Pain Tolerance

Possibly the X-23 upgrade you want to get to the table soonest.

To be fair, X-23 has a significant number of ways to heal. And -at best- this card will stave off one or two flips down.

But that's still a pretty huge benefit.

This is a card that appears to live in the aggregate, with its maximum benefit being achieved by an early pay. But that's inaccurate.

This is a card that provides immediate benefit, no matter when it is played. Particularly when you are playing a Honey Badgerrecursive deck. This card will eventually pay massive dividends, so long as you recognize that and get it into play.

MacGhille · 206
Grim Resolve

The secret sauce card in X-23's hero deck.

Look, a load of Marvel Champions heroes have resource generators in their intrinsic decks. But only rarely do they also trigger the Hero's special ability.

Grim Resolve provides an X-23 player with much more than a wild resource. Timed usage can ensure a 'ready' for X-23 while also feeding an upgrade. This is a constant, significant resource with meaningful consequences.

Not your typical generic generator, but it provides an additional means of utilizing X-23's ability when properly timed.

MacGhille · 206
Adamantium Lacing

I don't think enough credit is given to Retaliate in Marvel Champions.

We spend so much time trying to come up with huge swings and recursive exploits that I think a slow and steady source of damage often gets lost in the mix.

Adamantium lacing not only provides that steady incremental damage, it also gives X-23 more HP and adds Piercing to her basic attack. And all for one resource!

I cannot tell you how awesome this is. But I am going to try anyway.

First of all, X-23 is designed, from the ground up, to rely on basic actions. While other heroes dodge and weave, X-23 attacks repeatedly and often. This makes piercing huge, as she relies on it to ensure she deals direct damage.

But what we often overlook is the fact that, depending on your play style, X-23 may be defending more than once per round. This makes her retaliate more significant.

This is a great card.

MacGhille · 206
Sisterhood

This card is the absolute crux of any Honey Badger Voltron build. Frankly, it's a centerpiece for any X-23 build that has an interest in the extra 'readies' that Honey Badger provides.

So even if you aren't doing a Honey Badger voltron, this card is amazing because it recycles an ally every time that ally is eliminated. But specifically an ally that readies the hero when it takes damage. Even if you chump block with her, this card will justify its cost repeatedly.

But holy cow, if you have a deck built around having Honey Badger ready X-23? This is the card you absolutely HAVE to get to the table.

I don't love that you have to discard an X-23 card, but since you can only use one Claw Mastery per turn, that's a solid sacrifice candidate.

MacGhille · 206
Sisterly Bond

This is one of those times that I think one copy kind ruins the card's appeal.

This is a fantastic card that plays directly into the synergy between X-23 and her intrinsic ally. But to only allow it to happen once? So sad.

I get that X-23 and Honey Badger synergize so well that they decided to be careful. But I honestly think that the X-23 pack would be better with two of these and one less Claw Mastery. Particularly since you can only use one of those per round.

That said, this can be a devastating card on a round where X-23 fully buffs her ATK with X-23's Claws and Claw Mastery.

I just feel like X-23 is so susceptible to retaliation and has to make so many attacks in a game, that another copy of this card would be reasonable.

But it would probably make it so that X-23 was only played as a Honey Badger voltron deck, so maybe they made the right call?

Nah. Give me two of these and let me worry about which aspect I play X-23 in. lol

MacGhille · 206