The Necron Problem Has a Solution — You Just Have to Deny It Early
Pantheon of Woe Necrons don't win games by overwhelming you in a single exchange. They win by stacking incremental advantages across six turns: Katah aura buffing, Immotech CP generation, passive lone operative protection on the Hex Mark Destroyer and Necrosuar Amitar pair, and the Katah Shard trinity creating threat vectors your opponent has to respect simultaneously. The Clutch City GT champion ran all of that and didn't drop a game across six rounds. The architecture is stable.
But stable architectures have load-bearing walls. Strip those and the whole structure degrades. In Pantheon of Woe, the load-bearing walls are forward momentum in turns 1 and 2. Shut that down and you're not playing against the optimized list — you're playing against a collection of expensive models trying to rebuild tempo they'll never fully recover.
The Entry Vector Is Infiltration Pressure, Not the Shards
Everyone focuses on the Katah Shard trinity. That's the wrong place to look first. The Deceiver, Nightbringer, and Void Dragon are threats, but they're threats that don't operate in a vacuum. They need board presence. Specifically, they need objective control and action economy established before they start swinging.
The infiltration package — Flayed Ones and Tomb Blades pushing forward at deployment — creates that board presence. Flayed Ones pin you off forward objectives. Tomb Blades apply early pressure and generate action economy with minimal investment. This is the turn-1 entry vector. The Shard trinity is the follow-through; the infiltrators are the door-opener.
If you're deploying against Pantheon of Woe and your eyes go immediately to the C'tan placement, you've already conceded the first exchange.
Counter-deployment map: cyan screen units form a continuous line ~9" from your deployment edge, closing off the deep strike denied zone. Threat units hold back in deployment ready to push. Necron Flayed Ones (red circles) infiltrate enemy corners; Tomb Blades (red diamonds) threaten flanks. Prioritise destroying Flayed Ones before they score objectives in turns 1–2.
Screen for Deep Strike. Stack for Infiltration.
Two separate problems, two separate solutions, both of which need to be solved in your pre-game deployment phase — not turn 1.
Screening deep strike is straightforward in principle. You need bodies positioned such that the Ophydian Destroyer reserve utility can't land in threat range of a mid-board position without eating overwatch or burning positioning to do so. Pack your midfield bubble tightly enough that any deep strike arrival lands more than 9 inches from anything critical. This is standard competitive play, but Pantheon of Woe punishes lazy screens harder than most lists because those reserves create secondary pressure points exactly when you're already reacting to the infiltration package.
Suppressing the infiltration forward push requires something more aggressive: you need units deployed with the explicit mandate of contesting mid-board on your turn 1, not reacting to where Flayed Ones landed. You cannot let Tomb Blades and Flayed Ones settle into objective positions unopposed. If they establish turn-1 objective control, the Shard auras are already generating value before you've moved a model in your first activation.
The solution is forward deployment commitment. Units designed to contest, not respond. You're accepting some early trade risk to deny the positional setup the entire list depends on.
Why Ultramarines Went 7-0
Blade of Ultramar provides two things that directly answer Pantheon of Woe's entry vector: mobility with layered shooting output, and action economy that doesn't require physical board presence to score.
The Ultramarines answer to infiltration pressure is not "out-screen the infiltrators." It's "remove the infiltrators with efficient turn-1 shooting and take objectives immediately after." The list punishes Necronforward positioning precisely because it has the ranged volume to strip Flayed Ones and Tomb Blades before they can complete actions or force defensive positioning.
The deeper answer is structural. At 7 rounds — the Manchester Super Major specifically — game length rewards armies that can maintain scoring trajectory even under pressure. Ultramarines with Blade of Ultramar generate action economy through a broader unit roster. When the Necroninfiltration package gets countered, the Shard trinity has to do more work without the support structure in place. At round 6 and 7, that accumulated deficit shows.
Turns 1-2: The Specific Sequence
This is the counter-play in executable order.
Turn 1: Identify which infiltrators are on primary objectives. Prioritize removing Tomb Blades first — they're the action economy engine, and they're more mobile than Flayed Ones. Flayed Ones are annoying; Tomb Blades are operational. Destroy operational value first.
Simultaneously, your screens need to be actively placed to close off the deep strike corridors before your opponent's Ophydian Destroyers come in. Don't assume your opponent will make a suboptimal landing. Assume perfect reserve placement and screen against it.
Turn 2: This is your denial window for Immotech CP generation. If you've stripped the forward infiltrators in turn 1, the Shard trinity can't be supported by the passive CP engine at full efficiency. Your opponent needs to move the Shards forward to apply pressure, which means they're operating without the aura stacking that makes them genuinely dangerous. Force those Shard moves before the infrastructure is rebuilt.
Turn 1–2 decision tree for playing into Pantheon of Woe. The left branch (YES, remove Flayed Ones) opens favourable lines; the right branch (NO) forces a defensive screen game that must be converted into a punish when your opponent overextends. T2 pivots entirely on whether lone operative stacking has been activated.
Matchup callouts for this counter-play approach:
- Ultramarines Blade of Ultramar: Highest natural fit. Ranged output handles infiltrators; mobility generates turn-2 denial.