CURSED WINDEKU : A DUELIST NIGHTMARE

Hunting a werewolf is nothing compared to hunting a Cursed Windeku. Its a very intelligent creature. Trap is useless as the creature too clever to return to the same path twice. It instinctively alternate between fight and run, exhausting their hunter during the chase, while healing its wound. And the most dangerous one would be its thorns shaped antler. Any duelist dare to challenge will be hooked and trapped in its complex branching. The antlers will be left stuck to the body, while the antlers stump will later regrow at a rapid pace.

Cursed Windeku could be your most frequently deployed card for the Death Splinter formation. This is true at least on Bronze and Silver league. As the shown image itself, its truly a terrifying card. You will realize the terror once you face it yourself on your opponent formation. The fact that this card had interest me very much had made me wrote post about countering Cursed Windeku, which you can read the part 1 and the part 2. So what's the real deal making this a favorite card for everyone? Let's roll on!

Pros & Cons

1. It's pure Tanker card, having 9 health for only 6 manca cost. And more to it, it will gain Heal ability at later level, which leveraged by the health will grant 4 health restored every turn.	1. There's no real weakness for this card; although if faced against card beside melee, the Thorn ability will not be triggered, and there will be less damage produced.
2. Beside the huge health, this card have mediocre value for other status (3 speed and 2 damage), with no weakness on certain status.	2. As a Tanker card, the lack of armor might be minor, but still its a good thing as armor delay several incoming attack.
3. It's a Rare type card which allow this card to have a lot of growth potential.
*Reference for Archetype term : Striker --> Superior Damage / Tanker --> Superior Health / Ninja --> Superior Speed / Support --> A Lot Number of Abilities.

Market Price Analysis

Price are quite stable for regular foil although its been falling in the past 3 weeks. Meanwhile the gold foil have been gradually in downtrend. As per this post is made, regular foil price is at $0.35, while gold foil price is at $3.17. The price is quite high for a Rare type coming from Chaos Legion edition. It will take $33.35 (the least bcx price $0.29 x 115 bcx) to reach max level. Considering the regular-gold price ratio at 1:9 and the regular-gold bcx level at 5:1 to 6:1, then the gold foil card is a generous choice. But still considering the chance of price fall in the future time, then buying gold foil card in cost-dollar averaging method is more safe.

Progression Analysis

At Level 1, Cursed Windeku already strike a strong stature as a hybrid Tanker-Striker card. Thorn ability is the notable feature of this card. It's rare for some cards to have the Thorns ability at only Level 1. And the high amount of health have become leverage for Thorn ability, where the more frequent attack is coming, the more it will be triggered.

Health have 3 progression steps, which are less effective, since the card already have very high health. But the damage growth at Level 3 is a huge leap which reinforced Cursed Windeku into a stronger Striker.

Speed doesn't gained any growth, but considering 3 speed is already the average speed of cards on all level, then it's enough. Slow ability on final level could be the small boost for the speed, but still leveling up to max level just to gain this ability might be too costly.

The ultimate growth happened at Level 5 where Cursed Windeku gained the Heal ability. But the Heal ability cost with a single health drawback which seemed fair enough seemed to compensate the ability from being overpowered (this also happned in other cards, like Pelacor Mercenary, Spetic Slime, etc.). The Heal ability combined with a solid 11 health would recover 4 health each round.

Rulesets To Be Watched

Ruleset	Strategy
	Extra armor always good to have for Cursed Windeku. It give additional endurance to trigger Thorns ability.
	Thorn ability is the best counter against Striker type (high damage, low health) or Ninja type (very high speed) cards. Both of these type typically have very low health. Therefore Equalizer will only make their health levelized to Cursed Windeku health.
	With Healed Out ruleset, Cursed Windeku will lost its Heal ability. It's the 2nd most powerful thing of Cursed Windeku after Thorns ability.
	Melee Mayhem will open an alternatives roles for Cursed Windeku. Now it can positioned itself in the last row, playing roles as Tanker against any Sneak attack, while still launching its normal attack.

WATCH BATTLE

Here's one of my battle experience with Cursed Windeku in my formation. Click Here for the battle link. The battle have 23 mana cap, with Standard ruleset. For my formation, I used:

My opponent formation:

I focused my formation on high caliber Striker formation. First row are filled with Cursed Windeku as the main Tanker, followed by Corpse Fiend as minor backup Tanker. Then the 3rd and 4th row are filled with magic cards. And finally two ranged card with 2 damage each to fill the last two rows. Thaddius Brood was a good choice to neutralize Obsidian magic damage buff, while still gaining the benefit from the health debuff. My opponent formation are the typical magic-counter formation, with Unicorn Mustang standing in the 2nd row? It seemed like a blunder seeing Xenith Archer took 1st row, while Chaos Agent fill the 3rd row. The back row filled with magic cards.

The 1st round already gave me the upper hand when Unicorn, the fastest card in the arena, unable to act in the 2nd row. Then Death Elemental strike down Chaos Agent without any chance to fight back. And then Life Sapper follow up to strike down Xenith Archer with 1 health left from the health debuff effect. Speed have become the winning factor in this battle. Windeku and Strangler combined attack to deal 4 damage into Unicorn Mustang. But Mustang got heal surge from Goblin Psychic, which unfortunately only heal 3 health (since Mustang health already debuffed into 9 health).

The 2nd round open with Windeku took the blow from Mustang, the Thorns caused 3 damage back to Mustang. Again Death Elemental show its excellence by strike down Khmer Princess. Strangler missed its attack, but Dark Astronomer with only 1 speed able to hit right into Mustang. Windeku survived the round but took serious blow and left with only 2 health.

The 3rd round open with Mustang put Windeku into demise. Mustang got prickled by Thorns and down to 3 health. Now its up to Astronomer and Strangler to put and end to Mustang rampage forever. Suprisingly Corpse Fiend enter the picture and put the final blow into Mustang. Goblin step up to deliver revenge on Corpse Fiend. When the fight reach 3/4 of the round, no chances for Goblin Psychic to fend off against 4 cards at once. And then Dark Astronomer shoot and put an ease to Goblin Psychic forever.

CONCLUSION

Did your strategy work? What will you try differently next time?

Clearly on head-to-head battle Windeku will surely win against Unicorn Mustang. Direct attack and Thorn damage are combined for a total 4 damage which surpass Unicorn melee damage. In term of mana, Unicorn Mustang cost 8 mana, while Windeku only cost 6 mana. But the magic cards have put a lot of pressure into Windeku health, leaving it fewer opportunity to trigger the Thorn ability. The battle would be upended if only Obsidian damage buff was not neutralized.

Do you like CURSED WINDEKU? Why or why not?

I would choose Cursed Windeku for various reason. The basic one would be the high health-mana ratio, which is 1.50 at only Level 1. The second one would be the Thorn ability which very helpful against to slowly deplete opponents cards. And finally the Heal ability which give 4 health each round.