They hunt at night, stalking their prey before attacking with their claws.

Hello Splinterlands Community!

Welcome to another Share your Battle Weekly Challenge featuring the powerful creature in the deepest and darkest wood, Cursed Windeku joining the Death Splinter for their thirst of blood.

For those who are new to my post, I usually post information which is related in the Silver League Modern Format.

Cursed Windeku are nightmarish creatures that live in the deepest and darkest woods. They hunt at night, stalking their prey before attacking with their claws, while their thorn-like horns and natural healing ability provide an excellent defense,. They exude a pungent pheromone that reduces the reaction time of their victims, often allowing the Windeku to begin devouring them before they are dead. While these lifeless creatures may appear animalistic, they are highly intelligent. They have heeded the call put forth by the Lord of Darkness. Their thirst for blood is now focused on the Chaos Legion.

🩸 The Stats

• Cursed Windeku is a powerful melee monster from the Death Splinter

• Looking at the basic stats of Cursed Windeku, this card does have a high melee damage from 2 to 4, a high health of 9 to 11 and a decent speed of 3.

• The thorn ability plays a great role for this card since this is a melee monster and usually use in the frontline, the thorn ability further improves Cursed Windeku defense capability.

• The natural healing traits of a Cursed Windeku grants the second ability which is the heal. This healing ability gives Cursed Windeku a great advantage as there were not so much or I think none from the Death splinter with the tank heal ability. This ability is very compatible with the thorn, high health and high damage Cursed Windeku have. Take note that only starting from Gold league, the heal will be available.

• The final ability which is slow is a debuff ability which reduce the speed of its opponent by 1. This might be a good add ons specially that in the diamond and champion league does have a lot of debuff and buff skills.

Combo Cards

In terms of summoners, any summoner in the death splinter should be okay with Cursed Windeku but in my opinion Thaddius Brood is the best due to the health reduction it can provide. In wild format, Crypt Mancer and Zintar Mortalis would be a good option as well to reduce melee attack especially when using Cursed Windeku in the Up Close & Personal ruleset.

In terms of monsters, there is not much of a direct hit or combo for Cursed Windeku since death summoner does not have a healing monster nor Cursed Windeku don't have any armor to repair too. The only monsters I think that will impact Cursed Windekue are those with the amplify ability to enhance further the thorn damage.

Card	Advantage/Disadvantage
Cabalist	Cabalist is newly introduce card from the Riftwatcher Edition which does have amplify ability that can help Cursed Windeku to maximize the thorn damage by 1.
Venari Spellsmith	A Neutral monster which does have a amplify ability that have the same benefit from Cabalist at a ★4 ability. The difference is that Spellsmith is a 4 mana cost which is much better than Cabalist for a low mana match sacrificing the magic damage.
Weirding Warrior	Weirding Warrior is commonly use in the backline because of its low mana cost and a good range damage with shatter ability. At ★4, Weirding Warrior offers amplify ability which is I think the best one when playing in gold league to further boost Cursed Windeku's thorn damage.
Arachne Thug	I want to include Arachne Thug in the combo card with Cursed Windeku as I think this card plays a great support with Cursed Windeku in the frontline by dealing additional damage because of the reach ability. Also the trample ability gives an opportunity to deal another damage when an opponent's monster has been defeated. Arachne Thug gives extra support in the frontline.

In terms of the monsters that could be against Cursed Windeku are those monsters with high armor and with the shield ability. Below are the monsters with shield ability at least starting Silver League:

• Chaos Knight (Life - Chaos Legion)
• Antoid Platoon (Fire - Chaos Legion)
• Mycelic Infantry (Earth - Chaos Legion)
• Gloridax Soldier (Dragon - Rewards Untamed)
• Tortisan Fighter (Water - Untamed)
• Elven Defender (Neutral - Untamed)
• Harklaw (Death - Rewards Chaos Legion)
• Living Lava (Fire - Untamed)
• Onyx Sentinel (Neutral - Rewards Untamed)
• Lobstradamus (Water - Untamed)
• Poseidon (Water - Dice)
• Chain Golem (Neutral - Promo)

Favorable Ruleset

Cursed Windeku is a monster that are very usable in most of the situation, in my opinion below are the top ruleset that Cursed Windeku will prevail.

Ruleset	Benefits
Rise of the Commons	Cursed Windeku is one of the most powerful cards when the Rise of the Commons ruleset is available. Take note that Cursed Windeku is one of the most valued cards in rare rarity for Chaos Legion Edition.
Spreading Fury	Due to a decent speed and high health, An enraged Cursed Windeku provides a great melee damage as well as a decent speed which can avoid some incoming attack.
Unprotected	Without any armor, the thorn damage from Cursed Windeku is the best thing as the damage is directly to the health of the monsters. With the amplify ability from other monsters, the thorn damage is painful to those melee monsters.

🩸 The Battle and Outcome

Battle

Rules of Combat

Modifications: Spreading Fury, Close Range
Mana Cap: 99
Playable Splinters: Death and Dragon

With the Spreading Fury and Close Range ruleset, I have made my team to use at least a fast melee monsters as well as high damaging range monsters. In this battle, Cursed Windeku is use in the frontline for defense while the backline provides great damage.

• Summoner: With 99 mana, dragon such as Quix is a great option in this match to maximize the 99 mana cap but I use Thaddius Brood in this battle as I want to reduce magic and health of the opponent, however with the line-up of the opponent the best option is to use the Dragon.
• 1st Position: Cursed Windeku is one of the best fronline defense from Death splinter because of its high health, damage as well as thorn ability which provides extra damage to attacking melee monsters.
• 2nd Position: As I have mentioned, Arachne Thug with the reach ability and trample provides extra support to Cursed Windeku in the frontline by dealing extra reach damage.
• 3rd Position: Silent Sha-vi deals sneak attack in this battle and with the spreading fury ability, once enrage Silent Sha-vi gives deadlier melee damage at a high speed.
• 4th Position: Queen of Crows gives the headwind ability to reduce the range attack of the opponents which is a good choice because of the close range ability which do have a high chance the opponent will use range monsters.
• 5th Position: Lira the Dark deals a high range damage, and with the opportunity ability this card will target the least health monster.
• 6th Position: Dhampir Stalker is in the last position because he has the highest damage and with the true strike ability it won't miss any target no matter if the monster is enraged with a very high speed.

Let's do the battle analysis per round:

Round 1

Analyzing the opponent's line up, Magi of Chaos is affected by the reduce magic attack from Thaddius Brood while Dhampir Stalker is affected by the headwind from Queen of Crows.

First to attack is Lira the Dark targetting Magi of Chaos, followed by Silent Sha-vi towards Dhampir Stalker. With the spreading fury ruleset in effect, the hit monsters will have an enrage effect boosting their speed. The opponent's Dhampir Stalker then attack Cursed Windeku and has been enraged. Then it attack the opponent's Cursed Windeku but receiving a thorn damage. Arachne Thug which acts as a additional support from Cursed Windeku defeated the opponent's Cursed Windeku triggering trample ability towards Harklaw.

The combined attack from Sha-vi and Sandworm defeated my Dhampir Stalker. Due to enraged, the Cursed Windeku's speed increased and avoided Harklaw attack.

Round 2

Cursed Windeku is heavily wounded in the previous round. Lira the Dark defeated Chaos of Magi while Dhampir Stalker with the true strike ability defeated Cursed Windeku before he is defeated by Silent Sha-vi's sneak attack.

Lira's got enraged after being hit by Silent Sha-vi's sneak attack increasing her speed to 9 and avoiding Sandworm attack due to a big speed difference. Harklaw's defending the frontline against Arachne Thug and Queen of Crows.

Round 3

With the attack from Lira and Arachne Thug, Harklaw has been defeated however the enraged Sandworm lands a single hit towards Arachne Thug.

Round 4

Lira defeated Sandworm and the opponent's Silent Sha-vi defeated Sha-vi in a single hit leading Queen of Crows to be the frontline defense.

In the next round Lira lands the final blow to seal the victory.

BATTLE LINK

🩸 Final Thoughts

Cursed Windeku is a very powerful rare monster which is why the community value it comparing with the other monsters. This card is a very useful in most of the cases and serves as one of the formidable tank in the death splinter.

The thorn and healing ability this card possess gives much value and use for this card which is very effective. Melee monsters without any armor will definitely in trouble when dealing with this card which is why this card is best with unprotected ruleset.

How do you think Cursed Windeku is?

Thank you for reading! See you in the next Share Your Battle Weekly Challenge!

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