Ok, I play with the wife, we've got the following card pool:

1x Core (probably get another soon)

1x Almost all Mirkwood expansions (I don't have TDM yet but that's coming soon as well)

1x Khazad-dum expansion

1x All Dwarrowdelf expansions

1x Heirs of Numenor

I want to make a Leadership/Tactics Dwarf deck, as my wife has decided she likes Spirit and Lore. I went through all the Tactics and Leadership cards that said "Dwarf" on them, and tossed them in the deck, and wound up with 46 cards. I want to keep it at 50 or as close as I can, since I'm not seeing any card draw. I'm leaning towards Thalin/Gimli/Dain as my heroes, but my heart's not set on them.

What I'm hoping for is, can someone point out some things to me that I might be missing? What makes a good dwarf deck with these available cards and using only Leadership and Tactics? I suppose I could have my wife let me use her Lore dwarves as well, if that makes a better deck.

Is there anything that is "OMG you need to play with at least these cards" and "LOL don't ever do that, it just doesn't work" ?

Micah

Get the Hobbit Expansions if you can, and then you can make a very very powerfull Dwarf deck.

I'm a bit new player too so I have never tried but I guess you could use Dain, Thorin (on Hobbit boxes) and maybe Gimli. High starting threat (your wife can help lower your threat) but you will have a good quest strength.

with Dain ready Thorin will have 4 and Gimli 3, and there are many Leadership cards to raise your quest strength

I guess there is no need to mention that nearly nothing will be able to kill you and you will be able to kill everything (if you can play a song to make Dain Lore, or Narvis Belt and with their abilities play Burning Brand on Dain you will be unbeatable)

i have used dwarves a lot over the time of the game. heres some ideas/advice

dwarves need 1 thing to succeed in a deck - numbers. most dwarf 'power' cards say something like 'gets +1 attack for each dwarf you control' or 'if you control at least 5 dwarves....'

this said, you therefore need great card draw + resources to get them in play

so...2 cards here...

-dearons runes

-we have not been idle

both of these allow you to fly through your deck for free.

extra cards to mention here are

-legacy of durin which allows you to draw each time you play a dwarf

-a very good tale which gets allies in for free

-king under the mountain which allows you to look for top cards in your deck

so, you have card draw...now resources. there are many ways to do this...some better than others.

-steward of gondor...the most obvious one. attach and get +2 resources per turn

-resourceful...better in a secrecy deck, so if you have a starting threat under 20, which is unlikely for a dwarf deck, then be sure to mulligan for this card

-gloin.....a resource each time he gets a point of damage. here you can let him get damaged on purpose. leave a weak-ish enemy engaged with you and let it hit him each turn. get the resources then heal him with self preservation or similar.

-we have not been idle also allows for resource gaining

so thats a few key points. another key point is that a good dwarf deck, or any deck really, needs a good hero choice. this is perhaps harder with dwarves as theres more choice. but here some ideas

-dain has been mentioned, for good reason. he is the number 1 hero for a dwarf deck. keep him ready for the +1 willpower, get some erebor record keepers in play for a 1 cost, 2 willpower quester and then you are good. he can then defend after.

-bifur. probably the 2nd best dwarf. he automatically gives a song of wisdom in effect to someone else, due to his ability to take thier resource. this means you can have say, a 2 tactics hero deck, with bifur effectively giving you both 2 heroes of each sphere and therefore 2 potential resources per sphere per turn. this is good as alot of dwarf cards are relatively cheap

-thalin. amazing for those 'surge' crows. instantly kills any 1 hit point enemy whilst questing. with dain you have 2 willpower making it even more worth it.

so there you have for instance a 3 sphere deck.....leadership/ lore /tactics. many do not like tri sphere but here you have the added ability of bifur.

also, another key card here is narvis belt. acts as a changeable song card. so get that on bifur, making him any sphere, and you have 2 resources guaranteed for any sphere per turn. get steward on him and you are going to be able to afford anything

i hope these ideas help, i know some of those cards are from the hobbit packs, so my final piece of advice is next pack you get, go for those

rich