Cross-season liminal space is in full effect this week, as the first few big Arks events kick off, but the Las Vegas Open looms right in front of us as a final Nephilim blowout. Today's article is going to focus on the Arks events from the past weekend, with a shorter pass on the various Nephilim stragglers, but for those who just can't quit the previous season (or who are going to seek glory in Vegas) we'll have an extra editorial tomorrow taking a look at some of the top archetypes from Nephilim (as represented by players fielding them at the LVO) as we head into the grand season finale.

That means today we'll be looking at the following events:

• Arks
  • Adelaide Uprising (supermajor)
  • Toronto Winter Open
  • Team Spain WTC Singles
  • Fantasia North Store Championships
• Nephilim
  • Critical Hit GT
  • Blue Ridge Championships
  • Last Chance CDMX
  • AZ League Winter Championships
  • Forged In Frigid Fun GT

Todays showdowns are going to be "as many of the Arks events as I have time to write, hopefully all of them" (future Wings note: it was all of them) because hoo boy is it a busy time of the year on so many angles. Let's do this.

Adelaide Uprising

All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Conversion

Liam Hackett - Adeptus Custodes: Solar Watch centred around two huge Warden blobs, with Sally Forth and some powerful characters in support, plus some Allarus for home objective holding and shock troops.



vs.

Damian Ridgwell - Dark Angels: Two big Deathwing blobs tooled up to the gills, along with Attack Bikes, Infiltrators and powerful Characters.

Thoughts

That sure does look like there have been some changes in the pecking order, huh? Dark Angels were a hot favourite for me after reviewing the changes, and this list shows exactly why. Because anything that can be Deathwing or Ravenwing gets boosts to their defensive capabilities for free, when Marine units get broadly cheaper the Dark Angels can really capitalise on that, and they're further helped in Arks by the free gear bonanza, which is particularly relevant to Deathwing Terminators, who are free to mix melee weapons with a few missile launchers to help project some threat. Great characters back all this up, and this list looks mean, if not massively surprising to see in a top position.

What is more of a pleasant surprise to see on the top tables is Liam's Custodes list. Custodes clearly did win big in the Arks changes, but were still lumbered with fairly weak Secondaries, so how big a splash they'd make felt a little up in the air. From this week's initial results the prognosis is good, with the Solar Watch leading the charge here. Big units with access to Sally Forth (and the speed boosts of the Solar Watch Fighting Style) do a great job of projecting threat, and using large units makes it more practical to score some of the Custodes Secondaries, particularly Might of Terra, as opponents aren't going to have an easy time killing whole units. The choice of Wardens for this role also feels like a fairly smart one, and pays off in spades in this matchup. When you're a 3W model up against thunder hammers (or other D3 weaponry teching for the presence of Terminators) a 6+ ignore wounds effect is a massive boost to your survivability - you have about a 42% chance to make one of the three 6+s, and that almost always equates to a full blow tanked when you're getting hit with a big pile of such attacks at once.

Particularly in combination with Emperor's Auspice, it means that going out and fighting Assault Terminators is substantially less suicidal, which is good because you're going to have to eventually! Other things this list showcases is the value of not having to take Troops if you don't want to, and how great it is for Allarus to have ObSec back, as it makes solo guys fantastic for holding home objectives, and in Arks they're also good to have around for double duty on Behind Enemy Lines.

So how do the two lists stack up here? Pretty spicily, honestly. Because of the Warden effect, the Deathwing find themselves in the unusual position of not necessarily having the full tarpit advantage, as even if the two sides fight to a draw that's may not be good enough thanks to the Custodes counting as extra models for Objectives. The Pennant (which I'm assuming the Ancient is suppost to have written down) does tilt the balance somewhat wherever it's deployed, but the Dark Angels definitely can't just declare part of the board their property like they normally might. They do benefit from having more units on the table though - the Custodes have brought some number of sacrificial pieces, presumably with a further eye to pushing for Behind Enemy Lines, but the Angels are a little more flexible on the table, which Conversion rewards particularly well. The Custodes do, unusually, probably end up with the Secondary advantage in their favour - I think they can make a good play for Behind Enemy Lines, Banners and honestly maybe just No Prisoners to provide a grindy plan that's hard to shut down, while the Angels choices just aren't quite as good, with Banners being less safe into ObSec supremacy, Stubborn Defiance being a dud here, and most Marine choices weak into the matchup.

I'd definitely end up tapping the Dark Angels as having an advantage on killing power and mid/late game Primary as it feels like they should manage to take out almost everything except the second big unit over the game, but if the Custodes can score well enough early (or do the Custodes thing of bouncing what should be an alpha strike off 4+ invulns) then they could run away with it. I'd favour the Dark Angels overall, but the Custodes beat the spread and took this one down.

Result

Custodes Victory - 85-65

Liam Hackett - Adeptus Custodes - 1st Place

Adeptus Custodes Wardens by Crab-stuffed Mushrooms

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Solar Watch Wardens

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Emperor's Auspice is back, and so are big Custodes units - there are few things harder to shift once the defences go up, and as discussed in the Showdown the choice of Wardens makes that particularly effective in a metagame with lots of D3 attacks. I also like how well the list builds for BEL, between having the extra cheap Character body in Aleya and the early game mobility from the Witchseekers in their Rhino. Great to see the Custodes back in action, and well done to Liam on winning the inaugural Arks supermajor!

Damian Ridgewell - Dark Angels - 2nd Place

Credit: Greg Chiasson

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Dark Angels Goodstuff

Why it's Interesting in 9th

As foretold, it's Dark Angel time. Deathwing Terminators are just incredibly good now, and they're backed up by a great suite of Characters, fantastic synergies for Attack Bikes, Storm Speeders or Inceptors (whichever shooting option floats your boat) and the powerful set of Stratagems the Dark Angels codex offers. One of the best all-rounder options for building Marines, so expect to see plenty more players following in Damian's footsteps as the season progresses.

Hayden Walduck - Tau - 3rd Place

Pathfinder Team. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Mech Bor'kan

Why it's Interesting in 9th

Tau have been strong in Nephilim, and their nerfs going into Arks have been rather more focused than those landing on some of the other top factions, with the result that as long as you can build a list that doesn't rely on Crisis Suits or Sun Sharks, there's till plenty to recommend them. That would appear to be what Hayden's managed to put together here, leveraging the extra durability of Bor'kan (helpful for shrugging off massed bolter fire) and a bunch of hulls to craft a powerful board control list. Lots of transports means it's capable of playing a fairly muscular game when needed, and being another army that excels at Behind Enemy Lines. With limited re-roll access for many of the big threats, the army packs a squad of Pathfinders who can use Recon Sweep to set up plenty of Markerlights, and also shred some Marines with their rail rifles in a pinch. Riptides do just love blowing Marines into tiny pieces as well, and having a pair of Hammerheads on hand as well is going to be very scary for any Knight players unfortunate enough to face this. Great to see a very different spin on Tau doing well out the gates.

Jono Bishop - Tau - 4th Place

Tau Riptide. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

Archetype

Tau Sept Triptide

Why it's Interesting in 9th

I guess you could also do this. The plan here honestly isn't that dissimilar to the Bor'kan build - far more board control than we've seen in Tau lists past, clear signs of building for BEL (double Coldstars being able to almost lock in turns 4 and 5 if needed makes it super hard to stop), and again a unit of Pathfinders. It just has three Riptides, because the ark of history bends inevitably towards Triptide. Well done to Jono on rounding out the top bracket.

The Rest of the Best

Oh...oh no. The scoundrel Australians have contrived an event format where the "fair" place to cut this is after 24th place, giving a massive 20 further lists to talk about. At least it's a new format, so it's not a bad time to go on a big list safari.

Let's get on with it then - a look at every build that made it through the first two days on 5-1 or better, and thus finished between 7-1 and 5-3 depending on how their bracket went. These players were:

• 5th - Matt Morosoli - Daemons: The Indomitable Bloodthirster and Big Bird return despite their point hikes, but they've got some new pets - 3x5 Flesh Hounds, taking full advantage of their aggressive price tag.
• 6th - Oscar Curry - Adeptus Custodes: Extra shooty Emperor's Chosen Goodstuff, using a pair of Helverins in support alongside Caladius Tanks, and packing new and improved Venetari as roving objective grabbers. Finally, a big block of Allarus provides either a tarpit or a flex play via the Esteemed Amalgalm/Unleash the Lions combo.
• 7th - Alex Towse - Chaos Knights: All War Dog Chaos Knights, using a mixture of Herpetrax and Biomechanical Fusion Dreadblades.
• 8th - Ben Warrior - Adeptus Mechanicus: A spicy aggressive Ryza build, packing lots of Kataphrons as a crunchy centre and three full units of Ruststalkers in transports to pressure the enemy.
• 9th - Joshua Brodie - Daemons: A very go-wide Daemons list, just packing Big Bird as a central threat, then including loads of Bloodletters, and lots of the newly cheap stuff like Flesh Hounds, Screamers and Skull Cannons. Khorne can put a lot more on the table now when everything is added up.
• 10th - Brodie Middleton - Craftworlds & Harlequins: Maximum shuriken death combined with the spicy melee punch of Twilight Harlequins - 90pt units of these with melee weapons can trade up pretty hard if you have CP to spare.
• 11th - Alexander Englezos - Adeptus Mechanicus: All-rounder Mars, packing two scary units of Ironstriders, lots of small Troops squads and deep striking Corpuscarii.
• 12th - Ewart Searle - Astra Militarum: Born Soldiers Goodstuff with Cadians, Kasrkin and plasma Russes.
• 13th - Christopher Wright - Space Wolves: A discount wargear spectacular here - Scouts in Storms with meltas and thunder hammer sergeants, lots of plasma inceptors, double sergeant Skyclaws with nasty melee weapons, and Long Fangs with extra crunchy Wolf Guard Terminator leaders.
• 14th - Egor Kalinin - Necrons: MSU-heavy Nihilakh with Doomsday Arks, a Monolith and a full Lokhust unit backing up the objective grabbers.
• 15th - Adam Camilleri - Dark Angels: Herohammer Dark Angels with a tonne of Ravenwing Characters, lots of Deathwing Command Squads, and two massive units of Black Knights. Three Storm Speeders Thunderstrike provide some extra shooting pressure to finish the recipe off.
• 16th - Jeremy Martino - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with Sacresants, Paragons and the Triumph of St. Katherine.
• 17th - James Mann - Imperial Knights: All-rounder Taranis with the Princeps Paladin/Crusader combo and a Gallant to charge headlong at the enemy.
• 18th - Brian Lakeland - Adeptus Custodes: Emperor's Chosen spamming Sagittarum with the Fulminaris Aggressor.
• 19th - Dean Sinnbeck - Black Legion: Abaddon and a bunch of robot friends - three Helbrutes and a pair of Decimators, plus the mandatory giant Terminator block.
• 20th - Nathan Princi - Adeptus Custodes: Hull-heavy Emperor's Chosen with Contemptors, Caladii and a lone Helverin who's wandered in from somewhere.
• 21st - Josh McMillan - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with loads of bodies.
• 22nd - Nathan Bleakley - Emperor's Children: Emperor's Children centred around a full Possessed unit, with lots of Noise Marines and a pair of Decimators in support.
• 23rd - Lance Glover - Space Wolves: Actual Space Wolves with a terrifying amount of shooting - three Long Fang units, three squads of Eliminators and a big Inceptor squad. Two units of cheap and cheerful Thundercav plus a souped-up Wolf Guard Terminator brick provide the tools to hold the board while the shooting does the work.
• 24th - Blake Jones - Orks: Ghaz and a bunch of his friends, including the interesting new tech of a whole bunch of Burna Boyz in a Battlewagon.

Toronto Winter Open (Hosted by GTA40K)

53-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Toronto, ON Canada on January 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Tear Down Their Icons

Sam Procopio - Blood Angels: A mix of jump pack threats and a heavier contingent of shooting support than we've seen from Blood Angels in the past.

vs.

Sebastian Marengo - Necrons: Nihilakh ObSec built around two full Lychguard units.

Thoughts

Not content to let the Dark Angels have all the fun, the Blood Angels come out swinging too. They were the best performing Marines in late Nephilim, and while they are unusual in taking some actual hits to their capabilities (loss of Armour of Contempt hits Sanguinary Guard especially hard, and they can't use Fury of the Lost as a reliable Secondary any more), it would appear from this and (spoilers) the next Showdown that the upsides more than compensate. Free inferno pistols scattered around the jump squads lets them randomly spike vehicles in addition to their priority targets, and it's vastly cheaper to get some quality shooting support into the build now that Inceptors and heavy Eradicators are cheaper. in addition, though they do lose Fury, the return of Oaths Classic (accept no substitutes) is very good news for them, and their Chapter Tactic is also so good that they can squeeze decent value out of MSUs that might end up a bit pillow fisted in other Chapters, such as the Outriders and Aggressors seen here. That helps them have plenty of toys for dropping bombs in Tear too, very much an upside.

Over in the Necron corner, ObSec is still the name of the day, but in new Nihilakh form. Less mobility to utterly dominate the early game forces you to plan for a bit more of a slugfest, which two units of Lychguard help with, and the Nihilakh stratagem also works well for the Lokhust unit, letting them tick off Ancient Machineries while still blasting away. Machineries and Treasures are still going to be very hard to stop, and throwing away some Scarabs for Behind Enemy Lines is pretty doable as well, though the Visage/Rites captain is a bit of a bastard for them.

Unfortunately for the Necrons, their Secondary game isn't that much better than the Blood Angels one here, and the Angels are absurdly good at killing the Necron army. Us poor souls who were trying to make Necrons work at the start of the edition are grimly familiar with the fact that 40pt plasmaceptors with a Chapter Master borderline hard counter a substantial chunk of the book, and Sanguinary Guard are pretty great at cleaving through Lychguard and Skorpekh as well. You certainly get a lot more Necrons on the table than you did back in the day, which helps a bit, but against a Blood Angel build with such all-spectrum killing power, it's not going to be anywhere near enough. Considering that, the Necrons had a good go at putting in a high score, but the Angels ran away with the victory.

Result

Blood Angels Victory - 96 - 78

Sam Procopio - Blood Angels - 1st Place

Blood Angels Angel's Incursors. Credit: Jack Hunter

The List

See showdown

Archetype

Blood Angels Jump Packs

Thoughts

All the horrendous melee punch you're used to, but now with some actual guns, priced to move! The Showdown mostly covers this off, the only other thing to call out (and watch out for, if you're facing Blood Angels) is the Sanguinary Priest built for Angel's Sacrifice via the Armour Indomitus, helpful when some sort of monstrous melee threat needs to get ganked by all the Sanguinary Guard at once. Well done to Sam on the win.

Tim Deetlefs - Adeptus Custodes - 2nd Place (Undefeated)

Trajann Valoris. Credit: Pendulin

The List

Archetype

MSU Shadowkeepers

Thoughts

More Custodes, back in the game, this time leveraging the power of Shadowkeepers to tilt melees in the Custodians' direction, and Venatari being super great now that ObSec is back. Thanks to being able to take six fast attack slots without spending any CP on it, this list also ends up far more mobile than many of the Custodes builds we saw at their book's peak, again letting it excel at Behind Enemy Lines as the enemy are hunted down. Add in a Lockwarden bike captain that will put the fear of the Emperor into any Aeldari player unlucky enough to encounter him, and the result is an extremely high pressure build that can brawl with the best. Great work from Tim in an undefeated second place.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on X-1 records. They were:

• 3rd - Sebastian Marengo - Necrons: See Showdown.
• 4th - Zach Comeau - Astra Militarum: Kasrkin, Armoured Superiority plasma Russes and lots of Rough Riders, plus the power move of a Deathstrike.
• 5th - Skylor Petrovich - Daemons: Full Khorne melee spectacular, packing three Bloodthirsters and 24 Flesh Hounds.
• 6th - Christian Vavaroustos - Genestealer Cults: Industrial Neophyte/Bike spam.
• 7th - Mike Patriarca - Dark Angels: Full Deathwing spam, three bricks of tooled-up regular Terminators, a squad of Knights and a full unit of Relics, with tonnes of powerful characters to amp them up.
• 8th - Adam Marcinkowski - Tau: Tau Sept defiantly sticking to the Sun Sharks & Riptides plan.
• 9th - Diogo Pita - Votann: Double Land Fortress deploying (among other things) three units of graviton Thunderkyn, taking advantage of the one notable point drop Votann got.

WTC Team Spain Singles

44-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid ES on January 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

This event used 20-0 scoring.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Death & Zeal

Victor Manuel Gil Rocha - Asuryani: Lots of Shroud Runners and small Avenger units as Masterful Shots, artillery pressure from Night Spinners and a Twilight Harlequin patrol to amp up the melee trade potential.

vs.

Alejandro Mancuso Serrano - Blood Angels: Whoops all inferno pistols - 32, to be precise, including the one Dante is toting around, and a whole bunch of plasma Inceptors bouncing around behind them. Also features the Visage combo on a Lieutenant.

Thoughts

The Blood Angels make their second top-table appearence of the week, this time in an even more brutal configuration - no mucking about, just ensure everyone is either carrying a big sword and an inferno pistol, or a pair of plasma cannons, and you're sorted. As, a lot of the time, are your opponents chances of winning, as the damage output of this army is off the charts, and opponents need to make some dents in it fast if they're going to have any chance of winning, preferably before the Inceptors get a full shooting phase.

As armies to try and pull that off go, this Eldar list isn't a bad shout. Twilight punch squads are looking like they're going to be a key Aeldari ingredient in Arks, as they can trade up extremely well into good targets, which Sanguinary Guard certainly are. The Harvester Jester also threatens to do some good work given half a chance, and is particularly problematic for the Lieutenant here, as getting one-shot straight off the table is a very realistic prospect. Finally, Night Spinners shooting in a post Armour of Contempt world with Shroud Runners to plink some final wounds off aren't a horrible choice to deplete the Inceptors a bit, and like many of the successful builds we've looked at thus far the army also excels at Behind Enemy Lines.

Not horrible, all things put together, but I still think the very likely outcome here is the Aeldari ending up swept off the board just a bit too early in the game for them to win. On Death and Zeal they do have some chance to make a play of it by pulling the Angels in a lot of directions while their trade options do their work, but it doesn't feel like that will be enough, or at best they'll be walking a brutal knife edge where a single slip is game over. Their Secondaries outside BEL are also tough - Warp Ritual might end up pretty high risk once battle is joined, and the Marines are shorter on wounds than you really want for No Prisoners - but those are quite probably still your best options. Meanwhile, the Blood Angels can push to a very high score just by bowling the elves off the table in melee, which is what they wanted to do anyway. That's a difficult advantage to overcome when the Angels will also win a straight fight, and while the Aeldari put up what honestly seems to have been a very valiant attempt, they weren't able to push through the tough odds.

Result

Blood Angels Victory - 12 - 8

Alejandro Mancuso Serrano - Blood Angels - 1st Place

Sanguinary Guard. Credits: That Gobbo

The List

See Showdown.

Archetype

Blood Angels Jump Pack Spam

Thoughts

The presence of so many teams with huge pools of models means that the euro scene tends to be a bit quicker to take new options to their logical conclusion, and as discussed in the showdown we see that in full effect here. What if Blood Angels also had 30 melta shots up close and 30-50 plasma blasts in support? What if that? It's pretty good, is what. Well done to Alejandro for fielding what is easily the most terrifying build of the week.

The Best of the Rest

The big machine that goes "clunk" (i.e. my brain on a Monday night) says that after fifth place is the correct position to cut this. These four players ended up on 4-1 or better:

• 2nd - Raven 🦭🦭🦭 - Harlequins: Aggro Twilight Saedath with lots of MSU Troupes in boats, relying on hitting harder to make up for the lower durability. Also features the Favour of Cegorach Jester, who looks solidly like being a lock for every list once more, and a few units of Skyweavers, including one big melee one to provide a high-reach threat.
• 3rd - Fran JNL - Iron Hands: Extremely Shooty Iron Hands, packing Devastators, Eradicators and Gladiator Reapers, with VanVets to provide a bit of roving melee punch. Also grav pistols, because why not.
• 4th - Terroxer El Rojo - Thousand Sons & Daemons: Duplicity & Daemons holds on, now using the Daemon contingent mostly for fast objective grabbers and the Fateskimmer, helping close off some of the weaknesses of the Sons.
• 5th - Victor Manuel Gil Rocha - Craftworlds & Harlequins: See Showdown.

Critical Hit GT

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Courtice, Ontario CA on January 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Winner

Credit: Robert "TheChirurgeon" Jones

Luc Bourdages - Ymyr Conglomerate: Ymyr Goodstuff with tooled up Characters, big bike units and one Land Fortress.

Final Round Matchup

Victory against Hamza Syed - Harlequins.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Isaac Bates - Harlequins: Light Saedath Troupes, Boats and Characters.
• 3rd - Danny Stewart - Tyranids: ObSec Lurk Behemoth with two massive Warrior units and lots of efficient monsters.
• 4th - Jordan Hovey - Tau: Heavy-duty Tau Sept with two big Crisis units, planes and a Riptide.

Fantasia North Store Championship

34-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Västerbottens län SE on January 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Death & Zeal

André Persson - Black Legion: Abaddon alongside old friends and new - Terminators and 3x2 Obliterators.

vs.

Arvid Kaykhosravi - Necrons: Another spin on crunchy Nihilakh, this time bringing the Silent King, Spyders and lots of Skorpekh.

Thoughts

Our final showdown of the day, and this one I'm going to keep fairly brief, because once side has a severe problem. It's very hard for the Chaos side here to get a major Primary foothold without massively exposing themselves, and the Necrons absolutely have the tools to punish that situation. Unlike the Lychguard from the other Necron list, nothing here is relying on managing to tank to generate value - most of it is very killy in its own right, and its also not up against anything quite as reliably terrifying as what the Blood Angels could bring to bear. Obliterators certainly are dangerous, and Black Legion supports them well, but they're fairly short ranged, and don't get full re-rolls to do their work. The Chaos Secondary game certainly isn't bad here, but the Necron one is still very good, and they have a much easier time racking up Primary, meaning that the overwhelming likelihood is that Chaos are forced to make a big play to try and avoid getting terminally behind on points, and for that to not go especially well for them when the Necron counterattack hits. The score would seem to indicate that's exactly what happened.

Result

Necrons Victory - 20 - 0

Arvid Kaykhosravi - Necrons - 1st Place

Canoptek Spyder. Credit: Rockfish

The List

Archetype

Killy Nihilakh

Thoughts

I like this build a fair bit more than the other Nihilakh build we looked at - one of Necrons perpetual problems this edition has been getting enough killing power on the table to actually take on other high threat armies, and this list does pretty much the best job possible of only bringing stuff that will do real damage for its points, giving it the best chance of competing in a murderous metagame. However you slice it though, two armies in showdowns is a pretty auspicious start for the Dynasties, and great work from Arvid in turning one of those into a win.

The Best of the Rest

Once more the machine that goes *clunk* says four more players. They were:

• 2nd - Ludvig Advin - Craftworlds: Full shuriken death Hail of Doom - max Avengers, Windriders, shuriken cannon War Walkers - if it has a Shuriken, it's probably in here.
• 3rd - Benjamin Hyvönen - Adeptus Custodes: Go-wide MSU Shadowkeepers with some scary Characters, taking advantage of Wardens being a good choice again.
• 4th - Mikael Segerlund - Ynnari: Aggro melee Ynnari with Shining Spears, 3x3 Reaver Jetbikes to push into stuff and move the Yncarne around, and a full block of cannon Windriders to provide shooting cover. Also has the niche but as far as I can tell legal (because the list doesn't use any of the upgrades it would close off) play of taking a Succubus as the Warlord, and giving her Precision Blows and the Triptych Whip. God bless the Drukhari codex - still creating bizarre combos with its unique wording several years on.
• 5th - Axel Linder - Dark Angels: A fully hellish Dark Angels build packing three tooled up Deathwing blocks with Talonmasters and (do not adjust your set) Centrurion Devastators behind them.

Blue Ridge Championships

31-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Harrisonburg, VA US on January 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Winner

Daniel McNally - Emperor's Children: Emperor's Children with a big Terminator block and Abaddon.

Archetype

Final Round Matchup

82 - 80 Victory against Todd Lanser - Adepta Sororitas.

Thoughts

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Todd Lanser - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with all the standard infantry picks.
• 3rd - Zachary Halverson - Chaos Daemons: Be'lakor, a Bloodthirster and lots of Flamer/Troop friends.
• 4th - Aidan Barkley - Iron Warriors: Iron Warriors with an actual Chaos Land Raider (filled with Plague Marines and flamer Rubrics), with two Vindicators backing it up for even more dakka.
• 5th - Conor Lobb - Ynnari: Balanced Ynnari with melee aspects and Troupes to brawl and Hawks + D-cannons to blow stuff up.

Last Chance CDMX

30-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in México D.F., CDMX MX on January 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Winner

Xavier Barrera - Adepta Sororitas: Bloody Rose Goodstuff with a Castigator.

Final Round Matchup

95 - 87 Victory against Carlos Espinosa - Thousand Sons & Daemons

The Best of the Rest

There were 3 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd - Carlos Espinosa - Thousand Sons & Daemons: A slightly unusual Duplicity & Flamers configuration that takes the latter in two Auxiliary Supports, avoiding needing to take an HQ and freeing points for more Scarab Occults.
• 3rd - Alberto Lopez - Chaos Daemons: The standard monster mash trio of Be'lakor, Bloodthirster and Big Bird with lots of Flamers in support.
• 4th - Jose Alfredo Ku chale - Tyranids: A slightly off-piste Leviathan build, using Augmented Ferocity and Raveners to get in the opponent's face while Harpies and Zoanthropes do the damage.

AZ Warhammer 40K League Winter Championships

28-player, 6-round Grand Tournament in Mesa, AZ United States on January 21 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

Winner

Daniel Olivas - Harlequins: Go-wide Twilight Saedath with a big Troupe and Webway Gate.

Final Round Matchup

95 - 84 Victory against Tyler Devries - Genestealer Cult.

The Best of the Rest

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

• 2nd - Devin Orchard - Necrons: Angry Novokh with Lychguard and Destroyers galore (plus the Silent King, naturally).
• 3rd - Tyler Devries - Genestealer Cult: Industrial Cult Neophyte/Bike spam.
• 4th - James "Boon" Kelling - Asuryani: Boon getting some more reps in with his beloved d-scythe Wraithguard before their final outing at the LVO.
• 5th - Scott Blegen - Thousand Sons & Daemons: Duplicity & Flamers.

Wrap Up

The finale is almost here - make sure to check back next week to see how the LVO goes down, and stay tuned later this week for a special editorial preview.