Nazdreg

Toronto Meta: 401 Games Tournament 7/19/2015

This is the first article in what we hope will be a series about the local Warhammer 40,000: Conquest meta in Toronto, Canada.

This past weekend saw the first tournament of the Summer Kit season at 401 Games, a gaming store in downtown Toronto with a huge upstairs play space. We had a strong turn-out of 17 players, which was great. But it was also the hottest day of the year and the place was packed with players for a half dozen other events. The humidity was brutal and things got a bit “fragrant” by the end of the fifth round of swiss, but we persevered.

Faction Breakdown

 

5 Cato
3 Zarathur
2 Ragnar
2 Nazdreg
2 Eldorath
1 Ku'Gath
1 Baharroth
1 Shadowsun

The Space Marine numbers were not surprising, but the absence of Kith was a bit of a shock.  She doesn’t have huge representation in the Toronto scene, but there are a usually one or two players bringing Khymera to the table.

In the interest of time, there was no cut to an elimination round and the results after five rounds of swiss were used to determine the winner. At the end of the day, with a record of 4-1, Kevin Geurtin was crowned the victor.

Top 4 Warlords

1 Nazdreg
2 Zarathur
3 Nazdreg
4 Eldorath

We asked Kevin to share some thoughts on his tournament performance:

How do you think the Ork faction, and particularly Nazdeg, fares in the current meta?

I think my success in this tournament hinged on avoiding both Eldorath and Kith. Out of the consensus tier one warlords I think Nazdreg fares very well against Space Marines. A lot of key units have four health and can survive a Cato with a Tempest Blade attack and the damage can be used to hit back at the Space Marine units. Chaos also has been seeing some love with a lot of play in the Toronto meta and some regional wins for both Zarathur and Ku’Gath. Chaos is a solid match up for Orkz, specifically Nazdreg, as the damage flying around often leads to Orkz being able to hit back hard. I would say in a Space Marine and Chaos heavy meta, Nazdreg is a solid choice.

Any matchups that you were nervous about going in?

Kith and Eldorath are both scary match ups. Kith has the swarm to be able to pick off exhausted units without allowing brutal to build up. Archon’s Terror and Klaivex Warleader are also really effective ways to deal with the larger Ork units. Eldorath is problematic because of the ability to exploit the Orkz already weak command game and Eldorath’s ability to manage bigger units. Gift of Isha and Empower are also good counters to an Ork player that gets to aggressive on a tightly contested planet. Aun’shi could also pose a problem as you no longer have shields to manage the damage on your Orkz. Kustom Field Generator great but the Orkz use of two shield cards is helpful in keeping units alive to hit back with brutal.

Ork is a faction with a number of strong supports, why did you choose the supports you did?

Having to pass on Ork Kannon and Ammo Depot hurts, but there just isn’t enough space to run everything. Tellyporta Pad is a auto include in any Ork deck in my opinion. The ability to move units to planet one after contest command is great. Furthermore, the tellyporta allows Nazdreg to command snipe and then move over to planet one. The flexibility is great. Kustom Field Generator is also a must as it allows you distribute damage, protect key units and effectively use brutal. I ran a reducer but I don’t think it is necessary, on they games I drew it early it was really effective, but you don’t want to see it late game. Mork’s Great Heap is fantastic but expensive. I think you have to run one, if you get it out it can change the game.

With your deck, what were you looking for in your opening hand?

I want to see one of Kustom Field Generator/Tellyporta Pad, Bigga is Betta, and two to three units. I don’t mind dropping two three cost units (one reduced with a Bigga is Betta) and a support.

What was your favourite moment of the day?

The Ork on Ork match in the second round against Mark Tang was a lot of fun. It was a lot of combat math and it was interesting to see two different Nazdreg builds do so well (Mark deserves credit for going 4-1 with Nazdreg as well, I think that proves that Orkz are pretty competitive).

What was your toughest matchup of the day?

My only loss came to a Zarathur deck that effectively used flamers, warpstorm and ork kannons to wear down my Ork units, while also picking battles only at key planets. He also took advantage of a stronger command presence to limit my options. I think he played a very solid Zarathur vs. Nazdreg game.

What was your biggest mistake of the day?

I held on to some bad opening hands, and it did cause me to play catch up in some games. That is something I will have to work on.

As in most Toronto tournaments, we draft from the prize kit. As the tournament winner, you had first pick. Did you go for the playmat or Zarathur?

I had to take that sweet Zarathur alt art. Can’t wait to get to use it soon!

Kevin also shared his winning decklist with us:

Nazdreg (52)

Army (30)
4x Nazdreg's Flash Gits
2x Bad Doc
2x Crushface
3x Enraged Ork
3x Evil Sunz Warbiker
3x Mekaniak Repair Krew
2x Rogue Trader
3x Shoota Mob
3x Snake Bite Thug
2x Void Pirate
3x Weirdboy Maniak

Attachment (4)
1x Cybork Body
3x Promotion
Event (11)
2x Bigga is Betta
2x Battle Cry
2x Dakka Dakka Dakka!
2x Squiggify
3x Suppressive Fire

Support (7)
1x Kraktoof Hall
1x Bigtoof Banna
2x Kustom Field Generator
1x Mork's Great Heap
2x Tellyporta Pad
401 Games offers a Sunday FFG stream on their Twitch channel – other weeks offer Netrunner, Star Wars X-Wing or Star Wars Armada – and we were able to stream a match from each round. Unfortunately the mic was not working and we didn’t notice until the fifth round, which we’ve embedded below.

You can review any of the recorded matches on Youtube.
Round 1 (Cato vs. Ku’Gath)
Rounds 2 (Nazdreg vs. Nazdreg) & 3 (Nazdreg vs. Cato)
Round 4 (Nazdreg vs. Ku’gath)
Round 5 (Eldorath vs. Ragnar)
Please let us know in the comments below if you’d like to see more tournament reports like this or if you have any suggestions on how we can improve them.

Upcoming events in the Toronto Meta:

Summer Kit – August 9th, 2015 – 401 Games, Toronto
Summer Kit – August 15th, 2015 – Legends Warehouse, Woodbridge
Summer Kit – August 22nd, 2015 – Face to Face Games, Toronto
Canadian Nationals – September 4th, 2015 – Fan Expo Canada, Toronto
Summer Kit – September 13th, 2015 – 401 Games, Toronto

2 thoughts to “Toronto Meta: 401 Games Tournament 7/19/2015”

  1. Awesome write-up, guys! Just perfect! It’s much appreciated…thank you! Please keep them coming, as it’s always cool to get a sense of different metas and see people’s different play “styles”. I for one can never get enough of this fantastic game!

    1. Thanks Scott! We’ll do our best to keep the content flowing. I hope you got a chance to check out the Venomthrope Polluter spoiler yesterday.

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