Cody Jiru’s 6-0 Drukhari Spectacle of Spite took the Rocky Mountain Open 2026 army lists crown over two Pactbound Zealots Chaos Space Marines builds.
Four of the top five at the Rocky Mountain Open 2026 played Chaos Space Marines, which tells you exactly where the Warhammer 40k meta sits right now. Pactbound Zealots locked in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, with two of those finishers going 6-0 alongside the winner.
But, honestly, the list that took the crown wasn’t playing the same game as any of them. Cody Jiru’s Drukhari Spectacle of Spite went 6-0 and won 1st on an opponent-win-percentage tiebreaker.
Lucas Wilson’s Pactbound Zealots Chaos Space Marines also went 6-0 and finished 2nd, anchored by Vashtorr the Arkifane and two Defilers. Joshua Bush’s second Pactbound build also went 6-0 and landed 3rd, running Possessed and Chosen instead of Vashtorr.
Regardless, the story of these top 3 army lists is as much about what Drukhari did to the Pactbound bracket as it is about which Pactbound build ground out the wins.
Rocky Mountain Open 2026: Top 8 Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- Cody Jiru’s Drukhari Spectacle of Spite went 6-0 to take the Rocky Mountain Open 2026: Wyches and Hellions outran a CSM-heavy top 5 by skipping the firefight entirely.
- Lucas Wilson’s Pactbound Zealots Chaos Space Marines locked in 2nd at 6-0: Vashtorr plus two Defilers ran the loudest Daemon Engine wall in the bracket.
- Joshua Bush’s Possessed-heavy Pactbound Zealots build landed 3rd, also at 6-0: A different build of the same detachment ground out the midfield with two more Defilers in support.
- Chaos Space Marines took four of the top five places: Pactbound Zealots is the format-defining detachment right now.
- Drukhari is the cleanest answer to the Pactbound bracket: Pure mobility outscored two distinct Defiler builds without trading shots.
Use these winning armies to sharpen your own lists alongside the latest balance dataslate updates and points changes.
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Cody Jiru’s Drukhari Spectacle of Spite Took the Crown By Skipping the Shooting Phase
Jiru’s winning Drukhari army list is a Spectacle of Spite Wych Cult build that’s happy to ignore the firefight entirely and let the gunline waste rounds shooting at empty objectives. Lelith Hesperax leads as Warlord, with Lady Malys and three Succubi carrying Morghenna’s Curse, Periapt of Torments, and Chronoshard.
Four ten-model Wych squads handle the close-quarters work, and three Hellions squads (one five-model and two ten-model) keep the list’s threat cone hovering over the table where the gunline can’t easily delete them.
Two Mandrake squads with Nightfiends carry deep-strike utility wherever the Hellions can’t reach first, while three Scourges with Heavy Weapons squads run four Dark Lances apiece for backline armor pressure. Finally, a Cronos handles secondaries from the midfield, and two Venoms plus a Raider shuttle the rest of the chaff into objectives.
How Spectacle of Spite Wins by Refusing the Trade
Jiru went 6-0, but his closest round was the one that seemed to matter the most. His round 5 win against Ben Jurek’s Chaos Space Marines was 81-71, a 10-point margin in a finals-stretch game between two undefeated players. But compare that to Round 1, which was 88-73 against John Kilcommons’s T’au Empire, and Round 3, which was 97-82 against Ryan Wyskochil’s Chaos Daemons.
So you can see, the Spectacle of Spite doesn’t blow the doors off opponents, and it may not need to. The mobility plan turns every objective into a movement game, and a Wych Cult that can be in three places at once doesn’t trade firepower with a Defiler wall; it just shows up where the lascannons aren’t pointing that round.
Lucas Wilson’s Vashtorr-Anchored Pactbound Zealots Out-Shot Half the Top 8
Wilson’s Chaos Space Marines tournament list is the gunline answer to the same meta question. Abaddon the Despoiler is the Warlord, but the actual anchor is Vashtorr the Arkifane, who buffs Daemon Engines for the rest of the list to feed off, with Cypher riding shotgun for Lone Operative pressure on far objectives.
Overall, firepower is where this list does the most work. Two Defilers with paired excruciator cannons, ectoplasma destructors, and Hades lascannons anchor the midfield, while two Chaos Predator Destructors stack lascannons and predator autocannons for long-range armor work.
A Forgefiend, a Helbrute with multi-melta, and a Venomcrawler back the Defiler wall, with a Cultist Mob, three Chaos Bikers, two Nurgling units, and a Beasts of Nurgle filling out the chaff. Plus, almost every Daemon Engine carries the Mark of Nurgle for survivability under Vashtorr’s buff stack.
How Vashtorr Turns Two Defilers Into a Wall
Wilson went 6-0 and posted 582 battle points, a higher total than Jiru’s but with a worse strength of schedule, which bumped him to 2nd on the tiebreaker. His round 6 closer was 100-37 against Brandon Roddy, and round 5 over Aleka Xenakis’s Emperor’s Children was 98-35. Five of his six wins came in at 84-plus battle points.
The Vashtorr-and-two-Defilers core is the engine that makes scores like that look easy. When two Defilers under Vashtorr’s buffs are clearing screens at 36 inches, and the Predators are chipping armor at 48, the rest of the list mostly has to hold the objectives the gunline already cleared.
Joshua Bush’s Possessed-Heavy Pactbound Zealots Won the Grind
Bush’s third-place Pactbound Zealots list runs Abaddon as Warlord just like Wilson’s, but the rest of the build pivots in a different direction. Instead of Vashtorr’s buff aura, this list carries a Chaos Lord with a daemon hammer, Cypher for Lone Operative work, and a Warpsmith with the Mark of Slaanesh for repair pressure on the engines.
The midfield infantry is where this build separates from Wilson’s. Two five-model Possessed squads (Mark of Slaanesh) anchor the brawl alongside a five-model Chosen unit with paired accursed weapons and a power fist, and two Legionary squads with lascannons fill out the troops with a Chaos Rhino to move them up the board.
The same Defiler engine still runs the show in the back: two Defilers (Mark of Nurgle) bracket the table at long range, with a Helbrute carrying twin lascannons covering the same lane, a Venomcrawler, and three Chaos Bikers rounding out the speed and flank pressure.
How Possessed and Chosen Set Up the Defilers
Bush’s 6-0 run was the closest of the three. His round 2 against Bradley Nolan’s Dark Angels came down to a single battle point, 66-65, the lone razor-thin game in his bracket. Round 3 was 95-73 against Cameron Karge’s Aeldari, and the round 6 closer over Jayde Russell’s World Eaters was 87-68.
The grindy shape of this list is what made the difference in his close games. Possessed plus Chosen plus a Helbrute means every midfield trade comes back with Pactbound’s signature low-attrition swing, and two Defilers in the back keep the fire lanes clean.
When the Defiler wall and the brawler block both fire on the same turn, Pactbound is the detachment that turns one-point games into wins.
Final Thoughts on the Rocky Mountain Open 2026 Army Lists & the Warhammer 40k Meta
So what’s the actual read on the meta here? Four of the top five played Chaos Space Marines. Wilson at 2nd, Bush at 3rd, Trae Burnett at 4th, Ben Jurek at 5th. Half the top 8 running the same faction at a major with 246 entries in the placings is about as clear a meta signal as you get without an FAQ.
The factions that finished above and around the CSM pack didn’t try to play the same game. Jiru’s Drukhari answered Pactbound Zealots with pure mobility, Wyches and Hellions scoring objectives the Defilers couldn’t shoot off. Tom Cohen’s Thousand Sons at 6th and Junior Aflleje’s Leagues of Votann at 7th brought psychic shooting and tough infantry instead of trying to out-Defiler the CSM stack.
If you ask us, the Rocky Mountain Open 2026 answered the Pactbound Zealots question that’s been building all season. Three players went 6-0 on the day, but the one who took the crown skipped the firefight entirely.
So, if you’re list-building for the next event on your calendar, you may need either need a faster movement plan than your gunline opponent can solve, or a Defiler wall of your own.
🔗 Related Reads:
- See the Top Warhammer Army Lists Now
- How to Play Drukhari in 40k
- How to Play Chaos Space Marines in 40k
- More Top Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- 40k Tournament Guide
- Latest 40k Balance Dataslate
- Munitorum Field Manual Points Updates
What do you think of the Rocky Mountain Open 2026 army lists and three top finishers all going undefeated?
