I have just built a deck with Dori and Bilbo and weapons and tactics events for Dori, + attachments for Bilbo's defense. That deck is the combat deck and it works a lot, very well, in 2 players, when the other player has a good quester deck, like spirit-Caldara.

I have won easily my first quest-testers, with epic moments include:

Journey Anduin: Bilbo defending and Dori defeating enemies like 2 trolls, the Adder, the Uthack...

7th level: Dori defeated a troll

Massing Osgiliath: Dori killed .... Witch King! (in only 1 shot)

I was very surprised with those results... I find Dori very versatil: first rounds helping Bilbo while he is building his own tank-machine. And after, he attacks with weapons and KhazadKhazad events, and sometimes helping with centinel, defending enemies from other players.

Another cards to keep Bilbo safe:

- First of them: Burning Brand, for sure

- And second: Fast Hitchs, of course

- Another cards: song mocking, close call, erebor boots, ring mail, gondor shield, half determination

- The drawing cards is not problem: Master Forge is awesome here, the same Bilbo helps a lot, Gather, Advice (the other hero is lore Pippin), etc.

- Probably the card id like and i dont have is Unexpected or Miruvor for Dori (the other player may play them for him ^^)

In 2 players mode, this is a good combat deck, while the other players plays a good quester deck (as i said) like caldaras decks.

I'd be interested in the deck list here. seems really neat and not something I would have ever come up with.

Sounds like the enemies engaged with you would pile up if Dori is exhausting to buff Bilbo instead of killing them.

Yes, Shiro, it seems too so to me, but when you play it happens otherwise. However, i have just tested this 3 times atm (in old scenarios -however, Massing is still hard-). I still not so sure of that...

The list in a few i will post

Played in Redhorn Gate and Rivendel, and it worked -to cancel all shadows in Rivendel was very pleasant- (despite the other deck lore-spirit was not too much efficient)

Here is the list:

Dori

Pippin

Bilbo

Honour Guard 3

Warden of Healing 3

Mablung 1

Quickbeam 1

Gondoria Shield 3

Song of Mocking 2

Ring Mail 2

Dagger of Westernesse 2

Dwarrowdelf Axe 2

Boots from Erebor 3

A Burning Brand 3

Fast Hitch 3

Master of the Forge 3

Dark Knowledge 2

Close Call 2

Halfling Determination 3

Blade Masery 2

Khazad Khazad 3

Daeron's Runes 3

Mithrandir's Advice 3

Gather Information 1

Some cards maybe can be changed for more allies: Blade Masteries, Dark Knowledges, 1 Boots from Erebor and 1 Gondorian Shield.

Yes i confirm, it's a good deck.

I have played three times with mndela and my Caldara deck. And this deck handle combat very well.

Massing at Osgiliath was so epic with the one shot of the witch king. We have done a great score on this quest !

Massing at Osgiliath was so epic with the one shot of the witch king.

Do you or mndela remember how Dori makes this shot?

He has an attack value of two .. the Witch King needs an attack value of 17 (6 defence + 11 hitpoints) or 15 with two Dwarrowdelf Axes equipped.

I remember killing the Withc-King with Dori + 1 axe + 1 dagger + 2 Khazad Khazad, it is: 2+2+2+3+3; then, Bilbo (readied by Fast Hich), also beats with 2 Halfing Determinations: it is +1 +2 +2. Then, WK is defeated.

To get all those cards was easy in my deck, with a lot of drawing effects.

Sounds like Gimli would be overall a better fit, except for that part when you sentinel your friend.

It depends. Dori can be get damage from undefended attacks too in specific hurry moments, and be healed after, Gimli usually is not healed, so can't do it whenever is needed.

Just remember, if you have Gimli, you might need just one card for tons of damage - Heavy Stroke.

I like the idea of this deck. The big problem with Dori (costing two hero actions) is a bit muted when used with someone like Bilbo, since Bilbo's actions aren't generally worth very much, and Fast Hitch makes it cheap to get more anyawy. Starting at 4 defense, natural target for a burning brand, and natural card draw to get his buffing toys.

While it's true that you can start with 4 defense with Beregond for the same threat as Dori, freeing up Bilbo's action at the start is practically worthless, and Beregond can't get Burning Brand, so for this deck I think Dori is better than Beregond -- and there's not many decks that can be said about. Less competition for Dori than Beregond in multi-player, too .

I've been pondering how to make the best Dori deck, and my thoughts revolve around two unique attachments:

1) The Day's Rising (tactics 1) -- requires sentinel hero. Take no damage while defending an attack, gain one resource.

2) Heir of Mardil (leadership 1) -- requires noble hero. Gain resource via card effect, ready hero.

If you can combine the two, you get an action back (not Dori's action, but the hero he helped), and you get an extra resource for the hero you helped. With those two cards, you start with Beregondish defense without losing action advantage, but couple it with resource generation.

Of course, since one of the needed spheres is leadership, you could get the effect more reliably by just combining Steward of Gondor and Heir of Mardil, but what fun is that? And unless solo, there's more competition for Steward of Gondor than Beregond.

Outside multiplayer, this combo really wants to be two-handed. That way one deck has leadership and can mulligan for Mardil, the other has tactics and can mulligan for The Day's Rising. Plus two decks can generate more enemies for reliable resource generation, and makes sentinel useful for more than The Day's Rising. Dori/partner could cover early defense and provide resources for any slow-starting swarm deck, since having to chump block is the enemy of building up swarms, the early allies can help out with quest/defense with less danger.

Here's the natural partners for Dori, with the Noble/Sentinel combo:

Leadership Aragorn

Spirit Theoden

Tactics Theoden

Alas, no Lore heroes, since you need Burning Brand to make the combo perfectly predictable.

Both Aragorn and Theoden are attractive to me. LeAragorn is leadership and has a sphere match for Heir of Mardil. He can self-ready after questing with resources, which The Day's Rising can provide. He has all those wonderful toys, one of which (Ring of Barahir) actually gives him a Lore resource to make him Burning Brand-friendly.

Theoden has some lovely toys of his own, in Snowmane and Herugrim (both spirit, though). By the time you have all four attachments on him, and only Herugrim is restricted for him, you'd have someone that can quest for 2/3+, ready from successful questing, defend for 4+, ready and gain a resource, and then attack for 5-6+. And any willpower buff you can put on him adds to questing and attack simultaneously.

Despite TaTheoden's higher base willpower, I favor SpTheoden as a partner. He's got a sphere match for his toys, a discount on the mostly-spirit Rohirrim (including a mount-fetching ally), and can put the extra resource to good use in paying for Rohirrim.

In fact, I wonder if a SpTheoden/Dori solo Rohirrim deck might not even function well in solo. Combine useful leadership/tactics attachments with Rohan allies, and I think you could get to Super Theoden in a hurry. Honour Guards, Raven-winged helms, and song of mocking could all help the defense always pay off. Rohan's solid on questing and attack, so a two-hero combo to provide solid defense could really go far. I'm thinking Balin for the leadership hero, to provide some emergency shadow protection for Theoden. Still, with no lore and two key attachments, getting to the key attachments could prove difficult.

Of course, when we're introducing multiple other cards into the combo to make things awesome, we should also consider another possible partner -- Lore nobles, natural burning brand targets and in the card draw sphere. While you can't give noble outside of the saga, you can give sentinel to any hero with the 1-cost leadership signal Dunedain Signal. There's four Lore nobles:

Denethor (3 defense, gondor)

Elrond (3 defense, noldor)

Faramir (2 defense, gondor)

Glorfindel (1 defense, noldor)

While you can't have the turn 1 Mardil/Day's Rising combo immediately, Elrond and Denethor would start at 5 defense with no attachments at all. And while neither is a great attacker, but Denethor always has a use for his extra action, while Elrond always does if he has Vilya attached. Of the four, I like Denethor best as a partner, since he can use Gondorian Shield for +2D, he doesn't need an attachment to make post-defense readiness worthwhile, and he's five less threat than Elrond. On the other hand, if you ever get the combo set up on Elrond, he can use the resources to pay for any ally, and Vilya well help you go through the deck faster.

Anyway, that's my thinking on the best way to make Dori shine, not that Seastan is going to put Dori into a deck anytime soon. I'm still playing through the quests with my original hero lineups, so it'll be a while until I put one of these together, maybe another great-with-Dori card will come out in the meantime.

Sure, good idea. Interesting.

PD: it is a different deck than mine, it is not little changes for my deck. But i like the idea. In fact i have another deck with Dori, it is leadership-tactics deck: Beregond-Erkenbrand-Dori. All 3 are centinels, and i have all the valour tactic cards included. This deck is very powerful in siege quests, and in a moment when the combat is very hard, but only in 1 moment during all the game.

Another epic game: in Assault Osgiliath

It was hard, first rounds were revealed a lot of enemies, Vanguard too, and i had to engage it to avoid its text.

You must have watched how Dori + Bilbo were defending first rounds vs Vanguard Orc.

And after Bilbo defending the Mumak each round without problems. In one moment he defended 4 enemies: Mumak, another Vanguard and other 2 with more than 5 attack..., and he was defending up to 10 defense (1 halfing determination + 1 mastery blade + dori one time+ ring mail + shield gondor + arwen bonus)

And Dori killing 2 enemies each round thanks to unexpected courage from the other players, and 2 weapons, and 1 copy of Khazad some rounds...

Curious deck. At first seems you will lose for sure, and last rounds it becomes boring because you know you will win without problems.

that seems pretty awesome.

6 minutes this video

I have to say that the deck of 13nrv was very good, and i could do it -watch video- thanks to him.

Dori's ability was used first rounds because i had to engage spawn-trolls at first, when defense of bilbo was not boosted still.

+10dori!