I used to be among the “Phantom only”, crowd but I realized something interesting/funny. The Phantom is the better gun in high elo, such as D3 and Immortal because your teammates will fight alongside with you, and you’re usually fighting multiple players at once. It’s the better gun for 5-man rushing a site, and defending a rush.

In lower elos around Plat and below, the enemy will more frequently dry peek you much more than in Immortal. Also you will only be facing one enemy at a time usually. That’s why in low elo, the Vandal is the better gun. If your aim is better, it’s easy pickings because everyone just dry peeks.

So basically, Phantom for high elo and pro play where there’s more coordination, which means there’s more multi-player fights happening at once.

Vandal for lower elo where there are more solo dry peeks, and there won’t be as many situations where multiple players will peek you at the same time.