One Eye, Two Threats - Worldeater 2015 3rd Place

Tyranids

A deck that uses Venomthrope Polluter to swing command and battles. It's all about keeping your elites and 3 cost punchers flexible and threatening two places at once when it really matters.

Went 4-1 at Worlds 2015 Worldeater Tournament. Although my opponent played very well, that loss would very possibly have been a win if I'd spotted the key play on the penultimate turn, which suggests with high pilot skill this could be a winning deck.

Updated: - Deck List the same, but here are the Worldeater games, all against seasoned pros with proper Warlords.

1/ vs Jamin (2nd place seed in World Championships). Jamin was playing Zara for Worldeater and I think his defeat here was one of the things that led him to play Kith the next day (apologies world)

2/ vs Etaywah. Old One Eye/Stalking Lictor. A very tight game and a major brain-burner for both of us. We were so focused on trying to outmanoeuvre each other we may have forgotten to include a 5th planet for an entire deployment round. In the end squeaked it in the late game, but it could easily have been Etaywah's game. Thoroughly enjoyed it and he was a lot of fun to play with as well as to hang out with over the course of the week. Has a real passion for the game and some great ideas regarding new builds.

3/ vs taijibear as Kith. The first thing taijibear told me when I sat down was that he was originally planning on playing this very list and had read my breakdown of it. So not only was I up against a good Kith player (I think he won all his other Worldeater games), I was up against probably the only player there who knew exactly what was in my deck and what it was designed to do! Managed to hammer out a win. An early Y'Varn trigger gave me a big dude and he then tried valiantly to prevent another trigger (Carnath was out too for a bit), but this gave me a lot of freedom elsewhere. I was able to bully with the OOE/Elite/Polluter train, making it hard for him to make any kind of commit move that I couldn't counter with venomjank.

4/ IFightDragons as Zara. Travis played immaculately despite an average opening hand, but I botched the penultimate turn. For some reason I forgot that Warpstorm doesn't affect units with attachments, I also tried to be too janky and take out both Zara and the Plaguebeast, the smart move would have been to account for Firestorm, use Dark Cunning as a shield and then, whatever happened, I could guarantee a bloody with either my Genestealer, or, if it was dead (as it would have been), guarantee it with a Ferocious Strengthed Polluter + No Mercy. This would have allowed the HVC Harpy at the next planet to wreck face. Instead I used FS as a shield, lost the gene stealer (to his credit he overhit it by 3 to make sure it was dead), couldn't bloody Zara, and then he drew into a 2nd plague beast (which might have been fine had Zara been bloodied). Travis played incredibly well, and thoroughly deserved it, but this result shouldn't reflect OOE/Polluter's potential.

5/ vs Peter (German Nat Runner Up) as Cato - It was about 5pm and we were both jet-lagged and hadn't eaten all day. I'm not sure either of us have ever made so many mistakes in a single game. Although I won, it probably should have been his game, given we both failed to notice he had a Catachan outpost at a key planet until it was all resolved (though there'd been so many unforced errors on both sides before that, the whole thing was a scrub out really). Next time I'm bringing a packed lunch. I imagine he will too.


Pre-Worldeater explanation below:-

When Striking Ravener appears it will be perfect for this deck.

Why Venomthrope Polluter? Flexibility.

It hasn't quite got the command presence of Stalking Lictor, but 1 hammer is often as good as two when you can choose where it goes after the board is set. Furthermore, the ability to pull a unit from where the Warlord can, in some circumstances, actually give it more than 2 hammers, and thus provide a greater command threat than Lictor.

Likewise it can't punch or start battles to the same extent as SWP, but it can swing them with the pulled unit, sometimes it can swing them in a way SWP never could.

It does suffer a bit from predictability in some situations, especially early game. But it also creates threats that are so big you don't care if it's predictable and it can give you a solid counter in the endgame to enemy unpredictability - don't know if s/he is going to P1 or P2, go to both and move your huge unit to whichever one is necessary *after* you've seen them commit.

In short, this nifty little guy swings command, swings combat, and creates a double threat in those common circumstances where getting the right level of firepower at both P1 and P2 (or Win-planet) are vital.

OOE himself often snipes in this deck and can enable Y'varn himself, since no SWP is present. Y'varn is of course golden with both Ymgarl and Harpy (and in future Stalking Ravener).

Ymgarl is lethal when you can have him appear at 1 of 2 places early game, and Harpy can solo Infested planets at times. Pyrovore and regenerating Gaunts are also top targets for Polluter, being solo artists themselves, and Virulent Spore Sacs can be epic in the right circumstances.

Currently I'm only running 1 Fall Back. I would love to squeeze another in, but No Mercy is a doozy with both Polluter and OOE. Dark Cunning is especially good vs Exhaust effects and ups the Polluter threat when the Warlord train can be both moved and readied. Regeneration is excellent (on Gaunts and Elites), and offers some level of Klaivex protection (if you have initiative). HVC and Spore Burst are not only shields (which is vital for OOE, Polluter, Gaunts, anti-Klaivex/Fury), but also offer AoE, Armourbane and recurring Gaunts/Pyrovores.

The other problem with Fall Back is momentum. It doesn't help with that particular combat. Still, Polluter often ends up in combat in this deck-shape, and saving a Harpy is pretty nice, so feedback is always welcome.

Terror/Horror are a pain, though your Elites do return and can be moved when they return. Exhaust is less of a problem with Cavern & Cunning. Insta-kills are problematic though shields and regen help. The Emperor's Warrant is actually one of the biggest problems for this deck, or would be if Guard weren't vulnerable to it in many other ways.

I considered Harpy at 3x as it counters a lot of problem decks (especially swarm), but Ymgarl is actually better at the start - huge Warlord threat with Polluter as synapse, and can lock an early Y'varn or Tarrus to give you massive momentum out the gate. Ravener may well replace the Warriors, though I'm worried that will hurt Command.

It probably sits at high end 1.5, but I have high hopes it'll be T1 by the time the cycle is done. It's highly finesse so stamina is a problem over long tournaments. The flexibility of the build is one of it's strengths and I don't think it's particularly bad against Kith or Space Marines (though Fury is a pain since you can't exploit the region window like with Klaivex).