What to do with Drax, Avatar of Life
Everything I'm Excited to Try with Drax, Avatar of Life
Drax, the Destroyer is here on a different mission, one of life and growth. The new Series 5 Marvel Snap card Drax, Avatar of a Life rises to opponents’ challenges by getting bigger.
What is his Role?
Drax punishes any opponent that tries to win by playing a series of large cards. Sound familiar? We are currently in a metagame that heavily favors this new card. I can see Drax, AoL’s long-term role being essentially a tech card against Ramp + Big Cards strategies. However, he's not a panacea for this points-y meta – cards like Dragon Lord and Hela will play around him easily, leaving you with a waste of 3-Power. Furthermore, you're going to want to play Drax out early to try and get maximum value out of him, making him a very face-up challenge for your opponent. I think Drax will have a strong place in any meta where he can get 2+ boosts with some consistency – making him at least a 3/10 – but will fall short in metas where he's more often getting 0 or 1 boost. Gladiator is a kind of foil to this card – metas that are especially bad for Drax will be friendly to Gladiator and vice versa.
What Synergies are Available?
He's a reactive card, dependent on your opponent’s actions, so we don't expect a ton of internal synergy. However, he does have End of Turn text, so we can pair him with First Steps Invisible Woman. However, Drax will only keep growing if your opponent’s card is still bigger after the first boost. Fortunately, we're currently using him to counter really, really big cards like Fin Fang Foom, so this might mean there is something to putting Drax in End of Turn.
Drax End of Turn
I think this deck is very well positioned for the current meta – the numbers can get substantially larger than most Hela or Zola/Foom decks or whatever other Star-Lord shenanigans are currently popular. The deck does have a common counter as those decks – Supergiant messes with Star-Lord, Master of the Sun shenanigans, but it is a hard counter to End of Turn decks as well. Remember, Drax’s role in this deck is to out-duel one huge card played from hand on the last turn, like Fin Fang Foom.
Other Homes
Drax is a nice passive power threat that you can play on early to pressure your opponent or force them into sub-optimal play lines. In this way, we can use him in a similar role to how Nebula was used upon release.
Drax is a perfect curve-filler for a Wiccan deck and can shore up some of that deck's worst match-ups. Wiccan is not strong right now, but note that he's far less susceptible to Supergiant disruption than Wiccan’s better, power-crept successor, Star-Lord, Master of the Sun. Drax also fits right into some Star-Lord, MotS decks.
Wiccan Revival
Kill All Lanes
Surfer of the Future
This deck will love Jack Flag when that card releases next month. This deck is also an example of how a savvy opponent can play around your Drax. If they pull Drax out of a lane with careful intent, they could disrupt your Captain Carter (or Jack Flag too, when he comes out).
Is He Worth It?
I think Drax is a playable card, and you're going to see winning deck lists with him in the coming weeks. If this were a year ago, or even six months ago, I wouldn't rate him highly. But this is absolutely his meta and people are slamming big cards like mad. However, he doesn't feel irreplaceable and he's not especially dynamic. If you're tight on resources, you can probably skip, even if he's one of the best cards this month. I'd at least wait to see what Thursday's OTA shakes up, if I were on the fence about him.
