Chaos Space Marines still dominate as 10th edition nears its end

Chaos Space Marines are still cashing in at the end of 10th edition, and the latest tournament snapshot makes the lesson plain: the armies that can apply brutal, efficient pressure are still the ones taking trophies. James “One_Wing” Grover’s June 6 Competitive Innovations round-up caught the game in that awkward handoff moment, when players know the rules are about to change but the strongest lists are still doing the damage.

The clearest stage for that was the Warhammer Open UK Games Expo in Marston Green, England, a 111-player, 8-round Major held on May 29. It was the first Warhammer Open Series event in the UK, tied to UK Games Expo at NEC Birmingham, which Warhammer Community has described as the UK’s largest celebration of tabletop gaming. Even with the next edition looming, that is still the sort of event that tells you where the competitive floor has landed.

Mani Cheema won the event with an 8-0 Pactbound Zealots Chaos Space Marines list, and Innes Wilson followed right behind with a similar approach. Grover described the build as very close to maximum crab, which is exactly the kind of list that has kept 10th edition tournaments miserable for anyone trying to play fair. The accompanying army-list recap pushed the same message harder: Cheema first, another Chaos list second, and T’au in third. That is not a one-off spike. That is a faction still occupying the top tables while everyone else argues about what survives the reset.

The bigger point is that the meta did not freeze just because Games Workshop pulled back the curtain on the next edition at AdeptiCon on March 26, 2026. Warhammer Community said on June 1 that the new core rules were only days away, and by the June 7 Sunday Preview it was already calling the moment the dawn of the new edition. In that kind of window, the temptation is to stop caring about current results. Grover’s round-up argues the opposite: the end of 10th is when the signal gets clearest, because the lists still winning are the ones built on real table power, not wishful thinking.

That is the last lesson of 10th edition worth carrying forward. Chaos Space Marines, especially Pactbound Zealots, are still proving that the strongest late-edition archetypes do not politely step aside for a coming rules change. They keep winning until the last die is rolled, and right now they are making that look inevitable.