Balin's Company 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a thematic deck built for an ongoing series on my blog, Darkling Door.

Theme: Balin's colony in Moria

Played Against: Nightmare Foundations of Stone

"But now we spoke of it again with longing, and yet with dread; for no dwarf has dared to pass the doors of Khazad-dûm for many lives of kings, save Thrór only, and he perished. At last, however, Balin listened to the whispers, and resolved to go; and though Dáin did not give leave willingly, he took with him Ori and Óin and many of our folk, and they went away south."

—Glóin, The Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

Strategy

This is a surprisingly scrappy Dwarf swarm deck.

As with any deck that relies on getting lots of Allies out, the first few turns are when the deck is most vulnerable. With most of the Allies costing at least 2, it's not usually possible to play anything consequential until round 2 at the earliest. Fortunately, Balin has the ability to replace any terrible Shadow cards that might appear, and the deck starts with fairly low threat, so it's okay for me to take a little undefended damage or fail to quest for a round or two while I'm still getting set up.

I mulligan for A Very Good Tale, which generally lays the foundation of my swarm. My goal is to play it as soon as possible to help me get a large number of Dwarf Allies into play. I usually quest with all three Heroes and whatever 1 Allies I can, but occasionally I'll hold back Balin as a defender or Ori or Óin to help me finish off an Enemy if I happen to be engaged with one. In general, the Allies handle combat, with defense frequently being done via chump blocking.

The card draw in this deck ramps up pretty quickly. Ori's ability usually draws me an extra card per turn from round 3 onward. This helps me to draw into either King Under the Mountain or Legacy of Durin for even more card draw. If I happen to discard one of those two cards off the top of my deck from some other card effect (a fairly common occurance) an Erebor Hammersmith lets me retrieve it—and with only a few Attachments in the whole deck, I don't have to worry about it accidentally getting buried under something less useful.

It doesn't seem like it just from looking at it, but this deck can really take a beating. I'm capable of quickly replenishing any Allies I lose to chump blocking, and cards like Untroubled by Darkness and Ancestral Knowledge can help me get out of a bind if I start falling behind during the questing phase.

► For more analysis, check out my blog post on this deck.