Wrecking Claw

"She came in like a wrecking claw!!!"

Laura is putting her claws into overdrive in this deck, no one will stand in her way including her own allies (looking at you Cyclops, who died and made you boss?)

This is a deck that i have had on my mind for a while and have played off and on for months going back to it. The idea is to take advantage of Laura's ability to ready, playing allies reliably and combine it with "You Got This!" for maximum thwart/ damage combos. Normally I am one to abuse keeping Honey Badger alive since she can be so vital to Laura's gameplay but this deck doesn't focus on her at all.

Setup:

The early game is getting Laura built up some so that mid-game we can start slicing our way to a win. It doesn't require a lot of setup but these are our key cards:

-Specialized Training being cleared is a major priority. Clear this to get Combat Specialist into play which will boost your attack by 1 and let you draw a card when you basic attack for exhausting it.

-Pain Tolerance which is a staple as it heals a damage each time you play an X-23 card.

-Adamantium Lacing which gives +2 hit points as well as retaliate and her basic attacks gain piercing.

-Grim Resolve which lets you deal a damage to yourself to generate a resource.

-Clarity of Purpose does the exact same thing as Grim Resolve. Both are great to trigger her hero ability to ready.

-Endurance which provides +3 hit points.

-Leadership Skill just helps to get more out of our allies before they are dumped.

Once we've gotten some setup and are mid-game we want the Symbiote Suit out. I know, I know sounds crazy but hear me out. The suit will give you +10 hit points, hand size by 1 and boost all your stats by 1.

So with Combat Specialist in play, Laura is now 3/3/3 with an army's worth of HP and the ability to regularly heal. She also has a 6 card hero hand size with the ability to go to 7 from Combat as well as potentially 2 resource generators. This is where the wrecking claws come into play.

Gameplay:

You'll notice we have a ton of allies which gives us numerous options for not only you got this but Noble Sacrifice. Early game don't be afraid to dump an ally to get some free healing as well as a tough. Later game with Sym Suit out this will be less necessary.

Playing allies is really easy in this deck, Laura's kit is extremely low cost so we can play allies and her events the same turn in most cases.

We also have Squared Off to cheat allies into play for bigger turns. Really nice to cheat Gentle into play and be able to to beat up the minion with him.

Once we've got Laura outfitted with her wrecking claws, the villains tend to not last long.

Laura will be at base 3 Attack with the ability to pop her claws and go to 5 every turn!

Beyond that she has Claw Mastery which gives her +2 Attack for the rest of the phase.

A sample turn can look like this:

Have a 3 Attack ally like Venom out.

Play Claw Mastery to pump her to 5 Attack and draw a 7th card after attacking.

Play Cyclops and target the villain for +1 damage from each attack.

Have Venom Attack for 4.

Pop her claws to jump to 7 Attack and play you got this targeting Venom which will let her attack for 10 as well as readying her.

Follow up with another attack of 7 and Cyke can hit for 3.

Grand total of 29 damage from just those 3 allies. With Honey Badger in play we could achieve another ready and push the damage up even further.

This is relatively easy to achieve with her resource generators as well as the large hand size.

The games are typically ended inside of 3 turns once the Suit comes out. The extra encounter cards typically don't end up mattering much.

Don't be afraid early game to use you got this for large chunks of threat removal or beefy minions. This can help with clearing annoying side schemes or even to clear specialized quicker.

Allies:

Black Panther is our glue guy, he can grab a you got this, Noble sacrifice or squared off from discard setting us up for our next turn or an emergency use that turn.

Venom exists just as a target for You got this or Noble Sacrifice. His health is the equivalent of flipping down and healing for X-23.

White Tiger is here to provide card draw and is another good target for you got this.

Maria Hill provides card draw and solid thwarting for us. She's our weakest target for either of the sacrifice cards

Gentle is great to help clear minions and is a main target for you got this.

Deadpool is here to provide some solid thwart then get sacrificed before he brings out acceleration tokens.

Ant-Man is great to play when you have some extra resources and is a great target for you got this.

Beast can set up even bigger turns grabbing you one of your doubles. He's also a great target for you got this.

Kid Omega is cheap and brings really solid stats. Another good target for you got this.

Cyclops is fantastic setting up a game ending push. Target the villain and let the allies as well as X-23 deal increased damage. Early game really helpful to clear beefy minions by targeting them or providing solid thwart.

Initially this deck started as an all mutant idea with getting CoTa and Utopia out for even more readies. That didn't play as well in my opinion as it required more setup.

Overall I've really enjoyed this deck and it performs extremely well. X-23 is my favorite character and it was really nice to play a leadership deck not focused on abusing Honey Badger.

I'd love to hear any feedback or experiences with the deck!