A Likely Friendship: Caldara and Spirit Dain 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Note: Dáin Ironfoot is a proxy for the upcoming version in the fourth adventure pack of the Ered Mithrin cycle - The Ghost of Framsburg. (The spoiler can be found in this article: https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/9/24/the-ghost-of-framsburg/ )

Overview

When Spirit Dain was spoiled in the announcement article for The Ghost of Framsburg, the reception was somewhat lukewarm. Since then, players of the game have warmed up to the idea of a reliable defender that can survive multiple Hill Troll attacks without needing any boosts whatsoever. Still, my initial impression immediately inspired me to slot Dain into a Caldara deck, where I think he particularly shines with the ability to get a lot of cards in your discard pile quickly without relying on any additional cards. He will likely also become a glue hero in any Dwarven mining deck, but with the small amount of cards released at this point, this deck archetype is still one of the more limited in options. (Although I personally hope for one Spirit and one Neutral card in the accompanying pack that will facilitate this archetype a bit more.) However, the central mining cards in existence are a good addition in any deck running Spirit Dain and they are included in this deck.

The Playstyle

The "standard" Caldara deck usually consists of the lineup of Caldara herself, Círdan the Shipwright and Arwen Undómiel. This hero line-up allows you to reliably get two cards in your discard pile every turn, with all other options to do so needing to be drawn. Spirit Dain boosts that number up to four. Even though he is a little more conditional with him needing an enemy to defend, the added bonus of this is, that he is a great defender that allows for more aggressive dealings with enemies in the early game (the first two rounds, roughly) when other Caldara decks are still getting set up.

Generally speaking, the deck is still a pretty standard Caldara deck, with staples like Emery, Elven Jeweler, Prince Imrahil and the classic big allies. However, the discard/mining mechanic Dain enables allows for some additional strategies that make the top cards of your deck even more an extension of your hand than the Caldara archetype has done so far. Because of this, I also included Erebor Guard for additional discards from the top of the deck (A Very Good Tale also does this, but already finds its way into a lot of Caldara decks) and Ered Luin Miner and Hidden Cache as additional bonuses for the mining mechanic. These cards are by no means required for this deck to function, but they are always great to hit with Dain's discard and make the deck even better. At the same time, you have a strong defender on the board from turn one on, that especially enables a quick setup for Caldara in quests, where you start engaged with an enemy.

The best possible way this deck can function, is getting a lot of cards in your discard pile turn one by means of Emery, Elven Jeweler, Erebor Guard and, of course, Dain, then playing Prince Imrahil (or using Stand and Fight ) on turn two, which should allow you to get a three really valuable allies out on that turn. Since Imrahil only costs four, this allows you to play to ressources worth of cards on turn one (if you do not hit Hidden Cache by chance), which means you can still get Arwen Undómiel, Light of Valinor or Narya into play on your first turn.

Your Opening Hand

A thing I very much like about this deck is the amount of good opening hands you can hit. Tons of combinations of cards can work for a quick set-up and more often than not, I keep my initial hand, because there are so many ways to get this deck going. The reason for this, is the sheer amount of cards that play into the archetype and the fact that, thanks to Dain, the top three cards of your deck more often than not are essentially an extension of your hand in terms of discardable cards. Also, the fact that the deck os mono-spirit still allows you to play some bigger allies quickly without needing to trigger Caldara, should you run into a drought of discard mechanics available.

Cards I like to see in my opening hands are Emery, Elven Jeweler and Erebor Guard for some additional discards while getting them into play for cheap and being setup for the use of A Very Good Tale; Light of Valinor and Narya to get the Cirdan machine going quickly and Prince Imrahil or Stand and Fight, since Imrahil is the best turn two play this deck can have. For this, Stand and Fight functions as a more conditional Imrahil, because you will be discarding a lot of cards and can play him from out of your discard pile.

Often I only find myself being forced to mulligan when my opening hand consists of only high cost allies, utility events like A Test of Will or Elrond's Counsel and/or the mining cards Ered Luin Miner and Hidden Cache. The last two are the cards you want to see in your opening hand the least, but don't feel forced to throw your hand away just because one of them is in there. They provide some utility, but are not essential for the deck to function and often I find myself with resources to spare to either hard-cast the miner of have Hidden Cache cantrip for one resource.

The Cards

As I already alluded to, a lot of these cards are nice to see and play great parts in the strength of this deck. The real value of this deck, however, in my opionion lies in the fact that a lot of them provided excellent utility, but none are essential (with maybe the exception of Prince Imrahil), because there is a lot of redundance in how cards in this deck function. This means that the consistency of performance this deck offers is pretty high.

Caldara: The central piece of the appropriately named Caldara deck. Allows you to get those allies into play for what is essentially free.

Círdan the Shipwright: The use of Light of Valinor and Narya enables you to get even more value out of your allies, which is fantastic deal. Having some strong early willpower around is also great in almost any deck. Lastly, since this deck lacks card draw (which it does not really need once set up) you will be forced to resort to top-decking from the late mid-game onwards. Cirdan makes this much more manageable, since you will be able to pick the cards you need.

Dáin Ironfoot: The idea for this deck. I already talked about him a lot. In my opinion, he is Caldara's best friend. Note that you do not have to discard all three cards and can boost his defense to a number of your liking, which is especially great in the later stages of the game, when you have already triggered Caldara.

Arwen Undómiel: A two resources two willpower drop is always great to see. Her ability works great with Dain, boosting his defense even further and giving him great utility in multiplayer games.

Emery, Elven Jeweler and Erebor Guard: Central pieces of getting cards in your discard pile for Caldara to bring back. They function somehwhat differently with the Jeweler especially relying on cards in your hand you actually want to see in your discard pile. All of them are also excellent for using A Very Good Tale, because they can be played quickly for cheap while having higher value than what you actually payed for them.

Glorfindel, Jubayr and Northern Tracker: The "big three", that are the best to get into play with Caldara. The ideal situation is being able to get three of them into play with Caldara (once Imrahil is out). Don't worry, if you only can get two, you still get a ton of resource advantage, which is something the encounter deck will have trouble catching up to. Still, Dain's ability makes it even more likely to actually be able to get all three into play. If you have the resources to spare, Glorfindel is aösp a great archery soak in lieu of healing abilities.

Prince Imrahil: This card already saw Caldara to new heights, when Flame of the West was released. Not only is he a great utility ally for a lot of circumstances due to his well-rounded stats, the possibility to bring back three allies and not using access to one hero's resources is simply a staple in any Caldara deck. The best turn two drop you can wish for.

Ered Luin Miner: Is in this deck to get even more advantage out of Dain's mining mechanic. Great to hit when it happens and fantastic card for A Very Good Tale in that case. If you draw him, he often goes straight into the discard thanks to Cirdan, never to be seen again.

Dwarf Pipe: Probably the weakest card in this deck and the one you will most likely swap out for any of the cards in the sideboard. Still, being able to get a second chance on those Hidden Caches or threat reduction or cancellation in the late game can be valuable.

Light of Valinor and Narya: Cirdan's toys. Used to get action advantage out of those big allies. The deck can function without drawing them (and I even have held back Cirdan from questing a couple of times just to be able to use Narya), but the combo is still fantastic. Narya also gives you access to for those nice A Very Good Tale plays.

A Test of Will: Any self-respecting Spirit deck will run this card. It's one of the contenders for the strongest card in the game.

A Very Good Tale: If you are not able to get the big allies in your discard, along comes a nice story to save you. Triggering this off of an Erebor Guard and an Ered Luin Miner can still get you seven resources worth of allies into play; plus maybe some more in your discard pile. It's also a value play, if you did not manage to find Prince Imrahil.

Dwarven Tomb: I already talked about the redundancy in this deck. Dwarven Tomb plays a big part in that. Accidentally discard Light of Valinor or Prince Imrahil? No problem, this card is here to safe you.

Elrond's Counsel: An auto-include like A Test of Will. A spirit deck with a unique Noldor hero, will usually bet better with this card than without.

Hidden Cache: Can provide you with some great amounts of resources. Again, this is somewhat of a failsafe for when you are not getting the big allies in your discard and they are instead cluttering your hand. The resources you get from this will allow for a slower, but still consistent early game. Being able to cycle it for one resource is also a nice piece of utility.

Stand and Fight: In the early game this is a Prince Imrahil security blanket in case you accidentally discarded him. Later in the game, you might as well use all those spare resources to play an additional Northern Tracker from your discard pile or bring back and ally that dies.

The Galadhrim's Greeting: Only a one-off and usually played mid to late game, when the already relatively high starting threat can get more out of control. In quests that hate on threat, swap in the additional copies from your sideboard for Dwarven Pipes just to be safe.

The Sideboard

Hasty Stroke Sometimes a nasty shadow effect can punish your Dain defender strategy quite severly ("Defending character does not count its defense", anyone?). This becomes less of a problem once Jubayr is on the table, but against quest with really nasty shadow effect this is still a valuable card in the sideboard.

Unexpected Courage: Particularly great for multiplayer, where you can use the Dain/Arwen combo to also defend enemies engaged with other players. Note that you can only use the defense boost three times (per phase that is, so Unexpected Courage is also a fantastic sideboard card for quests that have loads of out of turn attacks), but the base four with Arwen is still pretty great. This can be invaluable in quests that pass a boss enemy around with the first player token.

Will of the West: Essential tech against Deadmen's Dike and worth the inclusion in the sideboard because of this quest alone. Depending on your experience with the deck, you might find that you deck yourself to quickly with all the discard mechanics. In that case, you can always swap in a couple of copies for the Dwarf Pipe.

Conclusion

This was probably way too long a write-up for a not yet released hero. However, I strongly encourage all of you to give dain a chance. He is a great defensive hero and allows for some interesting twists and turns with the mining mechanic.