My only dwarf deck that could have success in recent time is this one.

Arcane Fire allowed me to include the new empire quest that could be cheaper/faster to get into play instead of the high elf variant but I didn't play the new version of this deck against a real opponent. So here it is:

Units (23)

3 Dwarf Miner
3 Hammerer of Karak Azul
3 Slayers of Karak Kadrin
3 Dwarf Ranger
3 Troll Slayers
3 Zhufbar Engineers
3 Dragonslayer
2 King Kazador

Tactic (12)
3 Innovation
3 Stand Your Ground
3 Demolition!
3 Master Rune of Valaya

Quest (3)
3 Protect the Empire

Support (16)
2 Blessing of Isha
3 Dragon Mage Awakening
3 Warpstone Excavation
3 Contested Village
3 Grudge Thrower
3 Great Book of Grudges

The dwarf Miners and Valaya are good to survive enough turns until you can place an annoying unit on the quest and with Stand Your Ground + Grudge Thrower combo they can really save a zone that already looked lost. Everyone who played against Slayers of Karak Kadrin knows how frustrating they can be and they are even more dangerous together with Great Book of Grudges.

A mix of Zhufbar Engineers, Grudge Thrower, dwarf Ranger open control abilities while Troll Slayers and dragonslayer deal the damage. I take the highelf attachments with me mainly because some units really need to be in play and hit point reduction really hurts them.

I want to get a reliable defender on my Protect the Empire quest so against most destruction decks I play Blessing of Isha on the unit but it also depends wether you have to face Snitch. Buildings go mostly into Kingdom.

Any suggestions as to get more close to 50 cards? In a further build I had Mountain Legion in there (switched with Hammers of Karak Azul) but their 1HP really made them Grudge Thrower food only and 3 loyalty mostly prevent to get them into play in early game.

In my opinion Dwarf Cannon Crew is a must play in any dwarf deck that has enough support cards to support it. Turn one cannon crew with a grudge book on it is so sweet!

I'd also recommend Dwarf Cannon Crew since you have a lot of support cards and all them can be played for free using the Crew effect.
I don't like Warpstone Excavation in this deck. If you're planning to defend it can really hurt you early in the game.

I just posted a very similar deck to this in these forums - the grudge thrower is unnecessary and a waste of space, for the most part. Just use the Slayers if you want to kill one of your own units to trigger the Dwarf Rangers. They don't specify that it has to be your opponent attacking - so just attack and kill off a Zhufbar engineer with them then play Stand Your Ground to get them (the unit killed or the Slayers) back.

The Dragon Mage Awakening and Blessing of Isha are great counters to Deathmaster but I'm guessing (and hoping) that after the release of the first 1-3 battlepacks in the next cycle, that the current Rush-heavy environment will have improved (we can all hope at least). In that situation, I'd some of the HE supports. I also strongly, strongly suggest the HE unit that snipes BF units for 1 point at the beginning of each turn.

Gerson is right on about the Dwarf Cannon Crew - my posted deck includes all 3 of them and it really can speed your deck along with the right opening draw. Don't worry about including WE as it rarely hurts you - I've run all 3 and in games against Orc/Skaven or DE/Skaven they've not proven problematic.

In my opinion Dwarf Cannon Crew is a must play in any dwarf deck that has enough support cards to support it. Turn one cannon crew with a grudge book on it is so sweet!

This seems impossible without using inovation.

badgertheking said:

How so? DCC is 2DD, so that takes your 3 starting resources. If you then get lucky and have Da Book in the first five cards of your deck, done and done.

Thanks so far for all the tips.

Yesterday I was able to get some playtesting experience. First of all it was really fun playing this deck and I was able to win many games but dark elfes or other HP reduction effects really give me trouble and I can't figure out a way to play around them.

Ok since everyone is cheering for dcc I will test them out but 1st turn Great Book of Grudges on dcc is not really what I want and what other uses would they bring for me other than getting Warpstone Excavation or Contested Villages into kingdom? I feel like I have to play more 2 cost kingdom support cards to get more use of them. I like GBG on Slayers of Karak Kadrin, Engineers or a questing Dragon Slayer as I have ways to get rid of them myself and could play a new one from my hand.

Warpstone Excavation corrupt effect wasn't a problem in any game as I play them in kingdom and when it gets attacked I help out with dwarf Miner that get "throwered" to get enough time to survive. After all this deck is not slow on offensive matters and I can dispense one zone because battlefield and quest are quite save or in mid game I can easily defend for all zones if I get my quests out.

Talking about quests ... switching defend Tor Aendris for the Empire wasn't a good idea. It's basically the same price, but with Aendris I could have one HE symbol for playing HE attachments for free.

Wytefang you say Grudge Thrower is unnecessary but yesterday it saved me some games. It's cheap and the extra might symbols are sometimes important as they make the difference of burning one part of a capitol in one turn and I can get rid of a dwarf miner with GBG that had to play in early game because I hadn't an alternative. As for your build I think you mean that Dwarf/High-Elf hybrid one? It seems a bit random because of the single cards that are in but I will take a second look after this post.

In an earlier build I had Shadow Warriors in but they were mostly of no use because of their 1 HP as I play regularly against dark elfes and I need dragon Mage Awakening really on my dragon Slayers or dwarf Ranger to keep them in game so I can't protect them too. Is it just me or should Scrap Heap be an order card? After all order is the faction that suffers mostly from HP reduction and they have not access to this kind of effect.

sry for doublepost but I couldn't find the edit button.

Wytefang I read the whole thread and the idea for Prepare for War is great and I remember that while discussing yesterdays games my friend mentioned it too for my deck. So with Prepare for War I choose which cards from my discard pile I shuffle?

Another thing is what can I do against Shades and Gutter Runners? Card denial and hand destruction is very annoying and without a good quest setup it mostly take the game. Of course I can do some sacrifice action to take 1 or 2 of them out but without Stand your Ground it's hard to replace your board and it's getting more complicated when a third scout unit joins play. .

grille said:

Not as good as on a unit you're going to sac/lose more often than not, but DCC + Book on the first turn gives you 6 resources (and 3 loyalty) by turn 2.

Hi Grille,

A few comments and thanks for getting us more info on your particular playing environment. One thing that's nice about playing repeat opponents is that you can design your deck to counter theirs, little by little as you get a feel for them. Muhahahahaha!

Dwarf Cannon Crew isn't limited to being used in the Kingdom Zone nor are the cards that they go digging for in your deck. They can be played in ANY zone, so they're really awesome for speeding up your deck - especially if you're running CV & WE (Contested Village and Warpstone Excavation). Imagine this starting hand: 3 Warpstone Excavations, 1 Contested Village, Dwarf Cannon Crew and then you pull another Contested Village or Keystone Forge!!

To counter hand denial, your best bet is to play out your cards onto the table so that the Scout effect has limited impact on you (easier said than done but in the mid-to-late game stages, where you have decent resources, it's easier to pull off). It's annoying that only Destruction has a card-blanking effect for the moment. Hopefully Teclis becomes an official card soon (referring to FFG's original contest for League Play that whichever side did better in League play would lead to one of the two sides' spoiled card becoming a real card). This is a picture of the proposed card in question:

Anyway, you could also counter Units with the Scout keyword by moving them around (if you're running with the Empire tactic, " Forced March "). And I agree that if you're mainly playing DE sniping cards, then playing the Shadow Warriors is probably not so great. As for using Defend Tor Aendris instead of the Defend the Empire quest, that's mostly a matter of preference based on if you're running with a HE/Dwarf deck or a HE/Dwarf/Empire deck (as my latest build is). The nice thing about the 0-cost, 1 Loyalty HE support cards is that it only takes 2 of them in play and you can play Defend Tor Aendris nearly for free.

My build has a few single cards but that shouldn't make it not worth examining. Too many people in these forums are programmed to only see deck-building a certain way but there are plenty of alternative builds that are extremely functional and don't follow rules that were established by other card games.

I'd mentioned in my first reply here that you can also use your Slayers to sacrifice your own units, too, thus helping you to use the Dwarf Rangers' power to nickle and dime your opponents.

Wytefang said:

Thank you for your extensive answer (again) ^^

I play against a group of 4 players from where I play 2 of them more regularly than the other 2 but if we have time to gather all together nearly every faction is present as each player has at least 2 playable decks with him. Orc rush, darkelf control and skaven are obviously the main threats because their play is mostly much cheaper than your own counters against them wether in playing cards into play or planning your deck and including cards that you would normally not take with you. I also play a darkelf control deck (no skaven) and it has good winning rates even against rush decks but after 3 or 4 matches it's getting a little bit boring to destroy everything your opponent lays down. After that I mostly sit back and play dwarf because it's way more enjoyable to play.

Yeah I totally forgot about dcc that they can be played into every sone as in nearly every former dwarf build I had kingdom only buildings with me an so it was nailed in my head as kingdom unit. But it all makes sense now

I knew that Slayers ability works also on your own units but it requires good card draw to replace my destroyed units. I will try this one, now that I have modified my economy. I didn't look down on your single cards that was not my intention. It's more about my sense of efficiency as I hope to get my cards I need. I have the feeling that if I can't rely on getting a card I won't take it with me. I would be too avaricious to play 2 developments for only 1 Troll Slayer but Durgnar and Gurni seem solid.

If everything goes as planned I can play again tomorrow with an improved version and give further feedback.

You do need to play a whole bunch of supports for DCC to work properly. IIRC I have 14 targets in kingdom/quest for them in my current Dwarf deck and they still fail to find anything fairly often. Great Book of Grudges is really what made them playable since it gives you another target without just being another hammer support like Mountain Barracks or Keystone Forge. The other Dwarf attachments are not very good.

grille said:

I personally like to use any Abandoned Mine Reclaim the hold combo in my grudge deck. I din't use the cannon crew because I'm always affraid I will hit my Grudge Thower in the Kingdom or Quest zone

Rager45 said:

It has been ruled that you do not have to play a support card that you find if you do not want to

Vitamin T said:

Could you post the link to this ruling ? This one would definately allow me to replace one of my 3 Grudge Thrower from my Dwarf Deck.

I tested a tweaked Version and it went good. I didn't miss Grudge Thrower as much as I imagined. I took out Troll Slayers and tried the Longbeards so I don't have to develop battlefield and have 1HP more. Prepare for War was also a great addition. I switched Kazador with Gurni because in matchups where I don't have to rely on Blessing of Isha (Mortella, Snitch, defend Tor Aendris) I can easily push Gurni Thorgrimson to a killer unit. Night Goblins and Witch Hag's Curse did upset my plans sometimes but most of the time I could replace my unit or use a demolition.

Abandoned Mine + Reclaim the Hold doesn't fit the deck style at the moment and there is no place left for the cards. I don't want to establish myself for too long and instead go sooner into offensive. I won some games in turn 4 or 5 which surprised my opponents as they usually fought against slow dwarf decks. I think dwarfs have some great offensive potential that shouldn't be underestimated and once there are 2 Rangers out things are getting really nasty when your opponent has to get rid of your battlefield units.

Unit (21)

3 Dwarf Cannon Crew
3 Dwarf Miner
3 Slayers of Karak Kadrin
3 Dwarf Ranger
3 Zhufbar Engineers
2 Dragonslayer
2 Longbeards
2 Gurni Thorgrimson

Tactic (12)

3 Innovation
3 Stand Your Ground
3 Demolition!
3 Master Rune of Valaya

Quest (4)

2 Prepare for War!
2 Defend Tor Aendris

Support (14)

3 Blessing of Isha
3 Dragon Mage Awakening
3 Contested Village
3 Great Book of Grudges
3 Mountain Barracks

edit: Here is the dcc question. Long thread but somewhere in there it says you can choose whether you have found a support or not.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=154&efcid=4&efidt=305243

Hi,

Well, it seems that local meta affects so much... because I think that against most decks the elven support would be a dead-weight.

i think Prepare for War is very slow for anything else as a sacrifice engine... but I think the main reason you don't need Grudge Thower that your units are high costed, so there is no point to sacrifice them anyway (except of course Slayers of Karak Kadrin or Zufbars).

Yeah it would be cool if I didn't have to face a Snitch, Vile Sorceress or We need your Blood every match but these effects are devastating for my important units and most of them have only 1 or 2HP. As long as I can use these "dead" cards on gurni in other matchups to boost him I'm okay with that and a Dragonslayer with 4HP, toughness 2 and 2 power is really hard to remove so I will keep at least Dragon Mage Awakening in this deck as long as I can..

Prepare for War is mainly a sacrifice trigger for Engineers or any other willing GBG sacrifice unit. The reshuffle effect is a small bonus where I mostly choose Engineers or Stand Your Grounds and since the Quest has 0 cost, I'm satisfied so far with this.

I used Blessing of Valaya against Snitch/Thanquol/Vile sorceress with great effect. Of course, it is a much different build with thower and many cheap units... it runs fine with 5 total power in KZ.

As I have only 2 box of everything it runs only 2 Stand (I would use 3), 2 cannon crew (not a problem) 2 rune (no problem) and NO innovation, and no quests at all. Currently the deck have about a 15:1 statistic in it's two "mutations", but I have to admit that my incredibe luck with card drawing in the last few weeks have a big effect on this.