Mining the Ash Mountains 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Under the Ash Mountains is a special kind of frustrating. The Time mechanic turned to 11, this quest not only sets a hard deadline but also has the capability of accelerating the speed at which you're traveling to that deadline. The starting enemy, the Torech Gorrgor Patrol, seems like all his stats were accidentally set 2 higher than they were supposed to and he comes with a nasty ability to boot. And the shadows effects, while not the worst in the game, are really, really annoying. For the sake of catharsis, the goal was to build a deck that can beat it all - scratch that... most - well not really... how about a lot of some of the time?

Mulligan hard for Dwarf Pipe, Dwarven Tomb, and Reforged. Also keep a look out for how many Ered Luner Miners and Hidden Caches you have in your starting hand. You want to keep those in your deck because you're about to discard 54 out of your 94 remaining cards during set-up. With any luck you'll get to put two miners into play and start with a 5 dwarf count. Most of the time you want to put the resources from your first Hidden Cache onto Oin and your second onto Dain.

Take that first turn to play your Dwarf Pipes, Reforge your Dwarf Pipes, or Tomb the Pipes into your hand to play immediately. They will increase the amount of time you have to finish the quests considerably. Try to clear the sidequest as soon as possible. Begin to build up your Dain with an Armored Destrier, Golden Belt, two of three defensive attachments (Armor of Erebor/Ring Mail/Dwarven Shield), Hauberk of Mail, and Crams. Eventually he should be able to take the big enemies. Keep him ready with Unexpected Courages and Erebor Record Keepers.

If you need cards, the Perilous Voyage contract offers the best kind of draw for Under the Ash Mountains. It's lets you choose from the top two cards of your deck and you put the one you didn't want back on the bottom right where you want it.

Stand and Fight can take advantage of the large discard, as well To Me! O my kinsflok! Remember, To Me! O my kinsfolk! puts the ally back on the bottom of the deck which is just gravy.

There's a good chance The Evening Star and Anchor Watch will be super powered by the large discard as well. They might be handy in a pinch.

Exploring the locations is often bad, but they are all Underground locations, so if you have one you want to ignore you can just Bombur it all game.

Nori is once again MVP, as with the proper numbers of dwarf pipes and his card recursion ability you can essentially keep the card count of your deck stable each turn you kill an enemy.

Happy spelunking!