An Interview with the HanooStreet. Winner of the Game Week 2 and 3
Hello Weavers, this is Zygote. We just updated our website and this is our first post after the update! Today HanooStreet is joining me for an interview. For those who do not know who Hanoo is; he is one of the top players of in Skyweaver mostly known for his amazing deck building skills and he recently managed to win game week 2 and 3 of the Skyweaverleagues test league. Even though he did not play in game week 1, he is currently 2nd in the SWL test league standings. So with introductions out of the way, grab your coffees and enjoy this look into the thoughts of a Skyweaver mastermind (ZY=Zygote, HN=Hanoo)
ZY-First of all congratulations for winning the game week 2 and 3. Before diving to the questions related to the tournaments lets get to know you.
Can you tell us about yourself and your history with the card games?
HN– A few years ago I started playing a card game called “Stormbound”, is a card game that has a lot of emphasis on positioning as its played on a grid game board. I started playing skyweaver some bit more than a year ago after a friend recommended it to me. Inital impression I really liked the game, I played so much that I think I reached discovery grandweaver in a week after starting? after that I started constructed- which was way harder than discovery. I shudder as I think back on my old decks, remember that my first one was an entwail deck with like, six 1cost units. The most notable event I had while playing skyweaver was when I made a seaweaver otk deck, where you play triple seaweaver and then ramp so much mana, then play a card (nessie) that gained power for each mana you had, then readied it. Lastly I have participated in most of the tournaments that have occured, where I am ashamed to admit that I placed terribly low in each
Zy– Wow reaching Grand Weaver in a week is very impressive. Back in the day queue times were longer compared to today. You showed a great dedication to the game. Also I remember that Seaweaver otk deck, it was very painful to play against you .
This actually shows that you are not just good but also creative with deck building.
What are the important aspects of deck building in the Skyweaver do you think? Maybe some advice for new players?
HN– Queue times weren’t actually that long, discovery has it shorter compared to constructed. I usually do deckbuild by finding some fun synergy between a few cards, and then build a deck topdown around those specific cards. An example of this would be mulligan zam. Another is when looked at the wis units and was like, hey there’s a decent amount of 1c units with 1c attachments, I wonder how that’d work with unophobia? And thats how the current banjo aggro deck that got me to first was made.
ZY– Oh that’s very cool using science to build decks. You made a nice point, mana curve is one of the most important aspects of the card games. I guess new players can implement the tips that you mentioned.
Let’s continue with your favourite prism and favourite cards. What are your favourite cards and prism and why?
HN- My favorite prism is by far banjo, there’s just so many different combos, playstyles and decks that you can do there. For example a deck that I’ll probably make eventually is sphynxmask prismata that guarantee draws manage memory off conjure. Oh I read the question wrong whoops. Alright well to actually answer the question, my favorite prism would be… Intellect. I was gonna say wisdom, but after thinking about it there’s not actually that much interesting things in wis. Int just has a lot of combos, and cards that can snowball crazily and just win the game, but only if you play them right. Examples of that are: Zam, curious, coal dozer, mootichi.
ZY– Intellect is definitely very fun prism to play around. It makes amazing combinations with other prisms, which makes it a support prism in a way. When it’s first released it was a bit more control prism but now we are seeing aggro strategies with that as well, this makes the Intellect very versatile prism. Maybe the most versatile in the game? Idk if you agree?
HN– Yeah int is definitelly the most versatile prism in the game, in fact coulter (or maybe jon) posted an article specifically on the versatility of int as a prism.
ZY- Let’s move to the questions related to the tournaments. You did not play in game week 1 but you are 2nd in the standings by winning two weeks in a row. Which proves us that you are very good at this game.
Can you tell us about the decks you brought to the tournament, especially about the banjo? Why the deck was so effective?
HN– Regarding the decks I brought to the tournament, the non banjo decks were just old filler I threw in because why not, really only planned to play the banjo one.
I think banjo is effective because of the nature of the units it brings. Every single units in the banjo list are not just stat sticks. They do other things. For example, ivy is played for the ensnare, gato for the double banner, bogi for the 1c enemy unit steal, and so on. These units will interact with the board, then leave a small insignificant body behind. these bodies;
-Don’t die to a bannered enemy hero (with the exception of ghost duster).
-Is way too weak of a unit to justify using a single target removal on. For example if you’re playing backstab on a 1/3, that’s really not worth it.
-Can become really strong if the enemy ignores them, since orion and gemini.
-Can keep smacking face for a small bit of damage.
This puts the opponent in a spot where they lose if they ignore the units, and lose if they use single target removal.
That’s normally fine, since the opponent has the opportunity to just fight for board themselves, and use their units to clear my (weaker) units. This is where wis comes into play. Wis has the best small single target removal in the game, shown in whisk away, incinerate, burn to crisp, and so on. These spells can completely oppress the opponents attempt for board. Also, the aoe that I do run (its a trap, salvage), can only damage enemy units, and will not hit mine.
So now the opponent
-Can use their single target removal at the expense of making a losing trade.
-Can ignore my units as they keep chipping away/risk orion or gemini coming in.
-Can fight for board, which I have a lot of removal for. (note that despite being an aggro deck, I’m running 8 removal spells, and several more removal things like bogibogi).
So, if they do any of those 3 things, I win. Not to mention the eventual threat of unophobia.
Tip; if you play enough aoe, banjo loses.
ZY– Wow, you explained the deck perfectly and showed its strengths to us. I guess even a skilled player can learn from the things you mentioned about the banjo deck. I especially like the aspect of using weak units that opponent tends to ignore most of the time and later these units punish them.
Your final games with bacon were amazing to watch. How did you feel during those games, especially after bacon managed to even the scores. You both played the same decks for 3 games. You mentioned that you were planning to use Banjo for all games, but did you consider a change for any of those games? And why do you think Bacon played the Axel for all of the games ,what was the reason behind this?
HN– Well as bacon mentioned, he played axel because we wanted to show how good axel was, and how it needed to be nerfed. Also, im sure bacon is gonna quote me on this, but horik does not have a good matchup against aggro unless you run a huge amount of aoe spells. Which he did not. I did not consider changing decks, because etherwail loses to axel 99% of the time with all the hard removal it has. My third deck I don’t even remember anymore, was probably hot trash.
ZY- Speaking of nerfs and strong decks, some key cards from Axel, Horik and Banjo already got nerfed. In which direction do you think the meta will shape after the latest pacth?
HN– Horik was nerfed pretty hard, but there wasn’t really anything in axel or banjo that was greatly affected. Axel unlike horik, does not need to rely on mummy graveroil to heal, so I think it’d still be fine. In fact, axel may even be stronger now that they can run mummies with undergrowth and unfallow. Banjo got nerfed through meng’long, which was decently substantial however, I dont think banjo needs meng’long and it will probably continue to be s-tier. The meta is definitely going into a more aggro oriented side though, with things like fox definitely being able to be s-tier if someone decides to devote enough testing to it.
ZY- Let's finish with a classic. Only 2 weeks left, how do you rate your chances to come out number one and win the whole test league?
HN– I think it’s possible. There’s plenty of people who in the test league who are scary, but banjo aggro I’m confident is one of the best decks as of now.
ZY– Thank you for taking part in this interview, it was great to listen your thoughts and learn about you. Good luck for upcoming weeks.
HN– Thank you too for the interview