Jonathan wrote:My experience is Gank is best run with PA, BH, Lich, and/or econ. With 5 or 6 HP your Ganks lose a lot of value. I'd swap for Pick Off.
So your game plan is Mana turn 4 d portal, then Conflag/March, then Eclipse? This means you need the Luna left of Kanna, which you can't guarantee, or else there's a good chance you lose a lot of creeps from the D portal before your Eclipse.
I think you are going to want to think about ways to consistently keep Mana turn 4 D portal creeps alive. Strafing? Keenfolk Turret? Ignite? Not sure but I think it's the linchpin of your strategy.
I played a couple games with it, one vs mono blue - lost as much due to multiple misplays as due to my opponent playing an optimized S tier deck. I was able to get a second tower to 4 HP with a March placed in the lane to finish it off, but he was able to get 2 Sanctums in that lane, used a Demagicking Maul, then had multiple Thundergods, Eclipses, Mystic Flares to prevent me from doing anything in that lane. In a previous turn I was too scared of At Any Cost, and instead of playing a 6 dog Prey on the Weak I got flustered with the countdown and played a totally ineffective Eclipse instead. Not sure if he had the At Any Cost, but he had two blue heroes with more than 6 HP in the lane and my Kanna was at 6 HP. I think in that situation, since I was unfavored, the high risk/high reward play (Prey) would have been correct (especially since I had no other impactful plays). Second one was vs B/R (won). In both games it felt better than my old list. I was having trouble keeping heroes alive with my old list, and just didn't have plays that could put me ahead. I could set up lanes with Improvements but wasn't able to make plays since I was too reliant on D Portals and being forced to invest too heavily in one lane. The new list has creeps that can make an impact. Against R/B I was able to counter a Stonehall Elite with an Untested Grunt, and play Censors to get ahead in a lane. If I don't draw D Portal it doesn't mean I autolose. Gank still seems ok with just PA, though I agree that it becomes a lot more limited with Sorla and Tinker as my other Black heroes. It was the game winner in the R/B game - I had taken mid with Oath on Tinker and PA. He deployed two heroes mid to prevent any possibility of 80. He had LC with 11 health in left lane with BH at 5 HP, countering Kanna with a lane evenly matched with my creeps/dogs and his creeps and an Ogre Conscript. I had Sorla and Luna both ready to deploy next round. I was able to Blink PA to right lane, then Ganked LC down to 1 HP, leading to a March upkeep kill, enabling my 6 charge Eclipse to be a full lane clear.
