Swarmlord TOP-8 SC St. Petersburg

Tyranids

Swarmlord deck focused on command domination with synapse, signature units, venomthropes and warriors plus good combat units and infestation mechanic.

Small preview
First of all, I’m Tyranid player from the release of Deluxe. As my mates mostly played OOE, I personally played SL almost all the time. During half a year I tested many decks and figured that Hive Mind synergy at this moment relatively weak. It just hard to build, easy to damage and almost useless in fast games (but sometimes very fun to play). In current meta HM combos lose to powerful units - you need 2-4 cards to build combo while your opponent just deploy good units.

Finally I stopped at this deck which I can characterize with one word - “playable”. It focused on command domination with synapse, signature units, venomthropes and warriors plus good combat units and infestation mechanic.

I finished Store Championship in Top-8 (16 players overall) and felt I achieved almost all I could.

1st OOE 5-0: I started with Pyrovore with Regen, opponent started with Pyrovore. I killed him with No Mercy, next round deployed Ymgarl Genestealer on second planet (which was Plannum) and after battle there moved him to the next planet. Horror was also handy.

2nd Kith 0-5: I haven’t got much experience against Kith because this warlord is rarely played in our community. Opponent got Palace, build lots of tokens and had 2 Klaivex in this game. I didn’t draw neither Infestors to avoid this choke no Clogged to destroy Palace. Spore Sacs (which useful against tokens) also didn’t come. Pyrovore was killed with Klaivex. At round 3 or 4 he caught and killed my synapse and I was doomed.

3rd Ragnar 0-5: Hard matchup as all marines with their tricks, but with better draw I’ll get some chances. There was no Iridial on the table (as I remember) and I decided to damage Ragnar in first round to get strategic advantage against his commiting tricks. I managed to hit him for 5 damage but the next planet was Iridial (plus Carnath was on the table) and he eventually healed. I failed to build command domination (usually I try to prevent marines from getting either card or resources), draw wasn’t good. I had only one trick for Ragnar’s winning planet - Shrieking Harpy plus Hormagaunts. But opponent triggered Barlus through Carnath and discarded… Harpy, my only hope. I surrendered. Such matchups highly depend on draw, I can win only if I have proper draw. There must be video with this game, I’ll comment it.

4rd Worr 5-0: Fast game. Only one green planet on the table (fourth, as I remember). I build good command (won on 4 planets two times), opponent didn’t get good cards. I searched for Clogged to destroy Inquisitorial Fortress (as I had Harpy on hand) and found it. Destroyed Fortress, deployed Harpy with Noxious Fleshborer on third planet, won command there, infested, won. Harpy is absolutely MVC if you pair it with Fleshborer or manage to infest planet.

5rd Ragnar 5-0: I had really low morale when I had known my opponent. “Marines again!”. My starting hand was also epic - not a single unit. Luckily, mulligan helped. I didn’t manage command domination again, not good draw for this (I saw Venomthropes maybe 2 times in 5 matches). But I had pretty much combat tricks and cards. We exchanged some planets, chances to win were same, it was balanced match without domination one of opponents. I made the key action in whole match at round 2 (as I remember) - deployed Hormagaunts at 3rd planet and infested it (I wanted to win command there and maybe-maybe-maybe it will help me in combat). I didn’t realize it will be winning planet for me at this moment. And two rounds later there was a big battle for this planet, which I won. I drawed Harpy and deployed it there with Regen. Also there was Pyrovore with Regen, Soaring Gargoyles, Hormagaunts and 3 tokens (and maybe something like Brood warriors, I forgot). In my hand I had 2 No Mercy, Spore Burst for 2 Shields, Sabres for 3 shields, bunch of 1 shield cards. These sounds as winning point if you don’t know what your opponent got. He had 3 or 4 units on the planet including Maxos, bunch of resources and many-many cards. I saw Librarian, 2 Elysians, 2 Recruits, 2 Indomitable (didn’t use a single No mercy because of this), 1 or 2 Crushing blow in this battle (not sure about Drop Pod). He bloodied my warlord, I protected Pyrovore and Hapry with all cost and managed to win. This Hapry ability is very powerful if you can use it. I don't know how people play infestation strategy without Harpy.


The final result 3-2 (8 place) in my opinion is best that I can afford. BTW Eldorath won the 1st place.
MVC cards are Harpy, Pyrovore, Regen and Horror (always attentively count your units to use it).
The thing is: all this cards except Horror (and Clogged, which is also good but situational) can be played with other warlord. I consider Omega as an option.