Meta Snapshot 3/9/2026

Greetings, honored battle brethren and fellow 40K aficionados! This is my second installment of the Meta Snapshot. The big winners of the weekend were the Ultramarines. The next most winning faction wasn't even close. Ultramarines lists accounted for 1 Third Place result, 4 Second Place results, and 3 Event Wins. Two of the Event Wins and one of the Second Place results were at the biggest events of the weekend, the Prague Grand Tournament - Spring 2026 with 118 players, and the UKTC Windsor Super-Major with 246 players - Ultramarines took Second Place at Windsor as well.

The two lists that won at Prague and Windsor are remarkably similar. They both having Marneus Calgar, Uriel Ventris, two 6-man squads of Victrix Honour Guard, the Wardens of Ultramar, Repulsor Executioners, and Ballistus Dreadnoughts in common. Seeing these lists makes me think that there is hardly any distinction at this point between Ultramarines and the divergent chapters like the Dark Angels or Blood Angels. Like the Angels, Ultramarines have a wide spread of unique characters and now have their own unique units as well. The argument for Utramarines needing Super-Oath is pretty thin at this point. Codex: Space Marines is now effectively Codex: Ultramarines and the Also-Rans. It makes me think GW may be angling towards every Space Marine and Chaos Marine sub-faction having their own unique units.

Next up for performance over the weekend is Necrons, who had 3 event-winning lists, 2 Cursed Legions and 1 Awakened Dynasty.  The two Cursed Legion units are fairly similar, with the Void Dragon and Nightbringer C'Tans, some abundance of Lokhust and Skorpekh destroyers, a unit of 10 Lychguard, and diverse other characters and units.  The Awakened Dynasty list was fairly different, and seemed to be leaning on 3 C'Tan to do most of the heavy lifting. Interestingly, the only unit in common through all three lists was the Void Dragon. 

Deathwatch Marines took 3rd Place by a nose, with Black Spear Task Forces taking an Event Win and a Second Place result, with the 2nd place result at Prague.

Emperor's Children take 4th Place, also with an Event Win (Peerless Bladesmen) and Second Place result (Coterie of the Conceited). They come in behind Deathwatch because neither of those results were at particularly large events.

There was effectively a 5-way tie for 5th Place. Imperial Knights (Questoris Companions), Tyranids (Invasion Fleet), Adeptus Sororitas (Bringers of Flame and Hallowed Martyrs respectively) and World Eaters (Berserker Warband) all nabbed an Event Win and a Third Place result. The 5th faction in the tie, Chaos Daemons, didn't get an event win, but did get 2 Second Place results (Scintillating Legion and Daemonic Incursion) and 1 Third Place result (Scint Leg).

Of the other factions to get multiple placings in the Top Three; Astra Militarum had 3, with Grizzled Company getting a Second Place and Third Place result, and Recon Element getting a Third Place result; Custodes with a Talons of the Emperor getting a Second Place result and Lions of the Emperor getting a Third Place result; and Thousand Sons, with Grand Coven getting a Second Place result and Rubricae Phalanx getting a Third Place result.

Here are the rest of the Top Three results

Event Wins
Orks (War Horde), Aeldari (Aspect Host)

Second Place
T'au (Mont'ka), Chaos Space Marines (Pactbound Zealots)

Third Place
Chaos Knights (Infernal Lance), Blood Angels (Liberator Assault Group), Grey Knights (Warpbane Task Force), Space Wolves (Stormlance)

Based on these results, going into the coming weekend, if you're going to a GT you'd be well advised to bone up a bit on Ultramarines and Necrons. I hope you find this snapshot of the meta informative. I wish you well in your upcoming games, particularly if you're playing Dark Angels (gotta stay true to the legion chapter). May all your games be fun, and make them fun for the other guy too.

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