Today sees the final preview for the Hellboy Essential Collection. In just a few days, you’ll be able to find the three-pound box full of goodness in your local hobby shop. It makes a great Valentine’s Day gift.

Yesterday, you saw Project Ragna Rok, the latest “instant win” card in Vs. System. As with any instant win card, it’s not easy to pull off honestly, so finding a way to cheat the system is key.

 

 

In the same way that Cosmic Radiation allows for a faster Rigged Elections win, Rasputin can easily get you that last doomsday counter you need, even if you can’t find a stunned B.P.R.D. character lying around. However, the more power Rasputin has amassed, the harder it will be to get him stunned. It’s a classic bad guy internal conflict: sacrifice myself to end life as we know it and begin a new Eden, or use all this power to dominate the world as it is? You can’t eat your cake and have it, too.

If you have the initiative on turn 7 and recruit The Mad Monk, your opponent would be wise to play a 3-drop and a 4-drop, or maybe just a 6-drop, or find a concealed 7-drop in a hurry. Sending Rasputin into an ill-advised attack is a sure win if it gets you that fourth doomsday counter. Project Ragna Rok is checked before endurance totals are, so the stun loss for 7 is no big deal should Rasputin run into a beefier 7-drop. And if the game does go to turn 8, it’s fairly important to gain an extra +1 ATK / +1 DEF counter for the final showdown. Note that if you manage to get two Ragna Roks going, Rasputin counts the total number of doomsday counters you control. Yikes!

In Rasputin’s mind, there is only one scenario that would be greater than bringing about Ragna Rok personally: getting Hellboy to do it for him.

But Hellboy’s a good guy! He would never ever! Yet it’s his destiny to use that big right hand to bring the Ogdru Jahad back to Earth. Who knows what Mike Mignola has in store for us in the future of the series. What-ifs are a big part of Vs. System. You think Dr. Light and Kyle Rayner hang out together in the comics?

As a B.P.R.D. character, this 7-drop completes Hellboy’s story arc theme with an ultimate loner version. He starts out wanting to be around others, then wants others hidden from sight or otherwise out of harm’s way. Now he’s quit the B.P.R.D. and just wants to be totally alone. In a very X-Statix way, Hellboy can face evil on his own by returning all other characters you control to their owners’ hands. How evil is your opponent really going to be when he or she is down a 6-drop and 6 endurance to boot? Keep in mind one tiny rules bit: if the 4-drop Hellboy is your only B.P.R.D. character in play when you want to do the loner thing, you won’t get the free stun. The uniqueness rule sends the 4-drop to your KO’d pile before you ever have a chance to return it to your hand. If you don’t return a B.P.R.D. character, no free stun for you.

If you’ve been reading the previews or have even just glanced at the cards, you’ve probably noticed that teaming-up the Thule Society and the B.P.R.D. has some big-time synergy. Something is Coming is much more consistent if you’re the one recruiting Hellboy. Project Ragna Rok has no trouble finding a stunned B.P.R.D. character when you’re the one providing them.

It’s pretty much the Thule Society’s number one goal: get Hellboy to accept his destiny. With that Right Hand of Doom working for the bad guys, Ragna Rok would be upon us in a jiffy. And I mean like not a moment past turn 7. Hellboy can easily get two doomsday counters on Project Ragna Rok. He’s the key, all right.

As part of a Thule Society / B.P.R.D. team-up (god forbid), Hellboy will get you your Ragna Rok win by providing multiple doomsday counters on turn 7. If you decide to recruit him loner-style to stun a 6-drop, there’s one doomsday counter. Attack with him into just about anyone, and there’s another counter. Got a Break Off the Horns handy? That would be a third. Heck, defend against just about anyone and that gets you a counter just as easily.

The ultimate showdown between The Mad Monk and The Right Hand of Doom will find Rasputin putting counters on Ragna Rok, only to see Hellboy remove them. When in combat with each other, they’ll find themselves at an impasse, just like in the comics. Of course, said impasse means that the Seven-Headed Dragon, the Ogdru Jahad, won’t return to Earth to end life as we know it, so Hellboy kinda wins out in the matchup. Hellboy’s dual mode of being able to work for the forces of good or evil on the same card makes him rather unique in Vs. System.