The Return to The Lonely Mountain (Again!) 2.0

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Here we have a deck I plan to use for the entire Hobbit Saga series solo. You can find the first quest on my YouTube channel One Stop Co-op Shop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmhxEXyr3Oo

Below you will get a bit of a rundown on why I included the cards in the deck! Hope you enjoy and feel free to try the deck out. Any suggestions is greatly appreciated!

Dáin Ironfoot

Dain is what I would call the “Manager” of the deck. He does a lot of standing around and doing nothing. That is until he gets an Unexpected Courage on him, then he can at least defend. You would think that this would be a pretty big deterrent for one of your 3 heroes standing and doing nothing. . . . but that is not the case. His ability is quite strong especially in a dwarf deck. +1 attack and willpower for each dwarf can turn those wimpy dwarves who cannot stand alone to come together and be a real force to reckon with. Also, his stat line is pretty impressive, 1 quest, 2 attack 3 defense and 5 health. He can easily soak some damage with his armor, and even attack if need be. His Leadership resource is also helpful in this deck as the majority of the cards can be played using his resources. The starting threat of 11 is manageable due to one of the other heroes in this deck.

Nori

Ah Nori, as a single hero he looks quite unimpressive. 2 quest, 1 attack 2 armor and only 4 health is nothing to write home about, and his ability practically forces you to run a dwarf deck to make it worth it. Hence the reason I put him in this deck! First off, the Spirit resource is super helpful as there are some strong Dwarf allies who are of this sphere, and second of all there are a couple staple cards that it is nice to include with the Spirit resource such as Unexpected Courage and A Test of Will. Then if you add Dain to the hero list, all of a sudden you have a 3 questing 2 attacking Dwarf with the ability to reduce your threat each round as long as you play a dwarf. If you have Bofur in your hand, you can continually keep your threat at the same level the entire game! Pretty nice ability for a hero that only costs 9 threat to start with. The more I play with him, the more I like him!

Thorin Oakenshield

Thorin was a requirement for me to include in this deck simply because I am using this deck for the Hobbit Saga, and what would that be without him? His stat line is phenomenal when paired with Dain, 4 Willpower 4 Attack! I would not like to meet him in a dark ally, that is for sure! Playing Thorin in a dwarf deck is also required as his ability forces you to get dwarf allies out on the board and KEEP them out so you can generate additional resources each round. Because of him I actually pulled Steward of Gondor from the deck in favor of some other cards as I am already getting 4 resources a round! His 12 starting threat is a lot, but with Nori at his side it shouldn’t be too long before you can get yourself under 30 threat in total. Do note, he will not be a stout defender until you can get some dwarf shields on him, or else get Unexpected Courage on Dain so you can defend with him.

Bofur

What I like so much about Bofur is he allows you to add questing after you reveal your encounter cards! And not only that since you just played a dwarf, you can reduce your threat, all for 1 Spirit resource! I will take it! If you have Dain ready, he can add 3 Willpower which is pretty powerful. I probably will never hard cast him since I would almost always use him for questing anyways and would like the threat reduction thank you very much!

Dwarven Sellsword

Now this guy is awesome in this deck. I have toyed with having more than one of these in the deck, but decided that the cost is too high, and I like the other dwarves too much in this deck to get rid of any. He is great in an opening hand, getting you to 4 dwarves only costing 1 leadership resource. He is great mid-game when you need to push as he will quest or attack for 3 with Dain. He is great late game as you probably have extra resources lying around to keep him out and 3 of either willpower or attack is welcome! The challenge is deciding when/if he is no longer useful, so I just have 1 here so I can usually keep him out indefinitely, even if he sucks my pockets dry of resources!

Erebor Battle Master

This is the workhorse for your deck, you will want to bring him out mid to late game so you can one shot those big enemies like a Troll or a Nazgul. I don’t have any tactic heroes so there are only 2 ways to get him on the board. A Very Good Tale and Narvi’s Belt. When you put him out be ready to see those enemies quake in fear as they see a single dwarf that can potentially attack for 18 if you have all your dwarf allies out and +1 attack from Dain. I am pretty sure he will even give Smoug a challenge! We shall see! Also if you have 3 of them out, that would be 54 attack. . . . HAHAHAHA Insane!

Erebor Guard

Erebor Guard is another character that I never play for its full resource. You want to be discarding cards from your deck, digging for Hidden Cache and Ered Luin Miner. BUT if you exhaust him for A Very Good Tale he gives you lots of flexibility on what allies you can play from the top of your deck. In multi-player you have another good sentinel character as well. His attack and defense are pretty dismal, but you are more playing him for either defense, or for more dwarves to power up your battle master or threat reduction. Plus I really like his art for some reason!

Ered Luin Miner

One of the staples in this type of “digging” dwarf deck! You don’t want him in your hand EVER! He is not really worth 3 resources, but I have on occasion played him from hand just so I get more dwarves on the board. The best way to get him played is either by A Very Good Tale, King Under the Mountain or Erebor Guard. All of these cards make you discard from the top of your deck, and then BAM you have a 2 Willpower, 2 Attack dwarf ready to help the masses and power up your Erebor Battle Guard. My only issue with this deck is if you have him in your hand, you have no way to get him back into your deck, so you are just stuck with him.

Fili

Fili is included here for 2 reasons. First off you pay 3 resources to bring out 2 dwarves, as long as you play him from hand. Second it is thematically awesome to have him in the deck, now we just need to find a way to sacrifice him during the Battle of the 5 armies. . . 

Gandalf

Ahh Gandalf, the epitome of versatility! You need threat reduction? DONE. you need direct damage? DONE. You desperately need card draw? DONE. Oh yeah and he is a 4 quest, 4 attack, 4 armor and 4 health ally! Yes he costs 5 resources, but we have other ways of bringing him out, such as A Very Good Tale and Sneak Attack. The best and most obvious is Sneak Attack as you can play him, get his response and then put him back into your hand. He is my only non-dwarf ally in the deck, and it is worth it in gold to have 3 of them here, as just like the story you need him to pop in and out as often as possible. His downside of only being out 1 round hardly even matters, that is usually all you need to make good use of him!

Glóin

Gloin is another dwarf included in part because of the thematic ties, but also because as long as there are 5 dwarves out he will cost a whopping 1 resource! Also it is fun to pay for him with Leadership resources, and turn the 2 resources you get back to Spirit so you can play an Unexpected Courage or the like. Nice solid ally.

Kili

Kili is included here for 2 reasons. First off you pay 3 resources to bring out 2 dwarves, as long as you play him from hand. Second it is thematically awesome to have him in the deck, now we just need to find a way to sacrifice him during the Battle of the 5 armies. . . 

Longbeard Elder

Now this guy is similar to a Firyal for the dwarves when you have Dain’s +1 willpower as he quests for 3. He does have a drawback of the top card is not a location card, and you can’t place it on the bottom of the deck. . .but in a solo game you know exactly what is coming then which is super nice! And if it is a location on top of the deck, progress is placed on the active quest, which is super nice. I thought of putting more than one in here, but in the end I felt like 1 was enough as I would be looking at the same encounter card for each one.

Miner of the Iron Hills

This Miner is the only other dwarf that you can only play through Narvi’s Belt or A Very Good Tale. Removing Condition attachments have proved to extraordinarily beneficial so I decided to include 2 of them in this deck to help us keep those pesky attachments off of my other dwarves! After that he is either a meat shield, or used to power up the Battle Guard!

Dúnedain Remedy

OK so this is NOT thematic at all, but I needed some healing in this deck, and this is all I could come up with. Costs 0, and can be passed around even to other players if playing co-op. Great in mid to late game to keep Dain from being killed by defending or by treachery cards.

Dwarven Shield

Need some more resources? Throw this shield on Thorin and defend so you take some damage, and boom you got yourself more Leadership resources! Or you can use the two copies here to make Dain nigh impossible to hit with 5 armor. Such a great card for only 2 Leadership resources. I will usually play this round 1 if it is in my hand.

Hardy Leadership

This card is a bit obvious, it gives +1 health to everyone except Gandalf. Sounds good to me, and for only 2 resources! Turn 1 card if you can!

King Under the Mountain

This is a staple in this deck and you want it out as soon as possible. First off it is card draw, but second of all it is a great combo with Ered Luin Miner and Hidden Cache. You are required to put it on Thorin though as it says so on his Hero card in the flavor text. If I see someone putting this on another dwarf. . . there will be words!

Narvi's Belt

This is how you will be able to play Ered Battle Master and Miner of the Hills. You will want to put this on Thorin as he will be generating 2 resources a round hopefully by turn 2-3 and you can use his excess resources to pay for Spirit cards, or the two dwarves noted above.

Unexpected Courage

I find this card to be a good standard for most decks that run Spirit and this one is no exception. Putting this on Dain allows him to defend and still continue to give all other dwarves their +1 +1. Also you can put it on Thorin if you need more questing and attacking. Really just an all around great card!

A Test of Will

A Staple, just a great way to negate those When Revealed effects. I find it relatively impossible not to include this in a solo deck with a Spirit hero.

A Very Good Tale

This card is SO interesting!! It is always a gamble to play as this deck only has 20 allies, of which 3 will only last for 1 round but when you discard 5 cards there is a good chance you will find a Hidden Cache or an Ered Luin Miner, which makes it worth it. It is fun to sneak attack Gandalf in during the Planning Phase, get his response effect, then exhaust him and one other ally to bring out 2 or 3 more! So fun! This is also a great way to put those dwarves with no resource match out on the table.

Hidden Cache

Don’t draw this if you can! If you do it is OK, but the best is when you discard this with King Under the Mountain, A Very Good Tale, or Erebor Guard. I usually put the 2 resources on Nori, but sometimes more Leadership resources is just what you need!

Lure of Moria

1 card, 3 resources to ready all but 3 characters in this deck. . . .Yeah seems like a great idea, and pairs quite well with another card in this deck, We Are Not Idle. Start the round, play We are Not Idle, generate resources for each Dwarf in play, then use this card to ready them all again. Not bad!

Sneak Attack

Sneak attack + Gandalf = Fun! Not to mention you can always sneak in a dwarf to play A Very Good Tale if you don’t have enough resources.

We Are Not Idle

A great way to generate resources for a specific hero. I generally do this for Leadership as I usually have more leadership cards to play. Pairs wonderfully with Lure of Moria!

Will of the West

With all the discarding this deck does, and digging you may need a way to get that mountain of a discard pile back into your deck! Enter this card!! Now there are only 2. . . so make sure you get one into your hand before you go crazy!