Oshannus Found New Love

The new epic summoners that will be coming with Riftwatchers are finally revealed. All are equally exciting and are sure will be meta defining. But among them, the one that really got my attention was the water splinter summoner, Aquatus.

Aquatus is a four-mana summoner that gives the Backfire ability to all monsters. Backfire reads as, "If an enemy misses this Monster with an attack, the attacker takes 2 damage." This means that it incentivizes players to use high evasion cards such as these:

Pelacor Bandit

Pelacor Bandit is one of the most versatile card in the water splinter library. It's almost always an auto-include in lineups and can easily squeeze in with its low mana cost. What makes it so good is its high speed matched with flying which grants it high evasion chance from both melee and ranged attacks. It can also be positioned anywhere thanks to its sneak.

Serpent of Eld

Another high speed monster, the Serpent of Eld is a good tank with its armor and high health serving as an insurance whenever enemy attacks actually lands. Like the Pelacor Bandit, it also has an ability that helps it evade melee and ranged attacks. Dodge reads as, "Has an increased chance of evading melee or ranged attacks."

Djinn Oshannus

Djinn Oshannus, in my opinion, is one of the best combo cards for the upcoming Aquatus. Oshannus can take on the role of a tank and rely on its high speed to evade melee, ranged, and magic as well, thanks to its phase ability. In theory, Oshannus can demolish an entire lineup as the Backfire ability coming from Aquatus will deal two damage to enemies whenever Oshannus evades their attacks.

To make this strategy possible, it's important to increase Oshannus' speed even higher and these cards will provide good support:

Both Supply Runner and River Nymph have the Swiftness ability which increases speed by one. Strengthen and Cleanse can also offer good support.

You can also slow the speed of enemy monsters instead. Scavo Hireling and Venator Kinjo are both low mana monsters that can easily fit in lineups. The drawback is that they cannot be relied on offensively.

Water Splinter Meta Changes

The water splinter is traditionally magic attack-focused. Summoners like Alric which gives a magic attack buff were often utilized. As Chaos Legion entered the game, strategies then shifted towards Kelya and melee based lineups were used. Now that Riftwatchers is coming, it's possible that the meta will change once again.

If you're new to Splinterlands and is interested in the game, click the banner below to sign up. Thanks for reading.