Combolands Guard Tower and Sparring Dummy removal build

Feed the Tower a real removal event

The pictured Guard Tower card states both conditions: a building in range must be removed, and the Tower then triggers one random adjacent building. Players answering the “martial gets nowhere” thread stress the same point — it needs removal to trigger. Opening turns therefore belong to ordinary Training scorers such as a Barracks, which earn while you assemble the removal loop, not to a Tower placed in hope.

Sparring Dummy: fuel and receiver in one

The overview gives Sparring Dummy its working role: it supplies remove tokens, it carries the Training trigger you want repeated, and it can be placed again after being removed. Two placement facts decide whether the loop actually pays. First, the Dummy must be standing adjacent to the Tower at the moment another in-range building is removed — the random pick only chooses among current neighbours. Removing the Dummy itself spends the fuel and the receiver at once: an absent Dummy cannot be picked, so re-placing it afterwards is a separate action, not part of the same trigger. Second, when the pick does land on the Dummy, its Training trigger pays the Training scorers inside the Dummy’s own shown target range — a Barracks parked outside that range gains nothing from the repeat.

Random means random: curate the adjacency

Because the Tower picks one random adjacent building, every extra neighbour dilutes the chance of hitting the Dummy. Keep the Tower’s adjacent set to buildings you actually want triggered. The pictured Banner shows the mirror-image design: it triggers when removed and gives each adjacent building +0.3 mult — a buff, not a score of its own. That makes it compatible fuel for the same loop when it is removed inside the Tower’s shown range and adjacent to the buildings you actually want buffed. A Ballista is a different random device entirely: it rotates to face a random direction, and nothing in the sources lets you aim either die roll.

When the build won't fire

1. No remove source: the Tower never watches a removal. Sparring Dummy or another token source comes first; a hammer-type tool can substitute when the run offers one.
2. Removal happens, Tower stays quiet: the removed building was outside the Tower’s shown range. Range, not adjacency, gates the first event.
3. Tower fires, Dummy does nothing: the random pick went elsewhere, or the Dummy was not adjacent. Re-check the neighbour set before blaming the chain.
4. No sand or legal ground for the opener: map conditions decide whether martial opens at all; scout before the guild lock, as the thread’s responders advise.
5. Tempted by paint loops: Ghost on the Dummy or Rainbow on the Tower is an author-level idea that needs live tag checks — not a guaranteed engine. Field Hospital is documented as not a natural Training target; do not slot it into the default plan.

If the run cannot supply removals, let the other guild carry scoring and keep this as a two-card module. The guild pair plans cover that split, and Railroad can extend the adjacency you curate — it still starts no event itself.