Released in the Delos V expansion set, the Tzeentch fleet card was one of two Chaos Powers to be represented in the 40K CCG, with Slaanesh appearing in the final set, Malogrim Hive.
In exchange for fielding a majority of Tzeentch units in your deck, you ironically gain deployment consistency on the battlefield. Consider the two main reasons why and when you would use the fleet ability:
- The units you’ve deployed don’t match up well against your opponent’s
- You want to drop a big bad Greater Daemon for free
The former reason will probably make up the majority of times you’ll want to exchange units; the latter is more of an incidental bonus (but one you can’t really abuse, since putting an excessive number of Greater Daemons in your deck will severely weaken your deployment phases).
Consider the fleet ability as a way to adapt your fighting force to best beat your opponent’s. Didn’t bring enough firepower to a shooting match? Ditch those Pink Horror Swarms for a chance at one of your many Thousand Sons squads. Need a Traitor Space Marines at a big battle to make life suck for your opponent? Gamble away!
Speaking of non-Tzeentch units: I don’t think you need to field a 100% Tzeentch deck to get a good benefit out of the fleet ability, but I imagine you should have perhaps 6 out of your 8 deployment cards to be Tzeentchian. That comes out to 75%, or 45 cards in your deck, to be dedicated to the Changer of Ways. This will give you plenty of flex room to include some of the generic Chaos workhorse cards.
Looking at the roster of Tzeentch faction cards, we can spot a few themes:
- Heavier emphasis on shooting units
- Armor boosting abilities vs. shooting attacks
- Additional infiltration abilities
Here’s a quick look at a Tzeentch decklist I put together:
The deck feels pretty straightforward: focus on shooting with high-armor units, with high-speed Tzeentch daemons to provide shooting and assault support. Because I wanted to capitalize on Seth’s Chosen and its armor boosting, I selected a number of characters I thought would best fit the deck.
Cultists of Tzeentch and Thousand Sons Dreadnoughts can remove key threats early on in battles. And, of course, I had to include Garakzaral in order to try living the dream of having an invincible army.
Because we have a limited number of slots for non-Tzeentch units, I wanted to make sure they were pivotal. Traitor Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines fit the bill, being high-die lynchpin units with good shooting and armor. I considered Khorne Bloodletters, but I don’t think the deck has enough assault units – plus, the Changer of Ways wouldn’t be happy if there were brutish, small-minded followers of Khorne running around!
Is this better than a generic Chaos deck? Probably not. But it looks quite fun, and has some neat combos you can pull off. And in the eyes of Lord Tzeentch, that’s good enough!
What do you think of the deck? Let me know in the comments!
Pandora Prime Recon 
5 replies on “Theoryhammer 40K: Tzeentch Edition”
I like Seth, especially when combined with Doomwing Fighters, but can someone sell me on Uzthizarr?
LikeLike
Never understand the use of Uzthizarr. You roll from your enemy’s deck but it is still “you” that is rolling, not your enemy. So I suppose it doesn’t trigger Tzeentch Flamers right?
LikeLike
As I understand it, yes the roll is still yours – you own the roll “number”, just that it is mechanically done from your opponent’s deck. Flamers don’t need the help!
LikeLike
As an addendum, I imagine Uzthizarr helps boost your own die rolls, as Tzeentch cards seem much lower on the die spectrum than regular Chaos cards. His key draw to me, though, is the ability to remove any unit from the battle, and being more or less invincible until he does so.
LikeLike
Besides probably improving your rolls, Uzthizzar’s second ability has some nice synergy with Cypher and Chaos’ one good character, Nememiah.
LikeLike