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In our last episode, we discussed the Boros-centric Mentor ability, whereby larger attackers strengthen younger cohorts in battle. Now we'll flip the script to Training, where it's the whelps who'll earn their own +1/+1 counters. We're still very much in aggro-territory, as Training is an attack trigger. Thus, ready your holy mace for combat, cause we're headed back to the Red Zone!
Introduced as the White/Green mechanic of Crimson Vow, Training gave the beleaguered townsfolk a fighting chance against eternal darkness. In the previous Midnight Hunt, nights on Innistrad were starting to get longer. Seeing as vampires and werewolves are common on this plane, you can imagine how this would be a problem for the locals. With each minute of daylight lost, their time on the dinner menu grews painfully longer. Despite the Dawnheart Coven's attempts to revive the sunrise via The Celestus and Moonsilver Key, werewolves and vampires had other plans. The ritual was crashed by the likes of Tovolar, Dire Overlord // Tovolar, the Midnight Scourge and Olivia Voldaren, both of whom were quite happy with the prospect of an endless night. Olivia swiftly dispatches Katilda, Dawnhart Prime (don't worry, she gets better) and steals the Moonsilver Key. Then, in a move so bold only a centuries-old vampire diva could plan it, Olivia organizes a wedding to claim political power over Innistrad. She's entranced Edgar, Charmed Groom to matrimony, looking to unite two of the most powerful vampire houses on all of Innistrad and thus grasp control of the plane in her iron grip.
As you can imagine, the humble peoples of Innistrad were none too pleased with these proceedings. Eternal night not only lets various ghouls roam free, but I imagine drastically cuts into harvest yields. Agriculture isn't really a thing without the sun, you know. So naturally, our heroes Teferi, Kaya, Chandra, and even Sorin in the end, sought to crash Olivia's wedding, steal back the Moonsilver Key, and restore sunlight to an already gloomy-plane. At their side was world-wide rabble of angry citizens. You've only to glance at Glorious Sunrise to glean how the story ends, much to the delight of the plane's humans.
Honestly, if there were ever a people who deserved a vacation, it'd be Innistrad's inhabitants. The poor souls had to deal with Avacyn's disappearance (Helvault), followed by her descent into madness (Avacyn's Judgment). And then, once Sorin took it upon himself to deal with Avacyn (Anguished Unmaking), various folks on Innitrad began mutating into Eldritch beings under Emrakul, the Promised End. The Gatewatch might've handled that (sort of, as it's implied Auntie Em wanted to be Imprisoned in the Moon, but the respite was brief, as suddenly the nights began to grow longer. Hell, even after the victory in Crimson Vow, the citizens of Innistrad would still have to deal with an army of mechanical terrors in March of the Machines (Invasion of Innistrad).
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Gotta hand it to them, though: Innistrad's peoples don't let calamity keep them down for long. In the case of Crimson Vow, their response to eternal night was to pick up a sword and start practicing. Thus, we have the Training ability. Whenever a creature with Training attacks, if its power is less than that of another attacker, the smaller creature will get a +1/+1 counter. At a glance, this appears to be the mirror image of the Mentor ability. Only here, it's the smaller creature giving themselves the counter. They function similarly, both being attack-based triggered abilities that care about power levels, but there are some key differences between the two. Training is the more forgiving in that, unlike Mentor, it only checks power levels once: Upon attacks, when the trigger first goes onto the stack. Once the trigger is on the stack, so long as the criteria of another larger attacker is met, the creature with Training will get the +1/+1 counter. If you bump up that creature's power further before the ability resolves, say via a combat trick like Jump Scare, it'll still receive the counter. This differs from Mentor, which checks both upon the trigger and again upon resolution. In the case of Jump Scare, the added power boost would negate the Mentor counter if it brought the smaller attacker's past that of an attacking Mentor creature.
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Things get complicated when both Training and Mentor stand side by side. You'll need to be mindful of how you resolve triggers in order to gain the full benefit. For example, let's say you had a Parish-Blade Trainee attack alongside a Boros Challenger. Upon attack, both the Training and Mentor triggers go onto the stack, but two different scenarios play out depending on how you order them. If you have Mentor resolve first, it'll check that the Parish-Blade has less power than the Challenger before placing the +1/+1 counter. In this case, the Parish-Blade is still a 1/2, so the counter would be added. When the Training trigger then resolves second, it doesn't care what power level the Parish-Blade has. It only checked if there was a bigger attacker once the Parish-Blade turned sideways. Because the Parish-Blade was attacking alongside the larger Boros Challenger when they both attacked, its condition is considered met and the Parish-Blade will receive another +1/+1 counter. At the end of combat, provided everyone survives the skirmish, you'll be left with a 3/4 Parish-Blade Trainee.
However, if you resolved the Training ability first, you'd lose out on the Mentor counter. When both creatures attack, Training would check to ensure something bigger than the Trainee was attacking alongside it. Boros Challenger is currently bigger, so Training would place a +1/+1 counter onto the Trainee. When Mentor resolves next, it'll check the current power level of the Trainee and see that it's 2, the same power as the Challenger, so no counter would be placed. Mentor not only targets a creature, but also checks that's its power is lower than the Mentor creature both when the ability goes onto the stack and upon resolution, so a Parish-Blade Trainee that already has a +1/+1 counter on it wouldn't qualify for the Boros Challenger's +1/+1 counter from Mentor.
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Gotta be careful how you stack your triggers, folks! In most scenarios, you're going to want to resolve Mentor first. This is especially true in the presence of trigger-doubling effects. Throw Isshin, Two Heavens as One into the mix, and the two Mentor triggers will only place a single counter onto the Parish-Blade. The first trigger brings it from a 1 power to 2, then the second Mentor trigger doesn't resolve because the Parish-Blade's power now matches the Challenger. Both Training counters will be applied, as Training only cares about whether Parish-Blade has a larger fellow attacker the upon attacks, the moment the ability went onto the stack. Upon resolution, Training doesn't care how big the creature is. If it was smaller than another attacker at the upon declaration of attacks, that creature will get the +1/+1 counters. However, if you let the two Training instances resolve first, the Parish-Blade's power would be 3 by the time the Mentor triggers got around to checking, so you'd miss out on those counters.
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Though this is an ability I could easily see coming back in future sets, currently only a scant few creatures possess the Training ability. Twelve in total, and 25% of them come from Universes Beyond. Most well known is likely Ryu, World Warrior (or Vikya, Scorching Stalwart if you'd prefer to keep things in-universe), who perfectly fits the training motif. As a character, Ryu is on a constant mission to train-fight-improve. It encompasses his entire life, to the point where he has few friends and almost zero social life, outside the occasional sparring match with [[Ken, Burning Brawler]]. I'm less familiar with the Fallout and Dr. Who franchises, so I'll analyze their cardboard avatars from a purely mechanical stance. Elder Arthur Maxson grants your creature tokens, many of which are likely 1/1 soldiers, the Training ability. Because he possess 4-power on his own, plus an ability to protect himself at the cost of one of your token's lives, it's likely Arthur will amp up the other token creatures a few times before they match his power. Jenny Flint takes the ability into Izzet, and often 4-color strategies once partnered with Madame Vastra. Jenny has the synergistic ability to power up other creatures whenever you sacrifice a Clue or Food token. By strengthening other troops, you increase the likelihood of Jenny getting a +1/+1 counter from Training each combat.
Though seems excessive to explore such mechanical depths for a simple +1/+1 counter, remember that every little point of damage matters. For decks looking to win in the red zone, added power is a vital key toward victory. Especially if your creatures get progressively larger, and thus more relevant, as the game progresses. Despite their meek backgrounds, the citizens of Innistrad were able to crash a vampire-wedding and restore sunlight to their world. No small amount of combat training was practiced along the way to ensure oaken stake met vampire before fangs met neck.
Thanks for reading, and best of luck with whatever training life throws at you!
-Matt-
