What to Bring: 1k Tournament - Tyranids

It's time once again for my local 1k Tournament, and I'm actually going to make it this time. As I've mentioned before, after NOVA, I promised myself I would not show up to a tournament, even this little local one, without a fully painted army. While I want to show off my DakkaJet and Wraith Knight, I don't have a painted army to go with them, so they will have to wait until I do. That leaves me with the tried and true Tyranids.

I've been toying with a few different lists, most of them fairly safe deviations of my normal list featuring a fairly high body count and 2-3 MCs. With a much more expansive collection of painted minis than I'm used to, I'm thinking about doing something a bit more radical.

One list that strikes my fancy is very small, but relies on fast strikes, which is important for games with an hour time limit, where we rarely get past turn 3.

Flyrant w/2xTL Devs
3 Zoans in a Spore
15 Devilgants in a Spore
Tervigon - vanilla
Mawloc

The one issue with this list, beside my queasiness at only having 23 models in the list, is that I only have 1 painted Spore, and so, would have to make and paint one up before Sunday. Also, about half my army would be relying on reserve rolls, so should bad luck strike, I might not even get one or two units in. As such, a quick change to the list would be to drop the Devilgant pod for Hive Commander on the Tyrant. This will let me Outflank the Devilgants, which is almost as good as deepstriking on a 4'x4' board, and will get my reserves on a 2+. With the remaining 15 points, I could give the Tervigon a second psychic power, increasing her odds of getting a usable Biomancy power, or sticking with Catalyst for Feel No Pain.

Something I do like about this list though is that it is not safe, and should offer some challenges. We can't grow if we don't push boundaries, and this list will definitely present some challenges I'm not used to overcoming. Another positive is that every unit in the army is something I've painted recently, so is fairly well painted (I think), giving me a good shot at the best painted prize (honestly, this is the main reason the Mawloc is making an appearance in the list).

The battle plan would be to hide my MCs in a back corner somewhere out of sight if at all possible (and reserve the Flyrant if need be); stay out of trouble turn 1, then alpha strike turn 2 with four of the five units hitting my opponent's side of the board. The Zoans will likely take Telepathy and rely on multiple psychic shrieks to wreak havoc.