Quad Sphere Dwarf Swarm *CotR Deckbox*

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Quad Sphere Dwarf Swarm *CotR Deckbox* 0 0 0 1.0
Quad Sphere Dwarf Swarm 3 0 0 1.0
Aulë's Horde - Dain Ironfoot/Bifur/Nori 1 2 0 1.0
My Óinshake Brings All the Dwarves to the Yard 5 3 0 1.0
Liga Hobbit mazo 1 0 0 0 1.0
The Lonely Mountain Solo Progression Style 2 0 0 1.0
The Battle of Five Armies Solo Progression Style 1 0 0 1.0
Dáin and the Dwarves of the Iron Hills 1 0 0 1.0
Quad Sphere Dwarf edit chopan 4 4 1 1.0
My Quad Sphere Dwarf Swarm 0 0 0 1.0
Mazo Enanos 4 Esferas de AtaruSlash 0 0 0 1.0
Dwarf - Purple/Green 0 0 0 1.0
Dwarven 0 0 0 1.0
Dain's Raiding Party 0 0 0 1.0
The Kings of Malagrott 7 2 6 1.0
Quad Sphere Dwarf Swarm *CotR Deckbox* 1 1 0 1.0
Dwarf Deck 0 0 0 1.0
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AtaruSlash 4564

This deck does one thing: get lots of dwarf allies down, and quickly. With Dain on the table, you can build a capable army in short order. With low-ish threat, you generally have a few turns before you have to deal with any huge enemies, which allows you to build a bit. Over half the deck is allies, and about half those are two-or-lower cost lore allies. Bifur is your engine here. Pull resources from any other heroes who don't need them that turn and use Bifur to get allies down.

Once you get to your 5 Dwarf threshold, lots of beneficial options open up. Oin gains a tactics resource, allowing more resource flexibility, A Very Good Tale gets allies down quickly, as statistically every other card you pull should be an ally, you will rarely whiff.

The thing that makes this deck for me is the mechanic of the Hidden Cache. This is the game within the game. With discard effects such as A Very Good Tale, Zigil Miner, King Under the Mountain, and Ered Nimrais Prospector, every discard trigger becomes a gambling game. Every one of these effects have a primary benefit of its own, but you can't help yourself from chanting for the cache to flip over. You will eventually hit a cache, squee with joy and put more fuel into your Dwarf engine.

This deck is fun for me because it doesn't play itself, as many of my past dwarf builds have done. The quad sphere build means you are constantly making decisions about where your resources are going. The timing of card play is huge, offering precise timing and ridiculous efficiency when played correctly. Ultimately, this is the last dwarf deck I feel the need to build, and I doubt I'll be reconsidering that statement any time soon.

51st Cards: Test of Will Sneak attack Nori or Galadriel (swapped for Oin in case of needing threat control or ally action advantage)

-Sean

12 comments

Mar 22, 2016 CotR_Brandon 312

"swarm"

Mar 22, 2016 AtaruSlash 4564

So effing help me @CotR_Brandon, if this is the only comment on one of the best decks I've ever made...

Mar 29, 2016 roguefrog 124

It still begs for Lure of Moria.

Mar 31, 2016 AtaruSlash 4564

@roguefrogA very suitable swap for Steward. I have really come around to Lure of Moria since building this deck: ringsdb.com

Apr 02, 2016 BizTheDad 2

Wow, this deck is really fun to play. Thanks so much for sharing it.

Also, thanks for offering up a replacement for Steward. As a newer player, I fond it's really hard to find decks that don't run Steward which makes playing in groups of three and four players difficult given so many people run Steward.

Apr 27, 2016 qkieu 1

Can you please elaborate why there isn't any Hardy Leadership in this deck? :)

Apr 28, 2016 AtaruSlash 4564

@qkieuHonestly I've never felt it's worth the tempo hit. Dwarves are hardy as characters go, anyway, and basically you would almost always rather draw into something that helps you get out allies, and Hardy Leadership does not do that. A 1x would probably be fine, but I've just never missed it.

Apr 28, 2016 qkieu 1

@AtaruSlashThe reason why I was asking about lack of Hardy Leadership is that I have also noticed the absence of A Test of Will. IMO A Test of Will is one of the two biggest merits of running quad sphere dwarves vs Mono (Leadership) or Dual (Leadership/Lore) counterparts (the other one is Erebor Battle Master). Is it a deck devised for solo play or do you have a supportive Spirit deck to complement it?

Interesting deck building choices, I will give it a try though. I am also not sure about To me! O my kinsfolk!, but I will be honest with you: I have never tested this card ^^

Maybe I am missing something :) Maybe 'deathball' swarm without protective tempo loss cards (A Test of Will or Hardy Leadership) is a better approach. Will give it a try vs some brutal quests.

Apr 28, 2016 AtaruSlash 4564

@qkieuThere are certainly some quests where I'll find room for A Test of Will, but I've never really had issues just muscling through most treacheries. The build is really just hyper focused on the ally churning, so anything not meant for that purpose just ended up getting cut.

I'd try To me! O my kinsfolk! before you cut it, though. It's way more useful than it seems in this build. It used to be 3x Sneak Attack, but I found that if the deck is running, I don't often have allies in my hand as good targets, aside from Gandalf, of course. But between the Ered Nimrais Prospectors, A Very Good Tales, and King Under the Mountain, you almost always have a good target in your discard pile. That said, it's probably what I drop most for sideboard cards, like A Test of Will.

But yeah, like you said, this is almost entirely an offensive deck. If you can start swarming (f&%$ you, @CotR_Brandon) turn 1 or two, the encounter deck will be very hard pressed to catch up with you.

Apr 28, 2016 qkieu 1

@AtaruSlashGot it, understood. Not sure if I agree, but I am going to give it a try :)

I think the biggest reason why I have always played Hardy Leadership was my ally selection: I was running Zigil Miner instead of Blue Mountain Trader. I preferred 1 extra ATT and a (potential) resource generation ability to 1 extra HP. So Hardy was essential to protect my Zigils and Record Keepers (and an extra HP on Battle Masters never hurts).

I think you should test it out, there is nothing better than hitting a motherlode with blind activation of Miner =)

Jun 19, 2016 Morgothsfoot 10

This is a really fun deck to play.

Jul 04, 2016 Hyperion508 3

Excellent deck. I adventured through Khazad-Dum, Dwarrowdelf, and just finished up the Hobbit boxes with it. I made some slight variations to it for a few quests (Armored Destrier was a boss during Battle of Five Armies), but it was kept mostly intact throughout. Lonely Mountain was the only real stumbling point for a bit, but I wanted a win with specific treasures for the battle (Thrór's Battle Axe and Mithril Shirt. Again, well done Sean, as always.