Greetings SPLINTERLANDS fans!
After some intense gaming during the past year or so, I have found myself in favour of Splinter gods and they have blessed me with a couple of amazing Soulbound cards. Some of those are obviously better than others while some are like gifts that just keep on giving.
Yes. I’m talking about monsters with the Weapons Training ability. is full of peculiar monsters who have no attack power at all but can often help the team in many other ways such as providing other units with some helpful buffs. However, these peaceful pacifist fellows can be easily turned into killing machines with some training.
When the Weapons Training ability was first introduced, I remember the adjacent monsters didn’t receive as much attack power from their trainer as they do these days. Also, another modification to the ability is a situation where the trainer dies. Now the the trainee does not lose its attack power with the demise of the trainer.
These additions to this awesome ability have made me constantly look for forgotten no-attack monsters and I must say, finding some new and unexpected combinations brings a great sense of discovery and excitement.
So, this article is all about my favourite Weapons Training combos — about the trainers and the trainees.
Like A Clockwork
Remember, to take full advantage of this ability, make sure to pick two no-attack units and place them on both sides of the trainer. In the picture below I have chosen MOXIAN REBEL as a trainer. She’s one of the latest additions even though I’ve already managed to write a lot about how great she can be.
In this particular battle, the trainees are CLOCKWORK AIDE and they are all lurking safely in the back. Even though the magic attack strength isn’t that powerful, in this case, my idea was to play the waiting game — Riftwing will be very hard to hit thanks to its Speed and ability. Clockwork Aide will add to this by providing and will be a tough nut to crack itself because of its strong armour(8).
While the Clockwork Aide’s main purpose here was to defend against the opponent's monsters, in a similar example I used it in a battle where the equal opportunity ruleset was in play.
Here the Clock Guy was made even stronger by AVES STURGIS, a Life Splinter weapons trainer. Even though the didn’t go according to plan, I think I had a great idea here. Since the enemy units would be targeting the weakest link on my team, which in this case was the Aide, they’d be forced to attack it and level the other units alone.
Unfortunately, my strategy backfired because I didn’t consider magic units but if they had used only Ranged or Melee, my ARMORSMITH would have repaired the damage done to Clockwork Aide. At the same time, both of these would have been pretty impressive offensively with their +2 magic attacks thanks to their trainer.
Melee Mastermind
Perhaps an even better last-spot monster is NOA THE JUST who is also armoured but has much more health. This unit is very fast(speed 6) so it’ll work well against enemy Sneak monsters too. Here’s an example picture of such a strategy where KULU MASTERMIND has trained Noa to have a +3 melee attack.
Even though Noa can’t attack from this position, a melee attack like this can prove to be crucial in the end once it’s his turn to be in the first spot. I have used a repair unit with this strategy also and SCAVO HIRELING will either repair Noa’s armour or Isgald Vorsts
Obviously, Kulu and his Weapons Training work best with rulesets that allow Melee monsters to attack from any position but I’ve noticed it sometimes plays out very well even without those.
Equal Ranged Power
You can get pretty creative with Waepons Training if you are walking into a battle with some restrictive rulesets or have a low mana cap.
, both of the teams had only 16 mana to play with and the use of magic was also denied. However, the equalizer ruleset raised the health of all monsters to the level of the monster with the highest health points.
Even though I had to spend 8 mana on AVA THE UNDAUNTED, her Weapons Training ability allowed me to pick two 1 mana units and make them very lethal.
The best trick I pulled was to choose FERNHEART as a summoner because his buff will grant the Close Range ability to all of my units. Now these little guys were both dangerous and could fight until the very end.
Note that Chaos Agents and Creeping Ooze’s abilities, also add to our team and success. It’s like by choosing the right summoner, utilizing Weapons training and choosing a couple of units with good abilities, we get the best value for our mana.
Watch the whole battle
Strange Shapes
Weapons trainees don’t always have to be low-mana cost units but instead, we can choose no-attack monsters which will become absolutely crazy good when a little attack strength is added.
In this example, both GELATINOUS CUBEWILL-O-WISP cost six and in the beginning, when units were created, these two were probably left without an attack for a reason.
That was until the Weapons Training came along.
Here I have placed SKOK DUSKBLIGHT in between them to provide a +2 magic attack to both. Will-O-Wisp will serve as a buffer here because of its Speed and Flying ability while Cube will stay behind to gather those health points during the battle using the Scavenger ability
If being the last monster on the battlefield in the end, Gelatinous Cube will then be a force to reckon with as it has gained a lot of health and can cause some pretty good magic damage too.
Many of these examples didn’t end well but this is still a work in progress. My strategies constantly develop as I discover new combinations with trainers and older, somewhat forgotten cards. Also, the new edition has opened up a door to a whole new set of possibilities.
What makes Weapons Training the most interesting ability in the game is the opportunity to “tune” the non-attacking cards and therefore perhaps surprise the opponent. At the moment I still feel the amount of different combos is endless and can’t wait for what the future brings.
Thank you for reading!
