Tengu

## Overview

Tengu's first impression is that it has enormous attack and magic and is the only monster with both Buff Catalyst and Killing Dance. Update 2.1 was very kind to Tengu as it introduced the new passive Static Strike, which bypasses Dodge chance, solving one of its biggest counters. Both Might and Sorcery teams can benefit from having Tengu, as it hits from both sides of the spectrum, but it requires specific support, is still hampered by a lot of common counters to offense, and even when everything goes its way, it doesn't do as much damage as one would hope.

## Damage Dealer

#### Equipment

* Swallow
* Needle
* Shield Generator / Mage Flask / Warrior Flask
* Mana Ring / Ancestral Medal

### Build Details

Hybrid Mastery and 4x Mana Overload give Tengu very high attack and magic, which it can supplement with Static and Buff Catalyst. Berserk gives us Charge stacks upon hitting with an attack, and Killing Dance allows us to maintain those Charge stacks. Magic-powered Shield and Magic Barrier give Tengu an enormous shield on the first turn.

Tengu's equipment is noticably different in order to support 4x Mana Overload. Swallow remains the best weapon, beating out Scepter with its 15% multiplier and beating Summoned Sword because of Hybrid Mastery. Needle offers over 120 Attack and Magic on Tengu, so it's our next selection. Mana Ring and Shield Generator both offer a big boost to Attack and Magic as well, with Shield Generator also giving us passive toughness. Ancestral Medal provides some starting Charge stacks, while Warrior Flask & Mage Flask gives us more passive sustain (quite a bit of it, with nearly 1000 attack & magic) and a nice damage multiplier. Aside from Needle, you'd get more damage from the multipliers and Charge stacks, but more mana also gives you a higher chance to trigger Mana Funnel. Cookie Mushrooms are a bigger damage bonus than Oranges and also boost our shielding.

As for your choice in Ultimate, Meteorite Shower is excellent in Might teams as it provides a large shield to the entire party. Sorcery teams prefer Flame Breath as it assists in removing Buffs from the enemy team while granting an additional buff to your team.

**An aside: you don't have to worry about breakpoints**

Mana Funnel and Magic Barrier both state that their bonus increases for every 100 mana, but in reality the bonus scales precisely with how much mana you have and is capable of being a fraction, so there's no need to worry about hitting the next 100 mana threshold to make these skills more powerful.

### Team Options

* Tengu likes having both buffs and Charge stacks to make use of Killing Dance. Beetloid is an excellent choice for Sorcery teams as it provides Charge Stacks with its Leadership ability, while Kame is the only Might monster who also incorporates Charge Stacks with its Load Up ability.
* A combo builder who can break past Phoenix Ability works wonders with Tengu. Manticorb is an excellent combo builder on Sorcery teams, Mega Rock fulfills the same role on Might teams.
* A monster that can remove Blind stacks can be essential for a Tengu team as well. Support Vertraag has Purify to remove Blind stacks, while Tengu can make use of its only real piece of team support in Magic Barrier. Amberlgna also has Purify and can provide Charge stacks to Tengu while providing Channel bonuses to offset Chill. Bard serves a similar role on Might teams, removing Blind stacks and buffing Tengu's physical damage with Multi-Might.

## Checks and Counters

* Blind still ruins Tengu's damage. Since both of its attacks deal a single hit, it loses all of its damage (and thus has no chance to trigger Killing Dance) if it misses.
* Tengu has no way to break past Phoenix Affinity, which means it will need a whole extra turn to take out monsters who have it, and this will also lead to not getting a Killing Dance trigger, as knocking a monster into Phoenix Affinity doesn't count as knocking them out.
* Tengu is vulnerable to debuffs. Due to his high mana and Water Weakness, it takes enormous damage from Chill, due to its high Magic, it takes reasonable damage from Burn despite resisting it, and Weakness can cripple its damage.
* While Magic-powered Shield and Magic Barrier can give Tengu reasonable toughness on turn 1, it's quite frail after that.