Would you believe Space Marines got picked on at a competitive tourney? Check out these top three lists that rose above the Astartes meta!

Sure, since Space Marines “got good”, a bunch of players jumped on the Iron Hands or just the Astartes bandwagon in general. But there are other players that saw to the challenge of designing lists to counter what they had to offer. Checking out these three lists, they all rose to the top and made it to the other side in a Marine-saturated meta.

Thanks to Best Coast Pairings we can look back at the event as if we were there ourselves.

3rd Place: Death Guard & Friends- Luis Alcala

This list was called the Zombie Apocalypse in the BCP list and rightfully so. With two malignant Plaguecasters leading one-hundred total Poxwalkers, it’s safe to say that this list had plenty of screens. While Plaguebearers are generally tougher than Poxwalkers, the Poxwalkers have sheer numbers to help them out.

To add a little T-Sons spice, a Supreme Command Detachment of Sorcerers led by Ahriman was also brought and seeded into the Poxwalkers’ ranks for protection.

And finally, another Battalion brought with Typhus (because if you’re running Poxwalkers and not bringing him you’re doing it wrong). ninety-eight more Poxwalkers dropped into this list with even more Psykers hitting the field.

Overall, with just over two-hundred bodies on the table, this army had board control for days. And while you might think that the damage is lacking, with all the Psykers seeded into the list, Luis had almost 10 different smite opportunities as well as all the other Thousand Sons/ Death Guard psychic shenanigans Awesome list!

2nd Place: Orks- Marc Parker

This list is something akin to the Imperial Guard artillery line/triple Knight list. With a Battalion being filled with Gretchin for the CP and keeping overall cost low, Marc had room to throw in two lines of Smasha guns to support the real workhorse of the list.

Three Gargantuan Squiggoths rolled onto the table sporting dakka and massive impaling tusks. With all the Knights stomping around on the table, it looks like Orks got a little jealous and tried their own hand at bringing Super-Heavies. Turns out after coming in 2nd place, they’re a better unit option than most people might consider!

The way this list may work is pretty simple. Smasha Guns shoot at the enemy to buy time for the Squiggoths to get into close combat. Once the Squiggoths made it into the enemy’s line, the Smasha Guns could focus on other things like units sitting on objectives/hard-to-reach squads that might be up in buildings. Great list.

1st Place: Tyranids- Jeff Dickens

This list is definitely an interesting one with anti-psyker and re-roll ones tech from Kronos to start. As one of the most expansive army compositions we’ve seen for Tyranids in a while, Jeff pulled all sorts of different units together to make a soup of a Tyranid swarm. Two smart bugs were at the helm of a Battalion with Hive Guard and Biovores making up the majority of the firepower. But wait, it’s about to get really interesting…

Over three Hundred points were thrown into Sporocysts (a fortification) which we’ve never seen in a 1st place Nid list since 8th edition began. To break down the overall rules of the Sporocyst, they can be set up anywhere more than 9″ away from the enemy deployment and can spawn Spore Mines to dish out mortal wounds whenever they explode. They’ve also got a decent amount of shooting, but with a 5+ BS, that’s not the real reason why you take these.

In the ITC ring, Sporocysts actually have some decent use. They can basically Infiltrate and start the game on an objective or just hang out behind some cover in different table quadrants, spawn some nodes, and help score Recon.

To reinforce the shooting and add a little speed, two Hive Tyrants with wings and deathspitters made the cut for the army and helped a squad of seventeen Genestealerrs find their target. And last but not least, along with a crowd of Ripper Swarms and Termagants, some Meiotic Spores also made it to the field.

These spores are ones you actually have to pay points for, but are a bit tougher and can explode to do D3-D6 mortal wounds depending on how hot the roll is.

Plus from slingshotting the Genestealers up the field to falling back and recharging, Kracken seems to be the way to go with this detachment for sure.

Outstanding job pulling a 1st place win for Tyranids using units that have never appeared in a game-winning list!

With these three lists broken down which one is your favorite? Do you run a list that normally takes the meta by surprise? Are Poxwalkers the new Plaguebearer?

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