game
Once you have your Vengeance counters, it's time to show all those red players what "Tons of Damage" actually means. You have 5 Attack once you get going so you'll always be able to ready up after using Leading Blow. Knife Leap can do some crazy damage and if you happen to have multiple of these in your hand and can combo off, you're going to make every Aggression player jealous. What Doesn't Kill Me can also ready you back up and keep you swinging at the villain.
Closing Things Out
Keep the damage coming and it shouldn't take long to drop any villain if you're working with an Aggression player worth their cardboard. Block as much damage for the other players as you can to keep them fulfilling their jobs. I think the goal for this deck is the opposite of the great Playing Poker with Natasha, instead of defeating the villain and never becoming a hero, your goal with this is to go hero on turn one and never drop to Alter Ego. Just keep swinging, just keep blocking, and just keep putting Toughs on Drax, and things should go fine.
Also, I wanted to go ahead and say this. I named the deck before I found out Dauntless was a card. I would have included it in this deck, but it's already bloated enough and I didn't want to include an upgrade that might end up not working because you took a stupid hit and a bad time or because a treachery card said "take one damage" and you didn't have tough at the moment.