Welcome to Competitive Innovations, our weekly feature for a number of game lines across the tabletop wargame space. Each week our army list and tactics experts canvass the top tournaments for their game of specialty, looking at the week’s top match-ups and how they played out on the tabletop to let you know what’s hot, what’s not, and what might be coming next as the competitive meta evolves year-round.

Welcome back to another Competitive Innovations in the Mortal Realms. We got 2 smaller events this week, one in Canada and one in Great Britain. Both events are full of some surprises however as the meta seems to be shaking up.

Cake Or Death 2025 – The Cakeful Dead

59-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in New Westminster, BC, Canada on February 15 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

This event is a more casual-orientated event where players bake a themed cake to go with their list (hence the name) and bonus points are given to the best cakes.

The Showdown

Joseph Tsai – Seraphon
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Matthias Krushel – Ossiarch Bonereapers
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

This is an interesting matchup since Seraphon rely a fair amount on spells to do mortal wounds to the enemy to soften them up before the kill. Arkhan doesn’t see as much use in Ossiarch Bonereapers since Katakros is often considered very essential, but this ends up being a matchup where his inclusion is clutch since he has a 4+ Spell Shrug.

That said, the Seraphon list has a lot of punch, so it’s not relying on magic to do all the work. The Kroxigors are absolutely brutal if they get into combat first, and both sides have ample cavalry to attempt to get the early game charge so much of the conflict is going to come down to who can charge first.

The match ends relatively close with Ossiarch Bonereapers clutching victory.

Result

Ossiarch Bonereapers Victory – 34 – 22

Matthias Krushel – Ossiarch Bonereapers – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Arkhan and Horses

Thoughts

This is a really streamlined list with no fat. Not running Katakros is bold, but it’s saving over 100 points by picking this mortarch instead.

Arkhan is obviously the focal point of the list, he’s a 3 cast wizard with a +1 bonus but also grants a 4+ spell shrug within 18″. He’s also not bad in combat, you wouldn’t want him to take on your enemy’s biggest hammer, but he doesn’t need to hide in the back either.

Accompanying him are Zandtos and 2 reinforced squads of Kavalos Deathriders. Zandtos can break off from Arkhan and compensate for the smaller 12″ Relentless Discipline bubble by instead being the focus point, and he grants a powerful +1 attack aura once per game which makes it so the Deathriders will be able to pick up almost anything in the game if they get a strong charge off.

Finally the Harbingers, a less popular but no less powerful alternative to the Archai. They lose out on a 3+ save but get to make a 3D6 charge and benefit from Relentless Discipline anywhere on the field which greatly makes up for the handicap of not having Kat’s 18″ aura.

John Zoshak – Seraphon – 2nd Place (Undefeated)

The List

Army List - Click to Expand

Archetype

Mid Range Seraphon

Thoughts

Kroak, naturally leads the pack as one of the best casters in the game, both for being a 3 cast wizard with a +2 to cast and the rare +1 to unbind (anywhere on the battlefield, at that). His warscroll is pretty damn good too for sniping out heroes and smaller units where Comet’s Call wouldn’t be as effective. The Starseer makes a great Arcane Vassal both to expand the range of his spells and also has a solid warscroll spell of its own if you need to turn off a ward save.

The Agraddon Lancers, Raptadon Chargers and Bastiladon are the primary hammers with Hunters of Huanchi being sneaky objective grabbers or to snipe out enemy heroes. Having 30 saurus warriors make great screens or objective holders as needed for the mission.

The Best of the Rest

There were 8 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 3rd – Taylor Gougeon – Slaves to Darkness: Be’lakor with Chosen and Varanguard.
• 4th – Carson Whitlock – Slaves to Darkness: One drop Be’lakor and Chaos lord with Chosen and Varanguard.
• 5th – Joseph Tsai – Seraphon: See Showdown.
• 6th – Chris LaMoy – Seraphon: Kroak and Starseer with Seraphon good stuff.
• 7th – Matt Beasley – Disciples of Tzeentch: Lord of Change with a menagerie of daemons.
• 8th – Michael Slemon – Ogor Mawtribes: Monster trucks.
• 9th – Kyle Leroux – Sylvaneth: Alarielle and Belthanos with Sylvaneth good stuff.
• 10th – Jeremy Lamoy – Stormcast Eternals: Celestant Prime leads a collection of all the good infantry units.

The Big Bristol Brawl Winter GT

40-player, 5-round Grand Tournament in England, GB on February 15 2025. All the lists for this event can be found in Best Coast Pairings.

The Showdown

Alex Edwards – Sylvaneth
Army List - Click to Expand

vs.

Matthew Gouldesbrough – Disciples of Tzeentch
Army List - Click to Expand

Thoughts

Both of these lists are unique spins on the metas for their army. The Tzeentch player has gone with the almost mandatory unit of Skyfires but rather than flood the board with horrors they settled for Acolytes. Which to be fair, are quite a bit cheaper and can tar pit the board almost as well. The emphasis on Enlightened gives it a much more melee orientated bent than we tend to expect from Tzeentch.

Meanwhile the Sylvaneth list went heavy on characters, which means they will struggle a lot on board coverage (something the Tzeentch list will have no lack of). With their ability to spread out they make it much more like that they are able to ping the Sylvaneth players from afar and close in the gap when the timing is right, which leads to a resounding Tzeentch victory.

Result

Disciples of Tzeentch Victory – 42 – 30

Matthew Gouldesbrough – Disciples of Tzeentch – 1st Place

The List

See Showdown

Archetype

Birbs

Thoughts

Horrors recently went up a lot in points, which doesn’t make them less playable per se but its a unit you want to flood the board with a lot of and once you add up several units the cost becomes unsustainable.

In come Kairic acolytes, which are a pretty decent chaff unit at 90 points. Their ranged attack isn’t great but it’s got Wyrdflame and the unit does cause -1 to cast rolls, which can be clutch given how rare Unbind bonuses are.

While Skyfires remain a great unit, the Enlightened are the interesting quirk here. We don’t really see them often but for their points they’re really not bad. If you’re going second, or are willing to throw a few objectives early on to become underdog, they get Damage 3 on the charge, that hurts!

Overall an interesting twist on an old classic.

The Best of the Rest

There were 7 more players on 4-1 records. They were:

• 2nd – David Towsey – Sons of Behemat: King Brodd, Warstomper and 2 Gatebreakers.
• 3rd – Ben Selfe – Skaven: Thanquol and Verminlord Deceiver with Ratling Guns and Doom-Flayers
• 4th – Alex Edwards – Sylvaneth: See Showdown.
• 5th – Carl Brewster – Slaves to Darkness: Legion of the First Prince with Be’lakor leading Bloodletters and other daemons.
• 6th – Aaron Boyhan – Orruk Warclanz: Zoggrok’s Ironmongers with lots of Brutes.
• 7th – Rich Nutter – Stormcast Eternals: Karazai and a Lord-Celestant on Stardrake with good stuff infantry.
• 8th – Dan Sidders – Stormcast Eternals: A cav focused Stormcast list with Stormdrakes, Concussors and Palladors.

Wrap Up

Another short week on Competitive Innovations, but thanks for stopping by. We’ll see you next week!

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