Angry Mono Thalin sets out to clear Moria 1.0

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• 1.0

Ever since hearing about the myth about Nate French's legendary Mono Thalin deck with which he could allegedly clear all scenarios - through skilful play and Thalin's overpowered ability - I had wanted to turn the meme into a viable deck.

The closest I have seen so far is @Seastan's take on the idea: https://ringsdb.com/decklist/view/13258/amono-thalindeckthatcanbeataquest-1.0# His deck description also offers more background on the meme itself.

When the The Grey Wanderer contract was announced, I knew what had to be done. Things took a while and I only got my copy the last week. Now, after some building and tweaking, I finally have what I consider a viable Mono Thalin deck.

The testing has't been extensive, but Thalin managed to solo his way down the Anduin and through the first three Khazad Dum quests without breaking much of a sweat. I’ll update once he has gone a bit further.

[Update] Thalin ended up clearing the entire Dwarrowdelf cycle. Most quests were fair and offered a decent challenge. Two stood out as particularly unfun with this (and probably most other) mono-hero deck:

1. The Redhorn Gate has Freezing Cold. Strider makes it so that this is not an insta-kill, but a second one means game over. Also Caradhras and Snowstorm can kill you. At least Miner of the Iron Hills gives you an out here.
2. The Watcher in the Water has four copies of Wrapped! which is complete and utter BS vs mono-heroes decks. Drawing it means game over. Not even our trusty Miner can get rid of it in time.

Beating either one was more a game of luck and a fair amount of patience. I would recommend skipping them.

About the deck itself: The Grey Wanderer grabs Strider (or a Dwarrowdelf Axe if you want to play with errata'd contract setup rules and you find Strider in your starting hand). Thalin quests every round ensuring that most enemies enter play with a bit of damage on them. The deck has a moderate direct damage sub-theme that allows to pick smaller enemies off before they can become a problem. Gondorian Spearman with a Spear of the Citadel is happy to defend against anything with 2 or less hitpoints left.

The friends that Thalin picked up on his way from Erebor to Moria help with the questing. Celduin Traveler usually costs 1 and his ability really shines in this deck (the traveller's home sphere usually likes to see locations, so the discarding is not all that fantastic in most decks including him). Rhovanion Outrider is good at clearing locations in the staging area, but can also contribute to combat if there is no location to trigger his ability off.

Combat is usually handled by Thalin and his dwarven tactics friends. A Soldier of Erebor with Raiment of War of war can get some serious work done. It's best to cheat him in with a timely aid, but can also be cast for full cost mid-game. Longbeard Sentry helps with defence and Veteran Axehand can help with early game damage. Bofur helps find additional weapons when needed (useful to trigger Foe-hammer and Goblin-cleaver) and Azain Silverbeard does a great job taking out enemies and helping with the direct damage theme.

With Erebor Hammersmith in hand, the dwarves' discard abilities also can help to draw into some juicy attachments. In addition he has great stats for his costs. Miner of the Iron Hills is somewhat of a tech choice. If a quest does not threaten nasty condition attachments, there are plenty of good substitutes (e.g. another hammersmith). Erebor Toymaker is obviously fantastic if you can play one of the many 2 cost (or if need be 1 cost) attachments for free. He'll be questing ever after. I also included a single copy of Gandalf. Starting at 9 threat, he'll typically drawn cards or do his damage magic. A Timely Aid can help find him later in the game. Pippin is a bit of a thematic stretch (maybe he joined the Gondorian Spearmen?), but he is just to good a fit in this deck to not include him. Playing Celduin Traveler and Pippin on turn 1 makes for a really nice start.

The equipment can be distributed flexibly across the dwarven warriors in play to boost their attack and defence as needed. A single copy of Golden Belt offers some additional flexibility and gives Thalin an additional restricted slot if he needed to take on an early Raiment of War.

Play tips

• You want to see a Timely Aid, a good quester (ideally Celdiun Traveler) and a weapon in the opening hand. Resourceful is nice, but the deck also can do without.
• When planning out the turn, note that only one off-sphere card can be played each turn. That card needs to be the first card played. This sometimes limits the play options, but I felt never severely hindered by this restriction.
• It can sometimes help to hold off on playing additional allies once 4 are in play (as not to lose the 2 bonus that Strider offers) until the additional allies offset that loss. Sometimes it can also be useful to throw some cheap combat allies under the bus before playing a more beefy one.
• Dwarrowdelf Axe and Foe-hammer can sometimes interact non-favourably. Make sure that the 1 damage off the axe does not kill an enemy - otherwise Foe-hammer can't trigger.

Enjoy the deck. Comments and suggestions are of course welcome!