Many cards from all three sets of Ani-Mayhem offer one shot deals that make your Characters stronger, or give them higher Attack or Defense ratings for the duration of a Combat. But why not try to keep them higher for as long as your cards remain on the table? Combat Training from Set 0 offers you this flexibility, plus more!
Adding +1 Attack and +1 Defense to all of your current Characters is more than enough to make any player smile, but the extra ability of having this card remain on the table until an opponent can do something about it is well worth its limitations as a Global Effect. Being able to play only 1 per turn can seem like it's dragging along, but once you have 3 on the table, you soon realize that the extra +3 Attack and +3 Defense to each of your Characters can even make your lowly Ryo-Ohki (Cabbit) seem like a tank. Couple this strategy with Palace Guards from Set 0 and you should have a dominating force that would make even the DBZ set cry.
What are the possible pitfalls? Well, cards that discard your cards from play, or Bonk your Characters right away may be more effective since your Characters are much larger. And these bonuses do not affect the base Health scores of your Characters, so once someone is able to overcome the current bonus Defense score, they may be able to Bonk or Kill your Character with ease. Cards like Hey,you're not dead! from DBZ, and Reverse Attack from Set 0 can be valuable Flash Effects to put into your deck to aid you in these situations.
Power players can really build some hefty decks that use massive Attack scores to hit opposing Characters from locations away! (Think Power Pole, a promotional DBZ card.)
So weather it's the little extra "umph" you need to survive through the game, or it's the huge power Characters your crave, no Character damage based deck should be without 3 Combat Trainings!
- by Nick "SuperRyoga" Szankovics