David Cohen’s Grey Knights almost took the Edmonton Open 2026 army lists crown, while Chaos goes out with a bang at first and third.
Honestly, when two unrelated players show up to a 262-player GT with the same Abaddon-Cypher-Vashtorr suite and twin Defilers, that’s not a coincidence. That’s Pactbound Zealot players settling on one single build.
The second annual Warhammer Open Edmonton wrapped up at Game Con Canada this past weekend, and the top of the bracket looked a lot like the meta convergence we’ve been seeing for months. Pactbound has been stacking top 8s all year, but Edmonton may be one of the last times we see them, with the recent 11th edition updates.
Edmonton Open 2026: Top 3 Warhammer 40k Army Lists
Updated on June 24th, 2026, by Rob Baer with the latest winning armies
- Frasier Parry’s 8-0 Pactbound Zealots ran the Abaddon, Cypher, Vashtorr, and twin Defiler builds, owning the meta: The list dropped zero rounds against a 262-player GT field and looks identical to the Pactbound shells winning UK Games Expo and Leeds.
- David Coren’s 7-1 Warpbane Task Force Grey Knights stuffed the list with four Dreadknights and twenty Purifiers: A pure psychic-firepower build that punched up to 2nd before falling to a single round 8 loss, and a real test for whether Grey Knights can hang with the chaos meta.
- Nathan Sgrazzutti’s 7-1 Pactbound Zealots is a near-mirror of Frasier’s 1st-place list, with only the biker wargear changed: Two unrelated players brought essentially the same shell, which is the clearest signal yet that Pactbound has settled on one answer.
Thanks to Best Coast Pairings, we can walk back through the whole event with real pairings and battle point data.
Frasier Parry’s Pactbound Zealots Took the Crown With Pure Attrition
Frasier Parry brought the Pactbound shell that the rest of the competitive scene has been refining for the better part of the year, and he didn’t lose a round with it against a 262-player field. That’s the kind of run that confirms a list is either really good or needs an immediate NERF (or both, honestly).
Pactbound Zealots Roster Breakdown
The list starts with Abaddon the Despoiler as the warlord, swinging Drach’nyen and the Talon of Horus, paired with Cypher floating around as a 90-point character toolbox and Vashtorr the Arkifane carrying his own 175-point profile. Lord Discordant on Helstalker takes the Slaanesh mark and the Intoxicating Elixir enhancement, which is the same package Mani Cheema’s Leeds Super Major Pactbound list ran on the way to its 7-0 finish.
Battleline is a pair of ten-strong Cultist Mobs at 50 points each, one Undivided and one Nurgle, riding screens and holding home objectives while the real damage moves up the board. The Chaos Rhino at 75 points exists to push a Cultist Mob onto a midfield objective on turn one and then absorb a charge it doesn’t deserve.
Two Defilers at 250 points each (in 10th edition), both with the Nurgle mark, target the enemy threats with Ectoplasma destructors and pairs of Excruciator cannons. Two units of Chosen at 125 points each (one Khorne, one Undivided) handle the midfield. Two squads of Chaos Bikers at 70 each run meltaguns to clip vehicles, and Red Corsairs Raiders at 110 points round out the meltagun count with another close-quarters melta option. Finally, the Masters of the Maelstrom at 115 points slots in as the wildcard 5-character pack.
How Pactbound Zealots Wins the Damage Race
Frasier’s runs across the weekend looked like the Pactbound playbook on rails. In the first three rounds, they got perfect 100s. A 89 in round four was the first time the list didn’t max out, which means it was a real game against a real list, and Frasier still won. Round six against another competitive table dropped the army to a 74-point win, which is the closest thing to a loss he got all weekend.
David Coren’s Warpbane Task Force Grey Knights Brought Pure Psychic Firepower
David Coren’s list was the only one in the top 3 that wasn’t Pactbound. He took 2nd with four Dreadknights and twenty Purifiers, only losing one game in round eight.
Warpbane Task Force Roster Breakdown
The character backbone of the list is Castellan Crowe at 90 points carrying the Black Blade of Antwyr, three Brotherhood Librarians at 80 each with Vortex of Doom on every single one, a Brotherhood Techmarine at 70 to keep the metal moving, and a Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight at 225 anchoring the whole list.
Battleline is two minimum-size Strike Squads at 120 each, which is the cheapest possible compliance tax for the detachment. The real soul of the game plan is in the OTHER DATASHEETS section. Three Nemesis Dreadknights at 210 points each, plus the Grand Master character version, means four Dreadknights walking up the board with gatling psilencers and heavy psycannons and Nemesis daemon greathammers.
They were followed by twenty Purifier bodies (one ten-strong squad at 250, two five-strong squads at 125 each) carrying Purifying Flame on every body. That’s eighty Purifying Flame attacks per turn out of the Purifiers alone, before the Dreadknight’s great hammers even land.
How Warpbane Task Force Wins the Movement Phase
Warpbane’s hat trick is teleporting Dreadknights mid-game using the detachment’s Gate of Infinity equivalent, which means a 14-wound walker can drop into a midfield objective on a sudden turn and start swinging.
Four of them rotating that way is a real problem for any opponent who tries to lock down the table. David’s run across eight rounds shows the list cleared 100 battle points twice (round one and round five) and stayed above 86 for six of his seven wins. The single loss in round eight at 65 BP is the result that knocked him out of the 1st-place match, but a 7-1 record with this many Dreadknights says that the codex is actually still working, headed into 11th.
Nathan Sgrazzutti’s Pactbound Zealots Took 3rd With the Mirror Build
Nathan Sgrazzutti from Prairie Fire Wargaming brought the same Pactbound shell as Frasier Parry, and finished 7-1 with it. The funny part is that the difference in their entire 2000-point lists is the wargear on the Chaos Bikers, which really says a lot about the 11th edition NERFs that hit this list were pretty needed.
Pactbound Zealots Roster Breakdown
Nathan’s character core is identical to Frasier’s: Abaddon as the warlord at 270, Cypher at 90, Lord Discordant on Helstalker at 175 with the Slaanesh mark and Intoxicating Elixir, and Vashtorr the Arkifane at 175.
The battleline is the same two Cultist Mobs, the dedicated transport is the same Chaos Rhino, the Chosen pairs are at the same 125 each, and the Defiler pair is the same 250 each with Nurgle marks. Masters of the Maelstrom at 115 and the Red Corsairs Raiders at 110 both make the cut, same point costs as Frasier.
The fact that both versions made the top 3 of a 262-player GT in the same weekend tells you the core of the army is what’s winning, not the choices around the edges.
How Pactbound Zealots Wins the Mirror Match
Nathan’s eight rounds tell a similar story to Frasier’s. Round one at 100 BP, round six at another 100 BP, two more rounds above 90, and only one round in the loss column (a 76 in round seven). The single loss is what separates 3rd from 1st in a field this deep.
But the takeaway isn’t who took the higher placing; it’s that the same list got to 1st AND 3rd through eight rounds of independent matchups against different opponents.
Final Thoughts on the Edmonton Open 2026 Army Lists & the Warhammer 40k Meta
Pactbound Zealots taking 1st AND 3rd at a 262-player GT in the same weekend that David Coren brought four Dreadknights to a 2nd-place finish is the meta snapshot for the end of 10th edition.
If you’re prepping for a tournament in 11th edition, and you don’t have a plan for the Abaddon + Vashtorr + twin Defiler shell across the table, that’s probably okay for now because of the recent NERFs to this list.
The Grey Knights’ side of the story is the one to watch cause it didnt catch as many changes for 11th. David’s all-Dreadknight build is still viable, and it’s a real reminder that there’s a lot to watch out for as we head into the 11th edition now.
🔗 Related Reads:
- How to Play Chaos Space Marines
- How to Play Grey Knights
- Top Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- More Top Warhammer 40k Army Lists
- 40k Tournament Guide
- Warhammer 40k Factions Guide
- Latest 40k Balance Dataslate
- Munitorum Field Manual Points Updates
Are you ready to face Pactbound Zealots across the table at your next GT, or is there a counter still hiding in this meta?
