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So I'm going to admit that my first impression of Newcron Tomb Blades was less than favorable, and judging from other lists I've seen, they're not particularly popular. At first glance all I saw was an overcosted Warrior that could be upgraded and move fast. Now I'm pretty new to 40k (I actually don't have any of my own stuff yet - using a friend's models until I can save up money to buy my own) so I've had to spend time running through the Codex and big rulebook.

Going through the core book brought something to my attention that I wasn't aware of - jetbikes benefit from the Relentless USR. This makes the Tomb Blades significantly more useful than I had estimated originally, allowing them to fire their Particle Beamers (Heavy 1, Blast) and Gauss Blasters (Rapid Fire) counting as stationary. This effectively grants them a 36" threat (12" move, 24" range on all their guns) and high mobility, for half the price of a Destroyer. I'll grant you that Destroyers get bigger guns, but they don't have access to Blast weapons. Tomb Blades also get Turbo-Boosters, enabling them to run like the wind if it's necessary (I'm specifically thinking of contesting objectives late-game). As if that weren't enough, they have access to some decent wargear: Nebuloscopes, which bump up their BS to 5, Shield Vanes, which upgrade them to 3+ armor, and Shadowlooms, which I honestly don't see as being that useful, but I could be wrong.

So to run through the important facts:
1) Tomb Blades have a 36" threat and are very mobile, able to fire on the move.
2) Tomb Blades have a variety of nice weapons to choose from (Twin-Linked Tesla Carbine, Twin-Linked Gauss Blaster, Particle Beamer).
3) Tomb Blades are reasonably durable with T5 and 4+, as well as RP.

Not too shabby for 20 points a model. Or, for 30 points each, you could have five (5!) S6 AP5 Blasts at a 24" range. That's 150 points for a five man unit. Very effective at stomping swarm armies, which a lot of lists (at least that I've seen) don't take into consideration. Plus, at S6 you've got at least a chance of hurting light armor, and you'll ID anything T3 or lower.

So what does Dakka think? I personally believe these guys get overlooked by a lot of people, but that they can be a very competitive choice for the Fast Attack slot - they're probably the most attractive option for Fast Attack in low-point games (at least with shooty lists...) but I think they're still a solid contender in the large point games.

The low squad size really hurts. Also, comparing tomb blades to tesla immortals is tough, as other than move more the immortals do much the same role.

Finally, because chars give relentless to squads, even relentless is not completely unique.

In the end, I think they are not bad, but too small and competing with wraiths and scarabs.

Shadowloon are useful because if you do turbo-boost to contest an objective you gain a 2+ cover save.

+1 to cover is also awesome if you're using them in conjunction with Wraiths, using the Wraiths for cover.

Honestly I think the only reasons you don't see more people talking about Tomb Blades are:

a) Wraiths and Scarabs are two of the most-obviously-sexy and scary units in the book.
b) There's no model yet, unlike Wraiths, Scarabs, and Destroyers. The latter two of which every existing Necron player already owns a pile of.

Tomb Blades are the unwanted middle child of the Necrons.

While TL Tesla is fantastic and their mobility is good, they don't pack enough firepower to warrant taking them over Immortals, as Immortals can hold objectives. And Tomb Blades compete in what is easily the Necrons' move competitive FOC slot. Think of who you'd have to pick the Tomb Blades over:

1. Heavy/Destroyers: The only real long-range anti-tank options in the army are the Heavy Destroyers, and regular Destroyers are anti-MEQ monsters. However, I seem to be the only one that still uses them.

2. Canotek Wraiths: Point-for-point maybe the best counter-assault unit in 40k. They had two problems in the old codex, with small unit size and single-wound models. Neither of those are problems anymore.

3. Canoptek Scarabs: It only takes 4 of these to reliably bring down a Land Raider, and they move like beasts, meaning they've got a 19"-24" reach from their deployment zone.

So the competition for that slot is the two best anti-infantry units and the two best anti-tank units in the codex. It's not that Tomb Blades are bad units, it's just that the Necron FA slot is too competitive for them to have a chance.

I think they can be useful, but the trick is not getting caught up spending points on all their additions. Just keeping them bare, and upgrading to Particle beamers is probably on of the best ways to go.

They really are all about stacking the wounds on an enemy, 150 points for 5, with particle beamers isn't bad at all. A lot of enemies may ignore them, and allow you to wreak havoc on enemy lines. The T5 helps with their survivability.

I think once their models come out, people will start using them. 150 points for 5 with particle beamers isn't a bad deal at all.

I've been looking at a list with a couple units of em with particle beamers. I think they fill a gap in my list in dealing with cheap hordes, and do very nicely in putting a lot of saves on squads that are clumped from deepstriking or being blown out of a transport. On paper it looks good so far, have yet to see how they perform on the table.