Coup de Grâce is one of those cards that can do wonders when you build around it with a specific hero in mind, or is completely unplayable if you don't. It's obviously not a card that you'd include in any Aggression deck, or even a card you would consider 95% of the time.

When do you want to work with it? For starters, you absolutely need a reliable way to attach upgrades to minions. Cyclops, Rogue and Tigra are probably your best bet, as in these heroes have a built-in mechanic that attaches upgrades to minions. There are others cases as well, but with some of them you need to go out of your way to do so, and it doesn't seem particularly worthy. For example, I don't consider Iceman's Frostbite particularly good against minions and wouldn't focus on it.

Even if you are with the right hero, you may have to include a specific package of cards that work with Coup de Grâce - in particular, any combination of Air Cover, Suppressing Fire and Marked. The goal is to make attaching upgrades to minions easy and 100% independent on card draws. You can also consider some of the cards that bring minions out of hiding - Angela, Face the Past, Looking for Trouble and Spoiling for a Fight. Air Cover in particular seems very important for Coup de Grâce, along with Marked/Suppressing Fire.

If you are with the right hero, the card has 2 notable benefits. First, cancelling bad 'When defeated' abilities can be very good and can save you a lot of trouble. For example, I think cancelling each of the minions that come with the same box Spectrum, Black Panther, Goliath, Hercules and Falcon to be very beneficial. Of course, that's the upper end of the benefit, with the lowest one sitting at not cancelling any ability and just using the card to dispatch the minion in one go. But that is the second benefit of the card, and it too is not a minor one. You have to remember that sometimes minions have very nasty abilities (refer to the list in the other review) and completely disregarding them is not a small thing. Why go through hoops to damage and kill a minion, when Coup de Grâce can just one-shot it for you?

The limitations of the card lie with the fact you have to spend an extra card in the form of an upgrade to attach to the minion. This can sometimes net you other benefits, such as 2 heal from Suppressing Fire, but it does mean that you are ultimately paying one extra card for the event, effectively bumping the 2 cost to 3. Another negative is that you may not always have an upgrade in hand, in which case Coup de Grâce cannot be used. Couple that with the fact that some minions need to be removed asap, and you are left in a situation where you cannot rely on an otherwise easy removal. Also, obviously, it only deals with non-elite minions, which is something to keep in mind, as it can be overlooked.

To summarize Coup de Grâce

• Good: Deals with very nasty abilities
• Good: Is an attack, with all of the benefits that come from it (pay for it with Martial Prowess, heal from Suppressing Fire, etc.
• Mix: Works with certain heroes only
• Mix: Works well only when you lean on synergies with it
• Bad: Can be extremely situational
• Bad: Depends 100% on other cards to work at all
• Bad: Only works on non-elite minions

Im surprised that he isnt reviewed yet.

• He is an expensive 5-ER card that is restricted to minion/side sch
• Can flex a sum of 6x between THW and ATK over two turns, plus a chump block (not worth imo)
• Can flex a sum of 9x between THW and ATK over three turns (last 3x instance is unrestricted). Decent for his cost imo.
• Maria Hill (Hero) + Field Agent or Med Team can make him stay longer. Though he is a direct competitor of Dum Dum Dugan, I think both can coexist for a great overall table pressence
• In minor effects, we have him as AERIAL trait for tribal decks and for Eyes in the Sky
• Other minor effect if that he brings the exclusive EXCALIBUR trait for multiplayer Strength in Diversity plays
• In a very unreal, voltron-gunboat deck, we can have him Honorary X-Men + Mission Training to add 4x to the sum of Gunboat Diplomacy
• In a multi-aspect hero (Warlock, Spider-Woman), can be affected by or combined with: Flying Formation, Aero, Cloud 9, Air Supremacy, Bombs Away, Aerial Intervention and Wingman

• Already mentioned (by @alatreon): Ms Marvel's (Hero) "recur" feature plus her Biokinetic Polymer Suit + Shrink; increases its maximum THW by 2x3 (+6, a total of 12 THW)

• Jubilee (Hero), where Three Steps Ahead was first released, not only have a suited kit for mix, but her Jubilee's Coat adds an extra instance of 3 THW (A total of 9 THW) for a scheme that you choose (can even be a different, 4th scheme)

• Other cards can combine with said characters' kit and increase the instances by 1x3 (+3 at its maximum): Operative Skill, Passion for Justice (by @waltercardcollector)

While its cost is expensive and you have to build around the card in order to maximize its effects, the built-in ability to distribute three instances of 2 THW gives a flexibility that very other few cards have (All-Points Bulletin, Gunboat Diplomacy). In resume, this card will dominate as central key of decks that will become based around using it.

This card is very good for any hero that cares about attaching upgrades to minions. Air Cover enables a whole ton of synergies in the Aggression aspect alone, potentially more if you manage some kind of cross-aspect deck (for example with Spider-Woman, or playing campaigns that allow you to put cards from other aspects in your deck). Cyclops also has great synergy with it.

One of the best things about Air Cover is that it looks for the card in both the deck and discard, meaning you don't have to care where the attachment upgrade is whatsoever. This fixes a well-known issue of needing to have the attachment in your hand when a minion is on the board. Air Strike gives you the attachment at the exact time you need it and you have full control over what and when you do.

Currently, it pulls out Marked and Suppressing Fire from the Aggression Aspect. There's no Neutral upgrade that can be attached to a minion, but these two are already good enough. 2 allies and 3 attack events in Aggression have synergy with upgrades attached to minions.

Glob and Shark-Girl love them both equally. Same with Surprise Move and Coup de Grâce, where the former is better suited to someone with high enough attack that can leverage readying well, while the latter is an outright insta-kill that can save you from some nasty 'When defeated' effects. Take That! will probably benefit more from the overkill dmg, as most minions don't have that much HP. If you don't care about the overkill dmg, you can always benefit from a little healing action. In all of these instances, there's a ton of synergy to be had with various other effects, such as damage buffs and excess dmg shenanigans, all enabled thanks to Air Cover.

Am I crazy, or do I never see this card mentioned when people talk about how great damage increasing cards are for buffing multi-damage-instance cards? Such as Aggressive Energy, Warrior Skill, Float Like a Butterfly, etc. This card is already great, but it seems that buffs can really launch its damage.

Keep Up the Pressure is one combo I really have my eye on, since Wanda thwarts for 2, and it would allow her to summon this back from discard. Since it's a Side Scheme, you can "set it and forget it" if you happen to draw it early. Just wait until you cast the spell once, and then fish it back next turn at no cost but to thwart.