I like this guy. Aside from the three extras you can get with Messenger of the King or Sword-thain, there are only four Dwarf heroes in Tactics, and two of those belong to the Core Set. If you are building an all-Dwarf deck, for example, and want for all those sweet, sweet Dwarf attachments, your options are limited.

Now, it's all well and good to use Gimli, but if you're trying to keep your threat on the lower side (especially with, say, a Bond of Friendship deck), then you're going to be looking at Thalin or Thorin, who share a starting threat cost of 9. Stat-wise, the only difference is that Thalin's second point of was put into Thorin's instead. This means that Thorin is not so good as at pinch-hitter defending, which you may feel in a standard deck, but is less of a problem with Bond of Friendship. 9-cost for 1 , 3 , 1, & 4 is a nice, focused stat-line, and 4 health can absorb some archery or undefended attacks if necessary.

Thorin's extra is essentially cancelled by Thalin's free damage when you can use it (often enough, as a Dwarf deck concerned with threat is likely running Nori as well, so Unexpected Courage is not an unreasonable ask. Also, both are equally neutralised by "immune to player card effects"). However, even with Thalin's ability, the number of times I've wanted just One more is significantly large, and that's where Thorin shines.

Do you need to kill--or even just slowly chip down!--an enemy but can't quite muster the power? Thorin has you covered! For the low, low cost of discarding one (1) card from your deck, you, too, can sweep the legs out from under that enemy who barely survived your onslaught. And, because that damage can be on any enemy engaged with you, you can deal with 2 (or more, with Rohan Warhorse) you can clear out stacks of engaged enemies with relative ease.

While I had some great times with my boy Thalin, Thorin resolved most of the frustrations that I have when using him, and Thorin does so without raising the threat cost of my deck. With the same set of attachments as I used for Thalin, Thorin has proven to be exactly what I needed him to be. Sure, he's not exactly Gimli, but he is reliable and fits in well with most everything a dwarf deck might want to be doing.