It came to pass during the second age of the captivity of Melkor that Dwarves came over the Blue Mountains of Ered Luin into Beleriand. Themselves they named Khazâd, but the Sindar called them Naugrim, the Stunted People, and Gonnhirrim, Masters of Stone.

An Alternate Art Starter Deck

Inspired by AutumnRose's work on her two incredible alt-art starter decks (Flight to the Ford and Where the Stars are Strange), I am releasing my fourth alternate art starter deck. This deck is intended to provide you the remaining cards not included in one of FFG's four official starter decks, the one focused on Dwarves. Between the revised contenr and this alternate art starter deck, every Dwarf specific card will be available to you.

For those keeping track, this deck features five repeat cards. Bofur was included in Autumn's Flight to the Ford deck, Ring Mail was included in my Root and Twig deck, and Song of Battle was included in my Dear to Manwë deck. Glóin is a repeat from the Dwarves of Durin starter deck and Veteran Axehand is a repeat from the core set. All repeated cards feature new artwork.

Dwarf Swarm 2.0

Revised Content Only players are familiar with the "dwarf swarm" strategy that Dáin Ironfoot greatly strengthens with his ability that boosts the stats of all dwarves. The Dwarves of Durin starter deck also included a few cards with another feature of a "dwarf-swarm" strategy, one this deck is much more focused on: cards that provide bonuses for having 5 or more dwarves in play.

Bombur counts as an extra dwarf in play, meaning you only need to get one dwarf ally into play to kick things off with this deck. The fifth dwarf character you control will see Thorin Oakenshield collect an additional resource per turn and grant Óin the icon. Splashing a Song of Battle on Thorin will help you play the many tactics attachments and allies in this deck. Some of the allies included also benefit from having five dwarves in play under your control. Bifur provides card draw, Dwalin costs much less to play, and Glóin gives you a resource refund. Erebor Battle Master gets an boost for each dwarf ally you control, allowing him to become your main attacked in combat and freeing up Thorin to focus on helping with questing.

Heroes

In the deck as built, each hero has a clear role. Bombur is an extra dwarf body that also serves as your main blocker. Óin is your access to tactics while being a good secondary contributor to questing or attacking as necessary. Thorin Oakenshield is a resource engine with great stats that can help keep you stable while you build up your supporting board of allies. The sideboard includes the four other Dwarf heroes that all have interesting uses in decks beyond just Dwarf swarms. Balin is a great source of shadow cancellation even from attacks he is not directly defending, giving him some interesting flexibility. Dwalin in an Orc-heavy scenario can be a very reliable source of threat reduction. Gimli has some very fun interactions with Legolas and has reliable all-around stats himself. Thorin Stonehelm is a strong attacker that can sneak in additional damage.

Allies

My first goal when making this deck was to ensure all dwarf cards were included with minimal repeats. This means that some of the included allies might not be the strongest cards. Veteran of Nanduhirion is expensive and slow to play (so no early boost to the dwarf swarm) and his stats and starting damage means the payoff isn't quite worth it. Blue Mountain Trader is an interesting way to provide resource sharing in multiplayer, but is underwhelming in solo. Longbeard Map-Maker theoretically has no limit to the boost available to him, but is expensive to get into play and in a tri-sphere deck won't be able to utilize the boost much if at all. All of these cards have their places in other decks, but are mainly included in this deck for two simple reasons: 1) to be a dwarf body that triggers the bonuses on other cards. 2) to complete your dwarf collection.

But enough of the negative, let's focus on the positive ally cards! As mentioned above Bifur, Dwalin, and Glóin all have very powerful bonus abilities that activate if you have other dwarves in play. Bofur is a reliable source of willpower that can be cheated into play for 1 resource and stick; if you quest unsuccessfully, there is an action window where Bofur can be played using his ability for 1 resource. You will still suffer the effects of questing unsuccessfully, but will have saved 2 resources and gotten Bofur into play much quicker. Veteran Axehand is a cheap and reliable ally that can help Erebor Battle Master in combat. Nori can recycle cards back into your deck and Bofur helps you find weapons faster.

With the allies in this deck, you are looking to get any ally into play as soon as possible (turn one if you can pull off Bofur's trick, turn two otherwise) so that from turn three onward you can start building up the "better" allies.

Attachments

Once you have your allies activating the 5+ dwarf bonuses, you can shift your focus towards playing attachments that will boost your heroes. Hardy Leadership is a great general hit point buff for all dwarves in play. Ring Mail and Dwarven Shield can help protect Bombur while he defends - the shield having the added bonus of providing resource acceleration if any damage leaks through. Durin's Axe can go on either Óin or Thorin Oakenshield to boost your secondary attacker, while Dwarrowdelf Axe should go directly on Erebor Battle Master. Song of Battle provides resource smoothing and can go on both Bombur and Thorin.

In the sideboard are two attachments that are great for neutralizing some locations, but have limited application. Ever My Heart Rises is great in any scenario with Mountains or Underground locations, and Thrór's Key helps prevent nasty "travel to" or any other negative effect.

Events

The events in this deck provide a wide variety of bonuses. Ancestral Knowledge helps clear out locations quickly. Heavy Stroke and Khazâd! Khazâd! are great combat boosts that can give you just the edge you need to take down some difficult enemies. To me! O my kinsfolk! can recycle allies from your discard pile and provide a much needed boost in any phase. Untroubled by Darkness can give you a boost in a much needed quest phase. Well-Equipped is a tricky card to pull off, but can help get weapons and armor into play faster. The End Comes is another tricky card that can be used if you think a nasty encounter card is coming up and you want to try to delay the inevitable.

Customizing the deck, or other uses for its cards

The pool of cards available from the revised content features many strong dwarf cards, which makes sense considering it was the focus of one of the four official starter decks. There are too many possibilities of card swaps between Dwarves of Durin and Masters of Stone for me to list out for either deck. An interesting Fellowship idea would be playing those two decks alongside each other, with minor tweaks to each to avoid conflicts of unique characters - only Bombur and Glóin would have to be removed from the DoD deck, and there are many great non-unique dwarf allies that could be swapped into the Masters of Stone deck to help it get up to speed quicker. Dáin Ironfoot gives a boost to ALL dwarves, meaning there would be two boards full of supercharged dwarves that are supercharged and ready for whatever the encounter deck throws at them.

Print this deck

I have set up a Make Playing Cards project with ALeP backs that can be found here. If you wish to use official backs, a PDF of the deck that can be sent to MBPrint can be found here. A photo album with high-res versions of each individual card is available here.