It may not be the best card in Slay the Spire 2, but developer Mega Crit has declared that Ironald's starter card Bash is at least the "perfect card."
This wisdom comes from studio co-founder Casey Yano, who responded to several questions in the latest Spire newsletter-bundled Q&A session. A player named Jeremy praised Mega Crit's willingness to take big swings with class identity and balance in Slay the Spire 2, and asked if the team thinks "dang we really nailed that the first time around" when it comes to any one card.
"Bash is the perfect card," Yano responds.
Bash is the only basic card for Ironclad – a two-energy attack that deals eight damage and applies two Vulnerable, or 10 damage and three Vulnerable when upgraded. The Ancient-exclusive upgrade for the card, Break, is absolutely bonkers at one energy for 20 damage and five Vulnerable (30 damage and seven Vulnerable upgraded).
I've put over 250 hours into Slay the Spire 2 this year, beating Ascension 10 dozens of times and even lucking into an all-class 5-streak at one point, so I'm not exaggerating when I say Yano's response is the kind of thing that would prompt 30 minutes of follow-up questions from me in an interview. Ironclad is among my least-played classes, and I don't have much love for Bash as an attack – by which I mean I've repeatedly asked fellow spire slayer Evan Lahti of PC Gamer why Bash is so bad – but I can see where Yano is coming from.
Perfect doesn't mean strongest, and Bash does a lot for Slay the Spire 2. It's the only basic card in the default class, and even if it can start to feel like a curse on some runs – with Ironclad gaining much better ways to deal damage and apply Vulnerable – it can be very meaningful in the early game. It's also an interesting case study for how the 'same' cards can feel so different in Slay the Spire 2 compared to the original.
To further speculate on Yano's reasoning: Bash conveys the power of Vulnerable by changing damage math. Bash and a Strike will deal 17 damage that turn, just one below the 18 damage of three Strikes, and also set up for 50% more damage the following turn. This broadens the arithmetic considerably and teaches you to look at the cards in your draw pile to anticipate upcoming turns. Upgraded, perhaps incidentally through an event, Bash can be a fairly evergreen source of Vulnerable. It also enables cards like Cruelty or Dismantle out of the gate, and synergizes with big attack support like Unrelenting and Stampede.
In the backhanded "flaws make it perfect" argument in Bash's defense, the volume of synergy and class identity baked into the card feels key. Few other basic cards work this well with so many aspects of their respective class. Necrobinder's Unleash and Bodyguard come to mind, but only because they're so powerful. I still think Bash is kind of clunky, but it does put in some honest work, it benefits more from an upgrade than a lot of basic cards, and the Ancient version is an absolute powerhouse, so I'm happy to give it its flowers.
Or as one Reddit user puts it in a heated discussion of Yano's take: "Every card idea should ask, 'Does this card make Bash proud?'"
