Unmatched
Sun Wukong
Overview
The Monkey King Sun Wukong is a mythical warrior first introduced in the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West. He has since seen many adaptations and inspired many characters in modern media, most famously Son Goku from Dragon Ball. Most recently, as of writing this, a video game featuring Sun Wukong is in development titled Black Myth: WuKong.
In the original tale, Sun Wukong became a warrior to achieve immortality, showcasing incredible strength, speed, endurance, and wacky abilities to pursue his goal. Some of his absurd abilities include shapeshifting, fire immunity, and clones of himself that he creates from the hairs of his body. With a vast array of spells, abilities, and incredible skills up his sleeve, Sun Wukong was a trickster who often found himself in some sort of trouble. In Unmatched, Sun Wukong uses his clones to harass and trick his opponents.
Sun Wukong is included in Unmatched: Battle of Legends Vol. 2
Hero Stats
Health: 17 / Attack: Melee / Movement: 2
Special Ability
At the start of your turn, you may take 1 damage to summon a Clone in an empty space adjacent to Sun Wukong. Do not start with any Clones on the board.
Sidekick: Clones
Health: 1 / Attack: Melee / x3
Strategies and Tips
Sun Wukong’s ability allows him to summon clones at the expense of his health. This can help create a wall of defense, but what makes him unique is that Sun Wukong and any of his clones can use every card in his deck, allowing for a nearly risk-free aggressive playstyle. Additionally, he has access to some of the best attack and defense cards in the game. The card effects make them great, but to get the most out of them you will need to deceive your opponents. His cards can be predictable and countered.
Primary Strengths
Very high attack values
Incredibly strong defenses
Primary Weaknesses
Must take damage to summon Clones
Card effects can be countered when predicted
Tip #1: The Sly Monkey
At the start of your turn, your first instinct may be to summon the maximum amount of clones you can. A common strategy is to summon clones to surround Sun Wukong and create a physical barrier around him. This could work to your advantage, but this makes you prone to attacks and schemes.
Instead, we believe it is best to maximize Sun Wukong’s high health and strong defense cards by only summoning clones when they can serve as a distraction. If you summon too many, it starts costing too much health. The ultimate defense is when you never have to defend your main hero; however, sacrificing clones and returning them in exchange for another clone can quickly add up.
Sly Monkey is a versatile card with a value of 2 that allows you to summon a Clone in Sun Wukong’s space after combat, then place Sun Wukong in any space in his zone. With the low printed value, this card is best used as an attack. You will likely not deal any damage, but it lets the real Wukong escape the range of your opponent while also placing a free Clone in his place.
Even though we do not recommend summoning all your clones at the start, there is value to having all 3 summoned.
Infinite Strikes is an attack with a value of 2 that is increased by +1 for each other friendly fighter adjacent to the opposing fighter during combat. You also get to gain 1 action after combat. Using the clones, this card can be increased to a maximum value of 5. With that said, in team matches your ally’s fighters also count towards this value. If you are fighting alongside Squirrel Girl, depending on the map you could deal as much as 10 damage with this one card.
The good news is that your Clones can use every card in Sun Wukong’s deck, so when the Clones are on the board, treat them as Sun Wukong himself while keeping the real body safe from danger.
Tip #2: The Trickster God
Nearly all of Sun Wukong’s cards utilize tricky card effects. His playstyle is true to his nature, so read your cards carefully and bait opponents into making the wrong plays.
Taunting Laughter is an attack with a value of 3 that immediately gives your opponent the option to discard 1 card from their hand. If they do not, you ignore their card’s value.
Ruyi Jingo Bang is an attack card with a value of 0 and the ability to activate a bonus attack after combat if your opponent played a defense card. This bonus attack allows you to attack twice with a single action. The value of the second attack is 4, and if this card works as intended, you will not only have baited your opponent into blocking the first attack with a high-value defense, but you will have also forced your opponent to use two defense cards in a single action.
Golden Chainmail is a defense card with a value of 4 that deals any combat damage you would have taken to the opposing fighter during combat instead. In other words, if your opponent plays a card with a value of 6, then the 2 damage you would have taken is instead dealt to your opponent. This also includes extra combat damage added by immediate or during combat effects, making it extremely effective against heroes like Beowulf and Dracula.
Bewilderment is a defense card with a value of 0 that prevents all combat damage during combat, and lets you place your fighter in any space after combat. With only 2 copies of this card in your deck, it is best saved when defending the main body of Sun Wukong, allowing him to take no combat damage and escape from damage.
Fiery Eyes That See is a scheme that lets you look at your opponent’s hand and choose a card. You then place that card at the bottom of their deck, and each of you draws 1 card. This is unlikely to be disruptive to their gameplan, but if you can think far enough ahead, you can use this chance to put a less than desirable card at the bottom of their deck so when they run out of cards you will be at the advantage.
The attack and defense cards, if played carelessly, can be countered. Each of your defense cards can be baited with a Regroup or similar cards with low values. Additionally, both of the attacks mentioned can be countered by not defending. With Taunting Laughter your opponent will still take damage, but they wouldn’t have wasted a defense card in the process.
Tip #3: TRANSFORM
Sun Wukong has three shape-shifting forms:
Ox Form is Sun Wukong’s most fearsome attack with a printed value of 7. Your opponent can boost their defense during combat, but only if they initially defended. One effective way to use this card is to make them believe you will attack with Ruyi Jingo Bang.
Tortoise Form is a strong defense card with a printed value of 5, but it allows your opponent to boost their attack during combat. A value of 5 will block most attacks, and even if your opponent decides to discard a card so they can deal damage to you, the damage you take will likely not be enough for you to worry about.
Phoenix Form is very powerful, but only one of these cards is in his deck. It allows Sun Wukong to gain 1 health point for every clone on the board. Since his ability exchanges a health point for a clone, you can consider this card a free summon. When this card is in your hand, take it as an opportunity to summon all the cones you can. Do not hold out on using this card too long as your opponent may be able to force you to discard it.
Sun Wukong has one card that you can use to support these transformations:
72 Transformations is a versatile card with a value of 2 that allows you to take any of the three FORM cards from your discard pile and return it to your hand after combat. There are three of these cards in your deck, so you can choose which card is most beneficial to you for each matchup. It is very important that this card is not canceled with a Feint.
Final Thoughts
All of Sun Wukong’s cards are unique and can create wild and unpredictable scenarios on the battlefield. If played optimally he can seem incredibly overpowered, but if you are able to predict certain cards then you will be able to negate their effectiveness and completely shut him down. It is certainly harder to play against this hero than with, and he becomes even stronger when played in team matches. With all of that said, he isn’t a complicated hero and is easy for any player to pick up and enjoy.
One Response
Every hero should have a text comment about worst and best matchups.