Monkey King vs Tusk

How this matchup plays

Picking one of these heroes into the other often feels like a coin flip. Tusk's entire game plan can revolve around locking down a single mobile target, and Ice Shards is a great tool for trapping Monkey King on the ground and preventing a Tree Dance escape. A successful Snowball initiation can lead to a quick kill before Monkey King can build any Jingu Mastery stacks. On the other hand, Monkey King is exceptionally elusive. With good reflexes, he can leap into the trees to dodge the Snowball or juke the Ice Shards placement, leaving Tusk out of position with his key spells on cooldown.

This contest of mobility versus lockdown defines the matchup from the laning stage to late-game teamfights. Early on, a Tusk support can make laning miserable for Monkey King, but a farmed Monkey King can often ignore Tusk once he gets a Black King Bar. Tusk will constantly try to gank and disrupt Monkey King's farm, while Monkey King’s goal is to survive the initial burst and turn the fight with Wukong's Command. The outcome really depends on which hero hits their timings first and whose team better enables their plan.