Erebor Unbound

yeah, yeah, I hear you: A tired old Dain dwarf swarm, Gandalf deck manipulation, Gloin piñata. Hey, some of those quests are difficult. I offer no apologies!

I decided to modify my original dwarf mining deck in order to create a synergistic dwarf fellowship with a Leadership/Lore Glóin healing deck. Both decks offer plenty of draw, healing, global buffs, and all of the wealth you'd expect from the mines of Erebor. There's heavy use of food, drink, and smoke to drive the engines of both decks while providing readying for our heroes.

Backing up Dain Ironfoot, Nori, Glóin, and Bifur are two non-Dwarf heroes, Gandalf and Elrond. Gandalf provides the miners the light to see what's coming up and Elrond keeps those low-defense, high-HP dwarves alive.

These decks were designed to work together as a fellowship. Key cards that made the original mining deck work by itself (Expert Treasure-hunter, Legacy of Durin) have been sent over to the healing deck. There's a lot of sharing of attachments between the two, and figuring out how each deck works by itself and with the other is a big part of the fun in playing this fellowship two-handed.

Mining Deck

Gandalf's ability allows you to view and play the top card of your deck once per phase. Combine that with low-cost cards, deck-grinding, and when discarded effects from dwarf miners, and you end up with a deck that is going to give you a lot of options each turn. The goal is to use mining to set up a playable top card for Gandalf, and to use Gandalf to set up an ideal top card for mining.

The card you're looking for in your opening hand is the Wizard Pipe, so you can put those Ered Luin Miners and Hidden Caches on top of the deck where they belong. There's a whole variety of ways to knock them off the top when the time is right. Here are a few to get you started:

-The most apparent trick is that you will always get at least a single resource from every Zigil Miner activation. Sometimes you'll get 2, and with two Hidden Caches, you're looking at 6!

-Knock an Ered Luin Miner into play with Flame of Anor, and you get new ally, a ready Gandalf, and 8 to hand out.

-Have the Healing deck drop Expert Treasure-hunter on a questing Nori. Its ability will discard Hidden Cache from the top of your deck after questing, which will drop resources prior to your drawing it. Wizard Pipe it back onto the deck during questing when you're ready for more.

-Well-Equipped is much easier to play when you can see that Steward of Gondor, Armored Destrier, or Narvi's Belt sitting on top of the deck.

-Longbeard Sentry can activate his defense boost once per phase, so you can use him multiple times per turn to mill down to an event for Gandalf. It's very handy if you're searching A Test of Will before the Quest phase or a We Are Not Idle prior to the Refresh phase, for example.

-You can sneak Bofur into the quest from the top of your deck, and then he pops into your hand after questing successfully. (Effectively a draw and +3 to the quest total for the cost of 1 resource)

..and that's just a few. There are plenty more combos. Have fun discovering all of them.

Keep your Dwarf Pipes ready in case that critical card gets knocked off the deck. You're going to need it to reshuffle that discard pile at least once, so I threw in three copies of Will of the West. Will's also a good card when you don't like what's sitting on top and you need a quick shuffle.

Take advantage of Dain Ironfoot's high defense with Armored Destrier. He can block an attack and still be ready to keep his critical passive ability active.

Sure, the dwarves get a lot of attention, but don't forget you're also playing with Gandalf! With Narya on his finger, he's going to smooth out resources and ready/buff those already powered up dwarf allies. Make use of readying attachments such as Shadowfax, Cram, or Miruvor so that Gandalf can always activate his ring while also helping with questing and combat. Also remember that ready dwarves are not idle dwarves, if you get my drift. Gandalf's Staff is the best way to clear off the shadow card for an unblocked attack for Glóin.

-None of my Gandalf decks exclude Miruvor, which can almost be as useful as his staff! Here are some tricks:

...use Gandalf's ability to play Miruvor from the top of the deck onto a dwarf hero that needs a resource passed to it. Bonus: use We Are Not Idle before discarding Miruvor to ready and gain an additional resource.

..or send Miruvor to the top of the deck showing a 1-cost card, and have the Zigil Miner miner knock both off for an additional 2 resources!

..or use Well-Equipped to knock it off the top of the deck and onto a dwarf hero.

Healing Deck

This deck capitalizes on Dain Ironfoot's passive bonuses while taking advantage of Elrond's healing to turn Glóin into a resource piñata. Using Bifur's resource transfer, this deck can put out all of those dwarf allies while still having enough resources to take further advantage of dwarven synergy. It's a bit more straightforward and easier to play than the mining deck.

Needless to say, this deck fares particularly well with archery quests.

Half of the attachments in this deck are used to buff up dwarf and turn Glóin into an adequate defender. It's always a bit risky taking undefended attacks to stack up resources on Gloin, so Dori is there to correct any potentially fatal mistakes. Gandalf's Staff and potentially Armored Destrier from the mining deck can be used to get rid of shadow cards to allow for risk-free undefended attacks.

Healing comes in the form of Warden of Healing, Self Preservation, Lembas, and Dúnedain Remedy from the mining deck. Between these two decks, there is the potential to have so many resources in play that passing a Dúnedain Remedy around the table in a single round should be no issue.

Dwarf swarms benefit from good card draw, so this deck makes sure that both hands get plenty of it. Expert Treasure-hunter goes on the mining deck's heroes, and Legacy of Durin stays with the healing deck. Additional card draw comes from Daeron's Runes, We Are Not Idle, and Heed the Dream.

Part of the reason for picking Elrond over Treebeard was Lembas, which allows even more hero readying between the two decks. Erebor Hammersmiths will bring back Lembas, Cram, or Miruvor from either deck. There's even Second Breakfast in the sideboard if you're feeling a bit hobbit-ish. Erebor Record Keeper provides extra readying for a small cost.

Lure of Moria is one of the clutch cards in this fellowship. Both players can all-out quest and then have nearly everyone ready for a long or difficult combat round. It's great for emergencies, and you'll typically have enough resources to pay for it. ..and again, need I remind you that ready dwarves are not idle dwarves (nudge nudge).