Monster's Week: Cursed Windeku

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

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^{The tips and possible advises in this article are designed for Silver League, in which I am in right now.}

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Cursed Windeku is a powerful tank for Death Splinter. With its high health, it can take a lot of damage while also reflecting some back with its Thorns ability. The ability to heal itself also makes it tough to take down over time.

This monster has some nice utility with its Slow ability making sure opponent's monsters get hit more often and attacks later. It can disrupt the opponent’s team as long as it is alive. It’s a great option if you need something that can both take and deal damage.

With a decent 6 mana cost, it offers great value for a tank. You get a solid overall front line monster that not only can tank for your team but deal damage as well.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Cursed Windeku has 6 mana cost, 4 melee damage, and 11 max health making it a solid tank choice. Its 3 speed is decent but it doesn’t stand out much compared to newer monsters in the Rebellion set.

Heal is its best ability. It's helpful in a lot of ways even though it can be outplayed if the opponent uses Affliction ability. Still, it’s a solid option for sustain in any tank monsters.

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💊 Abilities 💊

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Thorns: [Defense] [Damage] Any opponent's melee monster that attack this monster will take 2 melee damage back.

Slow: [Stat Modifier] [Negative Status] As long as this monster is alive, all opponent monsters has their speed reduced by 1, with a minimum of 1. Monsters with 1 speed before the effect applies are unaffected.

Heal: [Support] At the start of this monster's turn, restore the its health by 1/3 of its max health.

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Pros

1. Decent Mana Cost. Cursed Windeku has a decent mana cost at 6 which is really good for a tank with such high health and useful abilities. It offers a lot of value for the mana you spent which gives you more options to spend on other stronger monsters.
2. Anti tank and anti melee in general. Thorns is great for countering tank monsters which normally has melee damage. With that ability, they’ll take damage back whenever they attack. It’s especially useful if your opponent ever tried to focus on melee monsters as a strategy.
3. Good sustain as a Death Splinter. Cursed Windeku also has good sustain with its Heal ability. For Death Splinter, which lacks restoration abilities like Tank Heal or Triage, having a monster with Heal is a great way to keep your backline alive in the fight longer.

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Cons

1. Does not have any abilities that reduce damage.
   Cursed Windeku doesn’t have any abilities that reduce incoming damage like Void or Shield. If he were focused by monsters, he could go down quick provided that you opponent's team has higher speed overall.
2. Bad match up against high damage monsters.
   If you’re up against monsters that deal a lot of damage, like Uriel the Purifier, Cursed Windeku can be taken out quickly. High damage units can hit hard without worrying about Thorns.
3. Reliant on Heal ability for sustain.
   Cursed Windeku relies a lot on its Heal ability to stay alive. If an opponent uses Affliction, it could really hurt the tank’s ability to sustain itself in battle.

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Rules of Combat	Description
	Super Sneak	All monsters on the board gains the Sneak ability that changes the targetting mechanics of monsters with Melee damage to "Opponent's monster that is on the last position.": In the Super Sneak Rules of Combat where all melee monsters gain the Sneak ability, Cursed Windeku can be placed at the last position to effectively counter opposing Sneak monsters. Its Thorns ability punishes melee monsters targeting it, making it a strong defense while still contributing to the overall team strategy.
	Rise of the Commons	During this battle, only Common and Rare monsters are allowed: Rise of the Commons is a Rules of Combat where only Common and Rare monsters are allowed and Cursed Windeku is Rare monster making it a good pick for this kind of battle. You get a strong tank for battles where you're limited to these types of monsters.
	Up Close & Personal	During this battle, only monsters with melee damage type are allowed: When you're in a rule of combat that only allows melee monsters, Cursed Windeku is a great pick here with its Thorns ability. It’ll hurt opponents everytime they attack this monster because they are forced to play melee monsters.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Rules of Combat	Description
	Healed Out	All healing effects and abilities are disabled during this battle.: Healed Out disables any restoration effects so Cursed Windeku’s Heal ability won’t work in this rule of combat. It would lose one of its main advantages. It's still usable but without one of its best abilities.
	Tis But Scratches	All monsters on the board gains the Cripple ability that reduces the opponent's max health by 1 when their attacks hit: Tis But Scratches causes all monsters to gain the Cripple ability which reduces max health when they damage another monster. This means Cursed Windeku’s Heal ability won’t work as effectively because of its lower max health.
	Reverse Speed	The effects of speed becomes the opposite. Monsters with the least Speed also attack first and has highest chance to evade an attack: In the Super Sneak Rules of Combat where all melee monsters gain the Sneak ability, Cursed Windeku can be placed at the last position to effectively counter opposing Sneak monsters. Its Thorns ability punishes melee monsters targeting it, making it a strong defense while still contributing to the overall team strategy.

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Monsters	Description
	Cabalist	Cabalist can be a good fit with Cursed Windeku because of its Amplify and Demoralize abilities. Amplify will increase the damage dealt by Windeku’s Thorns ability and Demoralize will reduce the opponent's melee damage making Cursed Windeku survive longer against melee monsters.
	Queen of Crows	Queen of Crows works well with Cursed Windeku because of her Slow ability. This ability stacks with Cursed Windeku’s own Slow ability making it even harder for enemies to hit your team with melee and range damage. Your team will also have a higher chance to attack first allowing your team to eliminate some enemies before they can act.
	Tatiana Blayde	Tatiana Blayde is legendary monster not used a lot. Because of her Inspire ability, it fits melee monsters increasing their damage as she attacks from the back. It boosts Windeku’s melee damage allowing it to be a more effective damage dealer.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

This is a common build for me for Death Splinter. Cursed Windeku deals with all the tanking while the other monsters deal with their back row. It's a mini flank strategy that is very effective if your opponents don't expect an attack from multiple direction.

Lineup

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^{Thaddius Brood}

A good general summoner for Death Splinter to reduce opponent's magic damage and health.

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^{Cursed Windeku}

A solid tank with Thorns and Heal abilities. It's great balanced monster for both taking and doing damage.

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^{Halfling Refugee}

A good filler monster due to his high health for a 1 mana cost monster.

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^Uraeus

A low mana cost monster with Sneak and Poison ability good for hitting from the backline. Higher level Uraeus is better for the increased damage. He's also cheap to rent.

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^{Magi Necrosi}

Magi Necrosi: A high magic damage monster with useful abilities providing strong offense for your team. The Snipe ability is good for eliminating Tank Heal monsters which is usually range or magic damage monsters.

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

This was a very easy battle because the opponents used a full melee team. Cursed Windeku alone can eliminate half of their team with his Thorns ability. They also need to kill Cursed Windeku first before even touching Magi Necrosi due to his Camouflage ability.

^{> > Click here to view the full battle < <}

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Cursed Windeku is a great tank with good stats and abilities. It works well as a Death Splinter option offering both damage and sustain. Though not perfect, it’s a solid pick for most battles.

You can pair him with a lot of monsters in its Splinter notably those with Amplify to increase the Thorns damage. Another good thing is Cursed Windeku can both be used as part of a team or on its own making it one of the most useful general monster in the game.

• This post is an entry for Splinterlands Social Media Contest.
• Animated Banners and Dividers are edited in Canva Pro.
• Other sources that I do not own are cited under their respective photos.
• Some of the fonts used are from instafonts.io

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