With this new edition of High Voltage, we have a brand new card coming to the game - Lasher.
What does Lasher do?
Lasher is a 2 cost 2 power card that reads, activate: afflict an enemy card here with negative power equal to this card’s power. This is a pretty simple card. Play it down and when you activate it you get to afflict an opponent's card. That means at base if you draw Lasher and play them by at least turn 5 they are essentially a 4 power card. If you can buff them in any way their potential power output essentially doubles.
Potential upside
Because Lasher afflicts negative power according to his power the first thing that comes to mind is buffing them to double the amount of affliction that occurs. Luckily we have some nice candidates that can help them get there.
Galacta
First is the current season pass card. Galacta without doing a lot can easily buff Lasher to a 5-power card essentially making him a 2-cost 10-power card if you get them down on turn 5. The only issue with this is the activate portion of Lasher because it requires being down a turn and this makes their activate useless if you want to play them down turn 6. That makes Galacta typically a turn 4 play not the most consistent option.
Agony
This is a simple idea. Play Agony then play Lasher into that lane. Essentially you’ve created an 8-power card. Unlike Galacta Agony is cheap so this is a lot easier to pull off.
Peni Parker
This is another new card that can help buff Lasher and then even move Lasher to the lane you want to afflict to. However, again due to activate and timing this will probably be inconsistent.
Hulkbuster
This is another simple idea to add some power to Lasher. Again, this might not be the best thing to do in a buff deck, but it’s just another option.
Ironheart
Same as all the others. Can add a small buff to Lasher so they hit a little bit harder.
Forge
This is probably the easiest to pull off, but again, nothing is novel. Simple buffs raise Lasher's power slightly to get a bigger affliction.
Namora
While underused but a decently powerful card Namora hasn’t seen a lot of play because it’s predictable. However, because Lasher is an activate you want on the board early Namora is probably one of the best bets to get the buffs you want. Plus adding 5 power to the lane is a big buff.
These are just a few options; there are a lot more, like Gwenpool, Nakia, Araña, and so on. In reality and actual gameplay, though, using these buff cards to specifically buff Lasher isn’t going to be as viable as people think. The costs are weird, and the fact that Lasher is an activate card means the timing has to be just right. Playing cards like Gwenpool and Galacta with hopes of getting a big Lasher is unlikely and requires playing the very next turn.
So then where does Lasher go?
So buffing Lasher is a fine idea and might work but probably won’t be as consistent as we think. Where do we put Lasher? Well, Affliction strategies have always been viable and a simple place to put Lasher. Clog is a decent idea because it guarantees you’ll have something to hit since you can put something there. Outside of that? Lasher will just be a 2-cost 4 power card the majority of the time. While this is slightly above rate there are lots of 2 cost cards to compete with. However, a lot of 2-cost cards are reactive cards or have a specific purpose depending on your hand so Lasher can be a good 2-cost card that can just be played on turn 2 to put pressure on the opponent by controlling a lane with its presence or forcing your opponent to do something about its potential affliction. Either way, let’s get to some decklists.
JF’s first-week decks.
All The Buffs
If you are going to go the buff route might as well go all out and try and use all of the options at one time. Namora is probably the best option because Lasher wants to be on the board early. This deck probably needs another card you want to buff like a Jeff or Nocturne so Phastos could probably use the cute or Luke Cage since Shadow Kind no longer cares. But I’d try this first and go from there for a full-on Buff strategy.
Not scared of a little pain
This is a mashup of a clog deck with some afflicted high-end coming from Ajax. Agent Venom while not having the craziest of targets has some nice high-value targets to finish out games and most of the time is just some nice power on turn 4 which can be one of the weakest turns for a clog deck. Either way, Lasher here is just a good value card because the clog aspect means you can give Lasher a target to hit and you can actively play him out on turn 2 anywhere as a potential lane control aspect as well.
Lasher Pile
I’ll be honest this is just a pile of cards and I’m still messing around with the ideas here. But the main premise is lockdown with an early Prof X on your Lasher lane, and then you will be able to add and move power around. It’s possible it won’t work but honestly, I’m just down for trying stuff.
These are just a few ideas. There is a lot more potential for Lasher that needs to be explored but we got lots of time to do so.
Conclusion
As a reward for the High Voltage game mode, Lasher is essentially free so if you play for any decent amount of time it’s worth it to put in the time and grab Lasher while it’s free. Also, there is no rush to get Lasher so please take your time and not feel like you need them now. It doesn’t seem like a meta-breaking card from the get-go but it is a fun tool for different strategies. Either way, I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to grab Lasher from the game mode and not have to possibly get them with Tokens later.