Welcome back to another installment of Competitive Innovations! This week there's four events on the docket, with a mix of armies that have been dominant before Andtor came along, as well as a huge resurgence by one of third edition's early powerhouses that went a bit dormant for a while.

Age of Sigmar GT: US Open Tampa

78-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Tampa, FL, United States on October 14 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission -

Thomas Guan - Null Myriad:

vs.

Greg Hurst - Seraphon:

Thoughts

Thomas has seemingly taken a vacation from his Soulblight circle standing dominance and has pivoted to a rather interesting take on OBR, which wants to be aggressive with those 8 Morghast and actively kill stuff - the basic idea being to give +1 attack from the Liege-Kavalos' command ability to one of the units, yeet both units up the board (while keeping them within 9-12" of Arkhan) and have them lift one or two valuable units with anywhere between 18-24 rend 2 (or up to 4 between Bludgeon & Ossified Barbs) damage 3 attacks that have exploding 6s and could even be striking first.

Up against it is Greg's take on Seraphon, which doesn't quite maximise it's summoning potential, as Greg has squeezed in a unit of powerful Stormdrake Guard to give the army list some teeth when it comes to early engagements. The Troglodon gives the list a bit of extra reach as those Slann could cast through it, and while the army can't quite reach the dizzying heights of blizzard you turn one anymore, it is still a potent combo when utilised well.

The key to this matchup lies in a few things, but none more important than Null Myriad's spell ignore capabilities. Thomas wants to ensure everything is wholly within 9" of either the Ossifector or Arkhan at all times, lest any straggling unit get blasted off the board with spell spam without the necessary protection. Greg wants to make sure that he uses those Stormdrake wisely, because the moment they are presented into the midboard they can expect to die quite quickly. Having said that, if they can kill the Deathriders early on to slow down the OBR list's command point generation (as well as deny a battle tactic option), they can help body block and buy time for the summoning engine to get going.

It's easy to look at Null Myriad's ability and clock this one up as an easy win, but it rarely works out as so in practice. The limited range on the aura means in order to utilise it while being aggressive Thomas has to expose his critical pieces to counter attacks, and with only 3 Immortis Guard and no Katakros the army is a little squishier than it has been in times past. It's just a question of how quickly those Morghast can chew through the rather fragile pieces Greg has.

Result

Null Myriad Victory - 26 - 24

Thomas Guan - Null Myriad - 1st Place

Credit: Silks

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Mortarch n' Morghast

Thoughts

With the battlescroll having beaten down on the unit replenishment plan, Thomas has gone for the option of making 8 Morghast truly frightening to have to fight against. Nobody likes the idea of going up against units with a 5+ ward, certainly not when they hit as hard as these guys do, can fly quickly across the board and have access to retreat and charge so tying them up isn't an option either.

It's a clever idea that places a lot of importance on the impact of the two death star units he's packing, but there aren't many units in the game that can stand up to their assault when one or both units is benefiting from the strike-first effect from a 8+ charge roll.

Gavin Grigar - Daughters of Khaine - 2nd Place

Credit: Dan Richardson

The List

Archetype

Morathi & the Bow Snakes

Thoughts

Feels weird to use that term again, as we had assumed the band had broken up and Morathi had gone one to become a washed up solo performer assigned to cruise ships passing through Aqshy. The list operates how it has done for quite some time now, wanting to jam up the opponents plans with a yeeted Morathi, and hoping to kick the shit out of people with the snakes that can double tap thanks to Morathi's command ability.

The army has great battle tactics, goes elegantly into a 1 drop and has high damage output. In the hands of one of America's greatest national players that is a potent combination.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position - Player Name - Faction:
• 3rd - Christopher Schelling - King Brodd's Stomp (5-0): Our first Army of Renown to hit a podium finish, Chris went undefeated with Brodd, 2 Gatebreakers & a Warstomper
• 4th - Jonathan Roberts - Reapers of Vengeance: 3 total Bloodthirsters including Skarbrand, as well as Be'lakor and some minimalist battleline and support pieces to make the army function
• 5th - Cody Saults - Dracothion's Tail: Fairly standard Seraphon summoning build that runs a Lord-Exorcist as a cheeky answer to the unit replenishment shenanigans that are so popular in Death armies at the moment
• 6th - Jordan Raney - Skaventide: The 3 Masterclan heroes + PCB build is back with another top finish - Skaven is firmly back in competitive play
• 7th - Jake Dibattista - King's Gitz: An unusual grab bag of Squig Herd, 9 Rockgut Troggoths and even the Kruleboyz RoR to give the army some ranged punch
• 8th -  Stian Engebretsen - Knights of the Empty Throne: Be'lakor and 12 Varanguard form the core, with a CSL and 5 Chaos Knights plus other support chaff giving this 1 drop list a bit more going on

Kippers Melee 2023

46-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Nanaimo, BC, CA on October 14 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission - Power Flux

Carson Whitlock - Ogor Mawtribes: Meatfist:

vs.

Taylor Gougeon - Maggotkin of Nurgle: Befouling Host:

Thoughts

Bulls on Parade (Credit to Cease in our comments section for the nickname) returns to the showdown with a lot of foot Gutbusters wanting to charge things off the board and beat the shit out of things. It's a fairly balanced list that runs a bit of screening, a lil bit of Dakka and a lot of dads. It's flexible and it's leaning into the efficiency that the Gutbuster battleline bring to the table after their recent price drops.

Against it is the hot new trend in Nurgle lists running Plaguebearers to just generally be a bit of a cock. They're cheap, and with a Sloppity they're a nightmare to fight in prolonged fights thanks to Sloppity's ability to shut off pileins. They won't kill anything, but that's what the Glottkin and GUO are for. Rather cheekily, Taylor has opted to bring along Be'lakor to add even more 'fuck you, you don't get to do something this turn' to an already deep toolbox of fuck yous that Nurgle bring to the table.

I think the tension point of this matchup is how quickly the Ogors can chew through a unit of Plaguebearers and free themselves up. Ironguts being able to fight twice helps here, but the Glottkin's ability to counter charge stuff in on Carson's turn means that it's often not just one unit fighting one, it's a 2 on 1 and subsequently a rough slog. In the end this one was a low scoring affair where both players failed their grand strats and an extremely narrow victory was achieved.

Result

Ogor Mawtribes: Meatfist Victory - 20-19

Carson Whitlock - Ogor Mawtribes: Meatfist - 1st Place

photo credit: keewa

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Bulls on Parade

Thoughts

There's not too much to say about this list, as it's working on fairly basic concepts. Hoarfrost makes the Gluttons sing if he can get the spell off, and the Frostlord crucially gives the army a legit nightmare anvil for many armies to deal with, as with Mystic shield and AOD and -1 to wound, it's going to be a nuisance that can win games by itself if it can tie up enough stuff.

The Firebelly gives the army further protection with it's bubble of -1 to hit spell, and the Ironblaster/Gnoblars give the army a bit of power projection and area denial that help ensure that the army can't be pinned into it's deployment zone in the event it goes up against another aggressive army that is fewer drops. Well done to Carson for an impressive finish!

Ryan Ihl - Big WAAAGH! - 2nd Place

Ardboyz Credit: Ellarr

The List

Archetype

Hammers for days

Thoughts

The new Ardboys act as the centerpiece of this army, giving what was once a fairly fragile army 40 wounds of 3+ save badassery that act as both a hammer and anvil. The rest of the list skips the new Ironjawz toys for classic high performance units like Gore-Gruntas, a Mirebrute and Gobsprakk.

This BW presents the classic dilemma to your opponent on what to try and deal with first. Is it the 6 Pigs in your front garden that can lift anything they charge? Is it the Ardboys that if left alone will have an iron-grip on the primary objectives, or maybe the Wurgogg that if left alive to sit in the centerboard can utterly ruin a unit at at a time if the stare gets going.

The Best of the Rest

The rest of the top 8 were:

• Position - Player Name - Faction:
• 3rd - Dale Johnson - Hagg Nar: 4 Avatars of Khaine, some Witch Aelves, 2 Bloodwracks and a Cauldron of blood make for a truly bizarre yet terrifying problem for your opponent to solve
• 4th - Dan Saye - Darkwalkers: Be'lakor, 9 Bullgors and Ungor Raiders in the rather standard list we expect from competitive BoC lists now
• 5th - Tanner MacCormack - Khailebron: Morathi and the Bowsnakes
• 6th - Mark Sullivan - Fuethan: 6 Sharks, a Turtle, plus a murderking and Thrallmaster + 20 Thralls
• 7th - Taylor Gougeon - Befouling Host: See showdown
• 8th - Roman Lanzarotta - Meatfist: Carson's club-mate goes 4-1 with an identical list to him, meaning two impressive finishes for the Gutbusters

Justice Series GT

42-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in Liverpool, England on October 14 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Stats & Ladders.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission -

Stephen Follows - Befouling Host:

vs.

Nick Cable - Befouling Host:

Thoughts

Result

Befouling Host Victory - 27-7

Stephen Follows - Befouling Host - 1st Place

Credit: Bair

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Plaguebearer Summoning

Thoughts

What looks like a straight mirror match in the finals, with Stephen assumedly winning the roll off for deployment and getting to squat on the objectives and stack up a commanding lead.

Anyway, as for the list itself, it's herohammer with area denial created by the Plaguebearers and Glottkin. Priority one is summoning a Sloppity onto the board to level up the insanity of the debuffs being handed out, with the GUO helping support the Plaguebearers and make the disease more effective with the Witherstave.

Solomon Morrow - Legion of Night - 2nd Place

Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon. Credit: chimp

The List

Archetype

Herohammer Summonables

Thoughts

I am of course joking around, as there's a bit more to talk about that warrants more than a shitpost meme. The summonable price hikes have certainly hurt Soulblight, but the army is still effective thanks to it's efficient battleline (yes, still), non-interactive and straight forward faction battle tactics and a deep roster of powerful heroes.

In this case, Solomon has loaded up on the herohammer side of things, with Mannfred and VLOZD doing the heavy lifting in terms of combat aggression, while the rest of the army can focus on standing on circles and scoring battle tactics.

The Best of the Rest

There were 4 other players on 4-1 records, they were:

• Position - Player Name - Faction:
• 3rd - Tom Mawsdley - Skaventide: A unique take on the PCB craze that's sweeping the (rat) nation, that subs out the Verminlords for 2 Bells and a Plague Furnace for command ability denial purposes and a wall of chonk that can pass wounds off to the clan rats hiding behind
• 4th - Lewis Swan  - Meatfist: Kragnos, 2 Tyrants and a bunch of Gluttons
• 5th - Max Barton - Blessed Sons: Glottkin, triple Maggoth lord and Plaguebearers to lock down the midboard
• 6th - Jack Krinks - Glogg's Megamob: A trogg heavy list featuring Trugg, 9 Rockguts, 6 Fellwaters and some support pieces 

Woehammer AoS GT II

28-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on October 14 2023. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Matchup & Mission -

Jack Morton - Mor'phann:

vs.

James Linford - Barak-Urbaz:

Thoughts

Idoneth draw the kind of opponent they love to see, getting to match up with a shooting army that has a lot of eggs in those guns... I don't see how Jack can lo-wait, THAT'S GOTREK'S MUSIC!



Putting aside the crude attempts at humour for a second, even beyond Gotrek this KO list is built to at least deal with the Aetherwings quickly with the shooting from the Gunhauler and Arkanauts, opening the way for the Thunderers/Ironclad to shoot what's behind them. It's not a massive slam dunk, but there just isn't that much in the way of wounds on those birds and once they're dead its killing season.

Result

Barak-Urbaz Victory - 27 - 22

James Linford - Barak-Urbaz - 1st Place (4-0-1)

Gotrek Gurnisson - Credit: RichyP

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Dwarves.

Thoughts

Gotrek gives the KO list some real combat presence that is very difficult to actually kill without losing a lot of models in the process. Yes he's slow, but the rest of the KO army is very fast and can make up for this shortfall, leaving the little red-haired murder machine to trundle up to the center of the board and put down a deck chair, daring the opponent to even think about getting within 12" of him.

The Best of the Rest

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

• Position - Player Name - Faction:
• 2nd - Orfeas Chloros - Befouling Host: Glottkin, 2 Maggoth Lords, Horticulous & Beast of Nurgle spam for a different take on the summoning engine
• 3rd - Mira Berry - Invaders Host: A real herohammer list, running both a KoS and Shalaxi, with an Epitome, The Masque and minimal battleline plus 6 Fiends
• 4th - Jack Morton - Mor'phann: See showdown
• 5th - Jack Perryman - Grinnin' Blades: 12 Boltboyz, a Sludgeraker and Gobsprakk make the real core, with 40 Gutrippaz to hide behind and threaten a potent Kruleboyz Waaagh turn

Wrap Up

Let's be real for a moment - did we really need to give Nurgle as many points drops as we did? I agree that they deserved points drops as they were feeling a bit rough, but with the past few weeks results it's become clear that the army has hit a breakpoint of sorts. Generals can put a lot of wounds on the board, then combine them with Glottkin for a nightmare board control list. It might be a bit premature on my part to call it a dominant army while the battlescroll is still so fresh, but I think I've seen enough to predict that Nurgle will be a top 3 tournament mainstay until something comes along to shake things up.

What does that mean for people when listbuilding? Well you'll certainly like abilities that can shut off ward saves, or power projection to be able to deal with the Sloppity and unlock the rest of your combat hammers that DO have large board footprints and thus need their pile-ins to function effectively. Just a few things to think about when designing your list if you have aspirations on a top tournament finish. Until next time!