There's no one size fits all strategy to get ahead in Splinterlands, so I have to constantly make changes to get ahead. This time, the change I made involved trading a couple of summoners and in my book, improving the battle proficiency of my water Splinter.
For a while, I've avoided using my water monsters because the summoner was underwhelming. No offence to the rift watchers collection but that Aquatus Epic summoner doesn't quite work for me.
Aquatus offers the backfire ability to all friendly monsters, which is only triggered when an opponent misses the target. Considering that I don't actually have any speedy monster in this Splinter to take advantage of this buff, I don't see the purpose of the ability.
So, for a while now, I've generally avoided using water Splinter because of the summoner. That's all changed now though, as I added Bortus to my collection thanks to a well-timed airdrop.
Buying Bortus
Recall that I was fortunate to receive three normal foiled Immortalis in the last Chaos Legion Summoner airdrop. I spent some time pondering over whether to keep or sell that monster for something else, and Bortus came in.
At the time of writing, Immortalis trades for around $9.8, a small rise from the $8.5 it was prized when I received it. So, I put all three of them on the market and then added 28 BCX of Bortus water summoner into my collection.
Like I said at the start of the publication, there's no universal setup in Splinterlands and the qualities of monsters are only subjectively based on the requirements of your deck. So, while I decided to swap in Bortus in place of Aquatus, I'm not categorically saying that Bortus is a better asset to own.
For my deck though, Bortus offers better value in terms of battle proficiency than Aquatus currently adds. I don't think I've actually played a battle with Aquatus where the backfire ability was triggered but in just my first battle with Bortus, I've already felt the benefit of reducing my opponent's magic.
On the other side of the coin, it is essential to note that while Bortus is better for my deck, Aquatus is an epic summoner from a mini collection, so it is scarcer, which means that it is not out of the question to think that Aquatus could be more valuable than Bortus in the near future.
Also, Aquatus offers 100 DEC collection power per BCX, whereas Bortus offers only 40, meaning it offers more value for players looking for collection power to climb up the ranks. This translates to Aquatus being the more expensive option but that can't be helped.
At the end of the day, there are benefits for and against both monsters, but I think Bortus serves me better than Aquatus would. Assuming I had a Phantom and Ruller of the seas, I'd probably think differently but I can only work with what I have.