been trying to find a 'dwarf deck' i liked to beat into the pit- finally got there with:

Dain

Bifur

Gloin

i use the term 'dwarf' deck lightly as this isnt supposed to be a theme dwarf deck, but one that utilises their keyword, and throws in a lot of key cards from other traits.

basic strategy is use gloin and bifurs 6 willpower (each with a +1 with dain ready) and power through the quest, and use Dain to defend- the idea here being to get narvis belt on him and use it to gain lore icon for a turn to get burning brand. couple that with erebor boots then you have a 3 defense, 6 hit point, shadow card immune wall.

After this, i use bifurs resource borrowing to get enough to quickly get gildor into play- which we all know is awesome, but in this case i used his 3 willpower to get through some nasty locations. i also managed to get celebrians stone onto gloin, so i was questing with a huge amount of willpower in the end.

lastly to get rid of all those goblins-especially the patrol leader- i enlisted the help of a mirkwood runner to bypass its 3 defense, and my favourite poor-guy-to-sacrifice, snowbourn scout.

of course i had a couple of miners of the iron hills at ready incase those horrible watchful eyes got latched onto a hero, but didnt need them.

also in the deck is steward of gondor, and map maker, incase i want to go down that strategy, put it on bifur, and youve got a nice questing guy right there

I really enjoy the Dwarf theme, especially in Khazad-Dum. Most of my good cards are in my Rohan deck and my Eagle deck, so I just threw all the Dwarf cards into a deck with Dain, Dwalin, and Bifur. It works remarkably well, even without any traditional "power" cards like Steward, Gandalf, or Northern Tracker. Dwarves are very versatile; they can generate a lot of willpower through Dain and cards like Untroubled by Darkness, they have some location control thanks to Ancestral Knowledge, and they are solid combatants.

Really, their only weakness is the fact that Dwarf cards are spread across all four spheres. Resource matching can be a bit tricky, which is where the Songs and Narvi's Belt come in. I think it's the most well-rounded tribal theme deck we've seen so far, and it'll only get stronger with cards like Bofur.

yeah if its good now, then it will be double the power by the end of this cycle

mirkwood runner is a complete star against the new encounter monsters... though you kind need Thalin to add that 1 point of dmg to make them instant kill nearly every goblin card.. as they only hit for 2.

I know you play solo a lot and I have always found leadership lore to be a bit of a hard way to go. You do not mention a spirit splash.. so treacheries and the like must really wreck you. The "wall" of Dain is a very good thing.. he in fact combos greatly with Horse breaker, (I know your not doing spirit) as you can sac that card to ready him during any action phase. If i remember rigt you only have access to one UC so horse breaker could be a good option for you to use Dain more often and not worry about his effect turning off. The only other thing taht strikes me is Golin... he is a resource engine really.. but you are running steward and not really running teh cards that make Golin's resource engine really churn... I understand he is in there for the +3 to quest, though as my Elowyen posts will atest I think will power is a poor reason to choose a hero.

Still I think this is a pretty good trio for solo, they all work well, though if it was me I would swap Gloin for Thalin and make deck ajustments from there.

booored said:

The better option to ready Dáin is still Erebor Record Keeper who also fits with the dwarf theme.

And yes, Mirkwood Runner is fantastic when it's about killing Goblins. He also helps to kill the Cave Troll bit by bit.

leptokurt said:

yeah that is a good option for sure... though its lack of being able to chump in a time of needs worries me some. Still defiantly a great choice.. .i guess I am slow to adapt to the new decks from my spirit lore, leadership prince deck i love so much.