Dwarven-Light 2.0

• Versions
• 2.0
• 1.0

A super-fun deck! A little weak in the early game, and an absolute MONSTER toward the end. The point is to accidentally discard all the Hidden Cache and Ered Luin Miners, then play billions of dwarfs and use the Dain Ironfoot bonus to handle everything. We Are Not Idle is much less powerful with new errata, but this deck still holds up well using A Very Good Tale and other tricks. After testing and tweaking, the last few odds and ends are focused on surviving the first few turns until it gets set up.

Version 2.0

• Nori is PERFECT for this.
• After quite a lot of testing, Khazâd! Khazâd! is very rarely helpful. I experimented with Close Call, because Óin's resources are sometimes spread too thin for a Feint, but I didn't like that either. Anyway I still need 5 dwarfs to play it.
• Steward of Gondor is fine, but usually only when playing solo.
• With Steward, consider Livery of the Tower. Likely to be a bad idea, because resources are in high demand. If I do include it though, it seems wise to add Well-Equipped back in, since the number of attachments is rising.
• I decided against Smoke and Think, because it's not very useful until much later in the game. But 1x copy of it is an idea...

Getting Started

Mulligan for things like Ered Luin Miner which you can play immediately, or We Are Not Idle to boost one color. Getting to 5 dwarfs fast is a must, not just for acceleration but also to gain Tactics. When they aren't Not Idle, Óin and Ori can form the bulk of questing, until you have enough dwarfs in play to spare them more easily. Draw extra cards with Ori and Legacy of Durin and play whatever dwarfs you can.

Use Erebor Guard, Ered Nimrais Prospector, and A Very Good Tale to discard cards, hoping to find Hidden Cache and Ered Luin Miner. Hopefully at least one Dwarf Pipe is in play, before A Very Good Tale especially, but in general the Pipes are useful for all the discards, and then Prospectors shuffle the cards off of the bottom of the deck. Prospector is also a great target for To me! O my kinsfolk!, but the main point is that Kinsfolk fixes Fili and Kili if they get discarded.

Ered Nimrais Prospectors need to shuffle back Will of the West if you lose all three, but other than that they mostly try to save the unique attachments, all of which are nice but not truly necessary. It's rare to shuffle back in Ered Luin Miner and Hidden Cache - usually there's more important things to do - but it is an option.

Cleaning Up

Dwalin and Erebor Guards make decent blockers, and it's totally fine if you lose one or two because you can just play them later after Will of the West. As always, Ered Nimrais Prospectors are perfect chumps so that they can be reshuffled and played. After testing, I removed Azain and Dori who are rarely useful, and settled on two Erebor Battle Master for extreme destruction. Also, a bunch of extra Dwarfs can just form a mob for a third attack, keeping in mind which ones have a little more quest power and which have a little more attack. Two A Test of Wills is usually enough when they cycle with Will of the West.

Sideboard

• More Miner of the Iron Hills for conditions.
• More Feint, To me! O my kinsfolk!, Khazâd! Khazâd!, Durin's Song, and Stand and Fight than I can possibly use.
• Smoke Rings was a decent idea, but too slow, and 1x The Galadhrim's Greeting is just better.
• 5 different possible Silvans in place of a hero, and Unlikely Friendship to go with them.
• Nori in place of The Galadhrim's Greeting, but then I don't have tactics. Narvi's Belt?
• A truly pointless Bilbo Baggins and an even more pointless Hobbit Pipe.
• Totally extraneous Faramir.