Today’s article is Part II of the Dread Pageant + Wrack & Ruin/Countdown to Cataclysm write up for the Las Vegas Open 2025. If you’d like to read about the rationale for the warband/deck, the contents of the build, and a general discussion of strategy, click here. Otherwise, let’s get Bloody and Bruised as I recap my matches at the Grand Clash and how the deck performed live onstage.

Click here to check out other Deck Builds/Love Letters on Spent Glory

I in my standard tradition, forgot to have a group photo until the end of day 1 when people had already left. Someday I’ll learn! Here’s a few of the beautiful faces I got to hang with all weekend.

Coming into the tournament, I felt relatively prepared for all comers despite less preparation that I would have hoped. Life gets in the way sometimes, and I couldn’t make the weekly game nights super often in the leadup to LVO. I had several practice matches, but mostly into my teammate Andrew’s Zikkit’s Tunnelpack (unfortunately for me, much more on this later). That said, it worked well against Strike, even the pre-nerf Reckless Fury and Gorechosen. The thing I was actually the most worried about was passive Take and Hold or somebody more interested than delving for Pillage and Plunder than trying to tag my fighters – I do kind of need you to try and hit me if I want to inspire, and I would really like to inspire for my scoring. Here’s a review of all my practice games coming into the tournament. See where I struggled – against the Tunnelpack? It’s called foreshadowing, look it up.

We played three best-of-3 matches on day 1, then cut to a top for for a two-round single-elimination bracket for day 2. Just a few players shy of being able to run a top 8 cut, which was too bad. Hopefully Frontline Gaming will get their act together and actually sell tickets to Underworlds events on their website next year?! Anyway, let’s get into the match overviews.

Match 1: Evan’s Jaws of Itzl paired with Emberstone Sentinels and Countdown to Cataclysm

Sitting down against Evan, I was surprised to hear he was taking the flex-hold angle on Jaws, which I hadn’t personally faced yet. I already knew that ES would potentially be a bad matchup for me, as it requires less interaction, but The Dread Pageant have a special enjoyment of the Predatory Fighters ability on the Jaws – why yes, I will take a ping and inspire! Of course, the Jaws get to inspire – and ANY fighter, not just whoever I attacked, so I have to be careful (or make sure I hit). I’d also have to make sure I played my pings in the correct power step to prevent his inspiration.

Fortunately for me, Evan had some poor dice in game 1, which led him to feel the need to play more aggressively in game 2, and that actually benefits my game plan. Hadzu’s Grapple pulling Ro-Tak out of an edge hex was huge for me as well. Unfortunately for me, his dice were a lot better in the second game of our match and he was able to obliterate a few of my guys and slow the inspire before Vasillac finally came online and did what he does best. He made me sweat a bit though – the potential for huge damage and/or a huge end phase is always a problem for this build, and as I understand it Evan did pretty well across the rest of the event so I might have gotten away with one here.

Result: Dread Pageant Win 2-0/+18 (20-7, 19-14)

Match 2: Ross’ Kunnin Krew paired with Blazing Assault and Pillage & Plunder

Ross is an old opponent of mine, having given me quite the fight in Tacoma a couple years back, but I was excited to face him again since he’s always a good hang and a lot of fun to chat with mid-game; a man who knows we’re here to have a good time and enjoy each others’ company.. This time he was taking another Flexy approach, though choosing to Delve rather than Hold as Evan had. This makes his scoring have a lower ceiling, but is more predictable and smooth for him while being harder to stop for me. I hadn’t ever faced DKK prior to this match either, so I was a little worried that I would get out-passived and would need to play my positional game just right while picking on his staggered fighters to try and inspire.

In our first game I took a very risky charge nearby Torka, then missed, and had to blow several abilities and cards to keep him from inspiring, but failed anyway. A 3 damage monster with 2 shields, I now had a real problem on my hands, but fortunately could spend time on the other side of the board accomplishing my goals and dealing with Mannok. Blessedly, Torka missed a charge, Mannok got dragged down, and I was able to un-delve tokens at just the right time to keep myself comfortably ahead. Game 2 went even better for me as I delayed Torka’s inspiration for longer and then got him pinged down, and I had cleave out earlier so I could make more progress and stymie him more effectively. He fought hard, but I think it was just an uphill matchup as DKK appear to have lost a lot of edge in this edition.

Result: Dread Pageant Win 2-0/+21 (21-12, 22-10)

Match 3: Andrew’s Zikkit’s Tunnelpack paired with Countdown to Cataclysm and Wrack & Ruin

OK, so like, I have been playing this guy every week or two for five years, and we have a long-running joke that I win all the time in casual games back home. Something like 2/3 of the time, even. Yet for some reason, whenever the game ‘counts’ – a milestone, something has been bet, a league game, a tournament match – you name it – Andrew wins. He always wins when it matters. That, and he had even been winning in practice in advance of this tournament with these two teams (having won 4 of our last 7), so I was definitely going to need to play out of my mind if I was going to take this set. We were two of the undefeated players at this point, so even if I lost there was a chance to advance to the top cut, but why take the chance?

Andrew wins the roll-off, orients the boards, and immediately begins the dance we’ve done 7 times so far – a chess match in Token placement followed by some back and forth fighter positioning. Key to my strategy is Vasillac surviving until I can inspire, so I have to keep him held back and safe from that dang Rittak Verm. Key to his strategy if letting anybody get hit so he can inspire the wheel, drop some pings, and then blitz after my leader. There’s obviously more to it, but the game in a nutshell goes to whichever player can out-feint and out-push their opponent’s key fighter.

In my defense, I did play out of my mind. Despite having to place first fighter on a board he picked and oriented, I managed to bring it to a 19-19 tie, and lost because I was tabled in the last activation. Had he missed that final attack I was going to be up 1-0 and orienting the board, but dice be dice. Game 2 I got more out of Vasillac, scored my Stay Close and then hampered his, and won +2. The last game went roughly the opposite and I lost -3. That means that we ended our best of 3 with a glory total of 60-59, and you can’t ask for much better than that.

I’m writing this a few days after the fact and so the details of those matches are all somewhat lost in the fog of memory, but I remember the set being one of the best matches we had ever played since Beastgrave. I’m incredibly lucky to have such a strong teammate to train with and a fun guy to have as a roommate for the weekend, even if he has decided to be better at this game than I am.

Result: Dread Pageant Lose 1-2/-1 (19-19, 20-18, 20-23)

Top Cut

Having finished our match a little earlier than the next table over, I got the opportunity to cruise around and chat as well as observe table 2. Adi had finished her day 2-1, 2-0-ing her second two matches of the day and had positioned herself pretty well tiebreakers wise. Her husband Jesse was playing in the match on Table 2, and they were in their third game. If Jesse managed to win – and win by enough – over his opponent Gareth, there was a scenario where both spouses advanced to the top cut. No pressure, right?

The problem is that Gareth has won a Grand Clash before and narrowly missed advancing to the top 16 at worlds just 2 months prior, and he was playing a fairly similar BA/RF Ironsoul’s Condemnors deck, storming up the field in a phalanx, and knocking Jesse’s Ravagers off their critical tokens left and right. In the final power step of the match, Jesse plays Commanding Stride to lunge into enemy territory and then burns Ravaging Advance to push Khagra 3 hexes onto a deep token, scoring him something like 6 glory in the end phase out of nowhere. Using an ability that he somehow had the cojones to hang on to the entire game. My jaw dropped at the display of majesty, and then my heart sank along with it when I realized I was going to have to face the cold-blooded genius who just pulled that off in the semi-finals the following morning.

Look at him, literally flexin’ on us. Not even Davy’s Jungle Suit can help me keep up.

Semifinals: Jesse’s Khagra’s Ravagers paired with Emberstone Sentinels and Countdown to Cataclysm

Andrew and I grabbed dinner from the Rio food court and then immediately went upstairs to try and cobble together something that might resemble Jesse’s Deck, using Alessandro’s one from Worlds as a template. Then we played three games so I could practice. Man, is it nice to have a teammate at one of these things. I won all three games without any real problems, and so of course the real thing would go the same way, right? RIGHT?!

Jesse and I shake hands at the outset of our match and he starts telling me humble things about how he doesn’t deserve to be facing me as if I’m the undefeated one and not him. He then proceeds to defend everything I throw his way, expertly counterplay all of my various pushes, and kill things when he needed to. The critical moment came when I gambled and lost – I had an injured Slakeslash in an important position and chose NOT to put him on guard with Drown in Pain, as I had assumed he would attack Hadzu instead and I wanted to save it for later. Wrong on both counts, Slakeslash got hit, driven back, and overrun. As a result I couldn’t stop him scoring Supremacy or Iron Grasp, and just got to watch while he danced around my plans. I tossed Too Close for Comfort heading into the next round, and then immediately found myself in a scenario where I could have forced it. Frustrated, scared, and feeling some type of way, I never managed to catch back up. Now we’re going into the second game and Jesse is still acting like he’s the one who doesn’t deserve to be at the table with me.

That said, in game 2, things go much better for me – my card draw was almost perfect and I got the pings I needed and a handful of surges. Then the dice on those pings went just flawlessly. Razek walks onto a token and gets hit with Cruel Pangs. I drop Sunder the Realm and hit both him and Khagra, then use Total Collapse and finish Razek off. All this on a Cataclysm value of 1. Khagra then charges Vasillac and deals two damage, but inspires my team and he claps back for 3 damage, slaying her. Jesse’s down his two best fighters by activation 3, and concedes shortly thereafter.

So now we are into the third game, the winner of which will advance to the LVO finals. I glance over at Andrew and he is looking mighty uncomfortable, so it seems like Adi’s Purifiers have him in trouble. Is this the end of Rain City Thunderworlds? Was Take and Hold our blind spot?

As I draw my cards I see Sunder the Realm again, but I lose the roll-off and have to place the first token. By some stroke of luck I’m able to Tetris my way into having two objectives in neutral territory and only one on his side, which will force him to come toward me more aggressively than he had been while I can sit back and pick my targets, then Sunder the Realm when the party is all assembled. Slaanesh apparently was watching over us, because again I got just the dice I needed on 1 cataclysm value to hit most of his guys and just enough of mine to inspire, and then kill Khagra again before she can inspire. I won priority and somehow ate through Dour Cragan in round 2, and Jesse conceded again after that.

In complete honesty I had ungodly luck in our last two games and I do not know that I would be able to win another best of 3 if we had to do it over again. The only thing I can say for certain is that Jesse is a heck of a lot better at Khagra ES/CC than Andrew is, because I had a MUCH harder time. Andrew and Adi had finished up at this point, and he told me that the only time all weekend he was actually scared he might lose was when he played against her. And to think this is her first competitive event! If you’re anywhere near Salt Lake City, Utah, you have to start training with those two.

Result: Dread Pageant Win 2-1/+6 (16-20, 11-4, 11-8)

Finals: Andrew’s Zikkit’s Tunnelpack paired with Countdown to Cataclysm and Wrack & Ruin AGAIN

Jeezy Pete, here we go. Andrew told me he was relieved I managed to squeak past Jesse because he wasn’t sure he could beat that frightening setup, but he knew he could beat me. Thanks, buddy. I was hoping Adi would beat Andrew – not because I thought I could win over her somewhat passive Hold approach, but because I also knew I probably couldn’t beat him. But you play the games for a reason, so let’s get to rolling dice. Well, once Andrew finished his dark ritual to curse the board and ensure my demise, anyway.

The first game went really well for me dice-wise, and I was able to inspire somewhat early. My pings succeeded, his did not, and he even got hit with Volcanic Eruption when I didn’t, which felt nice. He was starting to get tilted though, especially when he finally committed to the wheel charge and missed. I won that first game, but really I think his dice lost it for him.

The second game I was cruising on my way to a 2-0 victory to my complete surprise when things turned quite quickly due to a silly oversight on my part. I had managed to keep the wheel at bay, inspired my team, and baited Zikkit into charging which he missed. That allowed me to charge Vasillac up and hit him for 3 damage, which felt great, and I apologized before I rolled the 1-dice attempt at Total Collapse to finish him off for 3 glory. Unfortunately for me, it missed, but even MORE unfortunately for me was that I charged to a position 7 hexes away from the wheel, feeling quite pleased with myself. The wheel that was equipped with Great Speed. An upgrade I definitely knew about because I used Improvised Weapon to drive it back earlier in the game and put it out of range, but had forgotten. One turbo-missile later and Vasillac was down for the count. I killed Zikkit shortly after and kept it close, but that sequence likely cost me the game. Since I made that big goof, Andrew was able to pull back close to my score, and in a show of absolute heroics, he had Tik Tik go Kaboom next to Glisette for the final activation of the game. He needed a crit, or he would lose the game. A 50% odds coinflip to determine whether he forced a game 3, or lost in the finals 0-2. Tik Tik got that crit, and the game ended with no fighters left on the board, and Andrew’s glory count just 2 higher than mine. Curse that dastardly Tik Tik!

So there I was, a comfortable 7 hexes away from the 5 move Verm having just driven him back, and about to drive him back again with Improvised attack after he gains Great Speed, not a worry in the world…

The third game was a bit of an agonizing reversal of dice fates – I missed more than I would like while Andrew finally had his successes come through. I never had the opportunity to use Gross Hubris, despite multiple 3-4 dice failures, as the fighters weren’t wounded when I missed, or I had several single-success rolls and can’t reroll unless everything is a failure. Andrew dropped his Fireproof at the perfect time, and had me on the ropes. In the final stages of the game he had his last surviving fighter – that dadgum wheel – and traditionally at this stage he would choose More-More Power and throttle another 3 damage charge my way, risking an explosion to take me out. Instead, he sprints over to an edge hex too far away for me to use Improvised Attack, drops his own Total Collapse on himself for two damage which leaves him vulnerable in enemy territory to score Living on the Edge while denying me Stay Close, which was exactly what he needed to secure the win. All while Slakeslash picked his nose on guard over on Objective 5 waiting for a tiebreaker that was until that moment sure to happen. It’s almost like I got outplayed or something.

Result: Dread Pageant Lose 1-2/+2 (22-13, 19-21, 15-20)

Wrap

There are a few general takeaways from the event for me. The first of which is that I’m glad to play in a big event again, having not done so for 6 months, and I’m also glad to have had the chance to see distant friends again. You should play in events! They’re fun! Jesse only came to LVO last year because of the ‘what to expect at your first tournament’ article, and just one year later he makes the top 4 and had a real chance at winning a grand clash. That could be you!

The second thing I learned was that Thomas is a hero for saving the event and stepping in to be a T.O. and make sure that the Las Vegas Open had Underworlds at it. Sorry I couldn’t bring one home for UWU but let’s be honest, Andrew has surpassed my abilities at this point and is definitely the better representative for Seattle at Worlds. And y’all though Zikkit couldn’t compete! #Skill issue. For real though, who saw this ‘D-Tier’ warband making any kind of competitive splash, much less going undefeated? The only person who took games off of him all event was me, and he was more or less in control the entire time.

The third thing I have learned is that this new post-rules-update meta is wide open. There were 14 players with 13 warbands (all of them painted, too!), and a good variety of decks represented. Countdown to Cataclysm might have been a little overrepresented, but that’s probably more to do with the fact it pairs decently well with everything rather than it being too strong. Also, Wrack & Ruin might not be as bad as people thought – look at it like a more fair version of Rimewyrm’s Bite (positional scoring with pings that hit you too, fun stuff imo). Once we have 3-4 more decks I would expect things to settle in and we should have a pretty diverse and level playing field. The future looks bright!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the read, and I want to encourage you to Spend that Glory at a tournament some day. If I haven’t convinced you to give a lesser-played warband a chance and try to bring something like Dread Pageant to the pinnacle (or tantalizingly close), check out the Love Letters series where other people share their experiences ‘avin a good time with the things they like, rather than the things that are ‘good’.

Too cool to even bother with the rest of us. I’ll get you next time at the Tacoma Open, Bajandrew, if it’s the last thing I do!