I would never use govaho now and completely agree with your statement about going straight for lavas and loons, especially now. But when I was an early th9 you are usually up against th8s..at least I was..and with the extra Camp space and lvl 5 hogs it was an easy strat to learn and understand the basics of funneling and a two phase attack.
As soon I was matched with another th9 I learned quickly that I couldn't keep valks alive long enough to get the 3rd star and found out about hghb, hphb.
Now I use gobolaloon about 90% of the time and am very happy with those results. The other 10% I'll find an anti air and need to go in with a ground usually hog heavy.

