Hoodwink vs Phantom Assassin

How this matchup plays

Drafting Hoodwink into a Phantom Assassin is a bet on your own positioning and your team's ability to peel. PA's entire plan revolves around using Phantom Strike to get on top of a fragile hero and burst them down. Hoodwink is a prime target for this. While the squirrel has tools to survive—Scurry provides escape near trees and Bushwhack can stun—PA's passive Blur makes her a difficult target for anyone to focus down if she commits. This creates a dynamic where one misstep from Hoodwink can mean getting instantly deleted from a fight.

Early on, Hoodwink can hold her own, using Acorn Shot to poke and Bushwhack to set up kills. The matchup starts to tilt once Phantom Assassin gets a Black King Bar. At that point, she can often ignore the stun and simply run Hoodwink down. The squirrel's best play becomes staying at the absolute edge of fights, using her spells for control and saving Sharpshooter for a fleeing target. Trying to channel it on an active PA is asking to be jumped, as it makes Hoodwink a stationary target for the perfect assassination.