Hey friends! I went to the Tacoma Open this month and had a blast with This Gorechosen of Dromm Wrack/Reckless Deck and ultimately ended up in third place with a real shot at first. This article will be a rundown of the event and my matches and some reasons I might tweak the deck if I were ever to take it out for another run in competition down the line. Even with the flaws I discovered while playing it under live fire, it still was awesome! TL;DR The deck routinely hit 23 glory, and even scored as high as 28 once which is insane. Over 12 Grand Clash games I was averaging 21.5 glory with an average differential of +6. Despite Dromm’s nerfs, they still are mondo strong.

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Round 1: Gator Dave Jaws of Itzl Blazing Assault/Wrack and Ruin

I opened the tournament sitting at the auspicious Table #1 against none other than Gator Dave of Las Vegas. King Gator had won a ticket to Worlds already with Starblood Stalkers in January at the Palm Springs Open and so I knew he would be a tough nut to crack, this time bringing the other gator warband known as the Jaws of Itzl. I have played against them many times, but his pairing of Blazing/Wrack meant there was a real chance I both got out-aggro’d and our Wrack scoring would offset. If I couldn’t kill stuff fast or convince him to charge often, I stood a real chance of losing the game (particularly if my two hammers melee whiffed and I got a bite back in return to inspire him).

I’ll count myself very fortunate that his dice luck was below average in both games and I managed to kill Kro-Jax early on both times. His use of Commanding Stride and Sidestep was impeccable and his Savage Mauling, while it never killed anyone, put multiple damage on me both games and got him inspired earlier than I would like. Gorehulk died round 1 both games.

What this did do for me, however, was get Dromm online and doing what he likes best – slapping 3 damage out at range 2. My pings hit while his missed, my attacks landed while his didn’t and I cleaned up glory-wise. Misfortune let me ping Herax to vulnerable (yet on the Aqua Ghyranis) to score Living on the Edge twice, and I eventually used enrage just to make the snakes charge at me and score Unrelenting Massacre. These both helped drive the scores up to ridiculous heights since Total Glory was a high-position tiebreaker in this event. I have ranted before about how dumb tiebreakers are in GW Opens (and this is foreshadowing for later as well), but suffice to say this went as well as I could have hoped and I came away the 2-0 winner with giant glory totals.

In an awesome turn of events, Gator Dave is not only a super cool dude but he also knows about Crazy Bones, a little mini game I brought to play with my opponents between rounds. He tore open a pack and we spent a while flicking lumps of plastic at each other until I took his last one off the table with my last one standing. He also made the painting showcase with his gorgeous converted warband he claimed was ‘not finished yet’ and won a gold prize in the open paint contest with his Otapatl mini. Awesome dude and super glad to have met him in person. Reports say he spent the next few hours complaining about how mean I am to the rest of the Vegas crew and I can’t say I blame him.

Result: Dromm wins 2-0 (27-9, 25-12)

Round 2: Derek Traquair Wurmspat Blazing Assault/Reckless Fury

Ah, Derek. We last faced off at the Las Vegas Open in 2024 where I was unceremoniously Ephilim’d into a crushing 0-2 loss. He went on to win the event and had the nerve to tell me I had given him a run for his money and he was scared (neither of these things were remotely true). Now he was staring me down from across the table with a Wurmspat BA/RF build he had just won the Canadian Tabletop Championships with, and while he had his worlds ticket from that event, Tacoma paid for your flight to Spain so he was in it to win it. Adding to the context, I had played him in Vassal a few times in first edition and had never beaten him or even come very close to doing so. All this to say I was quakin’ in my boots.

To my advantage this time though was that his desire to spread the pain to inspire would directly fuel some of my wrack scoring and not require me to do as much of the same, and his need to charge for RF stuff also directly helped me to score. My wrack scoring would give me the end phase glory advantage.

In practice, Derek’s dice were a little below average and mine were a little above, and I was both times able to take one of his models out early and inspire for my trouble before he could. A few times I was stymied by his defense or damage reduction, but for the most part the card order and dice fell my way and I was able to score Living on the Edge both games yet again which is always a hoot. I gave myself charge tokens after tabling him to score more RF cards and let him have unrelenting massacre because yet again, the event’s tiebreakers are dumb and total glory mattered more than differential. But boy howdy did I get some total glory.

Afterward we had a good chat and caught up on life and our mutual buddy Beardarm (love you man, glad to hear the good news), played a little Crazy Bones where I won again, and then was told in no uncertain terms and with the undertone of violent threat I had to make a public boast, which I will repeat verbatim here:

“Hey George, Mark, Aman, you guys couldn’t beat Derek. He’s never lost to a podcaster in a tournament before. This is the first time any ‘murican has beaten him at all in seven years. Why am I the one who has to do your work for you?”

OK we’re even now, you rascally wolverine.

Result: Dromm wins 2-0 (25-10, 28-18)

Round 3: Chad Weeks Hexbane’s Hunters Countdown to Cataclysm/Deadly Synergy

Looking at the standings ahead of this match, I was really worried I would be playing into one of the two Shadeborns and was stressing about it. But BCP and the vagaries of the Warhammer Open ‘win path pairing’ system’ gave me Hexbane, and I was so relived. You hear that sound? Why yes, it’s HUBRIS!

Chad, who goes by AbosluteChad on Discord, absolutely is a CHAD IRL. At this point in the day he’s top 4 with what is roundly considered a garbage warband and even isn’t playing them with Pillage and Plunder. This should have clued me into the fact that I was due for a wake-up call. I was happily snoozing, however, because he told me that this was his first ever tournament. “Just splat Aemos with the Gorehulk turn 1 and it will all work out”, I thought, foolishly.

Anyway not to belabor it but he very, VERY quickly had me realizing that I couldn’t take my eyes off the prize as he countered my Call of Blood with a perfectly positioned Violent Blast, drawing me into a much lower-odds attack that also missed and left me misplaced on the board. I tried to fight back but ended up losing game 1 by 1 glory. Ends up the new-and-improved Marked for Death made him frighteningly accurate and gave him Grievous all day, which is rough. Bladecatcher only works if it’s applied to a fighter… Bridgette inspired threatening 3 and a dog wearing Desperate Rage threatening 4 damage while both have rerolls and probably flanking against my 1 shield is, as one might say, bigtime spooky.

I won game 2 by 4 glory because this time my early attacks hit and I was able to position a little better, and got him to a low enough model count he couldn’t avoid charging as often so I got to score some RF cards. Our third game ended in a true tie because my one-health last-man-standing Herax killed a dog off an aqua ghyranis. Had I missed that attack (and statistically I should have) I would have lost the game and then the set. Instead, we got a legit draw and I have to hand it to him – he’s a way stronger player than any new guy has a right to be and either he’s a brain genius or Hexbane is actually good now (maybe both).

I was able to console myself by winning the following Crazy Bones fight and then letting Chad tease Gator Dave about how I’m easy to beat or whatever and he didn’t know what Dave was complaining about.

Result: DRAW 1-1-1 (Lose 18-19, win 21-17, true tie 16-16)

Day 2

The prior evening, knowing that the other players on either side of me were both playing Shadeborn RF/DS, Rex and I played a practice set with that pairing in the hotel room to give me the most meagre insight into what I was in for. I lost the match 1-2 and didn’t even feel good about the one where I won, so I was in my feelings (of violent Moo Deng girl power) the following morning.

Round 4: Yury Romanov Shadeborn Reckless Fury/ Deadly Synergy

I’ve played Yury before, most notably at the previous year’s Tacoma Open where I won 2-0 by losing the board roll-off twice and getting to be mean about treasure token placement. Yury decided to drop Jaws of Itzl and has come to town in first place with the Shadeborn after beating his fellow Canadian (using the same pairing). Since Max has already beaten Rex, and Yury beat Max, and Rex is better than me, I was not feelin’ great about my odds. But he’s a cool guy so we went to work.

Please take a moment to gaze at his beautiful OSL paintjob that won the showcase. Well deserved!

Thanks to some last-minute clutch advice from Saxthom/Thomas, a very experienced Shadeborn player (and last year’s ITC best in faction player), I knew the kill order would need to be Spear -> Leader -> knives or crossbow depending on board state. Hyperfocusing on Drusylla and burning lots of warscroll power on her right away, I was able to kill her (though of course far later than I had hoped) in both games. Yury did a great job of positioning her away, using cards like Diving In to move her from trouble, getting her into cover for rerolls on defense, and generally being a nuisance.

Dramatically in my favor however was the fact that in the first game he missed his first six attacks. In the second game he missed with his inspired leader multiple times (thanks, Bladecatcher). Dromm got to party all day and I came out on top against my expectations, but I really can’t say I won more than I can say Yury lost and his dice are to blame.

Result: Dromm Wins 2-0 (24-14, 23-11)

Round 5: Maksym Zdor Shadeborn Reckless Fury/ Deadly Synergy

Yes, these two Canadians were playing the same deck pairing and warband. Max told me they had ~3 cards different but otherwise were very similar. Could lightning strike twice for me? I mean, I’m back in first place, and if I beat Yury, and Yury beat Max, ipso facto vis-a-vis concordantly…

I followed more or less the same playbook, and while Max knew exactly what I was up to (he and Yury had spent the intervening lunch hours talking it over), my card draw order wasn’t bad and my dice were reasonable. I won the first 24-17 and was feeling really good about myself, which is of course the first sign of a bad time to come.

Props to Max for adjusting his strategy after our first game, since he really did well to spread out and force me to make suboptimal plays and burn a lot of power abilities to make attacks. Even if he had done the exact same thing however, I am guessing it would have resulted with my loss regardless because my card draw was wretched and my dice outright refused to roll more than a single success, which he invariably would save (with his reroll attempt). It was so very difficult to kill anything, I was rarely scoring, and I even failed a Final Frenzy which effectively sealed game 2 for me. In game 3 things felt much the same except I whiffed a 4 hammers attack, followed by a 5 hammers attack with Dromm inspired. Had either of those landed and killed Slythael we might have had a game of it, but I knew my day was over one activation into round 3.

I suppose it’s only fair that lady luck finally stopped being one-sided in my favor.

Result: Shadeborn win 2-1 (Dromm wins 24-17, loses 16-21, loses 15-23)

In the end, I took 3rd place in the Grand Clash which I am overall pretty pleased with. I had the highest strength of schedule and still managed to get the highest glory differential, highest glory per game, and the fewest game losses in the entire field, which is really all a boy can ask for.

My only real complaint is a carbon copy of my complaint from the Tacoma Open three years running – the tiebreakers are stupid AF. The organizers legitimately have opponent win percentage as the top tiebreaker, WHICH YOU CANNOT CONTROL, and to make things worse actually encourages taking game losses. Case in point: my man Rex got second place on a tiebreaker because he 2-0’d everybody he beat, while Max had multiple 2-1 wins, thus elevating his opponent’s win percentage.

Second, Total Glory being the next tiebreaker is also stupid AF as it encourages greedy play and running up the score rather than encouraging people to concede, hide information for subsequent rounds, and be more interesting/fun. Oh, and guess what? It ALSO incentivizes taking game losses. I can score 53 glory in a 2-0 win and still be outscored by somebody who won 2-1 because they got three bites at the apple. Hogwash.

While I might want to try and spin this into a ‘here’s why my friend should have gotten first place’, the reality of it is that his only match loss was in fact to Max so fair’s fair and Max is the winner.

Interesting Facts

• I scored Living on the Edge in the majority of my games
• I actually only used Enrage one time through the entire event. I was expecting to lean on it far more than I needed to in order to score RF cards and Stay Close. In practice I used it in most games, in competition it was nearly never needed (or wouldn’t have been helpful).
• Gorehulk actually kinda sucks without range 2 tbh
• Hexbane is WAY better than people give him credit for after the improvements to Marked for Death
• RF probably needs to get nerfed again because scoring hecka glory is just too easy
• Deadly Synergy is a feels-bad deck but you already knew that

Wrap/Photobooth

Until next one, gang, have fun out there gettin’ that glory and spending it too.

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