Banebow - Wtzky's beginner's guide to SE Heroes v1.5!

[Wtzky]

Wtzky's beginners guide to Shadow Era heroes

Now that the pure of heart Human Hunters have been analysed, let’s take some time too look at the evil Shadow Hunters… Banebow is a hero that was initially overlooked when 1.5 first came out. Until Sisyphos jumped to the top of the quick match leader board exclusively using Banebow. He is now recognised as a strong hero, and one that can certainly dish it out with the best.

Banebow



Faction: Shadow
Class: Hunter
Tier: 1.5
Utilisation: Despite how strong a good Banebow can be, he is still not seen as often as you would expect in tournaments and at the higher levels of quick match. This underutilisation is possibly related to the fact that Banebow is not an easy hero to play effectively.

Pros and Cons (explanations after table):

Pros:	Spammable ability 1	Great against weenie rush decks as is consistently good going first or second1	Versatile – can play rush or control style quite well2	Has spare Shadow Energy to use for other things 3
Cons:	Feeble card draw engine (but slightly better at it than other Hunters) 4	Struggles against certain ally combinations5

¹ Banebow got a nice buff to his ability. His damage is now no longer reducible by other ally abilities and he now has an ability that is very spammable and exerts very nice control over the board. He has a very strong early board presence, thanks in part to this ability, and is often seen heading into the mid game with the board nicely controlled. Going first OR second he can use weenies or ability cards in conjunction with his ability to consolidate his board until he can place his all important beefier allies down. Turns 3 or 4 are what make or break a good Banebow – it will either set your mid game up for a win, or give you a real struggle. All in all there are many ways to approach the early game with Banebow, but whichever way you build your deck, Banebow should be able to consistently compete for the all important early board.

² Banebow has some nice versatility here. He actually can make for a very scary weenie rush deck as he has access to a lot of useful damage booster cards such as hellsteed and bloodlust, as well as having access to the better weenies and his ability which is activated very early on. Banebow is not limited to one style however, and can just as easily be played as a control/build up style using his ability and ability cards for early board control while he sets up his late game fatties. I’ve even experimented with an almost ally-less Banebow which used cards such as his traps, Evil Ascendent and his bows to set the early/mid game up for a late game push. Again, almost all variants should have Banebow focus on some way to get control of the early board, as he is not one of those heroes that can easily wrestle back a flooded board (no mass wipe effects or easy ally removal effects). He is probably best suited as an early-mid game hero, but the door is open for creativity here!

³ With an ability that is so cheap, Banebow can afford to use some shadow energy for cards such as Gravedigger’s Cloak, if he so wishes.

⁴ As with the other Hunter’s, Banebow also suffers from card draw issues. Unlike the other Hunter’s, Banebow is less likely to have his deck filled with items (such as multiple bows like a Gwen, or a lot of traps/arrows like a Victor), and has better early board control, meaning that he loses less tempo by playing Wrath of the Forest and can utilise it a bit better than the others.

⁶ Banebow struggles against Elementalis buffed allies (especially ones that are resistant to his arrows such as Gargoyle) and can also struggle against any allies buffed by Life Infusion or Earthern Protector. The combination of Aeon and Earthern Protector or double Aeon can be particularly nasty to Banebow, and if Banebow doesn’t have the board before the late game hits, these combinations in particular are what seal the game against him.

[Wtzky]

Ease of play for beginners - On a scale of 1-10 where 1 is hardest hero pick up and 10 is easiest hero to pick up:

2

Not an easy one for beginners to use. Really needs a good understanding of how to compose decks, tempo and how to solidify your board and position once you have done so. Once you have a better grasp of the game, definitely look to Banebow as a good hero to buy for your second or third hero.

Good match ups:

Banebow stands a chance versus most heroes to be honest with not many outstanding match up’s which make you grin ear to ear when you see them. The following are quite good match ups for him though (note that I added Shadow Mage’s but left off Human Mage’s – this is because if a Human Mage uses his burn to get a hold of the early game and then drops strong Human fatties such as Aeon or Sandworm, Banebow really starts to struggle).

- Zaladar
- Gravebone
- Majiya
- Logan

Bad match ups:

Decks that carry really tough fatties that he can’t take out easily are generally his worst match ups:

- Elementalis
- Lance (Lance is a tough match up because he often can get the dreaded Aeon + Earthern Protector combo out and can knock out his draw engine of Wrath of the Forest quite easily with Stop, Thief!)
- Ter Adun (a well built Ter Adun with Valiant Defender, fatties and Smashing Blow can stifle Banebow’s draw, his use of Soul Seeker and the ability of his fatties to deal damage to Ter’s board. Luckily for Banebow, well built Ter Adun’s are rare)
- Serena

Best suited style of play:

Early-mid game control

Cost of creating a good deck:

Moderate cost as you can have a decent Banebow using the allies and abilities that come from starter packs.

Combos:

Here I will include some interesting/fun/good plays or combos. For Banebow there aren’t a whole lot of interesting combos, but here are some good plays to help you get control of the board and give you ideas as to good allies to include in your deck. Notice how crucial Brutalis’ ping damage and tough health are to allowing you to pull off combos and maintain board presence? (hint hint)

Ability + Fire/Poison arrow: a cheap and effective way to kill most allies

Brutalis attack + Death Mage entry damage + Banebow ability = Kill a 4hp ally + attack hero/kill 2hp ally

Dark Flayer attack + Death Mage entry damage + Banebow ability = Kills a 3hp ally + 4hp ally

Hellsteed + Brutalis attack + Banebow ability = Kill 4hp ally + attack hero/kill 2hp ally

Banebow ability + Soulseeker = Kill a 4hp ally + heal 3 hp

Soulseeker + Crimson Vest = 5hp heal

Sacrificial Lamb + Wrath of the Forrest = up to 4 cards of unilateral draw if played on the right ally!

Banebow in the future:

Will probably remain around the 1.5 tier. I don’t see him having all the weapons to deal with enough decks that he becomes a straight up tier 1, and he has hung around the tier 1.5-2 region for quite a while and will continue to do so.

Good decks to check out on the forum:

A few threads worth checking out.

http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....-a-lot-of-work – A good banebow deck with some good discussion to follow

http://www.shadowera.com/showthread....-meta-vs-Amber – A few interesting points on how Banebow fits into the meta.

Overall Recommendation:

Banebow may not be everyone’s cup of tea but if you like a hero that can get on the front foot very early and requires some creativity to create a strong deck, look no further. If you are new to the game I would probably recommend you choose Banebow as a 3rd or 4th hero, as he is not the easiest hero to pick up and start using immediately, and a better understanding of the game would help you out greatly!

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[SixDaysShort]

Banebow is, in my opinion, the funnest deck to play because of how you're forced to chain together damage in order to compete with its difficult matchups. As was said in the original post, getting 5 damage together is normally the operation of 3 or more cards in conjunction. That means you have to have or keep at your disposal 3 threats (banebow, brutalis, and soulseeker, for instance) at any time or risk an avalanche. That brings me to my next point.

Likely, the most important card in any banebow deck is "Wrath of the Forest." Because Banebow needs multiple cards to deal with a single threat, keeping card advantage is key. Banebow is absolutely awful at playing catchup. You either deal with a threat the turn it comes out, or you're forced to waste infinitely more cards to deal with it later. This is part of the reason that Banebow struggles against lance so much. Lance's ability instantly puts you in catchup mode. Not only will you have a 5+ toughness threat to deal with...but you'll lose one of your cards in the same turn. You just have to hope that you can still muster together 3 cards the turn after to take down the threat. That's hard to do on turn 6.

Lastly, one thing I'd like to point out is that Banebow does very well against eladwen -- which, considering how common she is, almost makes up for how weak Banebow is against Lance. Very few eladwen's play a large number of fatties; they're mainly weenie rushes. And, barring carte blanche with tome of knowledge, they generally won't keep more than one fattie if they do play them. Banebow can handle it. Soulseeker is too much to overcome for them. But, when playing against mages, Molten Destroyer>PB by a long, long shot.

[Unruler]

Good guide!

But double Aeon is no longer possible.

And I don't quite get how GB is in favorable matchups, because he could run fatties and could resurrect them indefinitely...

[jacqui]

I'd venture to guess that because gravebone's skill does not directly impact the nature of your opponents board. Banebow is great at holding a board, but terrible at regaining it once it's lost. Though, I could conceivably see how a supernova + resurrected fatty could pose a problem.

[Preybird]

And I don't quite get how GB is in favorable matchups, because he could run fatties and could resurrect them indefinitely...

I wouldn't consider Banebow to walk all over Gravebone either. Gravebone's synergy with Supernova is game-changing against a Banebow, and GB can keep board control just as easily (if not more so, as resurrected allies bypass traps).

Still, I have played against some very skilled Banebow players and it's always an uphill battle.

Great guide as always Wtzky!

[Armoek]

Banebow is a great hero but suffers so much from fatty armies. I have found that almost every time I can play a turn 5 fatty into a turn 6 fatty it is an auto win. I'm also not sure why the shadow mages are bad match ups because can't you just play turn 5 MD to turn 6 ogg or you can do a turn 5 fatty and if it is killed do a turn 6 shriek armor then supernova which will kill banebows draw.

[Wtzky]

Good guide!

But double Aeon is no longer possible.

And I don't quite get how GB is in favorable matchups, because he could run fatties and could resurrect them indefinitely...

Sorry, should have specified. By double Aeon I meant Aeon played on say t6, killed by banebow and then played again t7. This is usually the end for Banebow as he often needs to use a combination that includes his ability to remove Aeon (and that's one reason the Aeon + EP combo is so dreaded).

For me, a good Banebow has a better early game and making Gravebone play catch up by casting spells means you get to cast fatties first. SK and WotF is key to beating Gravebone.

I didn't put Elad in the list because I've seen a lot of control Elads who run Sandworms (for Lance) or Aeon or even EP and all three can be a hassle for Banebow.

Thanks for the comments guys

[Junk Style]

Nah.

Nova + portal + GB SE > bane bow

Not every time, but most of the time.

[GotDamned]

Just played against a Gravebone with 2 Sandworms
...
and won, whew

It's hard to catch up, especially against Sandworms & Aeon+EP, but still possible.
Banebow is really a lot of fun