If you pay close attention to our product solicitations and fan sites, you may already have seen today’s preview cards. Don’t worry, though—you will be seeing plenty of new cards in the next two weeks and there’s still plenty to be spoiled in what follows here.

There are three versions of Hellboy in the Essential Collection, representing him at various stages in the story arc. His lowest-cost version represents him when he is young, likes to be around others, craves attention, and wants to learn all he possibly can. This version is most powerful with a number of teammates in play.

By contrast, his highest-cost version (which will be previewed by Matt next week) portrays him when he definitely likes to work alone.

The version in today’s preview, Anung Un Rama, depicts him in a more transitionary phase. He realizes that he is the only one suited to face certain threats, yet he doesn’t mind working with others as long as they stay out of harm’s way.

Hellboy, Anung Un Rama has generous stats for his cost and also has two synergistic powers. The first of these powers results in him growing in power every time he stuns a character. His second power allows you to return characters to your hand. Besides getting vulnerable characters out of danger until a more opportune time, this also helps him to be the only visible character in play so that his first power triggers. And if he is the only visible character in play, it is all the more difficult for your opponent to work around him. This guarantees Anung Un Rama a chance to stun even more characters. Keep in mind that you can return stunned characters to your hand; if you know you will be KO’ing a particular stunned character, Hellboy, Anung Un Rama can instead bring that character back to your hand to pay future discard costs or to play again later.

Let’s take a look at that first power again: it only triggers if he is your only visible character. Where have you seen this before? It was a theme we explored with the Hellfire Club in the X-Men set. Many of the B.P.R.D. cards geared toward Hellboy have a new take on this play pattern. It feels like a mix of X-Statix, Hellfire Club, and old Dr. Doom-style cards, and ensures that Hellboy is the focal point of the action during the game. On top of this, there are a handful of flavorful cards that refer specifically to him, encompassing everything down to his favorite fried-batter breakfast food. The second of today’s preview cards is one such example.

While this card has two restrictions—you must have only one visible character and it must be Hellboy—it is one of the easiest ways ever made to ready a character that can attack again. There is no discard cost or endurance cost associated with this card. It is also the perfect compliment for Hellboy, Anung Un Rama’s first power. For example, on turn 4 you can attack your opponent’s 3-drop character with Hellboy—making him 9 ATK / 8 DEF—then Break off the Horns, attack the opposing 4-drop character, and end the turn with a 10 ATK / 9 DEF character for the next turn. If you have more than one copy of Break off the Horns, things can start spiraling out of control. The fact that you can’t cause breakthrough with your additional attacks is a small price to pay for this type of board control since you usually wouldn’t be doing very much breakthrough in the later attacks anyway; you want to make your “safe” attacks first so that Hellboy doesn’t get stunned.