Sisterhood of the Traveling Adamantium Claws

I had to resist the urge to completely voltron out Honey Badger. I think there's a very strong build with Danger Room Training and Game Time, but this goes in a different direction, and it's honestly so fun to play and has so many meaningful decisions that reward careful planning.

The Gameplan

Get Honey Badger out, buff X-23, ???, profit! It's really that easy, but here are some more in-depth instructions for people who don't like to read cards.

We're Already Ready Already

The most important concept to internalise for maximising X-23 is understanding that her hero ready ability is:

• once per phase
• not forced
• you can choose when to ready, even if it's the 7th time that phase you've taken damage

Once you have Grim Resolve and/or Clarity of Purpose, you can pick when you ready much later and use Laura's Claws at the beginning to buff her ATK for the whole round.

A typical turn might involve using your claws for +2 ATK, playing Claw Mastery for another +2, attacking with X-23 for 5, attacking or thwarting with Honey Badger for a measly 1 that lets you attack for 5 again. But we're not done yet. Grim Resolve or Clarity of Purpose to play down Rapid Response, Command Team, etc. will let you ready again and attack for another 5. This is actually incredibly easy to achieve.

Another important factor here is that you can always 'overpay', so even if the last event you want to play is Animal Instinct or Assess the Situation, go ahead and pay for it with Grim Resolve or Clarity of Purpose for the extra ready (assuming you don't need the resources).

With some careful planning, you can squeeze out a lot of value. What's more, you're not limited to attacking. With completely unbuffed stats, you can easily thwart for 7 with just your basic THW (x3) and Honey Badger's, readying yourself with Honey Badger and taking a damage from Clarity and/or Grim Resolve to thwart again.

One final note about readying, defending is pretty free for X-23 unless the villain has really low ATK, and/or if you don't have any minions out. Defend for 2, take any amount of damage in the villain phase, then ready. Although you have just so much healing available, it'll still help, especially against scenarios like Juggernaut and Mister Sinister. And you want to be taking as many attacks as possible to eke out as much extra damage from retaliate once you have your Adamantium Lacing.

Wombo Combo

In addition to planning out your turns, this deck benefits from turn-to-turn planning. In the above scenario where you just thwart for a lot, you can spend your cards and sculpt your hand into the perfect one to completely go ham next round. With Lead from the Front and Command Team, you get so much value out of everyone's activations. Sisterly Bond and Animal Instinct also allows you to double dip on LFtF boosts.

With Rapid Response, let Honey Badger be defeated, and just keep the combo going. Get ready to bust out the calculator and try not to forget any of those missed triggers.

A second Clarity of Purpose is also included for such turns where you can easily get an extra ready or defeat her so that Rapid Response can trigger.

Team Training is included to to maximise Command Team, Clarity of Purpose, and to help bank some more health. It's also helpful for healing with X-Mansion.

Loops and Strategies

There are a few priorities you can make with what cards you want to shuffle back in with Mutant Education.

If you're the designated damage-dealer at the table, prioritise Claw Mastery above all else, even Honey Badger (since there's so much recursion anyway).

If you're playing solo, or you want to build for those big combo turns, Regenerative Longevity is going to get you a lot of mileage.

Misc.

• Remember Pain Tolerance works on any X-23 card and even in alter-ego.

• Professor X can ready Honey Badger or confuse the villain to give you a free flip to alter-ego and help set up some Mutant Education. Although he doesn't ready X-23 directly, a ready on Honey Badger is often a ready on your identity anyway.

• Similarly, remember that Pixie can pull Honey Badger from your discard if you need to grab her right away. If that's not necessary, you can also grab the Prof again.

• Ready to Rumble is for those turns where you need to REC and heal (especially if you draw your obligation) but you're ready to go off.

• Clarity of Purpose is a hero resource, while Grim Resolve can be used in any form, so use Clarity first if possible while in hero form.

• Honey Badger won't ready you if she is defeated by her own consequential damage, but if you can Rapid Response her back out, she can start taking damage again, including from Rapid Response itself, so it effectively counts as readying you on her last use (Thanks Elessar for pointing this out!).

• Even when playing the campaign, and you have a Hope Summers copying your super buff X-23, you'll still get more mileage out of using Command Team to ready Honey Badger since that also usually means it readies X-23. Save it for when Honey Badger might be defeated, and you're just not emotionally ready for that yet.

• Don't forget your Puncture Wound triggers! It deals damage at the start of the player phase, so right after the first-player marker moves. Also the enemy gets -1 ATK, and if you're lucky, you can stack them both on the villain to help the table. Just be careful with defending that round. It feels real bad when you defend and actually take no damage.

• Assess the Situation was a suggestion for Journeyman2, and well, you ain't gotta tell me twice to use this card. I love it. Try to spend it last on your turn, but don't feel like you missed out if you spend it as a resource. It's still a resource at the end of the day, but if you don't need to spend it, you get to build a bigger hand next turn and help to build for more wombo combos. Go off, queen.