Countering Cursed Windeku (Part 2)

You can read my previous post “Countering Cursed Windeku” at here @kid.miniatures/countering-cursed-windeku

So I‘ve been using my last strategy for countering Cursed Windeku, and found that my formation was quite vulnerable as my Scavo Hireling are quite easily taken down by Undead Badger (with Sneak ability) or Death Elemental (with Snipe ability). A few days ago, I got a Dragon Splinter card from daily quest reward, named Naga Assasin. It just another 2 mana card with 1 ranged damage and 2 health, but (compared to Xenith Archer or Goblin Fireballer), it has this tremendous 5 speed status! What a great card to gamble on the back rank!!

Before this, I’ve been experimenting of using Cursed Windeku itself as a counter against formation with Cursed Windeku. Most of the time, it would ended in draw, since when either Windeku get the last hit, the other would surely be destroyed by the other’s Thorn abilities. They only way to attain the upper hand is by:

• Getting Windeku an extra armor; so any first strike or Thorn damage would be absorbed by the armor.
• Make debuff to opponent’s Windeku; so it have only 8 health left, which is divisible by 2 damage, which mean 1 (one) less strike or Thorn damage to destroy it.

Since your opponent most likely would use Thaddius Brood as summoner, it means both side would be debuffed. So we need to come back to the first option. Only one available summoner, Drake of Arnak, which able to provide 1 armor buff with the equivalent cost four mana.
And now we combined Drake of Arnak and Cursed Windeku for a total of ten mana cost. This means we would be left between 2 to 6 mana left on a 12 to 16 mana cap battle. At this mana cap, we will usually find the opponent fill the following row with Undead Badger, Death Elemental, or Silent Sha-Vi, and then fill any remaining row with one mana card used as cannon fodder. And here where we would put our saviour, Naga Assassin, by relying on it’s 5 speed, as below:

1. On 12 mana cap battle
   Opponent would mostly Undead Badger (cost 2 mana) which positioned right behind Cursed Windeku. With Naga Assassin speed and health, it would take Undead Badger 3 or more strike to kill it (if lucky). Before it your Naga Assassin would already put some damage to the opponent Cursed Windeku. When the final round come, it would be a suicide for Undead Badger to take your Cursed Windeku.

2. On 14 mana cap battle
   Opponent might use combination between Undead Badger (cost 2 mana) and two one mana cost cannon fodder to protect the back row. You can choose to pick your own Undead Badger and placed in on the second row between Windeku and Naga. There your Naga Assassin would protect the back row while your Undead Badger will slowly take down the cannon fodder one by one.
   Alternately your opponent might choose to use Death Elemental (cost 3 mana) and one extra cannon fodder. Combined with Thaddius’s health debuff, Death Elemental magic attack will surely hit Naga Assassin and destroy it in one strike. But worry not, by having the same formation as above, your Naga might be destroyed, but your Badger will be left untouched. And then we will rely on Undead Badger to strike down Death Elemental on 3rd or 4th round.

3. On 16 mana cap battle
   With 6 mana left, opponent would most likely take Silent Sha-Vi (cost 5 mana). It’s 2 melee damage (with sneak ability) and 5 health is major threat for back-row. Should we use Naga Assassin again? Nope! This time just use Silent Sha-Vi and one cannon fodder. Remember that you already got armor buff from Drake of Arnak? It means your cannon fodder will block 2 strike of opponent’s Sha-Vi, that means one step ahead of Sha-Vi slugfest.

So here’s some of the fight I have with those formation:

• My formation consist of Windeku, followed by Badger and Naga facing against Windeku, Death Elemental, and Cursed Slimeball. My Naga become primary target for the Elemental. It got lucky and able to strike it down on the 2nd round. But my Badger avenged her death by striking down Elemental. By the end of 2nd round the opponent’s Windeku is destroyed, and only Slimeball left behind, while my formation left with Windeku 2 health and Badger.

• My formation consist of Windeku, followed by Carrion Shade and Naga facing against Windeku and Death Elemental. As before, my Naga become primary target for the Elemental. It got strike down on the 2nd round despite it’s higher 5 speed. Due to it’s 5 speed, Naga able to strike early on Windeku’s armor, and thus by the start of third round, I was left with 3 health on Windeku. And then it only need 2 strike to take down the Death Elemental.