Why should you be playing Sneaky Peet?
First off, because he's fun and characterful. Doing goblin things in the plot phase is fun. The Sneaky Stabbers are fun. Annoying and irritating your opponent is fun. Peet is just great fun to play.
Secondly, with one exception, he's good into *every* champion that is armour 1 or 2. That includes 4 out of 5 of the champs commonly considered best in the game and the 5 latest releases.
Thirdly, if your team is looking for some high accuracy damage or a fast banner crusher, Peet is your man-thing.
Imagine this is the draft pool. It's a really strong pool. But Peet is the God-tier here.
Pre-game:
Scenarios:
Peet is one of those champions that does well on every scenario: he's killy for Death and crushes banners for Knowledge. On Quest, like many slayers, you can just play him defensively - keep him on a back hex, where you can kill people that come to plant banners. Therefore his low clash speed and dislike for planting banners matters less.
Allies:
Peet ideally pairs well with people that can compensate for his weaknesses: scoring points in the end phase and in the clash phase, or someone to handle the high armour opponents that he can't. Maelstroms are an ideal partner to rack up points in the clash. Shapers also work well with him as they can displace champions into his path, particularly in the clash.
Some of his best teammates are:
Kailinn: He can crush the banners that she can't. She can handle high armour, score lots of points in the clash, and (such as through the Virtue's Compassion or her Centaur trait) can give Peet or the Stabbers extra movement in the plot phase.
Rangosh: He and Peet are great banner stompers and excel into low and high dodge respectively. Between them they can put out 4 autowounds in a phase and 6 in a turn.
Fenra: Providing you can avoid the below matchups, Fenra is great with Peet for all the same reasons Kailinn is. Plus her ultimate gives Peet essentially a second ultimate's worth of movement. Between them, they're nightmarish to defend against.
Hard matchups:
Generally, anyone high accuracy or high armour. High armour can be more manageable as you can often bypass them and chase down low armour targets. These are the worst matchups:
Luella: You can't hurt her and you can't hide from her. Pack your bags and go home, you silly goblin, this dwarf is the worst of both worlds. Spread out, try to avoid her and hope that Irritate can save you.
Lorsann: If she hits you you're in trouble and generally she hits you. The Stabbers do well into her warband and you can really hurt her if she misses, but she should rarely miss.
Maxen: Being able to share accuracy boons across his warband is really painful for Peet as it increases everyone's ability to threaten him, before we acknowledge Maxen's own ult or a 7 accuracy shrapnel shot. You can hurt him quite well, but Peet loses in the long run.
Halftusk: He's also a hard matchup for obvious reasons, but much more manageable than the others on anything other than Life. Generally you can lure him into one lane in turn 1, then run the much faster Peet into another lane for turn 2 and beyond.
Good Matchups:
Except Lorsann, anyone armour 1 or armour 2. He can also handle Titus pretty well. Skullbreaker, Keera and Lily are more skill intensive, but they definitely favour Peet. Two Backstabs with one Stabber to boost it to accuracy 6 and one Stabber 7/4 Let Me Do It! attack does an average of 8.9 wounds to a target with a 4/1 defense profile.
Part of Peet's strength is that, like Luella, and unlike Halftusk, he has the speed to be able to chase down the targets he excels into.
He's particularly good into:
Fenra: she's weak in the plot and Peet is strong in the plot. He's got the accuracy and plot speed to take her down. The Stabbers are vulnerable to the Curs, but they can spread out and are hard for her to Shatterstorm.
Kailinn: it's not necessarily his best matchup, but it's one of her worst. Peet's whole warband is hard for hers to kill and will deny her points nicely, whilst he has an excellent attack profile to hurt her.
Styx: he wants to set up and control an area, which suits Peet's slow clash speed nicely and means you can reliably get damage into him or his dogs. Plus Peet doesn't place banners for the dogs to threaten.
In game:
Deployment:
Because Peet is so fast and the Stabbers have Sprint and Sneak, you can generally deploy him centrally and then run him after the target best suited to him. Either keep the 3 Stabbers together, or keep 1 off solo to spread out and give Peet options, with the potential to Sneak back. If you can, hold off on deploying him until your opponent has deployed his ideal victim for you to match against, particularly on a map like Chaos where you can maybe deploy on a flank for some turn 1 damage.
Gameplay:
Peet's overall gameplay, unsurprisingly, generally consists of sneaking and stabbing. As most of his work is done in the plot phase, he rarely plants banners, instead prioritising moving, crushing banners and stabbing enemies. You typically want to activate the Stabbers first: to clear a path for Peet or soften his target and set up his passive. Considering his core gameplay, Peet's warband often likes to go second in order to use his high plot speed to crush freshly placed banners. However, if you can kill someone in the plot (and therefore deny a banner; are we seeing the theme yet?) then it may be valuable to go first.
Like many slayers, but particularly with his low clash speed, Peet likes to occupy a hex cluster and punish those that come close. These may be the times where you do plant a banner: luring an enemy to come closer. Peet's strengths and means of best influencing the game, by banner crushing and damage, means he wants to be in the action. So generally don't plant a banner if it means you are giving these things up, in this turn or the next, or if you don't have another champion to deny banners.
Sneaky Stabbers:
These guys are fun, characterful and arguably some of the best followers in the game. Juggling their's and Peet's activation order in the plot phase is a nice puzzle.
To protect Peet's banner or others the Stabbers are excellent movement blockers: their speed and passive making them able to reach lots of areas, with their high dodge making them then hard to shift. Their passive is brilliant and applies to Sprint, helping you set up Peets passive itself.
Example of the end of Turn 1 on Change. Rhodri and Grimgut have solid walls set up:
Peet's team uses the endphase to move hexes, allowing the Stabbers, with their passive, to block Rhodri from claiming on those hexes, whilst also stabbing a Retchling, giving Peet access to the centre. Regardless of his slow movement, Peet can then deny any Grimgut banner in the clash phase.
Typically on turn 1, and if he's not using his other activations in later clash phases, Peet's Plot Revenge is ideally used on the Stabbers, to push them up to a 6/5 attack with two Stabbers in a hex. On average a 7/4 Let Me Do It! is better than a 5/5 into an armour 1 champion, but 6/5 is the best attack profile into both armour 1 and 2.
Likewise, on turn 1 and other turns, the Stabbers can be an ideal "throwaway" unit to activate first until you see where you opponent commits their bigger pieces so you know where to commit yours. Don't forget Irritate is 3 hex range and ideal onto those with limited attacks, such as Rhodri or Skullbreaker, or those that rely on accuracy such as Rangosh.
A Note on Turn 1:
Generally Peet doesn't achieve much turn 1 unfortunately. But, the Stabbers can be useful to block paths, particularly on Construction. Don't just move and Leap Peet 5 hexes on turn 1: measure out where possible threats can reach so you can avoid giving away free damage, but keep yourself in a position where you can get stuck in next plot phase.
Ultimate:
Some ultimates, like Halftusk's or Nia's, you will always use, probably in turn 2. Peet's, however, is the kind of ultimate that you want to hold onto for as long as you can until you really need it. It's main purpose is *not* for killing (that's just a potential bonus), it's for crushing banners! Don't forget that you can land adjacent to the target (making it essentially 3 hexes of movement) and target followers. With his ult, he can have travel 4 hexes in the clash phase. Therefore, you generally want to hold onto it until you're in a pinch in an important turn and absolutely need to crush a banner or secure a position. Your opponent will probably go first in most turns, your ultimate can therefore get you out of dodge on a turn where you have to go first and are trying to get Peet to make an impact in the clash or crush a banner.
However, although I think it's primary use isn't for killing, you may have the odd occasion where it can guarantee a kill or even a double kill (targeting one person with the ult and another with a backstab). But again, this should only be to guarantee a turn or next.
It's Construction. Your opponent has set up a fortress and has about 40 points in the bag thanks to the end phase. But you've saved your ult and your opponent's cheating is no problem: Pounce over a dragon and Leap onto Finvarr's banner.
Mitigating the clash phase:
As mentioned with his preferred allies, Peet's sub-optimal clash phase can be partially compensated through team composition. Likewise, the other points mentioned of occupying a hex cluster, baiting people closer with banners and holding onto the ultimate also help to get the most out of him in the clash. Although it's important with Godtear generally, but particularly with Peet, threat-overloading your opponent with decisions to make at the beginning of their clash gives Peet a better chance of getting a second backstab off. You can also threaten this with his Annoy - which also benefits from his passive. It's likely you'll have a nicely softened up target from the plot that your opponent either needs to activate or accept dying. However, on the other side of the coin, if it looks like Peet is gonna die, where you can it's best to accept it and not activate him, so you can Rally him in the clash and maximise his plot phase next turn.
Go All Goblin?
I don't think multiple goblins is as bad as it is made out to be and it is certainly fun, but it is vulnerable if going first. If you can avoid the bad matchups mentioned above, Peet and Jaak work well together: compensating for each other's weaknesses in who they best target. Additionally, Jaak can heal up any chip damage Peet is likely to take and reliably plant banners. Unfortunately, Jeen and Peet aren't a great combination: he benefits most from allies to score in the clash phase, whereas she scores in the plot, plus he doesn't generally need her help in breaking your opponent's lines. Jaak and Jeen are nice together though.
That wraps up my love letter to Peet. I hope you find it helpful and it inspires you to get out there, get sneakin' and get as much enjoyment playing him as I do.