Monkey King vs Shadow Fiend

How this matchup plays

Controlling the map and accelerating his farm is where Shadow Fiend gets his edge. He can clear creep waves and jungle camps with Shadowraze much faster than Monkey King is able to. This forces Monkey King to look for aggressive plays to keep up, but trying to close the distance is dangerous. Shadow Fiend can punish an approach with multiple Razes, making it hard for Monkey King to land enough hits to build up Jingu Mastery stacks. Even in a big teamfight, Shadow Fiend can often stay at a distance and nuke down the Wukong's Command soldiers.

This dynamic means Shadow Fiend often hits his key item timings, like a Black King Bar, sooner than Monkey King can build the items to deal with it. An early BKB is devastating for Monkey King, whose entire game plan revolves around locking down and bursting a single target. Monkey King's best bet is to force fights and ganks extremely early with Tree Dance, ideally with support rotations, to shut down SF's farm. If Shadow Fiend can survive that initial pressure, his superior farming speed will usually create a lead that's tough to come back from.