There is probably no better person to talk to about metagame than a random player, and Axslav seems to have a great respect for the tactical and strategic emphasis certain players have on the game, and appreciates the influence this has on the overall metagame.

Were there any inspirational players that you looked up to when starting out?

Definately all of the Ideal clan members inspired each other. Most of us were knowledgeable on military history and all the basic tactical strategical concepts. Ideal-Hero (now plays poker for tons of money) especially helped me out a lot and together we worked out some really great tactics in 1v1 and 2v2.

I'll always remember an epic game against Ideal-Trixster on LT where I was winning by a large margin but then he tricked/lured me into landing my lvl 10/9 heroes on the island on LT and then killed my zeplin stranding my heroes there for the rest of the game (prevented me from getting another zeplin).

How do you think of your strategies? Are they pre-planned or do you just improvise in game?

A little bit of each, generally I pre-plan my starting hero and starting unit (huntress build or archer build tavern hero or altar hero etc). Also I often preplan the first 5-6 minutes depending on what I scout IE (I'll preplan to 1 aow expand against a tech 2 aow rush against an expand or 2 aow mass against a rush etc).

After that it's all improvisation based on opponent's playstyle and strategy (even against two opponent doing the same strategy I'd play differently against one who plays more aggressive than one who just right clicks heroes etc).

Do you feel that your wild and unpredictable play has helped you in the long run?

Well that's a strange question as I can't imagine myself possibly playing differently than I do. To a die-hard strategy addict like myself practicing the same strategy regardless of what your opponent does and depending upon faster hands to win seems ridiculous and an extremely difficult way to master the game which would require far more dedication, time and patience than I can put into a video game.

Do you feel the standard cookie cutter strategies are really the best ones or are people just afraid of trying new strats?

Well if you're going to devote a tremendous amount of time perfecting a single strategy than yes the cookie strategies definitely are the best, however there is no strategy that is best regardless of situation and opponent.

Some other players such as Th000 and Yane have thought of innovative strategies that have become more mainstream of late. How do you think this has influenced the game?

Definately the new strategies they have come up with have expanded the depth of the game, especially in Th000 case the range of tactics used in Hu v Orc and Hu v UD and with Yane the UD Mirror and UD v Human matches especially have both been given a lot more depth to them.

In my opinion the more variety of tactics used, the more important scouting will be and tactical and strategic decision making will become more important and players will need to start to learn to be a little more flexible in their play.

Many players consider you the American Th000 so to speak in that your playstyle is similar - do you feel this is true?

Well I don't know th000 super well, but from the replays I've seen of him I don't think our playstyles are at all alike. He comes up with really innovative tactics and strategies, but once he comes up with a tactic he seems to stick with it throughout a game regardless of the opponent's playstyle and tactics.

This is similar to most pro players in which they spend so much time practicing and perfecting a strategy so that they're locking into using it no matter what (because of the time they spent on it even if it's not the best strategy to use it's still best for them because they are so much better at it than at using other strategies).

This is not at all to take away from th000 as he is truly a great player (much better than myself). And while he brings a whole lot of innovation to the game I don't think we approach the game in quite the same way.