Hello fellow Splinterlanders!
In today's post I would like to showcase a deadly combo using Cursed Windeku and Zintar Mortalis. Zintar Mortalis is a great summoner to reduce your opponents melee, but coupled with Cursed Windeku, this is truly a fearsome combo.
The cover images was created with canva. Note the thorns at the back of the image, and the healing heart to symbolize the potent mix of healing and thorns that the Cursed Windeku has.
THEME: CURSED WINDEKU
Rarity: Rare
Element: DEATH
Abilities: Thorns at level 1, Healing at level 5, Slow at level 8
Imagine a Flesh Golem in the Death splinter with thorns ;)
Abilities
| Abilities | Description |
|---|---|
 | When hit with a Melee attack, does damage back to the attacker |
 | Restores 1/3 of the max health, rounded down. |
 | Reduces the Speed of all enemy Monsters. |
Combination Play Strategy
The addition of Cursed Windeku really makes the death splinter one of the best decks to counter melee attackers. The thorns from Cursed Windeku and its healing capability added with Zintar Mortalis (melee reduction) creates a perfect synergy. I started exploring this synergy when one of my guildmates was complaining about her hatred of meeting Cursed Windeku. Hearing that, it made me contemplate to integrate this card into my rents. So far through Silver, and Gold, the combination has been really great!
Ruleset & Mana Cap
Let's move on to the battle, the ruleset for my battle is Lost Magic and Super Sneak.
| Ruleset | Description |
|---|---|
 | Monsters with Magic attack may not be used in battles. |
 | All Melee attack Monsters have the Sneak ability. |
Based on the following ruleset my strategy is to place monster with thorns at the front and at the back of the lineup. I will also incorporate armors, repairs and heals into my setup to best counter any ranged or melee attacks.
Positioning and Choice of Monsters
Summoner: Zintar Mortalis
An excellent summoner for use against melee attacks. It gives -1 Melee which reduces damage inflicted by the opponent. I expect the opponent to use a lot of melee monsters since the ruleset is super sneak. Here a level 5 is used, as that is the minimum to unlock the level 5 Cursed Windeku (with heal)
1st Position: Cursed Windeku
A level 5 rare card that adds the healing ability. It's the heal ability that makes the Cursed Windeku such a good tank against melee. It allows it to keep attacking an reflect damage with thorns back to its opponent!
2nd Position: Uraeus
A cheap 3 mana card with sneak. I am using this for its armor which will allow it to tank extra hit.
3rd Position: Scavo Hireling
Another 3 mana card. I nestle this in the middle hoping to provide some repairs to my monsters with armor.
4th Position: Maggots
Rarely used card which has opportunity. It gains scavenger at level 6 and the strategy is that it will gain health as the battle stretches
5th Position: Haunted Spider
At level 4, this creepy spider gains poison. Time to inflict poison on the enemy tank! This card is also really cheap at only 3 mana.
5th Position: Enchanted Defender
At level 4, this stocky defender gains thorns. I love this card for its heavy armor. Although it lacks health against melee or ranged, it matters not unless they have piercing. 4-mana, and 7 (health + armor) that is hugeee!
BATTLE Commentary
Round 1:
The opponent is using a level 6 Zintar! That is 1 level more than mine. As usual I am going through Gold on a budget! But we are in luck, as the opponent strategy to use Haunted Spirit might not be the best choice. After all, ruleset is lost magic!
The opponent has some really high level cards with a bunch of abilities like affliction and cripple which will definitely hurt my Cursed Windeku. Luckily with super sneak, those cards will be attacking the Enchanted Defender thus allowing my cursed windeku to keep its heals.
The opponent Silent Shavi and Shadow Snitch starts the attack on my Enchanted Defender. However, I inflicted the same amount of damage back to the two monsters from Defender's thorns. Unfortunately, Twisted Jester sniped off my Scavo Hireling, therefore armor will not be repaired. The enemy Corpse Fiend attacked the Defender but this was a kamikaze, resulting in the death of the Fiend.
Finally it is time for me to attack. Cursed Windeku attacks the Haunted Spirit dealing some damage, and the Spider was able to inflict poison on the Haunted Spirit. My other monsters attacked the Riftwing at the back, reducing some of its health but Maggots and Defender missed and got backfire damage! :(
Round 2:
At the start of the 2nd round, the poisoned haunted spirit receives the first 2 damage of the round. Silent Shavi killed of my Defender, but its health is reduced to 3. Unfortunately Haunted Spider was killed by the attack from Twisted Jester and Shadow Snitch.
Haunted Spirit is able to heal, therefore Cursed Windeku was not able to finish it off. Once more backfire was triggered by Riftwing damaging maggots.
Round 3:
Things aren't looking that good with only 3 monsters left on my team. Thankfully the poison killed off Haunted Spirit, and Thorns damage are inflicted on Shadow Snitch. Cursed Windeku is able to heal itself somewhat and attacked the Snitch to kill it off. This time, Uraeus received the backfire while Maggots made 1 damage on Riftwing.
Round 4:
In round 4, both parties have 3 monsters on each side. The attack from Silent Shavi and Twisted Jester almost killed off my Cursed Windeku. Unfortunately Cursed Windeku miss the attack on Shavi! OMG
Uraeus was hit by backfire from Riftwing and died. Maggots damaged Riftwing but a paltry 1 as usual!
Round 5:
Shavi was killed by the thorns from attacking Windeku. Twisted Jester being in tank position means that attack is no longer possible from the enemy!
Round 6 to 16:
My Cursed Windeku is able to heal and attack multiple times throughout the subsequent rounds.
Twisted Jester was killed of in Round 7. In round 10, Riftwing was able to kill of Maggots with the backfire. That is so cool!
Any finally in the 16th Round was the Riftwing killed! I need to explore Riftwing in future!
🆅🅸🅲🆃🅾🆁🆈
A victory against a powerful player from a powerful guild is not easy at all!
Additional Battles I - Won
L͓̽I͓̽N͓̽K͓̽ T͓̽O͓̽ B͓̽A͓̽T͓̽T͓̽L͓̽E͓̽
In this battle, the ruleset is Heavy Hitters but none of us is using that to our advantage with stuns. This is against a Nifty Arcade bot / player.
Once more the thorns successfully eliminate the Serpent and the Hardfish. The fiend at the end also succumbed to the thorns damage.
Quite a neat victory with Halfling as the only casualty on my side.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Is it cheap?
For a level 1, yes, at only 0.80 per card, at level 5, it will cost around 30 USD! For now I will keep renting the card.
Strategies
For Sneak ruleset or Melee only ruleset or when facing melee intense Fire splinter, Cursed Windeku and Zintar will prove to be invaluable together!
What do I like about Cursed Windeku most:
The thorns and the heal is excellent.
What I do not like?
If Windeku has some armor that will be very nice!
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Credits
Splinterlands for the source image and Canva for the bountiful elements (background, animation, logo design) to use. Credits also to @Flauwy for the death divider used in this post.