LVO 2025 happened January 16th to 19th, 2025 in Las Vegas. It ended up being a 13 person tournament that came shortly on the heels of the first FAQ and update for second edition (January 7th for reference). Let’s dive in to the tournament data!
Warband Choice
I love to see warband choice so diverse in a small event. The only double being the new dinos, which doesn’t surprise me, based on them being new. The surprises that I see on this list are definitely the two top place warbands. Congrats to Andrew for winning the event with Zikkit’s Tunnelpack! In a final against Mike from Spent Glory playing Dread Pageant. For perspective, these are warbands I rated as F and D in my last tier list. Great to see excellent players do well with underrated warbands!
Deck Selection
Blazing Assault took the lead with over half the field playing it, based on the basic strike toolset it activates. Seeing Reckless Fury still played by 5 players is interesting given the fact that it has 4 forsaken cards that can no longer be taken in tournaments. I expected it to be less popular myself. Cataclysm is showing some popularity in this event, which I think is due to its flexibility and reliability. I think it pairs nicely with every playstyle and is an easy add on.
With the diverse number of warbands, it’s also fun seeing a diverse set of combos. Four players with BA/RF leading the pool, all played by 3 fighter warbands (Ironsoul, Thricefold, Krushas and Jaws). Past that pairing, most decklists were focused on the feature tokens as part of the strategy. I like to see the variety of decks in an event like this.
Now, making the cut was Myari, Khagra, Dread Pageant and Zikkit. With a top 4 cut, it’s a limited field but the pairing of Cataclysm with Wrack and Ruin being what both players in the final had taken is quite interesting. They were the only two taking the pairing and both of them made the cut. For a good breakdown of the deck choices, Spent Glory has a wonderful breakdown of both the deck setup and the event results.
Glory Totals
I do expect this graph to look very similar until we get some new decks, but it’s important to keep an eye on where deck glory is sitting. The stats are lining up the same as the Worlds event, 15-19 is the common range and 17 is still the most successful number (with both of the top players hitting that glory total with their deck). I’ll make the comment that I’m counting Spread Havoc as a 2 glory card for the purposes of glory count. As much as there are times that it’ll be scored for 1 in round 1, the max is not hard to achieve. Compared to most other 2 glory objectives, you’ll always get something out of it, where you may have to discard other objectives that become hard to score. Last thought here is that most players in the event were playing minimum deck size. 3/13 with 13 objectives, 2/13 with 22 power cards.
Upgrade Glory
Upgrades are sitting in a manageable range, with most of the pool playing 12-14 glory worth. It’s interesting as the arc is still high even with a high contigent of Reckless Fury decks, even with Utter Ignorance forsaken. I likely expected total upgrade costs to be down, but I’ll comment more on specifics when I break down the upgrades taken.
Card Choice
Overall, most of the top 6 cards mirrored the Worlds pool: Great Fortitude, Sidestep, Keen Eye, Duellist, Healing Potion being 5 of them. Great Speed took Great Strength‘s place on the top 6, by one deck, which is really based on having more Wrack and Ruin and Pillage and Plunder. Short takeaway is easy. Play these cards.
Here’s the thing I love about the overall insights here, the top two don’t figure prominently in the top cards. With not having crossover into the same card pool as the rest of the event meta, we don’t see their decks lean into the same strategy. With Worlds being very much defined by “Reckless Dromm’s Fury”, it’s great to see a more diverse top pool.
Speaking of the top pool and diversity, I wanted to look at the top two within the context of their deck differences. I don’t believe that we’ll often see the top players share a deck (prove me wrong, people!), so I’m mostly interested in the cards they don’t share. In objectives, Living on the Edge gives the Tunnelpack some benefit of having a slightly wounded friendly fighter agressively positioned. Using their warscroll ability Warp-Charged or any of the ping cards within their choices is a great way to make this consistent. I like Alone in the Dark for the Dread Pageant because 3 of 4 fighters have 2 range or higher.
The ploys show us that Mike’s Dread Pageant build was tuned more towards an aggro strategy than the control and ping of Andrew’s Tunnelpack. Fault Lines is a good way to spread some damage around and I think it’s a fun choice to see. The upgrades really showcase the Pageant’s strategy. Fiery Temper is a great way to aid inspiration, where Wary Tread is a good way to score Alone in the Dark.
Objectives
- Stay Close, Too Close for Comfort, Alone in the Dark: A slight focus in this meta leaning into positional objectives that aren’t focused on treasure tokens, especially at the top table. Makes for some counterplay, but could be a wash if both players are holding the same card in the same end phase.
- Wreckers, Fields of Blood, Aim for the Top, Hounds of War: A funny field where the strike decks came up against a number of mastery decks and both wanted to spread damage across a lot of fighters. Seems like that also played into the Dread Pageant’s hands…errrr…claws.
- Set Explosives: A card I haven’t personally had a ton of luck with (because I was pairing with Pillage and kept flipping tokens). When you know your opponent is playing Countdown to Cataclysm, it’s important to counterplay by trying to ensure they don’t hold all in any territory. With the agressive nature of a lot of take and hold objectives, it may be worth it to try to set up two tokens in neutral territory to make this slightly harder.
Ploys
- Confusion: Love it so much. Glad we’ve got it in a couple decks and good to see it used quite frequently.
- Illusory Fighter: I like this card significantly more as a counter-punch card. Given the sheer number of objectives that want you to be in enemy territory (17 of 72, or 23.6% of the objective cards released), it’s great to be able to pop back for a cheeky attack that could brick some scoring too.
- Healing Potion: As much as it’s already been a popular card, I think it’s a really good thing it was so prevelant in this event. The main unique thing I see in the ploy roster is a lot of ping damage and this is great counterplay to that.
Upgrades
- Driven by Pain: I’ve had a soft spot for this card, but I do think it’s a bit niche. Obviously great in both a field with a lot of pings and where you’re trying to play positional objectives.
- Utter Conviction, Sharp Reflexes: Lots of bonus save being thrown around the field. Makes cards like Sharpened Points or Inescapable Grasp better when you can cut through the defenses.
Final Thoughts
Thanks to Thomas who TOd the event for making lists mandatory and public, so that I can get the data I need for the event. What did you takeaway from the event? How might this translate to a larger event? Let me know your thoughts! I’m on the Discords as Matt ~ Set The Tempo, or reach out to me at [email protected]. And make sure to set your own tempo!
