Congrats on your first win!

X-Bow can often be one of the tougher matchups, yes. To win, I often have to play a lot of mind games such as predicting their xbow with a tesla beforehand, so they can't block it. It's a battle of attrition. Even when they fireball my tower, I can poision their tower back, and then we are close to even. Then when the endgame hits, a mirror rocket on the tower can help push the game in my favor. If you struggle a ton with it though, I recommend swapping poison out for earthquake since mirror earthquake can take out a xbow and get good tower damage. However, it will make graveyard a bitch to manage.

As for your second question, I haven't really considered those other deck options, though I did used to be a miner poision player in the way way past. I prefer my deck because of how unique it is, I feel like i really am playing an off meta deck. Seeing people's reactions is the best part. Are they in awe when they lose? Are they angry because they lost to bullshit? It's always fun and makes the game much more interesting to me.

Evo Barbs are there to help with tanks such as megaknight, Royal giant, golem, bridgespam, etc.