When I found out that I’d be writing a preview article for the Hellboy Essential Collection, I wasn’t too sure which card I should choose. I looked over the available cards and picked the one I thought was best. In this case, “best” meant the card that I felt was the most powerful and playable in the largest number of decks. It was a really tough decision because Hellboy has many cool and powerful cards, but when I saw Grigori Rasputin, True Father, I was pretty sure that he was it.

I think this guy is pretty sweet, but I’ll let the card speak for itself.

Pretty self-explanatory, right? A 7 ATK / 7 DEF 4-drop character is about what you’d expect to get for your buck. He lacks flight and range, but at those stats and with that game text, something had to give. What he lacks in aerial grace and marksmanship he makes up for with his pretty ridiculous power. The first thing that came to mind when I read Grigori’s game text was a pretty powerful card that I remember seeing quite a bit in the casual and tournament scenes alike.

Grigori is very sorry to be the bearer of bad news, and regrets to inform you that there’s been . . .

I love that card name. My friends and I always had fun when we played it because we could really ham it up and do the solemn voice: “Sorry to inform you, sir, there’s been a death in the family. Bye, Garth, we’ll miss you.” While it was super fun to play with that card because of the name, it was also fun because it was really good. KO’ing your opponent’s stunned character with no exhaust cost is extremely powerful, and while it does take a nice chunk of your endurance, the type of decks in which it was most useful didn’t care so much. A cost of 5 + X endurance is a small price to pay to wipe a character off the board, especially when compared to the cost of exhausting a character and potentially losing some precious breakthrough. Every point counts!

The only bad thing about this card was that a deck that wasn’t geared to win quickly couldn’t really afford to play it—forget about drawing two copies—and the endurance really adds up in decks that plan to go to the mid- or late game. Now, though, you can forget about paying that pesky 5 endurance in addition to the cost. All you have to do is make sure that Rasputin doesn’t become stunned and you can KO a stunned character while still leaving the True Father ready to attack on the same turn. And here’s the best part . . .

You can do it every turn.

Yeah, that’s right. It’s A Death in a Family on steroids, on a stick. That sounds kind of strange, but you get the idea. This card can be absolutely brutal against any deck. Off-curve decks usually have important characters in play that they plan on recovering, and Rasputin can singlehandedly run right over them and take them down for a small endurance cost. Rasputin’s no one-trick pony though, and is equally brutal against curve decks. On turn 4, you can attack your opponent’s 4-drop with your 3-drop and use a plot twist; or just team attack with your 2- and 3-drops, pay a measly 4 endurance to take down the opposing character, and still get in there with Rasputin. Attacking directly with the 7 ATK / 7 DEF Grigori should make up the endurance cost right there. He pays for himself!

You can play a Thule Society deck, or you can just team the True Father up with any other team you think could use him. Heck, you could even throw one of him in your Enemy of My Enemy deck. Whatever you decide to do, I’m sure you’re going to be happy with the results.

My favorite part of this card has to be how evil he feels. Have fun watching your opponent squirm while you mercilessly KO his or her characters turn after turn. I know Grigori Rasputin would, and so will you.

Muahahaha. . . and stuff.

I’m out. Hugs and kisses, and take it easy.