Two Monsters so Similar, Yet So Different
Have you ever been in a Monster Selection Truce?, Where You have settled on a Strategy, Monster Lineup Idea, But You Are Confused About Your Selection of Monsters and Elements - Well, I've been there several times.
Cursed Windeku and Venari Knifer are one Special Case - Two Similar Attack Monsters, both from the Chaos of Legion Card Edition.
In Matches, they are most likely to assume a Frontline position due to their Thorns Ability, which does Melee Damage back to the Attacker. There's Almost No difference Between these two Monsters on the Surface, The Major Difference Being that They are from Different Elements (DEATH and EARTH).
| COL Edition | COL Edition |
|---|---|
 |  |
| Mana cost: 6 points | Mana cost: 6 points |
| Ability: Thorns at LVL 1 | Ability: Throns at LVL 1 |
| Attack: +2 Melee | Attack: +2 Melee |
What are Their Strengths
Cursed Windeku is an Extremely Strong Monster in my Opinion, It comes with +9 Health which gives him the Ability to Witstand a Lot of Hits and Fully Utilise his Thorns Ability. With a Good Backup Healing Monster, Cursed Windeku can overcome even the Most Intense/Agressive Battles because He's Returning Hits while Getting them. Cursed Windeku is also Very Cheap and Being in the Death Team makes it a Stronger Opponent with a Great Lineup.
Venari Knifer is Similar to Cursed Windeku on a lot of Fronts and Belong to the Earth team which means that his +7 Health can Easily be Improved in Battle, Either from Summorner OR Monsters with the Healing Ability. His High Speed of +4 Makes him Among the First Monsters to Deal Damage Each Round, this is a Highly Beneficial Perk because It Complements it's Thorn Ability and Triples your Damage(Instead of just a Double).
How are they Different - In Battle
Occasionally, I prefer using different Elementals to Mix up my Battle History so that Opponents cannot Use this information and Defeat me, At Other times though, I love to Use a Guaranteed Monster Lineup with Special Abilities In other to Complete a Focus Challenge.
Thorns is a Special Ability and if I wanted to Use this in Battle, I would have from a Few Select Monsters to Choose from (For Example, Cursed Windeku, Djinn Chwala and Veneri Knifer). Looking at these three Monsters Individually, It's Quite Obvious that Djinn Chwala is the Strongest, But Who's Stronger Between Cursed Windeku and Venari Knifer?
The Question I now Asked was this -
Cursed Windeku and Veneri Knifer are Very Similar Individually, but Who's Superior in a Battle Team
A Direct Experiment - In Similar Mana Cap Battles
My Experiment was to use Both Monster in a Battle Where I'm Given a Similar Mana Cap, So I can Deploy an Agressive Monster Lineup along with the Thorns Monster - I Thought One Battle should be enough to prove the case, and here is what I found out!
| Cursed Windeku Battle | Venari Knifer Battle |
|---|---|
| Battle Details: This Battle Lasted for 4 Rounds, Where I Battled Against an Earth Elemental Opponent(with Obsidian as Summorner) Using Cursed Windeku in a Death Team with Some Neutral Monsters. This was a 29 Mana Cap Battle which Gave the Chance to Create a Large Team of 6 Monsters | Battle Details: I LOVED this Battle which Lasted for 6 Rounds, It was thoroughly Satisfying because all my Monsters Contributed Greatly to My Victory and Most of them Utilised their Strenght and Abilities. I Fought against a Life Elemental, in a 28 Mana Cap Battle, Lining up 6 Monsters Again. |
| Battle Lineup: My Battle Line up Consists of Thaddius Brood (As Summorner), then Cursed Windeku, Life Sapper, Silent Sha-vi, (ALL From Death Elemental) And Finally, Venari Spellsmith, Xenith Archer, Goblin Chariot (From Team Neutral). | Battle Lineup: My Battle Line up Consists of Obsidian (As Summorner), then Venari Knifer, Mycelic Morphoid, Khmer Princess, Regal Preyton, Goblin Psychic, (ALL From Earth Elemental) And Finally, Venari Spellsmith (From Team Neutral) |
| Strategy: In Both Games, the Main Strategy is to Deploy the Most Powerful Monsters to Emerge the Winner, Including Last Man Target, Healing Monsters and So on | Strategy: Same Strategy Applies |
ROUND 1: In Round One, Both Summorners Activate their Buff, and my Opponent Summorner's Buff(+1 Magic Attack) is Removed by Thaddius Brood(-1 Magic, -1 Health). This is a Perfect Battle where my Summorner Choice gives me an Edge Immediately. | ROUND 1: The Battle Begins with Both Summorners Sending Out Buffs. +1 Magic Attack for my Team AND +1 Health for the Opponents Team. I Lose Venari Spellsmith in this Round, too bad he Couldn't Use His Dispel Ability on the Enemy Team. Goblin Psychic Healing Power is Already at Work. |
ROUND 2: All Monsters in Both Team is still Alive at the Start of this Round, with Only Reduced Health. Life Leech Has Also Managed to Leech of +1 Health. Early into Round 2, I Eliminate Two Monsters from my Opponent's Lineup. By the End of this Round, 3 Monsters have been Eliminated.  | ROUND 2: At the Start of this Round, I Eliminate Shieldbearer, the Tank Causing me Problems. Before the End of this Round, I Lose another Monster (Khmer Princess). I was quite glad that I Placed Goblin Psychic in the Fifth Position, Where they Couldn't Target. |
ROUND 3: At the Start of this Round, I Unfortunately Lose Cursed Windeku from a Strike from Regal Preyton. He Managed to Stay Alive After all the Hits Suffered because of His Chunky Health. A Healing Monster would have Been Handy to Keep him Alive for Longer. Regal Preyton is the only Surviving Monster in my Opponents Team, by this Round's end | ROUND 3: The Battle is All but Lost for my Opponent with the Death of Shieldbearer, Goblin Psychic continues it's healing power, which helps to keep Venari Knifer Strong in the Tank Position. Goblin Psychic also Manages to destroy a few Monsters - He's Packed with +3 Magic Attack! |
ROUND 4: The Battle Continues and I Finally Elimiate the Only Standing Monster (Regal Preyton) who has Fought so Fiercely | ROUND 4: The Battle Continues with just three Monsters left on My Opponents team and 4 Monsters in Mine. Venari Knifer even Dodges a Few Hits! |
| END OF BATTLE | ROUND 5 & 6: The Battle is Quickly Wrapped up with 4 Monsters still alive. It's was a Satisfying Battle and I was Happy with the Combination of Venari Knifer & Goblin Psychic which was the Highlight |
| BATTLE LINK | BATTLE LINK |
Comparison: Best Performance
The Truth is that One Battle wasn't Enough to Decide who is Superior in a Team Between Cursed Windeku and Venari Knifer, so I Ended up Playing a Couple, Intent on Understanding their Strengths and Win-Rate, and my Conclusion is :
Venari Knifer is WAY More Superior to Cursed Windeku For Several Reasons, the First Being that the Standard Earth Team of the Chaos of legion Card Edition Complements Venari Knifer Very Well, Right From the Healing Monster (Goblin Psychic) who is also Powerful with Magic Attack, and Other Superb Monsters like Regal Preyton(with the Flying Ability and Immense Speed).
On Average I Won X3 More Matches using Venari Knifer Over Cursed Windeku, Now that's Talking Something!.
Before Making this Experiment, I'd Inaccurately Assumed that Cursed Windeku was Better than Venari Knifer Mainly Because of his +9 Health which is 2 Higher than that of Venari Knifer, but as you can see, It was a Totally Wrong Analysis. That Extra Health was Largely Insignificant in Battle!
Finally, Battle of Thorns has been Won by Venari Knifer who is Superior to Cursed Windeku!
What are Your Thoughts on Monsters with the Thorn Ability?
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Your Gamer & Builder,
Chel_
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