Hello there! @saydie here, playing Splinterlands everyday!
This will be my second entry for this week's Community Engagement Challenge with the task of providing a detailed guide for using specific cards or combinations effectively in battles.
Yesterday, I made a post about the Camouflage- Sustain #SplinterlandsCardStrategy which is rather than to focus on inflicting as much damage to the opponent focuses more on defense and sustain it while slowly depleting the life of your opponent. This time, I'm gonna share a different strategy which makes full use of the non- damage units by giving them attack through the help of Weapon's Training ability. As usual, I will also include some of my battles that will illustrate how this strategy works.
Weapon's Training Strategy
Ever since the game's beginning, there were multiple cards that were created with no damage. For the longest time, the role of this cards were to serve as a damage sponge or an ability that would boost the capability of the team then are also times where they possesses an ability that could counter or nerf the opponent. On it's own, it cannot attack but that all end with the introduction of the Weapon's Training ability and with that, a new strategy was born that utilizes the non-damage cards by giving them attack and for this to happen we need:
Cards With Weapon's Training Ability
Weapon's Training was a new ability that was first introduced with the Chaos Legion Soulbound Rewards. What this ability does was to give attack on units with no damage that was adjacent to this card, up to a maximum of 3 damage. The attack that was given through Weapon's Training cannot be dispelled and will persist even with the Weapon's trainer dies. We can also place non- damage cards in between 2 Weapon's trainer and it will gain both of its attack as long as the two Weapon's Trainer has different attack types but in case they were the same, the non- damage unit will gain damage form the Weapon's Trainer with the highest attack. Currently, we have 12 cards with Weapon's Training ability and they were:
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Non- Damage (0 attack) Cards
Any cards with 0 attack falls in this category and since they have no attack, their positioning when in terms of building a lineup very much defends on what type of attack the Weapon's trainer. With Melee, it usually goes on or close in the first position while with range and magic makes them placed in the middle or the back of the lineup. There are also times where rulesets can affect the positioning of this cards such as Melee Mayhem or Equal Opportunity that makes for melee units the ability to attack regardless of their position as well as for a non- damage unit that was given a melee attack. Because of this, it will be more possible to place non- damage units in between 2 cards with Weapon's training ability, giving them multiple attacks. Here are some examples of non- damage units that are currently playable for modern ranked battles.
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One thing to note about using non-damage units is that even though they were given an attack with the help of Weapon's Training they will still receive double damage when attacked by cards with Oppress ability.
Battle Showcase
Now that we have the necessary pieces for this strategy, let's now go with some battles to have you see this strategy in action.
Battle 1: Training Pelacor Conjurer and Nimbledook Explorer with Aves Sturgis
On this battle, I have placed the Weapon's Training cards Aves Sturgis in between Pelacor Conjurer which has cost 2 mana and Nimbledook Explorer that cost 4 mana, both non- damage units and has given them 3 magic, giving me 6 more damage for only 6 mana and since Nimbledook Explorer has the Armored Strike ability, it was also able to inflict another 5 damage, making it for a total of 11 additional damage while also reducing my mana consumption, allowing me to include high mana cards within my lineup. Also since they were given with magic attack, they were able to bypass the opponent's armor, directly inflicting the damage to the opponents health not to mention that with Equal Opportunity ruleset, they will always try to attack the monsters with the lowest health.
The damage that was inflicted by Nimbledook Explorer has proven to be quite effective in finishing of my opponents with a total of 8 damage in just 1 turn so the battle ends quickly within 3 turns.
Battle 2: Training Thane Newsong and Clockwork Aide with Ava the Undaunted
For this next battle, I have Thane Newsong and Clockwork Aide as my two non- damage unit both of which have the Swiftness and Strengthen ability, increasing the speed and health of all my cards and together with Supply Runner, my team was able to have increased its health and speed by 3 along with Rust from Clockwork Aide which reduces the armor of the opponent and the Headwinds from Thane Newsong which reduces the range attack of all opponent units. Then, by placing Ava the Undaunted, I was able to give both non-damage units with 3 range attack each.
Having multiple speed boost has allowed me to be able to attack faster than my opponent despite them giving their team +2 speed during the tactics phase which have resulted for my team to easily win the battle.
Battle 3: Training Will-o Wisp and Riftwing with Skok Duskblight
For the last battle, I have Will-o Wisp and Riftwing as my non-damage units which has Silence and Headwinds. that reduces the magic and rage attacks of all opponent units as long as this cards remain on battle and with the use of Skok Duskblight, I was able to train this two cards to have magic attack which happens to be very effective against my opponent. Also, using Skok Duskblight has allowed me to use the Resurrect ability on Ujurak Brave when it was defeated, making for it to be able to absorb more of the opponent attacks.
At the same time, Riftwing has the Scavenger ability which allows it to increase its max health by +1 for every monster that was defeated in battle, giving it a total of 16 health at the end of the battle so even if the opponent were able the cards that were in front of it, reducing all those health will prove to be an arduous task which becomes harder since Riftwing can also attack.
Closing
Like I said with my previous post, there is no such thing as a perfect strategy and there will always be counters into it. Before deciding whether using this strategy or not in the battle, always consider the available rulesets and manacaps as well as the previous battle history of your opponent then anticipate what will be their move to base what strategy will you use.
Thank you and see you on the next post!
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All the image that I edited here belongs to Splinterlands.
Card abilities and rulesets from Splintercards
All the battle links provided comes from my personal accounts and from the scholar account that I am using from Balthazar Guild.
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