Dain, King Under the Mountain 3.0

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• 3.0
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• 1.0

Updated: 2 Dwarven Shield replaced by 2 Armor of Erebor.

One little change that made this excellent Dwarf-swarm deck a little more multiplayer-friendly is replacing Dwarven Shield with Armor of Erebor. Dwarven Shield's response was secondary at best, and Armor of Erebor provides Sentinel and could played on another player's Dwarf or Dale characters if needed. Otherwise, they can still be played on Dáin Ironfoot to stack up his defense.

Opening Hand

A good batch of allies in the opening hand is a good way to go. Erebor Record Keeper is the only one that can be played on turn1 however. Zigil Miner is generally the most prioritized ally to get in play.King Under the Mountain and Narvi's Belt are other helpful cards to start with.

Gameplay

The Heroes

Dáin Ironfoot gets Narvi's Belt, Hardy Leadership, Armor of Erebor, Magic Ring, and whatever else you choose to play on him. If he gets A Burning Brand (with help from Narvi's Belt), he becomes a secure bearer of attachments in the face of attachment removal shadow effects. His global boost to dwarves is the main reason the deck quests for so much, so he will stand ready most of the time, except maybe during combat. Nori keeps the threat low as dwarf allies are played and Ori gets the card draw flowing, they will also both quest every round basically.

Early, Mid, and Late Game

Although most of the time this deck won't play an ally in the 1st round, it can still quest for 6 and quickly increases the questing total every round. 27 of the 50 cards cost 2, so once Zigil Miner is in play, naming 2 will usually garner at least 1 resource. From early to mid game, focus on bringing allies in play, using A Very Good Tale with a total of 5 cost when able. If you have Dwarf Pipe, it can be worth it to place Hidden Cache on the bottom of the deck only to shuffle the deck using Ered Nimrais Prospector so that you might discard them again sooner. Ered Nimrais Prospector an also be used to shuffle back a discarded copy of Will of the West. It is in the late game, after about 6 rounds, that the deck will be at least mostly depleted and you must prepare to reshuffle your discard pile back in with Will of the West. Then you can go through the deck again to pull out the allies that were missed the first time through the deck. So you will likely finish the game questing for about 50 and with more resources than you know what to do with.

Tips and Tricks

• Erebor Hammersmith can be used to fetch a discarded attachment if you need it.

• Blue Mountain Trader's ability to subtly move rearrange resource between you and your opponent can sometimes help with managing the tri-sphere resource budget.

• The sideboard offers a wealth of options, if you would rather swap a preferred card with Glóin or A Burning Brand.

Success

This deck has worked very well in multiplayer in situations where big questing numbers were needed and other players handle most of the combat. With the recent changes, it can become capable of handling itself in combat, freeing up the combat decks to focus on other concerns. That solved its main weakness. It can also incidentally reshuffle A Test of Will to use it more than 3 times if you are lucky. All in all, it's a great dwarf deck, so give it a try if it piques your interest.