As many of you undoubtedly know at this point, the update of the official Hex website last Friday gave us a preview of the various PvP Champions for the Underworld. So, today I’m going to take a look at a few of those Champions!

I’m starting with Wyatt the Sapper because his Charge ability is both the simplest and the most expensive – spend 6 charges and Draw a card. If you don’t have much experience with TCG’s, it may seem a little counter-intuitive that drawing a single card would cost so many Charge points, especially when considering some of the other more interesting abilities the other Champions can use for less Charge, but adding that extra card to your hand can actually be very powerful, and the fact that it costs so much Charge shows you how valuable Cryptozoic considers such an ability to be.

The other interesting thing about this card is that he is apparently the Wyatt mentioned by the equipment on Eurig the Robomancer (as I coincidentally posted about a day before the Champions were posted.) I can’t help but wonder what happened there; was it a basic name-swap between the two characters, or was Wyatt originally a troop with a card draw effect? Were the cards once linked in some way, or is it simply a case of some over-worked developer putting the wrong name in? Baring a direct response from Cryptozoic, we’ll probably never know!

Next up we have Monika’shin, the Shin’hare Ranger. We saw a lot of this Champion during the Kickstarter, on the games that were streamed on TwitchTV, so I imagine most of you are pretty familiar with what he does – for 3 Charges, you get to create a Battle Hopper (0ATT/1DEF) and put it into play. What I really love about this card though is the illustration. Monika’shin has a lot of character about him, with his great pose and furrowed brow you can see he’s about to start shooting something, but what really makes the art here great is the poor little Shroomkin by his side.

With his head-cap full of arrows, he is obviously being used as a walking quiver for Monika’shin’s arrows (and while this obviously isn’t fatal, judging by the expression on his face it’s hardly pleasant either.) And, with the chain tied around him connected directly to the Champion’s belt he probably spends a lot of his time getting dragged around – I suspect that Shin’hare move quite a bit faster than the docile Shroomkins. A harsh reminder that, as cute as they may be, the Shin’hare are a brutal race.

Out of all the Champions revealed, Bunjitsu definitely has the most interesting Charge power. At first it might not seem to be very useful at all – combining two troops into a single, larger troop might help you get past some of your opponent’s larger blockers, but it’s also reducing the number of cards you have in play. However, Hex contains quite a few cards that will temporarily boost the size of your troops – if you play a couple of those and then merge the buffed troops into an Abomination, you’re trading temporary boosts for permanent ones and creating a potentially very powerful unit.

I don’t imagine that this particular Champion will see a lot of use in PvP, especially in tournaments, but I think you could get a great deal of use out of his power if you have a deck that specialises in generating additional troops and applying temporary buffs – something the Shin’hare are pretty good at.

Last, but certainly not least, Dimmid, the oddly named Necrotic Warlock. As we saw in one of the aforementioned TwitchTV streams, the ability to grant Lifedrain to a troop can be a potent one, and any deck that uses Diamond could do far worse than to use Dimmid as its Champion. Expect to see a lot of this guy. Luckily, since this Champion is bound to prove popular, he also has some great art too.

The contrasting colours, especially at the top of the picture, do a great job of drawing your eye straight to his menacingly glowing eyes while the vicious looking club he’s carrying tells you he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty – a fact exemplified by the burning buildings in the background. Don’t feel bad for the people living there though – they probably started it.

So, there you go, that’s 4 of the 10 Underworld PvP Champions! Check out the rest of them and then comment below on which one is your favourite!