Stubborn Dwarves

Card draw simulator
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AeroEng42 22

This is my attempt at a solo Dwarf build that may appear a little unconventional. It is relatively untested, but it has done pretty well in the first couple of quests of Shadow's Fall.

The general idea is to use Dain's ability to boost Dwalin and several flexible, 1-cost allies. Dwalin is then attacking for 4 without any attachments, and the other Dwarf allies are all attacking for 2 at 1 cost. Sword of Numenor and Raven-Winged Helm boost Dwalin to 6 attack so that he can pretty much one shot anything Sauron plays from hand, gaining you a resource in the process. The other Sword and Helm go on Faramir to bring him to 4 attack, hopefully letting you one-shot another enemy, gaining a card and a resource. If you find yourself facing some beefier enemies, the boosted Dwarf allies can help you soften your targets before finishing them off with Dwalin or Faramir. If you don't need the Dwarf allies for attacking, they each have special abilities that are incredibly useful: Miner for resources, Watchman for 2 attack, low cost Guarding, and Mapmaker to help boost your willpower with the resources you are gaining from the Miners or the Swords. In both my quests with this deck, I used the Mapmaker to turn the Northern Survivor into a 4 willpower, Stalwart questing machine!

It wouldn't be a Lore deck without healing,, so I have included the Imladris Minstrel (one of my new favorite healing cards), and I have so far used her to heal an average of 2-3 damage per turn. Self-Preservation and Cram are a little extra insurance to make sure Dwalin always has his passive boost and to help Erkenbrand stay healthy and continue soaking multiple attacks per round for you. Plus, Cram lets you ready a character, which is usually Dwalin to take advantage of his high attack or relatively high willpower (high for this deck, anyway).

The biggest weaknesses are threat reduction and questing. The Mapmakers, Survivors, and East Road Riders (for Hazards) help with the questing, as well as Dwalin in a pinch. However, Gandalf with Narya is another great solution to both problems. Narya should go on your second Gandalf so that you can get all of the possible threat reduction, and that gives you time to find it with Faramir's draw ability. I considered using the Record Keeper to further accelerate your draw, but I wasn't sure what to replace for him.

The deck is still in its early stages of testing, so I welcome any comments or feedback if you try it out yourself. I have found it quite fun personally, particularly when I finished the first quest with all my heroes at 12 health (+2 above their base health), Gandalf + Narya, Radagast, and Erkenbrand on the table, a threat < 35, and 20 resources in the bank :-)

13 comments

Mar 14, 2019 Pirkavlinho 2

Well what happened in Reinforcements??? Not even in sideboard when you have sneak atk on sb... Reinforcements seems like the best card for dual lead...

Mar 14, 2019 AeroEng42 22

@Pirkavlinho I love Reinforcements too, but it is a build-around card and really only good with non-unique allies costing 2 or more. Since this deck has a large fraction of 1-cost allies so that I can spam the board with cheap 2 attack dwarves and bodies to help with questing or absorbing damage for heroes, it isn't really efficient in this build. I would rather use the 2 deck slots for more impactful attachments or events, or additional allies (for willpower and health pools). Hope that helps!

Mar 14, 2019 Pirkavlinho 2

I see cool, didn't actually count how many 1 cost were there...

Mar 14, 2019 Pirkavlinho 2

What about double Erkenbrand?? At least on the sideboard, he is the best ally yet and you can play him right after he died as well as there is no special dead pile for uniques.
P. S. : Erkenbrand with Self-Preservation best tank ever;)

Mar 14, 2019 AeroEng42 22

Double Erkenbrand is possible, and I would suggest subbing him in for a Guard of the Citadel of desired. I didn't use 2 in the initial build because I wanted to save resources for Cram and Gandalf first since those are your only readying and threat reduction outside fate events. With Faramir drawing you cards and the 1 cost tanks of Guard of the Citadel and Erebor Watchman, I have usually been able to bide my time to draw my singleton Erkenbrand.

I think it is a good suggestion and pending further testing, may be a matter of personal preference.

Mar 14, 2019 Pirkavlinho 2

Cool, I'll try the excact version of your deck and let you know:)

Mar 14, 2019 AeroEng42 22

Thanks! Looking forward to hearing how it works for you!

Mar 16, 2019 Jinsaku 82

Fun deck! Ran it through the new scenarios on hard mode and 500+ each on the first try. Solid build.

Mar 16, 2019 AeroEng42 22

Thanks @Jinsaku! Glad it worked well for you and that you had fun playing the deck:-)

Mar 23, 2019 sudsywolf 175

This is a very cool deck! Well done! I ran essentially this list but I did make a few adjustments. One that worked super well was Enduring Valor (couldn't help myself ;p) on Dwalin. If he has Sword of Numenor on him, he makes bank with EV!

I also ran Guard of Arnor instead of Erkenbrand. Might seem a bit clunky and I won't fault anyone favoring Erks over GoA, but getting GoA kitted up with the second Raven-Winged Helm and Enduring Valor can be pretty great!

Other changes:

Out: 2x Guardian of the Citadel, 2x East Road Rider, 1x Erkenbrand

In: 1x Erebor Record Keeper, 1x Beorn's Hospitality, x2 Enduring Valor, x1 Guardian of Arnor

Played quests 1-4 with perfect score, haven't tried 5 yet.

Apr 01, 2019 fourthdb 1

I have a dwarf deck that uses Gimli instead of Faramir. Your deck gives more health and questing while mine is more about killing. I would like to see these work together in multiplayer.

For your deck I would consider taking out Gaining Strength seeing as you have Sword of Numenor and Zigil Miner. I would put in something with more questing or restoring HP. Looks like a very solid deck otherwise.

Apr 29, 2019 sudsywolf 175

Finally got around to playing this deck on my channel (with some minor adjustments). Super fun deck! youtu.be

Apr 29, 2019 AeroEng42 22

@fourthdb those decks do sound like a good multiplayer pairing. Seems like a lot of fun! I don't get to play very often these days, but we should try and make that happen. And I agree Gaining Strength probably isn't necessary. Maybe Imladris Caregiver or the Dwarven Warriors would be good adds in that slot

@sudsywolf thanks so much for featuring the deck on your channel!! I really appreciate that, and you did a great job showing off what it can do! I liked the changes you made, too. Obviously I made this original list when Enduring Valor was brand new and I didn't yet appreciate its power, and before the Dwarven Warrior was even out yet. I think your edits are the minimum update I would make to this list myself. Great job!