Boosts & Badgers (The Xpert-23 Project)

(The beginning of each of my X-23 decklist writeups are the same, if you want to read my writings specifically about this deck, skip ahead to the "Deck Strategy" segment)

What is the Xpert-23 Project?

Ever since X-23 was previewed I immediately was in love with the design. I said "this could be my favorite hero in the game", she just looked so powerful and fun to play, and capable of doing so much. As soon as her cards were spoiled online, I immediately made proxies so I could test her, and she was incredible. I then made the decision to start this project: take an X-23 deck in each of the four main aspects true solo against every villain in the game on expert mode, and track my progress, and eventually to have decklists to post for people. I was allowed to change cards in my decks, but not specifically to tech against any villain, in order to hone the decks to a point where I would be comfortable taking them against any villain in the game. It took 192 total games to achieve this, 28 losses. Interestingly it was also my first general attempts at true solo for the most part, which was also interesting to explore (my favorite way to play is two handed solo, and while I haven't tested it yet I think X-23 is a monster in two handed). So all of my writeup and takes on X-23 are based on true solo plays, but they should also be totally fine for multiplayer games.

But that wasn't the end, I kept getting drawn to play more, do more last minute testing, until now where I've had to force myself to put her down, pull her claws out of me for the moment, to do these writeups. What did I learn? Well, I learned that I was correct in my initial impressions of X-23. She is incredibly powerful, incredibly consistent, incredibly resilient, and one of the absolute strongest heroes in the game.

Justice Aggression Protection

What makes X-23 so strong?

The initial concern that people had with X-23 is how often she'll have to flip to alter ego to recover. Your claws deal 20% of your starting life total to you each time you use them, but on the flip side you are always inclined to block when the villain attacks you, which cancels out the damage your claws deal to you. The turns of "I'll just take this villain hit to the face because I have to do stuff next turn" don't really exist with X-23, because her ability is once per phase instead of round. In fact when you defend you actually hope to take exactly one damage, that is ideal. Her ability seems good on paper, but in play it's just incredible how much you get to do. Cards like Assault are so much less devastating, because you often ready from the initial attack and can block again, and still ready again to do something in the next player phase. This is unreal efficiency, and makes X-23 a hero that is capable of dealing with any aspect of the game that she needs to do at the time. She thwarts well, she attacks incredibly, and she is no slouch at defending, especially against multiple things.

Tips to playing X-23

My number one tip for building and playing X-23 is to remember this statement: Honey Badger is NOT your hero. It's tempting to think of all the upside you can get if you put a bunch of cards into your deck to ready her over and over and boost her stats, and while this is exciting and will lead to some crazy turns and stories about how you readied X-23 6 times in one turn, it will also lead to your deck being way more inconsistent. X-23 does so much work by herself, so it's always best to focus on boosting X-23, and having Honey Badger there to help make her a bit better.

Through my games it became more and more evident that X-23 for the most part wants to play super low to the ground. She isn't a hero to build a large resource engine, her cards are all so cheap that it's better to try to lower the overall cost curve of your deck instead of trying to add in a bunch of resource generation. Just go cheap and X-23 will do the rest of the work.

Do not forget that X-23's alter ego ability draws you a card. I actually missed this for a lot of the games this project (I think I realized it during the Red Skull box), and it really changes gameplay decisions. As wild as this seems, there was a lot of times I chose to discard Honey Badger turn one to help play a setup card just so I could shuffle her back in to get a free card. If you count your cards ahead well enough you can flip and shuffle her or Sisterly Bond back in and guarantee you'll have it next turn. Although most of the time I would suggest waiting until the next turn to do it to go up to seven cards.

A big part of evaluating new heroes is how they interact with their obligation or their nemesis set. If you aren't going all in on Honey Badger, X-23 has maybe one of the least impactful obligations in the game. Self-Isolation takes Honey Badger and you have to make a basic recovery to discard the obligation and Honey Badger. You generally want to make basic recoveries already in the game, so you just naturally get rid of it and can immediately shuffle Honey Badger back into your deck to draw a card. It's a supremely inconsequential obligation depending on your deck build, the most annoying timing to draw it is when Honey Badger is in your hand, because then you lose a card. As far as her nemesis set goes, if it's mid to late game I just ignore Lady Deathstrike and the side scheme. You generally prefer to just leave Deathstrike out because it blanks Cyber Mods as well, although her 2 scheme does make it harder to flip. Hack n' Slash is supremely annoying, and Critical Would is a pretty messed up card, although I think that's more dangerous in multiplayer games than in solo, because if it hits a hero that can't ready that is low on life they're just dead. The side scheme is the biggest obstacle, especially if you hit it early, but late game you can use the retaliate to your advantage by popping your claws before your first attack and readying from the retaliate damage. In general the 6 threat on that scheme is a pain to deal with, and it's a good target for an Animal Instinct play.

You don't ALWAYS have to use your ability. You almost always do, but sometimes it's correct to just chill.

If your option is to discard Honey Badger or Pain Tolerance to pay for a card, choose to discard Honey Badger. Pain Tolerance is arguably your best long term investment, allowing you to stay alive and in hero mode for longer. Sisterhood is a harder choice, but I would still be inclined to play Pain Tolerance first, but less likely to discard Sisterhood as a resource for it.

You don't always have to use your allies to chump block. Sometimes you can just let them go to consequential damage, especially if they have a 2 stat! X-23 has a lot of reason to block herself, especially when you have Adamantium Lacing out and gain retaliate.

Keep on top of threat. It might be tempting to go all in on damage, and you can get away with it to an extent, but you do like to flip down a couple times a game and it's best to make sure the main scheme is a clean slate when you do, just to be safe. You have a pretty good outlet with her 2 thwart, and since her attack isn't strong without her boost from the claws you are inclined to thwart for 2 then take the damage to ready a more powerful attack.

Deck Strategy: Leadership

I don't want to shock you, I hope you're sitting down. This is a leadership deck..... that buffs your hero and recurs allies. We aren't exactly reinventing the wheel here, but there is no need to. These are both things that make X-23 sing. If X-23 is a meat and potatoes hero, this deck is the meatiest and most potato-full deck that exists. The strategy is clear: make X-23 bigger, play allies that give you card advantage to play more things to make X-23 even bigger, control the board, overwhelm the villain with an endless supply of stats and value. We actually don't have that many allies, but we plan to keep them around and bring them back often.

Total Losses: 4 (Loki x2, The Hood, Venom Goblin)

Card Choices

Make the Call/R&D Facility: These are our stat boost cards, along with Claw Mastery. The heart of the deck is boosting X-23, and these do the job. R&D Facility is expensive and has a requirement cost, but we are loaded with mental resources and can make great use of 3 counters.

Side Schemes: Build Supports main target often looks like it should be R&D Facility, since it's the most expensive and has a requirement, and that's a fair choice, but often Team Training is the correct choice early game. Sisterhood isn't too shabby either. For Call for Backup it's very hard not to choose Nick Fury when he's in your deck, unless you need a confuse from Professor X at the moment. If you've cleared it with a Morale Boost for your first action and already have a Make the Call in hand that you don't have to pitch that turn it could be correct to get Honey Badger to start that train.

Go All Out - This card is pretty neat with your stat boosts. If you've played a Morale Boost this turn and used your claws this card becomes essentially pay 2 to deal 6 damage (it's technically 10, but you have to take out how much you'd deal by just attacking), which is a pretty solid rate. Even if you haven't played a Morale Boost or used an R&D Facility this turn it's still 2 to net 4 damage which could be worse and can defeat almost any minion in the game.

Cards I Tested But Cut

Honestly not much. The deck kind of built itself and was super consistent. When Age of Apocalypse comes out I will be interested to test Sidekick with a single copy of Side-by-Side, the likely cuts being Innovation and Reinforced Suit.

Conclusion

If you just want to get a taste of X-23's power without all the frills this is a good place to start. It's not anything new, but I do like leadership decks that are about pushing the hero themselves into the forefront instead of them just fading into a pile of random allies coming in and chump blocking every turn. It's a basic deck, but after 50+ games with it I'm still happy to play it anytime. X-23 is my favorite hero in the game and this is her at her "purest". It had the least losses of any of the aspects while also being the guinea pig for me to learn solo as the first deck I played every villain. I don't think it's my favorite aspect to play with her, but it's her strongest aspect for sure.