Hi, everyone. Welcome to my post. In the Social Media Challenge, I will discuss anything about SPLINTERLANDS, it can be about cards, abilities, rulesets, battle reviews, End of Season results, or my playing experience.

in this post, I will explain the WEAPON TRAINING ability, the newest ability from SPLINTERLANDS, how to best use it, and its advantages and disadvantages.

WEAPON TRAINING

Adjacent monsters gain half this Monster's attack if they have no attacks themselves

WEAPON TRAINING is a new ability that was introduced at the end of January 2023. This ability was introduced along with the emergence of SOULBOUND REWARD CARDS which replaced the existing CHAOS LEGION REWARDS CARDS. REWARD CARDS themselves are cards that you can get in one of the treasure chests as a reward for players who play the Daily Quest in the SPLINTERLANDS game.

What distinguishes SOULBOUND REWARD CARDS from other REWARD CARDS is that we cannot trade SOULBOUND REWARD CARD after we get it. We can only sell it when SPLINTERLANDS announces to stop its circulation from the reward chest and replace it with the 2nd wave of SOULBOUND REWARD CARDS (we also need to do several steps before we can sell it to the available Market).

Each element (FIRE, WATER, EARTH, LIFE, DEATH, DRAGON) gets 1 monster each with WEAPON TRAINING ability in SOULBOUND REWARD CARDS, and the monsters have LEGENDARY rarity.

^{FIRE and WATER get Melee monsters, EARTH and DRAGON get Ranged monsters, LIFE and DEATH get Magic monsters.}

A few months later, SPLINTERLANDS announced 1 additional monster that will have the WEAPON TRAINING ability. These monsters are

(for now) Zyriel is the only monster with WEAPON TRAINING ability that can be traded and a monster that has 2 ELEMENTS. This means that Zyriel can be used in formations of the 2 elements (LIFE and DEATH).

Pros and Cons

The advantage of WEAPON TRAINING ability is of course that it gives NO ATTACK monsters the opportunity to attack the opponent's monsters. NO ATTACKS monsters (in my opinion) have more varied abilities than monsters that already have base ATTACK POWER, so while we give NO ATTACK monsters one of the 3 types of ATTACK TYPE (Melee, Ranged, Magic), we also get additional buffs (or give additional de-buffs to the opponent) from NO ATTACK monsters.

As for the disadvantages, the granting of ATTACK POWER is valid only as long as the monster with WEAPON TRAINING ability is still in the battle arena (not yet defeated) and the ATTACK POWER given is only half of the ATTACK POWER of the monster with WEAPON TRAINING ability (2 for Melee and Ranged, 1 for Magic).

And even if NO ATTACK monsters get ATTACK POWER later, they will still take 2 times the damage when successfully attacked by monsters with OPPRESS ability.

	OPPRESS: Does double damage when attacking an enemy that has no attacks

Another drawback of using monsters with WEAPON TRAINING ability is the wrong decision-making. As we know, there is a Mana limit in every battle. If you still insist on bringing NO ATTACK monsters along with monsters with WEAPON TRAINING abilities, there is a possibility that you miss the opportunity to use monsters that have a higher ATTACK POWER which is the same amount of Mana as NO ATTACK monsters,

The best way to use it

The best way to use them is to not place monsters with WEAPON TRAINING ability in the frontmost or rearmost positions. For Melee monsters with WEAPON TRAINING ability, it requires a special Ruleset so that 2 NO ATTACK monsters that receive ATTACK POWER can attack (Melee monsters or NO ATTACK monsters that receive additional Melee attack power can only attack in the first position if they do not have abilities such as OPPORTUNITY, SNEAK, and REACH).

MELEE MAYHEM, SUPER SNEAK, and EQUAL OPPORTUNITY are Rulesets that are required for 2 NO ATTACK monsters that get Melee Attack power to be able to attack the opponent's monsters.

Below is one example where I used Melee monsters with WEAPON TRAINING abilities in one of the specialized Rulesets...

BATTLE

The ruleset this time was HOLY PROTECTION, SUPER SNEAK, and AIMLESS. And I decided to use Kulu Mastermind to give Attack power to my 2 NO ATTACK monsters (Noa the Just and Clockwork Aide). I put Noa the Just at the very end because it has the DODGE ability (which allows it to dodge Melee or Ranged monster attacks).

To optimize the DODGE ability, I chose monsters and summoners that can increase SPEED or reduce the opponent's SPEED. Baakjira and Venator Kinjo are in charge of reducing the opponent's SPEED with SLOW abilities, Kelya Frendul and Clockwork Aide add SPEED to all my monsters)

I also included Flying Squid which has a BLIND ability to reduce the accuracy of attacks from opposing monsters.

Since the opponent only brought 2 Melee monsters (Cursed Windeku as TANK and Silent Sha-vi in the last position), Noa the Just was not in a dangerous situation. Instead, it was the opponent who was in a dangerous situation. Because I focused my attacks using only 1 ATTACK TYPE which is Melee Attack. Noa the Just and Clockwork Aide got Melee Attack power from Kulu Mastermind. As a result, Silent Sha-vi lost twice in 1 round (he was revived by Skok Duskblight).

Several attacks from opponent monsters failed to hit their targets due to the SPEED difference (and/or BLIND de-buff). Lira the Dark failed to hit Venator Kinjo, Venari Marksrat failed to hit Flying Squid, and Cursed Windeku failed to hit Baakjira. Meanwhile, the attacks from the opponent's Magic monsters can still hit their targets.

One of my opponent's Magic monsters managed to defeat Clockwork Aide (so I lost 1 additional SPEED)

Although Cursed Windeku got an increase in STATS due to the defeat of Venari Marksrat, it was not enough to survive the attacks of my 4 Melee monsters (3 Melee monsters and 1 NO ATTACK monster that got melee Attack power).

For a more complete view of the battle and to know the final result, you can check out...
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_00f4d79db7c18d0cc6775c5b65d270bf&ref=vrezyy

Those are the kinds of things I discussed in this Social Media Challenge. Thank you for reading to the end and see you in other discussions in next week's Social Media Challenge.

<sub>For those of you who are curious and want to experience how fierce the battles are in the Modern League but haven't joined Splinterlands yet, you can use THIS LINK.

Link to this week's Social media Challenge (Here)</sub>