X-23: A Green Tribute to the Red King (winning hand ep. 86)

In response to the Ready for a Fight Episode of the Winning Hand podcast, I wanted to pick a hero that I felt benefited uniquely from the featured card, while paying tribute to my brother in arms, the Red King himself.

Laura is pretty strong in every aspect, but I feel her ceiling was with a Sidekick Leadership build. Ready for a Fight has closed that gap in my mind, as Protection relies far less on Honey Badger (and thus dodging Laura's obligation) instead allowing the ally to push her over the top from "good" to "great", which I feel was the original design intent.

Replacements for hard to find Cards:

What Doesn't Kill Me:

Without this card, the tempo of this deck does decrease. You can compensate by playing defensive minions. Colossus is good here, as he's a great target for Protective Training, and is cost-reduced by 1 in alter-ego. Professor X never makes a deck worse, but he is a bit of a crutch, so he's not included here.

The Night Nurse:

This can be replaced by Dr. Sinclair, although I've just been made aware The Night Nurse was reprinted in Civil War without my knowing.

I included Face the Past because it's an easy way to get some very necessary early setup, and our nemesis, Lady Deathstrike, is five health, which we can cleanly kill with a Claw Mastery in a subsequent turn; I believe we have enough healing to sustain us through this. It could easily be a third copy of Practiced Plan, or Electrostatic Armor.

Enjoy!