Black Friday

I started this deck after it was suggested on discord to just load up X-23 with cheap events. I wasn't sure how cheap - so decided to go for the very cheapest. Just look at that cost curve! It will be the best bargain you find this Black Friday. The funny thing is that it's actually good.

8 of the events are 0 cost that simply give extra damage to your basic attacks. These cards can be problematic if you have to defend, or get exhausted via some other effect, as then they become dead. But, X-23 can always ready so completely avoids that issue. As X-23's hero ability Living Weapon is once per phase you can always ready up on the player phase, then defend the villain attack and as long as you take damage you will ready again.

Now, many of those cards can still be dead early on. You need overkill or piercing for Directed Force, a weapon upgrade for Mean Swing (you should usually not be using claws to trigger it), and Honey Badger plus Attack Training for Game Time. For Directed Force we enable it with Adamantium Lacing, Hand Cannon, or even Claw Mastery. Mean Swing is best with Jarnbjorn, which doesn't need to exhaust for it's own ability, but can be used with Hand Cannon if needed. Lock and Load is great for finding Jarnbjorn sooner. Lastly, for Game Time you need Honey Badger with Attack Training. This can take a bit more time to set up, but the extra readies really boost your damage, so is definitely worth it. With Sisterhood you should get Honey Badger soon enough.

Given that, you should mulligan hard to get at least 1-2 upgrades / allies / supports on the first turn. In testing I have found that after a couple of turns you usually have something in play, so it does not end up being slow. Besides Honey Badger I find that Adamantium Lacing, Jarnbjorn, Grim Resolve, and Sisterhood are the most important cards to get into play. Also, X-23 can deal with quite a bit with only claws plus basic attacks and thwarts which gives you time to set up.

You don't need many allies as you can defend with X-23 most turns, but a few are useful. Bug can be healed and Sunfire is just so good against many matchups that it is hard to not include (we have plenty of energy resources here). Hulk is interesting, as the deck is mostly physical and energy resources. Attacking for 3 + 2 is great value, which is what will happen most of the time. Hitting energy and dealing damage to everything can be great too, as it can trigger Honey Badger's ability if you have her in play (you will need the extra health from Attack Training).

One strange problem in this deck is that you have so many 0 cost cards, you often end up having nothing to spend Grim Resolve on (yeah you could overpay for something, but that feels bad). This is where Jarnbjorn comes in; it allows you to start by using Claws, attack, then trigger Living Weapon by using Grim Resolve to pay for Jarnbjorn.

Once you have Honey Badger in play you want to keep her there, healing up with Regenerative Longevity when needed. Note that X-23's obligation can discard Honey Badger, meaning it is important to play Sisterhood so that you have a way of retrieving her quickly.

The last few upgrades just help to boost the base stats a bit. The extra draws after Specialized Training are nice and it can be quite easy thanks to Animal Instinct. Then, Endurance gives a bit of a higher health ceiling to make better use of the healing. Extra readies from Battle Fury are great too, especially with overkill.

A nice part of this deck is that you can rush the villain once you have a few key upgrades out. But, it can play a slower game if you prefer. With the 2-thwart stat and the extra readies you can keep schemes under control. Or, you have plenty of attack power to deal with minions. Look out for opportunities to finish off the villain, as you can often burst them down with a couple of attacks (sometimes even if you have lost Honey Badger to the obligation). What you do really depends on the situation, makes it a fun deck to play.