This post was made as entry for Splinterlands Social Media Challenge.
I was cooking this post since last week and was supposed to be released on Christmas. A lot of things happened and I ended up doing another one so while it may be a bit late, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas as we battle with our favorite Claus inside Splinterlands.
I was planning to try this one when I saw the abilities he had. Like I said, a lot happens most of the time and some things get delayed. Grimbardun Smith is also not that cheap to rent at max level which is another factor.
This experience is an eye opening one. When you look at Grimbardun Smith's stats and abilities, you would think that he's really strong. He fits most of what you want on a tank and Weapons Training can fix that obvious weakness. As I do this experiment, I realized that not everything is roses and cotton candies. I guess, that's what you call expectations vs. reality.
This Week's Theme is…
Units with the lowest Speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks.
Reverse Speed is such a niche rule set. Most of the times, it doesn't help but there are times where your unit's very weakness becomes the core strength making them gods. This is what happened with Grimbardun Smith and his 1 Speed.
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Battle Factors
Mana: 33
Active Elements: Water, Earth, Death, Dragon
Watchus Fighticus! Replay battles that are oh-so-victorious!
Click here to watch the full battle!
Battle Strat: I decided to use units with no attacks to give them one with Weapons Training. Grimbardun Smith, a unit with lowest Speed works well with all the rule set and the condition for the Weapons Training. This is why I placed him in between two units with Weapons Training, Skok Duskblight and Zyriel, giving him both 3 magic attack and 3 range attack. To top this off, I also had Lorkus give him Affliction and Life Leech along with that increased magic attack to make Grimbardun Smith the best unit in this battle.
Battle Summary: While I was slightly get countered by the enemy's Immortalis, it still went as I imagine it to be. The mixed damage of Range and Magic attacks helped not to be fully countered by Immortalis's Void and their low magic attack only served to hit Grimbardun Smith's Void blocking majority of the enemy's damage.
Lineup and Strategy
|| All friendly Monsters have +1 Melee damage.
|| All friendly Monsters have +1 Magic damage.
|| When this unit hits a target, it has a 50% chance of applying Affliction on the target causing it to be unable to be healed.
|| Unit's health increases each time it damages an enemy Unit's health by half the damage dealt.
|| When a Unit with Trample hits and kills its target with a Melee attack, it will perform another Melee attack on the next Unit on the enemy Team.
|| This Unit does double damage to targets with the Taunt ability.
Why pick this summoner: Lorkus is the best summoner on the game for me. He is like Obsidian that can increase magic attack of your units but with more added abilities.
|| Has a 25% chance of evading melee or ranged attacks.
|| Magic attacks can miss this Unit (using the same hit/miss calculation as Melee and Ranged attacks).
|| If an enemy misses this Unit with an attack, the attacker takes 2 damage.
Why pick this unit: I had an extra mana so I added Chaos Agent in. Due to his high speed, he was able to do a bit of damage with Skok Duskblight's Weapons Training before dying.
|| Adjacent units with no attack gain thisi unit's attack, up to a maximum of 3. || This Unit does double damage to targets with the Taunt ability.
|| When a friendly Unit dies it is brought back to life with 1 Health. This ability can only trigger once per battle.
Why pick this unit: I learned that this unit is something that you can get as a reward for playing the game. I wished on the back of my mind that I played during those times. This is one of the best unit with Weapons Training ability because of how good the Death element units that you can use Weapons Training on.
|| This Unit is immune to negative status effects.
|| Reduced damage from Magic attacks by 50%.
|| Reduced damage from Melee and Ranged attacks by 50%.
|| Restores a third of max armor to the friendly Unit whose armor has taken the most damage.Why pick this unit: Has a very good raw stats. The combination of Shield and Void abilities are a good reason to use Grimbardun Smith. If you use him as an attacker with Weapons Training, make sure that you have units that increases speed or use a Weapons Training with Magic because he would miss a lot.
|| Adjacent units with no attack gain thisi unit's attack, up to a maximum of 3. || Unit's health increases each time it damages an enemy Unit's health by half the damage dealt.
|| The first time the Unit takes damage it is ignored.
|| Reduces the Armor of all enemy Units by 2.Why pick this unit: Another Weapons Training unit that I used when I realized that you can stack Weapons Training to units. I did wish to use xxx instead, a unit with Melee Weapons Training so Lorkus can increase both the Magic and Melee attacks of the units. Zyriel is still good and a solid pick since she has Life Leech and Rust which works good when your enemies uses units with Protect.
|| Has a 25% bonus chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from Units who do not have the flying ability.
|| Gains 1 max health each time any Unit dies. || If an enemy misses this Unit with an attack, the attacker takes 2 damage.
|| Reduces the Ranged attack of all enemy Units by 1.Why pick this unit: One of the great units in Death Splinter. Has really high speed which is good for deterring enemy Sneaks and no attack so he can learn from Zyriel's Weapons Training. The high Speed also works good with Zyriel to make sure his new range attacks hit.
Summary
If I posted this during the Christmas season, it would be perfect. Still, this was a fun experiment as well as a new experience. I knew Weapons Training was strong based on how the ability works. I thought that it would be inherently strong regardless of whom I used it to. The main problem arise when it's not Reverse Speed rule set and every single of Grimbardun Smith's Range attack from Zyriel's Weapons Training missed. That 1 Speed became very problematic especially since most of the unit he encountered has 3 speed and up. If it worked properly though, the result is like what you've seen. That was a really strong unit with two Weapons Training unit supporting him and each attack gives him a separate health from Life Leech and an Affliction chance through Lorkus's Summoner Tactics ability.
Disclaimer
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About the Author
Hi! I’m Mavis, a Splinterlands fanatic and total Harry Potter fanatic (seriously, I can recite spells on demand! 🤓 ).
Besides being a gamer and wizard at heart, I’m also a self-taught coder. I'm happy that I was able to apply the recent knowledge I gained when making posts in Hive. (Thanks friend!)
If you consider playing Splinterlands, support me by using my referral link.
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