The Kings of Malagrott 1.0

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• 1.0

The name

If you really want to know, the name is a silly pun between Tolkien's Menegroth ("The Thousand Caves", Thingol's palace in Doriath) and Malagrotta, the site of the largest garbage dumping ground near Rome. It seems appropriate for a deck that relies on the discard mechanics so heavily... :-)

The Heroes

Dáin Ironfoot is a very solid hero! He's an astonishing defender and his ability is a perfect match with many "discard-from-deck" cards (Hidden Cache, Ered Luin Miner, etc.). Oddly enough, most of them are related to Dwarves, so that this deck is pretty solid for thematic playing as well.

As for the other heroes, they're basically auto-include! Thorin Stonehelm is a match made in heaven: his ability goes hand in hand with Dain's and the rest of the deck. Give him a Dwarrowdelf Axe (or, even better, two axes) and you'll have a very solid attacker.

Gandalf is, first and foremost, the card to use for an effective discard strategy. His ability, combined with the Wizard Pipe, lets you control what you dump and when. He's also a good all-around card, with great stats in all areas of the game; Shadowfax helps to make good use of him in all phases. Although I built the deck for two-player games, I think Gandalf makes him pretty viable for single playing as well.

Strategy

Wizard Pipe is your mulligan condition. If you see it in your starting hand, then your life is going to be much easier from Turn 1.

Zigil Miner is also a card that you want to play pretty soon. Resources are not necessarily a problem (especially if you can wizard-pipe one card on top of your deck and play it using Gandalf's resource). But you may end up short very soon and the more you can mine the better (especially for resources). There's not much red in the deck, so Thorin's resources will be able to help also with the occasional card.

Readying effects (Unexpected Courage in particular) are also cards to aim for as soon as you can.

Ideally, before mid game you'll have Dain beefed up with a good armor: Armor of Erebor is very solid in multyplayer, Ring Mail is also good, and the Boots from Erebor are great (a second pair helps with any archery problems). Most of the times, you won't even have to pay for armors: use Gandalf and the pipe to manipulate your deck and discard with Well-Equipped.

Well-Equipped can also help to... equip Thorin. Goblin-cleaver is a nice card to help in combat.

Keep an eye on Will of the West! You will be cycling pretty fast across your deck and sometimes you'll have to sacrifice good cards for that extra defense or that extra damage. You'll definitly want to have a reshuffle option in hand.

Expert Treasure-hunter, which you will obviously have to play from the top of your deck with Gandalf, helps you skim faster and get to the cards you want.

Room for improvements

With Gandalf starting at 14, threat is always a concern. Potentially, you want a pipe (Gandalf's and the Dwarf Pipe) on at least two of your heroes, so Smoke Rings is a possibility. Favor of the Valar is good because it's . If the quest is right, Ever My Heart Rises is a awesome, but that only works if the adventure is heavy on Mountain and Dark locations. There may be better cards to keep threat under control (The Galadhrim's Greeting maybe?), but I am not sure...

Khazâd! Khazâd! is there to help with the occasional nemesis or strong enemy, and Flame of Anor is also a possibility in those scenarios.

This line-up is more unbalanced toward the attachment side. Maybe, it's possible to create a more ally-oriented variant. Fili and Kili are obviously a possibility; I imagine that the Ered Nimrais Prospector would be OK with the discard shenanigans, and so would the Longbeard Sentry (though I am sure he's worth the 3 resources).

All in all, even with an attachment-oriented build, I feel like a better line up of allies is needed. I haven't figured it out yet.