WTC 2026: Pre-Event Meta Analysis

Michael: Hello! Michael here. A couple days back the WTC 2026 warbands and decks were published, so let’s take a look at them to get a quick glimpse of the meta today!

FORMAT EXPLAINER

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of WTC before, but stands for the World Team Championships and runs every year in a different place. I’ve been to a couple of these with Team Austria already, and have a couple write ups if you want to check them out:
2023 WTC in Herford, Germany
2025 WTC in Vienna, Austria (Deck Guides)
2025 WTC in Vienna, Austria (Game Reviews)

Being a team event, there are a couple rules:

First of all, no repeated decks or warbands among teams. There are 5 players per team, which means that a team must take ALL but two decks – which explains the high amount of Raging Slayers as you will see.
Second, pairings work crazy different.
Third, to win a round, a team must win 3 of their 5 games (there are 5 players per team, each play a Bo3 against another member of an opposing team, 3 wins from one team = winning the ’round’).

Pairings in WTC are a whole other story. Each team has 5 players, so this is how it goes:

Both teams ‘set’ a player. (the ‘defending player’ or as I call it, ‘sacrifice’)
Both teams take a look at what is ‘set’ and pick two ‘attackers’.
The ‘defending player’ on each team will pick one of the ‘attackers’ to play against (usually with team input), and the other one goes back into the pool of warbands.
Repeat steps 1-3 again.
After the last ‘set’, there is only 1 warband left in the pool from each team. These two warbands are automatically paired against each other!

And that’s basically it!

WARBAND ANALYSIS

Before I begin I do want to say that all the images of warband and deck stat spread have been published by Honza, so thanks a lot to him for curating all of them!

Here is a table of the warbands. Keep in mind, there are 14 teams in total. So at most 14 copies of a single warband are allowed.

Here we can see a list of all the warbands.

The Wurmspat are naturally a popular pick, because they have a) insane stats and b) insane warscroll. Not really much to delve into. What’s interesting is that some teams managed to find a replacement for them!

Wurmspat are tied in picks with THORNS OF THE BRIAR QUEEN, which seems really crazy until you realize that since decks cannot be repeated there must be an Edge of the Knife player and Thorns are one of the best warbands to do so.

Soulraid are also really high up, but being picked one less time than Wurmspat. This is probably due to Soulraid’s heavy reliance on Blazing/Pillage, two very strong decks, which means that most teams weren’t willing to sacrifice both of them for one warband.

The Condemnors being high up is probably due to Raging Slayers working with exclusively them and making them very strong.

Finally, Grandather’s Gardeners are also in the Top 5, which is surprising for me personally. In most individual tournaments, they aren’t very popular. However they do on paper counter RF, which is going to be a very prominent deck, and also have game into not only Blazing Assault with it’s high damage but also Pingstorm builds which have lots of little damage.

Some warbands outside of the Top 5 I want to highlight:

The Starblood Stalkers being sat at ‘only’ 4 picks is kind of insane to me. They have really good stats and inspire relatively easily, upon which point they have INSANE stats – arguably best in the game – on top of having synergy with the pretty much required combo of ES/NoP.
I’m also suprised at the high amounts of Kurnoth’s Heralds, considering their default combo of ES+CtC is relatively ‘expensive’ in WTC terms as you are taking two decks which are crucial to make other decks work. Interesting to see what teams planned for them.
The Shadeborn have been present at like 80% of the tournaments I’ve been to this year and multiple times more than one has been in at tournament, so I’m really surprised that there’s only one. They have really good assassinate potential, something important in WTC as Leader-centric warbands are a good pick for EotK, and just in general have decent stats. Personally, I think it’s cause Deadly Synergy – aka the deck that is almost required to make them work – is in such high demand for other warbands.

Now that we have gone over the warbands as a standalone, let’s look at decks:

DECK ANALYSIS

5 Decks have been picked by all 14 teams, namely ES, PnP, DS, RF, and BA. There is 0 surprise here from me.

Countdown, Edge, Wrack, and Nexus have all been skipped by one of the 14 teams. Some of these are surprising to me personally, considering that imo Countdown is one of the strongest decks in the game, and Nexus and Edge are also not weak by any stretch of imagination. However these 4 decks are kind of ‘specialist’ decks so it’s interesting to see what other strategies teams can come up with! I’m also suprised Wrack didn’t get skipped more, cause it’s often seen as very finnicky to play – but I am pleasantly surprised!

“Homing Grounds” and Raging Slayers are both sitting at 7 picks. These are very ‘weird’ decks at the moment so it makes sense they are quite low, I’m willing to bet all 7 Raging Slayers decks are given to an Ironsoul’s Condemnors player. Hunting Grounds being picked relatively high amounts is very fun for me to see, and it makes sense cause it does counter a lot of non-BA aggro at the moment!

Finally, Realmstone Raiders sitting in last place is a very wow shock moment. I secretely hoped there would be more RR, especially when we consider that Soulraid (who were picked ‘only’ 8 times) have INSANE synergy with RR. But it’s not really super surprising cause RR depends an accuracy-heavy pairing to go with it.

Here is the incredibly tragic showing of all the deck PAIRINGS.

BA/RF being picked 13 times is saddening to me cause I hate RF, but it does make total sense. It’s incredibly consistent and feels super oppressive to play against, on top of having really difficult counterplay as I learned especially comparing to the second place deck.

ES+NoP is the afforementioned second place deck. It’s the mythical double-hold deck, and it’s also the only two hold decks in the game, so it makes sense that there’s 11 of them. It’s also pretty powerful but doesn’t feel nearly as ‘required’ as BA/RF, mainly cause both ES and NoP can work with other decks while RF almost mandates BA to be paired with it.

DS/EotK is picked a staggering ELEVEN TIMES. It has suspciously good synergy with a certain spectral warband who was picked 9 times, so this makes total sense. In general swarms enjoy this pairing and since EotK is one of the not-worst decks in the game, it makes sense to pair it with DS and give it to a swarm.

CataWrack sits at 4th place with 6 picks, which brings tears of joy that one of my favorite pairings is picked so often. It’s a SUPER flexible deck which allows it to be slapped on like 90% of warbands in the game and just work. Being such a flexible deck probably owes to it being picked so high.

If I wasn’t crying with CataWrack, I am now seeing that CtC+HG is picked 5th most times! My ACTUAL favorite pairing appearing so often despite being seen as a ‘joke’ pairing is really nice to see. CtC/HG is a really good counter to aggressive play, which looking at the top decks, is 3/5 of them. However it also doesn’t fall apart into Hold, making it a really solid ‘5th deck’ for a team looking to find someone to ‘set’ first in pairings – this deck can take on a lot of stuff and have a fighting chance.

Decks outside of the Top 5 I want to mention:

PnP being paired with HG a solid 3 times (or 6th place) is super interesting, but it makes a lot of sense as PnP is one of the only decks that can garauntee opponents have to invade your territory.
DS+PnP only seeing 3 picks is also interesting, as IMO it’s one of the most consistent 20 glory decks in the game now. However, it does have a really expensive deck requirement as both PnP and DS are crucial to make other combos work, so this kind of makes sense seeing it so low.
3/4 Realmstone Raiders decks are with Raging Slayers, so I have a sneaking suspicion that some teams might be playing RR/RS Ironsouls because with their insane accuracy they can kinda make both decks work.
The two BA/RF decks without BA or RF are Blazing Emberstone and Cata/RF. Both of these are quite surprising, BA/ES hasn’t been seen at a tournament for a while and Cata/RF is also a rare pairing. However, they both have legs and since there isn’t a lot of them some teams might not prepare for either.
Despite being probably the best hold pairing in the game (according to Ben the HoldMaster), ES/PnP is only picked twice. This is probably explained by the fact that both decks are vital to some other deck’s playstyle, making this super good pairing hurt almost every other pairing for your team.
Ben: Another deck I wanted to point out is the lack of any other RF pairings outside of BA, but especially with RS. I was contemplating whether to bring RF/RS, as it is very solid with Ironsouls and allows another player to play BA. This is probably explained by the sheer power of BARF, a pairing that has proven itself time and time again.

DECK + WARBAND ANALYSIS

Michael: There is a file of all decks+warbands but it’s kind of 71 Excel rows long, which will take up too much space.

However I did count the number of warband + deck combos, so we can take a look at the meta this way!

The top 5 warbands are:

Thorns DS/EotK, with 7 picks. This makes sense as I stated previously the Thorns have quite good synergy with Deadly Synergy AND Edge of the Knife. They not only are strong with it but also manage to take a relatively ‘unusable’ EotK deck and make it extremely powerful.
Wurmspat BA/RF with 5 picks. So out of the 13 BA/RFs, only 5 are Wurmspat, which is really interesting as Wurmspat are probably the most statted to do what BA/RF wants.
Grandather’s Gardeners, with ES/NoP picked 5 times. This pairing won the Nottingham Grand Clash and we see people trying to replicate that result here as well. Gardeners really like the amount of mobility that NoP provides and the tankiness that ES provides, so on paper it’s a strong pairing for them.
Soulraid with ES/NoP picked 3 times. Yes, that’s correct. This pairing (to me) seemed really questionable but I did play against it at Maastricht Open where I lost to it. Soulraid have super good hold potential (hence being paired with PnP like 80% of the time) by using Furiann and the minions, and NoP actually lets them fix their biggest issue of Range.
Starbloods with ES/NoP also picked 3 times. So Stalkers, Soulraid, and Gardeners account for 11/11 ES/NoP picks. As I said already Stalkers have insane game with ES/NoP mainly cause of Klaq-Trok but also cause the warband is wildly overstatted.
Two other warbands were picked 3 times so technically also ‘Top 5’, those being Emberwatch BA/RF as one of them. Emberwatch are surprisingly good with BA/RF as their ranged weapons allow them to charge from almost anywhere on the board. They can also play a way more slippery playstyle, compared to Wurmspat. (these are also the only 3 Emberwatch players in the tournament)
The last 3x Warband is Wurmspat CataWrack. CataWrack’s biggest issue is upgrades, and Wurmspat don’t need upgrades if they inspire. They need pings to inspire, which CataWrack provides. Finally, they have some of the easiest Alone in the Dark/Stay Close scorings in the game due to being only 3 guys. Also Unstoppable on them is evil.

So those are the top 5. Some other things also stood out:

The warband with the most unique deck combinations is Ironsoul’s Condemnors, sitting at 5 unique decks (out of 6 Ironsouls picks). The one duped pairing is RS/RR. The other pairings are BA/RF, ES/NoP, NoP/RS, and RS/WnR. Quite a surprising spread for a warband considered ‘carried’ by RS, and shows just how flexible Ironsouls are.
Second most unique decks is actually Elathain (what a surprise!) which is most likely due to their insane ability to be good at what they want (super analytical i know)
The deck paired with most other decks is unsurprisingly Pillage and Plunder, because “by picking PnP you are playing 90% pillage and 10% other decks” as my team wisely stated, with 7 unique decks. Tied for second most unique pairings (at 5) are CtC, EotK, and Wrack. The only one surprising of those is EotK cause 9 of the EotK decks are DS/EotK.
3 decks were given to 9 different warbands – PnP, CtC, and WnR. All three of these decks are super flexible, which kind of makes sense, they don’t require any special warband ability to work compared to speed or low model count that RF does.
I am INSTANTLY proven wrong because RF was actually picked by 7 unique warbands, which is the 3rd most unique deck. These are: Wurmspat (5), Emberwatch (3), Mollog (2), GSP + Ironsouls + Morgok + Headsmen (1).
Despite me repeatdly saying that RS is ‘Ironsoul Material’, it was actually picked by 4 unique warbands including the sole Knives of the Crone player, Ylthari’s, Wurmspat, and Ironsouls. 3/4 of these don’t have Crit Grievous, which probably means they are played for the almost guaranteed denial of Stand Fast.

last WTC was a Gitz v. Grymwatch spectacle.

OVERALL VIEW OF THE GAME’S META

First of all, DISCLAIMER: Reminder that WTC is a TEAM EVENT so just cause Thorns EotK/DS was picked so much doesn’t mean it’s op, it might just be the only decks available!

Next, this event does paint a pretty picture for the game’s meta. There is a TON of warbands picked (23 to be exact) which is about 30% of all warbands in the game. There could be more, but considering that most teams should in theory come to the same conclusions for ‘best’ options in the game – 23 warbands is quite a bit for warbands considered ‘best!’

Same with decks – there was a world Realmstone Raiders got picked 0 times. But it was picked, and a whole 4 times! Then the next lowest picks were 7 picked, which shows that 50% of the teams deemed the ‘second worst decks in the game’ good enough to be played, which I personally think is a good sign for meta diversity.

I am not too concerned about Thorns being picked an unholy amount of times and I believe it’s more of a format thing. What I AM concerned about is that BA/RF was picked 13/14 times, because it a) won Worlds 2025 b) won Worlds 2026 c) won Maasticht Open d) won like a million other tournaments. Why is a deck so consistent being allowed to run rampant for this long, I couldn’t tell you. I do feel it is a problem and should be hit in some way, cause it’s a pattern not only in team events but also in solos.

Probably the best showcase for meta diversity this event is that only 3 decks WERENT picked 90%< of the time, because it shows that only 3 decks aren’t considered strong enough to do so. While I disagree with the HG skipping, I feel that it’s a good showing for the game’s diversity though I wouldn’t mind (in fact strongly encourage) a new FAQ or deck to shake some things up.

With that, thanks for reading! This year’s WTC content train is only just getting started so I hope to see you for the rest of it later in September 🙂

If you have any more questions or want to know some more information about the event, please feel free to contact me on the Staggerers Discord server – I am quite active there and happy to help! Hope to see you again soon 🙂