Dear players, new, advanced or masters :),

we definitely left the first cycle and now we move to the first deluxe expansion: Khazad-Dum .

https://visionofthepalantir.com/2019/11/08/player-card-review-khazad-dum/

It opens and fully develops one of my most favourite traits: Dwarves . I hope you will enjoy the whole review series as you enjoyed Shadows of Mirkwood .:) As always, leave your own observations and share your experiences, I'm looking forward to all of them.

Silblade

For an attacker, Dwalin's attack strength is somewhat low but he makes up for it with a low starting threat, with only Legolas having more attack power for the same or lesser threat. But with Dáin ready, this is of course no longer an issue. The one disadvantage Dwalin has is, that his ability only works with orcs, making him useless in some scenarios. Gladly, most enemies in this game have the orc trait, which allows you to forego threat reduction in your deck, provided he has access to orcs he can kill. And no limit on his ability means you can give him some Unexpected Courage and profit from extra threat reduction every turn.

Bifur is one of the best splash heroes in the game: If you need access to lore and a way to pay for your cards, he is your dwarf to go. He even has one treat cost less than the sum of his stats, which is rather rare in the game. With a Burning Brand he can safely defend weaker enemies, but he probably is best used for questing anyway.

I would not go as far and say, that Narvi's Belt obsoletes all songs, as it is a unique card and I prefer having Dáin with a Song of Wisdom and a Burning Brand and Unexpected Courage to cover for defensive duties. As I usually play two handed, I rarely have a need to include off sphere cards in my decks, and for a single extra sphere a song is still better because of cost and synergy with Rivendell Minstrel. Whether you would include one of them in a dwarf deck is of course open to debate, but luckily Narvi's Belt can be used in any deck with a dwarven hero on the table.
Be careful though with claiming “Exhaust Narvi’s Belt to give attached hero a resource icon of your choice until the end of the phase.”, as it will not work with saga resources.

While Durin's Song has a really powerful effect especially with readying, I am not really a friend of temporary stat boosts: I prefer attachments which stay permanent. And as you bring up For Gondor: This event most of the time only gives +1 Attack but it works on every character. So for a double the cost you can get a lot of attack power as long as you have enough targets to boost.

Ever onward is really only useable when playing true solo as a means of not comitting anyone to the quest without raising your threat. There are some quests where this event shines like The Black Gate Opens, but most of the time it is just an insurance for a bad previous round. As long as you can allow yourself to quest unsuccessfully this cards works like a cheaper version of We Do Not Sleep or a better threat reduction than Galadhrim's Greeting depending on the threat in the staging area. Still I would probably avoid these situations with building more effective decks.

The Veteran of Nanduhirion (which should have been called Azalnubizar) is a powerful ally. Surely he only has a detrimental abilitiy, but permanent 3 attack or 4 with Dáin ready are really great value, even for this price. The Vassal of the Windlord may be cheaper, but he leaves play after attacking, whereas the Veteran can stay around for another battle. As soon as a Warden of Healing enters the card pool, his wound can be effectively healed, but the same pack also includes the Erebor Battle-master which can achieve the same attack value for cheaper cost, although he needs to be used in a dwarf deck, while the Veteran is more flexible with the decks you can put him in.

The Dwarrowdelf axe is of course great. The only disadvantage to Dúnedain Mark is its racial restriction, otherwise you most of the time get the equivalent of 2 attack for only 1 resource which is great. The Dwarven Axe has one advantage over the Dwarrowdelf Axe, namely it only works against immune enemies as it boosts a characters attack instead of wounding the enemy. Depending on the enemy, the Dwarven Axe can be superior, but most of the time the Dwarrowdelf Axe wins the contest.

Khâzad! Khâzad! of course is a great attack boost, similar to an Vassal of the Windlord with the advantage of being free but no Eagle synergy in exchange. Still I prefer permanent boosts, be they allies or attachments, over events. But for this cost, there is no better card to find.

The Zigil Miner is for a long time the only resource acceleration for spirit though without any support from other cards his ability is a gamble, as long as you do not build mono cost decks, and he might discard valuable cards which you may rather see in play than in the discard pile. In Foundations of Stone the Imladris Stargazer will of course help this miner, though one could ask, how stargazing improves the yields of underground mining.
There is one card though which can already help the Zigil Miner dig more effectively: Gildor Inglorion. His ability allows you to rearrange the top three cards of your deck and replacing one with another one from your hand. Gildor just is too expensive for this task alone. And the Wizard Pipe of Gandalf in The Road Darkens garantuee a hit with the miner, though you do not know the second card before discarding it. Later cards like Hidden Cache and Ered Luin Miner will make this hard working dwarf even better.

Untroubled by Darkness is still only a stat boosting event but it can reach really high levels of willpower, perfect when getting a bad staging and still ensuring success in the quest phase.

The Erebor Record Keeper may not be impressive in his stats, but he makes up for it in efficiency, again especially with Dáin. Additionally he can provide emergeny readying for any dwarf, which makes the Longbeard Map-maker totally irrelevant. And with the Hobbit boxes he will really kickstart your 5 dwarf engine, ensuring your dwarf deck gets set up as soon as possible. It is only a pity, that he cannot be used for combat, as he would make a nice chump blocker or cheap attacker with the dwarven king. I do not know though what you mean with Arwen and a readying effect.

Ancestral Knowledge helps you push through your quest stage if you need the extra progress, especially in dwarf terrain, though in essence it is like giving +2 willpower to a dwarven character, as they would quest for 2 most of the time anyway. And Untroubled by Darkness does the same only for all dwarves in play. It can come in handy though if for some reason you are not able to quest through the active location, preventing location lock.

I am not so thrilled with Boots from Erebor: even though they are free and thematic with only being playable on small characters (but what hobbit would have use for boots anyway?), their effect is rather negligable. Sure you can protect a Erebor Record Keeper from dying to damage from an ill timed treachery and Gimli can eventually hit even harder, I prefer to heal up damage as much as possible. But then again, as long as the Warden of Healing is not available, there hardly is any way to heal allies consistently and flexibly.

My favourite card from this expansion would be Bifur, just because he is cheap, effective in questing and helps you paying for lore cards. He can go in any deck that needs access to lore with a low threat cost and useful ability.

My least favourite card is Ever Onward: I hardly play true solo and even if I would, I'd rather improve my deck to handle the quest without resorting to a card like this. If your deck needs an emergency button, then most likely your deck is flawed or the encounter deck has a streak of luck.

All in all, most cards of the expansion are great, though many of them require a dwarf deck to work.

@Amicus Draconis Generally, I agree with a majority you said.:)

Because Orcs are very common trait in LOTR LCG, Dwalin will fit to many scenarios. He can perfectly contribute to Secrecy decks.

Bifur is excellent. I use him for his ability in Secrecy decks, because he has low starting threat, he is self-dependent and "generates resources". I have experienced that he works well with Steward of Gondor - he can "suck" the resources from another hero, who has Steward of Gondor attached. Nice symbiosis.:)

Narvi's Belt shines in trisphere decks, well even in dualsphere decks it can be utilized. According to me, Songs are in this moment somehow surplus, when Narvi's Belt contains all of them. I ask you, what different is in Saga expansions? I haven't played them yet (in my language they are unavailable, unfortunately).

On the other hand, permanent boosters are more vulnerable to negative effects, because many treacheries, shadow effects, or when revealed effects taget attachments, not so often events.

Still, Veteran of Nanduhirion costs 4 and -1 Hit Point doesn't seem as a fair exchange. Boosted with Dáin he contributes to attacking to a great extent, but Veteran Axehand costs 2 and has only 1 less Attack. From this point, we have more advantageous and cheaper options.

Gildor Inglorion is quite expensive way, how to make Zigil Miner effective. Firstly you have to get together 5 Lore resources, then you can use him for Zigil Miner's ability. I see Zigil Miner's ability viable mainly in early and mid game, Gildor belongs rather to end game. So without Imladris Stargazer, Keen-eyed Took or Gandalf's Search could serve, but... these cards are not so good as Gildor or Imladris, unfortunately.

My bad, I made a mistake with mentioning Arwen Undomiel , because she doesn't ready a character, as I originally thought.:D

Ancestral Knowledge is a key card in the next adventure pack, where you need to push as fast as possible ( Caradhras, Celebdil, Fanuidhol ). Tested yesterday.:)

Yeah, the theme of boots for Hobbits doesn't make a sense much.:D I would expect rather something like "if you attach to Hobbit , he gains -1 Willpower and -1 Attack". Like "don't use it on Hobbits!"

This expansion is full of amazing cards, great start to new expansion! It was difficult for me to choose THE BEST CARD and MOST ENRICHED SPHERE, while SHEEP CARD was clear for me immediately.:)

@Silblade In the Saga expansions you will get other spheres: Baggins for the two hobbit boxes and Fellowship for the six other ones. And Narvi's Belt has been errataed to prevent generating Baggins or Fellowship resources.

If the Veteran of Nanduhirion only had 2 hitpoints and no card text, you would lose out on a potential hitpoint, you could use later. He still would have 7 statpoints for a cost of 4 resources, which is somewhat expensive but concentrated on a single card. And it is quite thematic to have an injured veteran of a former war. And besides, he is the first non-unique permanent ally in the game with more than 2 attack. True, he is as expensive as two Veteran Axehand s, with less overall attack even without Dáin's boost, but you only need to draw one card instead of two. Not all costs in this game are resources, some are card draw as well, among others. And with 2 defence he is a better defender, then the Axehand.

Yes, Gildor Inglorion is very expensive for only enabling the Zigil Miner , but I would use him as long as I have no Imladris Stargazer , just to make sure to not discard the wrong card and actually making a profit. And he still allows to swap one card, effectively increasing your hand size. Of course as soon as the Stargazer is available, Gildor goes back to his other duties.

I finished The Redhorn Gate twice in progression mode with two players and I did not miss Ancestral Knowledge , but then again I was just taking a lot of time whittling away at Caradhras's quest points with a Northern Tracker.

My takes:

Dwalin has a useful ability -- in those quests that have Orcs. Sadly, not all quests have orcs. They're very common in most KD/Dwarrowdelf quests, but in other quests they are occasional or entirely absent. His ability is thematic, but terribly, terribly limiting. And with only two attack, he needs help killing all but the lowliest of orcs. He's a sideboard hero, unfortunately. If he reduced threat by one when he destroyed an enemy, he'd be a much better general-purpose hero.

Bifur's ability is always useful, and the ability to suck resources makes him a popular utility hero outside dwarf decks. 7 threat doesn't hurt for an adequate quester.

Narvi's Belt is fantastic on Bifur, or other resource generating dwarves like Thorin or Gloin, but the fact that it needs a dwarf is enough to keep it from obsoleting Songs and the Rivendell Minstrel. It obsoletes them for *dwarf decks*, but nothing else -- and even there it's unique, more expensive, and has no fetch card.

Exploiting Durin's Song explicitly depends on readying -- without it, it's a +2 stat boost for one resource, which doesn't excite. The comparison to For Gondor! doesn't fit, since FG is a global boost and DS is a one-dwarf-hero boost. Since Dwarf decks like to swarm, For Gondor actually can be quite powerful -- Durin's Song is meant for decks with a souped-up dwarf who routinely readies, and aside from the LeGimli/SpLegolas combo those aren't as common.

Ever Onward is costly, but powerful. I think you're missing the point of the card--it's not a card to protect you from a mild threat raise from an unexpectedly bad round of questiing. It's a card you play when you *know* you are going to fail questing, and fail it badly. In solo you can play this card, send *no one* questing, and devote all your heroes and allies to taking care of combat and cleaning out your enemies. This can be a game changer.

The damage on the 4-cost Veteran is thematic and annoying, but also pretty useless. With only 2 defense, even at full health he's not a solid defensive option, and with 2 points of health remaining he's not fragile. The real question is whether it's worth 4 resources for a 3-attack dwarf defender with no special abilities. I don't see it, Axehand's 2-for-2 is better value. Yes, Dain makes him 4-attack for 4 cost, but if you're running Dain you don't *need* this card for obscene attack totals, you just need lots of dwarves out, and 4-cost interferes with that.

Dwarrowdelf Axe, OTOH, is awesome. Outside of a few edge cases it's as effective as the Axe, while not constrained to heroes and being one cheaper. If you have dwarvish attackers, this is a great card.

Khazad! Khazad! is a card I like for boss battles. It's a one-shot attack like the Vassals, but it's free. If you're doing Dain-fuelled dwarven swarm the extra attack won't typically be needed, but I used it frequently with Gimli to put me over the top. It's by no means certain that a progression player will adopt a dwarf deck -- some of the dwarf-centered cards certainly enhanced my existing Eowyn-Thalin-Gimli deck, and as of KD the dwarf deck is still short of *many* of its most powerful cards.

Zigil Miner operating blind is a random source of resources, with the success rate depending on deck construction. Zigil Miner will eventually become the basis of the Dwarven Mining deck, but at this stage, blindly discarding, he's not very useful yet.

Untroubled by darkness is potentially powerful as a global willpower increaser, though if your dwarven swarm is backed by Dain, lacking willpower may not be much of a problem. But there's lots of quests where extra willpower doesn't have the diminishing returns of attack, and putting up massive totals can win instantly. This can be a great finisher in underground-heavy quests, especially when there are 2+ dwarf-heavy decks. Like Dain, this boosts *all* the dwarves, not just one player's dwarves.

The same is true of astonishing speed, but Rohan swarm isn't a thing, and there's no persistent global Rohan buff to encourage multiple Rohan decks.

Erebor Record Keeper is my favorite dwarf in KD. He's a highly efficient quester (1 wp for 1 resource) even if you don't have a dwarf worth readying around. In a dwarf deck he's indispensible, not just for readying a dwarven hero at need for a cost, but especially for the dwarf heroes and allies from the hobbit, who care about having five dwarves out, or give bonuses for playing dwarves. Nothing helps swarm better than cheap allies. Yes, Lore is often resource strapped, but at this point in the game Bifur is the *only* Lore dwarf hero, and lore is the best sphere for dwarf allies. Don't fret the cost.

And the future existence of Lure of Moria doesn't change that. It's an event, so it doesn't provide *repeatable* readying, besides being higher cost. Ever my Heart Rises is a useful sideboard, but again no substitute for readying *when you need it*, as opposed to getting an occasional free ready when you travel in underground quests.

Ancestral Knowledge only applying to the active location is a crippling location. That can sometimes be useful, when there's a nasty while-active effect, or to clear the location to allow travelling. But those use cases are rarely strong enough to justify the card in a deck.

Boots from Erebor can be useful for TaGimli or Gloin, to increase their damage/revenue capacity. It can come in handy on a defending dwarf, which at this point in the game is only Dain. But despite being free to play, the card *does* cost you something, something important -- the card you *would* have drawn instead of Boots from Erebor. Outside of Gloin, Gimli, and dwarf/hobbit defending heroes this card isn't worth having in your deck.

I don't like Dwalin because of his limitation to orcs enemies. It is too situational and I don't like to change my deck between every quest.

Bifur is my second staple for dwarfs decks with dain. I often use him as a defender with 2 ring mails and burning brand. Very useful too when you have many (or expensive) lore card but only 1 slot for a lore hero.

Never used Durin's song, I don't like 1-time boosts (I always keep them in hand for a better moment).

Never use Ever onward too, mostly because I generally play in 2-players games. But in pure solo it can be useful (but situational).

I used Veteran of nanduhirion some times, but I admit it's not a very good card. 2×axehand give 4 attack for the same cost (6 with dain), and battle master is even better in dwarf decks.

Darrowdelf axe is a very good weapon, and the main thing about it is you can damage an enemy even if you don't have enough attack too exceed his defense. That can be used to kill an enemy with 1 health remaining with a single character even if he has a huge amount of defense.

Zigil miner is good with stargazer, but too random without it.

Record keeper is for me a staple in dwarf decks, especially with Bifur hero.

Ancestral knowledge is another situational card which can help you sometimes, but I don't want to use a slot in my deck for that.

Boots from Erebor is the kind of card I find good, but not good enough to be in a deck. +1 hit point is good, but I generally don't want to rely on it and I find some better card to put in my deck instead.

@Amicus Draconis To Veteran of Nanduhirion I just add, that you gain 4 Attack (with Dáin ). 2 Veteran Axehand means in overall 6 Attack (with Dáin), which you can divide between enemies (3 and 3). I would barely use Veteran of Nanduhirion for defending, not with his 2 Defense and 2 Hit Points for 4 cost. In Khazad-Dum , many enemies easily reach 3+ Attack with shadow effects and I would hesitate to pay 4 cost for just single defending.

You said it perfectly: when Imladris Stargazer appears , Gildor Inglorion goes back to his duties.:)

@Amicus Draconis To Veteran of Nanduhirion I just add, that you gain 4 Attack (with Dáin ). 2 Veteran Axehand means in overall 6 Attack (with Dáin), which you can divide between enemies (3 and 3). I would barely use Veteran of Nanduhirion for defending, not with his 2 Defense and 2 Hit Points for 4 cost. In Khazad-Dum , many enemies easily reach 3+ Attack with shadow effects and I would hesitate to pay 4 cost for just single defending.

You said it perfectly: when Imladris Stargazer appears , Gildor Inglorion goes back to his duties.:)

Oh my, sorry for spamming, some PC failure or what.:(

@dalestephenson
Narvi's Belt : in Dwarf decks, there is no reason to use Songs , when Narvi's Belt is present. Beyond Dwarrowdelf ... well, the question is if other and better options aren't available. But I dunno, to be honest, my knowledge reaches Heirs of Númenor.: )

Durin's Song : best on Dwarves with readying effect ( Unexpected Courage ), enough for attacking or defending effort, where you need to kill/defend some enemy. Good "first aid" for unexpected situations.

Ever Onward : I know that in pure solo games this card may help - you won't increase your threat at all, on the contrary of games with more players. Honestly, I try to avoid situations, where I would need to save all my characters from questing to hit as hard as possible. It can mean, you are swarmed by enemies. And swarmed by enemies you can be mainly with too high threat. I think that in situation you describe you are already pushed into corner. I rather prefer to prevent such situation prior to including Ever Onward.

Untroubled by Darkness : I definitely agree with the comparison to Astonishing Speed , good point.

Erebor Record Keeper: Tbh, I use this guy only for his Willpower, boosted by Dáin . I'm excited by 1 cost and also by his "readying Dwarf " ability. But I used it very rarely, because this ally were already exhausted for his questing duties.

Ancestral Knowledge : Yeah, much powerful would be this card, if you could put progress tokens not only on the active location. It fits into "location lock" situations or as u said during "while-active" effects or in some scenarios ( Redhorn Gate and its three unique mountains).

Boots from Erebor is just perfect for Gimli or Glóin as well as for Hobbits , which tends to have little amount of Hit Points. For other Dwarves, it isn't absolutely necessary.

Question for you: which card you see as TOP CARD, SHEEP CARD and which sphere you see as MOST ENRICHED SPHERE?

@Miceldars Every of us has different favourite strategies, and I understand that 1-time boosts doesn't appeal to you.:) Permanent boosts gives you bigger and mainly longer advantage, though I think that in some situations events can help you in unexpected situations, because you may play them in any action window. Permanent boosts (read attachments) you can play only during Planning phase.

Otherwise I generally agree with your opinions, thank you for your response and sharing your point of view.:)

14 hours ago, Silblade said:

@Amicus Draconis To Veteran of Nanduhirion I just add, that you gain 4 Attack (with Dáin ). 2 Veteran Axehand means in overall 6 Attack (with Dáin), which you can divide between enemies (3 and 3). I would barely use Veteran of Nanduhirion for defending, not with his 2 Defense and 2 Hit Points for 4 cost. In Khazad-Dum , many enemies easily reach 3+ Attack with shadow effects and I would hesitate to pay 4 cost for just single defending.

It is not, that the Veteran of Nanduhirion becomes useless after a single defence, because you still can use him as an attacker in the following rounds.

Of course, two Veteran Axehands are more flexible and can attack for more, but you will need more card draw to reliably find a second copy of them and without other spheres you will have to wait for Over Hill and Under Hill to get Foe-hammer. And besides, there are not many tactics dwarves yet you can use in your deck. If you include 3 of each into your dwarf deck, you double your odds of drawing into a red dwarven ally.

On 11/15/2019 at 4:18 PM, Silblade said:

Oh my, sorry for spamming, some PC failure or what.:(

@dalestephenson
Narvi's Belt : in Dwarf decks, there is no reason to use Songs , when Narvi's Belt is present. Beyond Dwarrowdelf ... well, the question is if other and better options aren't available. But I dunno, to be honest, my knowledge reaches Heirs of Númenor.: )

Durin's Song : best on Dwarves with readying effect ( Unexpected Courage ), enough for attacking or defending effort, where you need to kill/defend some enemy. Good "first aid" for unexpected situations.

Ever Onward : I know that in pure solo games this card may help - you won't increase your threat at all, on the contrary of games with more players. Honestly, I try to avoid situations, where I would need to save all my characters from questing to hit as hard as possible. It can mean, you are swarmed by enemies. And swarmed by enemies you can be mainly with too high threat. I think that in situation you describe you are already pushed into corner. I rather prefer to prevent such situation prior to including Ever Onward.

Untroubled by Darkness : I definitely agree with the comparison to Astonishing Speed , good point.

Erebor Record Keeper: Tbh, I use this guy only for his Willpower, boosted by Dáin . I'm excited by 1 cost and also by his "readying Dwarf " ability. But I used it very rarely, because this ally were already exhausted for his questing duties.

Ancestral Knowledge : Yeah, much powerful would be this card, if you could put progress tokens not only on the active location. It fits into "location lock" situations or as u said during "while-active" effects or in some scenarios ( Redhorn Gate and its three unique mountains).

Boots from Erebor is just perfect for Gimli or Glóin as well as for Hobbits , which tends to have little amount of Hit Points. For other Dwarves, it isn't absolutely necessary.

Question for you: which card you see as TOP CARD, SHEEP CARD and which sphere you see as MOST ENRICHED SPHERE?

Narvi's Belt -- yes, if you're runnning a tri-sphere (and certainly quad-sphere) dwarf deck you'll want Narvi's Belt, since at this point in the game that deck will certainly have leadership (Dain) and Steward of Gondor. If you're running Bifur or Gloiin (or later, Thorin) in a tri-sphere deck you'll also want Narvi's belt for resource smoothing. But it's not so clear that Narvi's Belt is better in a dual-sphere dwarf deck than using a Song -- it's more expensive, it requires leadership resources instead of a neutral resource, it's unique, and it only works in one phase.

Even in a dwarf deck, there's two first cycle cards where a Song may be preferable -- if you're using Support of the Eagles on a non-tactics hero, or A Burning Brand on a non-lore hero. You can, of course, play those cards with the help of Narvi's Belt, but the resource-generating hero may not be the best choice as a heroic defender. For example, in a Dain/Bifur/spirt deck, I'd rather have ABB on Dain, the best defender and best U.C. target, and just have Narvi's Belt on Bifur to help him pay for things.

Outside a dwarf deck, if you aren't running Gloin or Bifur in a tri-sphere deck, Songs are still useful. In your write-up you say you may hardly mention this restriction because there are so many dwarf characters -- but it's an important restriction all the same, because just because KD gives you a lot of tools for dwarf decks doesn't mean you will always be playing a dwarf deck at this point in the progression. I personally just continued my LeAragorn/Theodred/LoDenethor and SpEowyn/Thalin/TaGimli decks.

Durin's Song -- yes, it may be good "first aid" for unexpected situations, especially if you have a dwarven hero with readying. In a LeGimli/SpLegolas deck its full round boost lets you get double duty without attachments. But I prefer not have unexpected situations.... Seriously, a temporary effect needs to be either extremely powerful or almost certainly useful for me to want to have it in my deck, and at this point in the game I'm not sure this qualifies. Of all the dwarf heroes to this point, my first choice for readying would be Dain, so he can defend and be ready for the attack -- but that's one usage, so it's a one shot +2 defense. Second choice would be Gimli, but his permanent attack values get so high that the +2 enhancement is rarely impactful. Maybe the best case would be Dwalin in an orc-heavy scenario, with his anemic starting attack and readying you could use the event to kill a couple orcs and reduce threat twice -- but he's an unlikely target for permanent readying.

Ever Onward -- in one-deck solo, don't think of it as *needing* to save all your characters for fighting, think of it as *wanting* to save all your characters for fighting. Having plenty of enemies on the table isn't necessarily a sign that you're being overwhelmed, it could be a product of surging/swarming enemies (KD/Dwarrodelf does this alot), or it may just be a result of the normal progression of the quest. Conflict at the Carrock dumps 4 trolls in staging every time, being able to take a turn off questing just to concentrate on combat can come in handy. Into the Pit will make sure you have at least a Patrol Leader -- use this event in stage 2, clear the board and advance to the final stage with no enemies around. There's a ton of boss fights (or later, battle/siege quests) where this event is powerful, at least if your allies and heroes are all useful for combat -- in the case of a Dain-powered dwarf deck, this is practically always true. The main handicap is that the high cost means it's not an early card (though you can use the event to get Spirit Bofur for one.)

Erebor Record Keeper -- I typically use ERK for questing too, especially with Dain at the table. But the ability is well worth the money when you have need for it.

Boots from Erebor is useful on Gloin and TaGimli for obvious reasons. Hobbits in general are squishy, but Frodo's near-indestructible and the only other Hobbit hero out at this point is Bilbo, who needs a lot of attachments to safely defend. With a grand total of three characters who really want this attachment, I don't think it's remotely a six-stars-out-of-five sort of attachment.

For me TOP CARD is Bifur -- low threat, resource smoothing -- in a box full of cards meant to be good in a dwarf deck, we have a dwarf who is good not just in a dwarf deck, but in just about any deck outside one-deck mono-lore.

SHEEP CARD is Untroubled by Darkness. Clearing underground active locations is useful in only a handful of quests, and requiring dwarf exhaustion, though thematic, makes it even worse value. If it could affect *any* location it'd be a strong card, but it's not.

MOST ENRICHED SPHERE I'll go with Lore, because Bifur and ERK are worthy playing outside a dwarf deck. (As the game progresses, there will be more lore allies that can match ERK's wp/cost ratio without his restriction; but at this point in the game he's a cheap quester in any lore deck.) I like Dwarrowdelf Axe and Khazad! Khazad! also, but the dwarf restriction hits hard. The applicability is only to decks with TaGimli and/or dwarf decks, and when all the dwarf cards arrive tactics will be the least popular dwarf sphere.

3 hours ago, dalestephenson said:

SHEEP CARD is Untroubled by Darkness. Clearing underground active locations is useful in only a handful of quests, and requiring dwarf exhaustion, though thematic, makes it even worse value. If it could affect *any* location it'd be a strong card, but it's not.

Based on the description I think you mean Ancestral Knowledge? Which I would be inclined to agree with. I don't use Ever Onward either, but I don't usually play solo.

Untroubled by Darkness is a card I would consider playing - as I am in my semi-thematic Dain-less dwarf deck for the Hobbit saga.

I also like Bifur for best card - so much value for the threat cost.

You're right, I mean Ancestral Knowledge. Untroubled by Darkness has its place, specifically for cranking out huge amounts of progress with a dwarven swarm.

Hehe, I was quite shocked when you said Untroubled by Darkness as a SHEEP CARD.:D

Couple days ago, in The Redhorn Gate, Ancestral Knowledge was my "ace" during traveling to unique Mountains. These locations have a quite high probability they stay as active location for more than one round… and you don't want that due to their nasty effects "while active". I think that in Khazad-Dum and with the Lore sphere players can be glad for this card, because they can get rid of two locations within the same round. It's shame that you can't target also locations in the staging area.

Anyway, thanks to all for your observations and opinions!

Yes, the case for Ancestral Knowledge as a sideboard card involves lore, an exhaustible dwarf, and underground/dark locations with obnoxious when-active requirements and 4 or less progress needed (or non underground/mountain and 2 or less). You can travel to them and nuke them right away. The unique mountains in Redhorn Gate don't fit that description, though knocking 4 off them does make them easier to clear. Of course, if you drew a Erebor Record Keeper instead of Ancestral Knowledge and had Dain out, he can add 2 to your questing total every turn instead of taking four off once (except for Caradhras). So even here it might be useful, but it's at least marginal. You can also clear Turbulent Waters.

Looking at the other quests in the cycle:

Into the Pit -- Bridge of Khazad Dum (placed by quest card)

Road to Rivendell -- Turbulent Waters (2x)

Watcher in the Water -- Turbulent Waters (2x)

Shadow and Flame -- Second Hall (1x)

Turbulent Waters isn't obnoxious enough to add a sideboard card IMO, Second Hall is, but there's only one in the deck and with only 2 progress it's a good target for staging-area progress. So even in the most undergroundy/mountainy cycle and running a dwarf deck, it's probably worth having in your deck for Into the Pit and *maybe* Shadow and Flame and Redhorn Gate. That's pretty thin gruel for a sideboard card. Meanwhile, any leadership solo deck can exploit Ever Onward in a boss-fight quest, which are common. The only other candidate for sheep card is the Veteran -- not a sideboard card, but so costly that it's not too compelling at this point in the game and gets less compelling as other, cheaper dwarves come online.