Alright, I don't think this will work, but here's an initial DE list.

3 Walking Sacrifice
3 Clan Moulder's Elite
1 Mortella
3 Shades
3 Corsairs of Ghrond
3 Vile Sorceress
2 Wight Lord
2 Countess Iseara
20

3 Warpstone Excavation
3 Har Ganeth
3 Contested Village
3 Slave Pens
3 Treasure Vaults
15

3 Innovation
1 Whip The Slaves
2 Caught The Scent
3 We Need Your Blood
3 Seeking New Slaves
2 Take Captive
1 Grasping Darkness
15

The thought here is to try Seeking New Slaves to see if keeping their units out of their discard will be enough to make sure you don't lose to them ripping Reclaim the Fallen off the top of their deck.

At the end of the day though, if you want to win tournaments right now you should be worrying about how to build Dwarves to win vs. other Dwarf decks.

Clamatius said:

Here's what I'm thinking a Dwarf deck tuned toward the mirror would look like...

1 Mountain Legion
3 Dwarf Cannon Crew
3 Dwarf Miner
3 Grudgebearer
3 Slayers of Karak Kadrin
3 Dwarf Ranger
3 Zhufbar Engineers
3 Longbeards

3 Innovation
3 Order in Chaos
3 Stand Your Ground
2 Master Rune of Spite
2 Reclaiming the Fallen

3 Warpstone Excavation
3 Contested Village
3 Grudge Thrower
3 Ancestral Tomb
3 Mining Tunnels

I bumped the unit count up to 22, a bit higher than Dwarves has been playing in order to maximize the Ranger. A full set of SYG and OIC to make sure Rangers stay in play and you continue to have dudes to throw for him. I like a full set of Engineers too as a way to combat Ranger. Miner looks a bit weird in the list, but I'm thinking it could be good in the mirror - testing may prove otherwise though. I considered Dragonslayer for the mirror too, but I don't like his 4-cost. I had Lure them Out in for a minute too, to wipe out opposing KKSlayers, but that card is really only good with Longbeards. (in this unit pool, at least).

Another way to take the deck would be to add HE's Disdain, but then you have to find HE loyalty and there's really no good way to do that beyond a set of Alliances. I also haven't looked at incorporating any of the Lizardmen yet... I'm picking up MotD after work tonight.

I think before you get to decklists, the question is: what wins in the mirror?

I have a nasty suspicion the actual answer is "drawing more Mining Tunnels on turns 1 and 2", but the more palatable answer is to out-economy the other guy to set up Dwarf Ranger loops since you probably won't get significant offense past Slayers+SYG. In that case you would want Treasure Vaults and maybe even Contested Stronghold. I guess you could also go with the Burn It Down / Serpent Slayers plan.

If you are actually going to win via attacking (not counting a Reclaim attack) then Lure Them Out seems like a decent bet even if the only heavy hitters are Grudgebearers and Longbeards.

All that said, I do not see the argument for Dwarf Miners at all. And I think 3x OiC is win-more for sure although 1x or 2x might be good.

I have a completely different take on the mirror... I want to be the aggressor, because the dwarf ranger/grudge thrower attrition plan is both really slow and really bad on the card/board advantage front. So my plan would be use a couple of early grudge thrower-fueled attacks to burn the first zone, then RTF to burn the second. Slayers are the key card in the matchup; Lure them Out is critical to fight through them. OIC is right out - too slow, doesnt do enough, and you want to be OICing Slayers anyway, not Rangers.

And now for fun storytime.... today's test: Clamatius' DE list (posted above) vs. Dwarves.

Games 1 and 2 were both not anywhere resembling close. Lets just say Dwarves are capable of broken starts and leave it at that.

Game 3 OTOH was a real nail biter from the dwarf seat. He opens on Sorceress to Quest, double-Warpstone to Kingdom. That's a so-so position for a dwarf deck but upper 10% for him easily. I go Ancestral Tomb to Kingdom, Innovate into Cannon Crew to Q and... nothing. So, a top tier start for the DEs and a pretty bad one for the dwarves. Should be interesting.

It gets even more rocky from there, as he Sorc + WNYBs my first Ranger (AND reanimates it into his Quest!) before I can find a Grudge Thrower, then drops a second Sorc. It's hurting time kids... Still, I manage to swarm out a good number of dudes and lay into his Kingdom with a Longbeards. He's steadily chipping away at my dudes in the Quest zone and putting pressure on my board but not really doing any damage. He steals a couple more of my guys (Slayers, Longbeards), threatening to live the dream of activating Dwarf Ranger to ping things while playing a DE board. Eventually he has 5 dudes in his battlefield and is threatening a 2 turn clock.

Then I cast Reclaiming the Fallen.

BUT WAIT! I don't kill him. (Bet you didn't see that coming!!) After a couple of grudge thrower activations to pump my team to ~20 some-odd power, he thins down the attacking force by using his stolen slayers and... Ranger pinging + WNYBing a grudgebearer (LIVE THE DREAM CLAMATIUS!!!). So his entire defending force is wiped (including both sorcs) and his zone is near burning, but he survives.

During his turn, he draws a mighty 1 card, but his board presence is enough to burn my battlefield, and he drops a couple of guys to his quest zone to protect it. It all comes down to my turn...

I draw 4 for my turn, with about ~10 cards left in the deck... Slayers, Rangers, Contested Village, Stand Your Ground. DOES NOT GET THERE. I develop the CV to draw off my lone active Mining Tunnels.

Then I cast Reclaiming the Fallen again and win.

Nice. Game.

(Thanks for reading! Please ban RTF!)

Yep. Here's some tips.

Caught the Scent seems good now because you can take Reclaiming the Fallen.

Take Captive is horrible because they can sacrifice their guy to the Grudgethrower.

Invoke Khaine's Wrath doesn't do the job because Reclaiming the Fallen will kill you anyway and all those guys were going to die anyway.

Seeking New Slaves is actually surprisingly solid, especially because you can use it to counterspell their Stand Your Ground or just straight rip a unit out of their hand with Caught the Scent.

Iseara is too slow when she doesn't give you the Lobber Crew recursion punchline. You are better off with Naggaroth Spearmen as a finisher in that slot, I think.

Grasping Darkness doesn't have enough targets and requiring you to have a sacrifice outlet is a big problem.

All in all, sadly the matchup does not seem close at all. I can make the deck better but right now it is losing with double Warpstone draws against bad Dwarf starts. I don't think you can beat Reclaiming the Fallen with any unit destruction plan at the moment without relying on pure luck. Scouting doesn't do it because they can just play the **** thing off the top of the deck at any point in the late game and burn a zone.

I am not going to enjoy the Dwarves vs. other Dwarves metagame much. I was right the first time around, it's time for me to take a break from the game and see if it gets better in a few months. For the assorted haters out there, that's not whining, that's a statement of fact. RtF hasn't been out for very long so you have plenty of time to get to your own conclusions.