Four tournaments to cover this week readers, all of which have some interesting and unusual showdowns – it’s been a turbulent month in terms of the metagame with what we thought to have been the cream of the crop (KO and Gitz) having to share the crown with some pretenders… let’s see what’s taking the top spots this week.

TRS Torneo Regio Sabaudo 2° Edition

68-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Casale Monferrato, Piemonte IT on May 06 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Mirko Anzalone – Bloodlords:
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vs.

Vittorio Canzani – Pretenders Host:
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Thoughts

Quite a mix of units make up the Khorne contingent, combining some of the damage from the Daemon side with the efficiency/durability of the Mortal side. But against this Slaanesh list it’s a lot more about the allegiance abilities – in particular access to Murderlust in order to move units into combat in the hero phase and lock up those Blissbarb archers.

The Slaanesh list wants to largely play keep away and shoot you off the board, with the two significant hammers being the Keeper of Secrets and the unit of 10 Slickblade seekers. That said, the problem Vittorio will have is depravity generation, as outside of the Bloodletter unit there isn’t a significantly large unit that’s also quite easy to kill. Slaanesh typically has the upper hand in mobility in most matchups, but this Khorne list can give it a run for it’s money, and I expect out-of-phase movement shenanigans to be the primary deciding factor here.

Result

Bloodlords Victory – 17 – 3

Mirko Anzalone – Bloodlords – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Bit of everything really

Thoughts

The list proves just how deep a book Khorne players have, as there’s a lot of choice in the ‘chaff’ section of the book that you can tailor to suit your needs. Take the Claws of Karanak – 20 points more than the typical screen in Bloodreavers, but their pre-game move gives them a niche as a means to push out the castle a bit to protect the innards against armies like KO that want to deep strike and unload with 12-18″ range shooting.

There’s some anvils here in the Skullcrushers and the Blood warriors, as well as the typical utility we’ve come to expect from the Khorne hero selection. About the most surprising inclusion here are the Bloodcrushers, who have often been overlooked for the mortal version but do a respectable amount of damage in Bloodlords where their blades do mortal wounds on 5s to hit instead of 6s.

Roberto Callegari – Jaws of Mork – 2nd Place

The List

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Archetype

Squigs recursion

Thoughts

The typical core of Gitz buff pieces are here, with the core units to build around here being the Squig Herd and a unit of Hoppers (instead of Bounderz), though no Grinkrak which is often seen paired with Squig Herd units. It’s a board control list that trades very well into most melee armies in the game, and the ability to recycle units has given this style of list game into the alpha strike style KO/Lumineth lists we’ve seen too.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were all on 4-1:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Vittorio Canzani – Slaanesh: See showdown
• 4th – Andrea Epis – Ogor Mawtribes: Stonehorn spam that does quite well into the shooting heavy lists that have had success recently
• 5th – Filippo Vivirito – Ogor Mawtribes: Slight changes but basically the same list as Andrea’s
• 6th – Giuseppe Dargeni – Unknown: No list submitted on BCP
• 7th – Luigi Mauri – Unknown: No list submitted on BCP
• 8th – Gianni Criveller – Lumineth Realm-lords: Helon w/ Teclis & 40 Sentinels

The Really Good GT – Hosted by Team Big Chungus

58-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Westminster, MD United States on May 06 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Emma Mangels – Vyrkos Dynasty:
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vs.

William Hatch – Legion of Blood:
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Thoughts

Oh my god Vyrkos can give Zombies a 5+ Ward!?

Okay the longer version is this is two similar board control style lists, but one of them is setup to tarpit and swarm objectives with bodies and the other one wants to smash units that don’t just get right back up. I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader which is which.

Result

Vyrkos Dynasty Victory – 12 – 8

Emma Mangels – Vyrkos Dynasty – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Zombies go brrrrrrrr(ains)

Thoughts

Vyrkos is so wonky man – between being able to give their command traits and artefacts to unique units, as well as just a set of heroic actions that seem innocuous enough until you look a little closer.

Yasee, GW didn’t put the summonable keyword as a requirement for the Pack Alpha heroic action, meaning that you can add D3 models to any Deadwalkers keyword unit and take it above maximum unit size… which means you can add D3 models to a corpse cart unit or a Korsargi unit. Crazy.

Anyway, Corpse carts give the Zombies back their mortal wound ability they lost in the new book, making them somewhat respectable in melee combat, and with the new mortal wound splashback ability they have, they’ve become Pink Horror-Tier in terms of ‘what the hell I don’t want to deal with that’.

Jacob Brandon – Beasts of Chaos: Allherd – 2nd Place

The List

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Archetype

Gors on Tour

Thoughts

Speaking of Tar pit style armies, Beasts have their own version in Allherd Gors, which are capable of putting D3+3 models back at the end of each battleshock phase. With access to a 4+ base save this can make them deceptively tanky against armies that aren’t capable of doing 30 wounds through a 4+ save in one turn, and Jacob has brought 70 of the mad goats.

Other than them, the army is just support pieces to help the Gors punch upwards – Chaos Gargants lend monstrous rampages and -1 save for them, and the Shamans are here to throw out rituals and use those lovely spells from their spell lore.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were 4-1:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 3rd – Carl Ong – Kharadron Overlords: This Urbaz list retains the 15 Thunderers and an Ironclad with buff pieces core, but runs two Gunhaulers for it’s battleline and says ‘lol’ at the very idea of running Arkanauts even as a screen
• 4th – Michael Vagenos – Slaves to Darkness: The Ravagers Archaon build that was speculated on when the book came out late last year is finally hitting the tables, spamming a lot of Splintered Fang
• 5th – William Hatch – Soublight Gravelords: See showdown
• 6th – Kaleb Walters – Ossiarch Bonereapers: 15 Deathriders and 20 Mortek make up the core, with double Mortarch and a Harvester helping this Crematorians recursion list work
• 7th – Nicholas Walters – Ironjawz: Bloodtoof piggy spam, with 10 Brutes
• 8th – Joe Shoemaker – Ironjawz: Bloodtoof piggy spam, with slightly more piggys and 10 Ardboyz

Ragnarok GT May 2023

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Rainham, England GB on May 06 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Hazel Moon – Ogor Mawtribes:
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vs.

Benjamin Savva – Kastelai Dynasty:
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Thoughts

Hazel’s back with her furiously effective Monster truck list, this time going up against a rather thematic and cool Vampire focused list piloted by Ben Savva. The Vampire list functions by momentum – it gains buffs to it’s Vampire units as they slaughter units, with powerful abilities like extra attacks or damage getting unlocked if they beat up particularly large enough units… Wouldn’t you know, that’s all Hazel’s list is.

However (and this is a big however), it requires them to actually kill the unit, and unfortunately for Ben, Stonehorns are very tough prey thanks to their inherent 5+ ward. Ben’s got a lot of punch, but it’s all spread out into multiple units and if he gets stuck in a protracted combat he is likely to get ground down to dust.

Result

Ogor Mawtribes Victory – 28 – 5

Hazel Moon – Ogor Mawtribes 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Monster Trucks

Thoughts

Luckily for me, I already discussed this list last week, so you can just refer back to last week’s article as it’s unchanged – congratulations on the back-to-back wins Hazel!

The Best of the Rest

There were 4 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Owen Jackson – Kharadron Overlords (Barak-Urbaz): 30 Thunderers delivered via Bridge and an Ironclad – pretty good
• 3rd – Philip Springall – Kharadron Overlords: Proving it’s possible to succeed with a more melee focused build, Philip’s running 0 Thunderers and instead 18 Endrinriggers in two Frigates
• 4th – Luke Skelton – Maggotkin of Nurgle: Fly spam with Be’lakor to give the list another wrinkle
• 5th – Ben Savva – Soulblight Gravelords: See showdown

Game Knight AoS GT

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in London, Ontario CA on May 06 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission –

Mark Palinski – Legion of Blood:
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vs.

Steven Wiedemann – Lumineth Realm-Lords:
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Thoughts

Who would win in a fight, an army of Shiny armoured, glorious wizards… or one cheeky Wight with an Amulet that’s just constantly screaming, and the ability to get back up (potentially) the first two times it’s killed. To be more specific, the Wight King becoming Summonable gives it some really interesting play as it can be resummoned the first time it dies. The Amulet of Screams does D3 mortal wounds on a 3+ to any enemy unit that successfully casts a spell that isn’t unbound within 18″ of the bearer, and as the Wight King can now hide in a Gravesite he can pop out, punish spellcasting and then get resummoned the first time he dies.. but there’s more! Ghurrish Rage means he can just ignore the first time he dies on a 3+ anyway, making him particularly annoying for Lumineth players.

And that’s the crux of this matchup for me – Steven is running a lot of wizards with no Teclis for the 5+ ward, making that little wight a pain in the ass to deal with. 40 Sentinels will certainly help with dealing with the two ethereal Monsters running around, but board control will remain an issue in the full five rounds.

Result

Legion of Blood Victory – 30 – 9

Mark Palinski – Legion of Blood – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Ethereal Hero hammer

Thoughts

The army is centered around three things – it’s 10 Blood Knights, Neferata and the VLoZD. Neferata can give a unit better Ethereal with her spell, making it immune to negative modifiers to save, while still benefiting from positive modifiers. That means a 2+ unrendable save and a nightmare for most armies not capable of putting out significant mortal wound output. The VLoZD has the Cloak of Mist and Shadows, giving it the Nighthaunt style Ethereal, but fixed at 3+… which is still fantastic and more than worth losing access to positive modifiers.

Other than that, the list runs chaff for board control and the aforementioned Scream King to be a complete prick to the opposing armies’ spellcasters.

The Best of the Rest

There were 4 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• Position – Player Name – Faction:
• 2nd – Steven Wiedemann – Lumineth Realm-Lords: See showdown
• 3rd – Matt Kowalyk – Soulblight Gravelords: Another double ethereal list, this one with less chaff and 20 Grave Guard
• 4th – Jake Seguin – Cities of Sigmar: This old book keeps creaking on, with 10 Protectors and an Incarnate giving the Hallowheart spellcasting core some anvils
• 5th – Shawns Murri – Fyreslayers: A blend of the Magmadroth + Hearthguard build and the Vulkite build, skipping on Flamekeepers in favour of bodies

Wrap Up

That’s it for the week! Soulblight take a commanding position in terms of Meta attention this week, with previous darlings like the Gitz and KO taking a step back. If the board control capabilities of the Soulblight truly cement themselves it’ll mean quite the shift in list building priority if your intent is to try to have a good matchup against stuff in the top brackets… we’ll see how the next few weeks pan out.