Harad Khazâd!! 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Kahliel and the Haradrim refugees team up with Dáin's Iron Hills dwarves in a new take on The Last Alliance that breathes life back into the tired dwarf swarm archetype by mixing it with a Haradrim-infused mining element.

Mulligan, as usual, for Steward of Gondor, and fish it out with Heed the Dream if needed. You also want to see Erebor Record Keeper or Southron Refugee in your opening hand. The first helps with early questing (2 for 1!) and the latter helps you play more allies and gives you a chump blocker or additional quest boost if needed early.

Using The Last Alliance passive:

• You start with 2 dwarves and 1 harad, so play a Southron Refugee for 1 first turn, then use it to reduce the cost of the next ally.
• Make sure to plan out your plays and your Refugees to smooth out resources as much as possible. Ori's resources are in short supply unless you have Narvi's Belt.

Some fun uses of The Last Alliance action:

• Target Kahliel to let him pay for Dwarf allies AND to discard a Dwarf/Harad to ready a Dwarf/Harad. This is the number one use for TLA early game because it allows you to ready Dain right out of the gate, possibly allowing him to both quest and defend while still getting full advantage of his global boost.
• Target Dáin to give all your Harad allies +1 and +1 for the entire round.
• Target Southron Refugee to reduce the cost of a Dwarf by 1.
• Target To me! O my kinsfolk! to grab Yazan or Jubayr from the discard pile (though usually you'll just want to get Dwarven Sellsword or another dwarf).
• Target Kahliel's Headdress to give all dwarves another +1 if you need a big questing boost AND to shuffle a Dwarf ally back into the deck from the discard pile.

Other play notes:

• Steward of Gondor goes on Kahliel, of course, as does the Rod. With The Last Alliance he can pay for all your dwarves. Narvi's Belt goes on Dáin Ironfoot, mostly to help Ori pay for dwarves.
• Cards can pile up in the discard pile through Kahliel's ability, Daeron's Runes, and Soldier of Erebor (not to mention normal attrition from play or hand). Cycle them back with Erebor Hammersmith, Nori, Ered Nimrais Prospector, and Kahliel's Headdress, and To me! O my kinsfolk!. Note that Nori and To me! O my kinsfolk! put them on the bottom, so you'll want to use Heed the Dream or the Kahliel's Headdress to shuffle your deck regularly.
• Get to 5 dwarves as soon as possible to trigger Ori's card draw. You'll need it to power Kahliel and cycle back your cards. Later, Rod of the Steward and King Under the Mountain can help in this regard.
• There are a lot of one-off cards that help more in some situations than others. Use Heed the Dream to fish for exactly what you need most at any given time.
• Don't be afraid to discard big allies. It's actually useful to have some options in the discard pile to grab with To me! O my kinsfolk!.
• Only healing in the deck is The Long Defeat, so use it wisely. Other than that, you've got Hardy Leadership to stretch out your .
• Firyal, as always, is a beast in solo. Find her and get her into play as early as possible.

Possible tweaks and sideboard cards:

• Armored Destrier for Dáin Ironfoot so that he can actually make use of his 3 . I'd swap out Hardy Leadership or Lure of Moria, as these are probably the least needed cards in the deck.
• For quests with lots of Doomed or increasers, Favor of the Valar or Keen as Lances are probably the best options.
• A Very Good Tale was in an earlier iteration, but it wasn't consistent enough for me with this particular ally mix. I went with card draw plus cost reduction instead. Still, it could be something to try.
• Legacy of Durin is almost always amazing in a dwarf deck, and could make an appearance here. However, I didn't want to include 3x and just a one-off didn't seem quite consistent enough with only 17 dwarves in the deck. But I could be wrong and it's probably worth experimenting with, maybe better than Hardy Leadership.

Quest Success Rate:

• Escape from Umbar: 1-0
• Desert Crossing: 1-0
• The Long Arm of Mordor: 1-0
• The Mumakil: 1-1
• Race Across Harad: 1-0