Khazad Dum Minimum Purchase 1 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a deck built from just Core Set + Khazad-dûm cards for Path Less Traveled, an ongoing series on my blog, Darkling Door.

Played Against: Into the Pit

Working with the deck

The key thing to realize about this deck is that it doesn’t really have a dedicated defender—instead it relies on either cancelling Enemy attacks with cards like Feint and Quick Strike or taking undefended attacks on Gimli. It’s a bit of a risky strategy, but with all the card draw that the deck has, it can generally draw into whatever it needs to keep itself safe before things get too out of hand.

Both Boots from Erebor and Self Preservation help me keep Gimli alive longer, allowing him to keep tanking undefended attacks without too much fear of dying from them. And if something does go awry, there’s always Hasty Stroke to cancel any potentially fatal Shadow Effects.

Attack duties are shared between Dwalin and Gimli, with Dwalin gradually taking over as I find him Weapons to make him more effective. Excess weapons can be passed off to Gimli so that he’s not so reliant on being damaged to be effective in combat.

I generally send both Bifur and Gimli on the quest with the plan of taking an undefended attack should an Enemy show up. Eventually I should be able to find some form of readying for Gimli, like Unexpected Courage or an Erebor Record Keeper so that I can use him more easily in the combat phase, too.

The curve on this deck is a little low, though, so sometimes I need to rely on making big quest pushes all at once with the help of Untroubled by Darkness. The deck also has some alternative ways to make progress even if I’m coming up a little short during the questing phase using cards like Ancestral Knowledge and Strength of Will.

It takes a little time to get ramped up, but it’s a stalwart deck once it gets going—pretty fitting for a bunch of Dwarves.

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