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The first step into The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game can be a daunting one, given the sheer volume of content and the re-releases and repackaged content that is being produced. The first required step is the Revised Core Set, a must have to even play the game, but what makes a good next step? The series of starter decks make the perfect next step for new players to join the game, or experienced players to pick up a deck based around their favourite archetypes. With each starter deck being built around a different theme and playstyle. The Dwarves of Durin Starter Deck focuses on ‘delving’ through your deck in order to assemble a strong army of allies.
The dwarves of Durin Starter Deck comes with a fully precompiled deck ready for players to jump straight into the action, no need to learn about deck building or choosing cards and heroes. In addition to the prebuilt deck players also get a collection of additional cards that can be used once they are ready to start experimenting with building their own decks.
The main mechanic of any dwarf deck is to quickly assemble a large army of dwarves and keep them in play. Generally Dwarves are a lot stronger allies than other characters in the game, this does however mean they often come at a higher cost. This is where the ‘delving’ archetype of the Dwarves comes into play. ‘Delving’ refers to the act of discarding cards from your deck. In a dwarf deck this action often triggers bonuses on cards, such as free allies and bonus resources. The act of getting a lot of dwarf allies into play also triggers bonuses, such as Ori’ hero ability that lets you draw extra cards once you have 5 dwarf allies in play. As a note, the 3 dwarf heroes that you start the game with count towards this.
The collection of dwarf heroes included in this pack make a solid lineup, all centering around Dain Ironfoot. Dain is a staple of the dwarf trait and forms the backbone of this dwarf deck with his ability to give each other dwarf character a bonus to their willpower and strength while he is ready. This deck comes fully equipped with cards to make the most from your dwarf heroes, using ‘Cram’ to keep Dain at the ready for when you need his bonuses. Or ‘Lure of Moria’ for when you have a strong lineup of dwarves assembled to ready them all after they have been exhausted.
The sideboard of additional cards also comes with some useful mechanics to further strengthen your dwarves. ‘Dwarf Pipe’ allows you to recycle cards from your discard pile to the bottom of your deck making it a perfect fit to allow your dwarves to keep ‘delving’ through their deck even longer, recurring those bonuses over and over. ‘Magic Ring’ fits perfectly for Dain, giving you another way to keep him constantly ready at the cost of additional threat generation. That’s where the sideboard hero of Nori comes into play, with the ability to reduce threats when dwarf cards are played from your hand. All these make for great additions to the dwarf deck once players get into the process of deckbuilding.
Who is this pack for?
This pack makes a perfect foray into the dwarf trait for new players to the game, giving them a strong pre-assembled deck and additional cards to experiment with deckbuilding. New players can jump into the action straight away. For veteran players this pack makes a good addition if they are looking to flesh out their dwarf collection or get additional copies of some very strong cards. There is however some overlap between this deck and some of the other released cycles so it may not be the best pick depending on your existing collection.
The starter decks also make a great option for those players who do not intend to pick up every single piece of content for this game, and who can blame them, there's a lot! These starter decks offer players some of the best content the game has to offer, with a lot of staple cards included in the decks. This starter deck also makes a perfect purchase for those veteran players who want to make it easier to introduce the game to new players, with the ability to get them to choose their favourite faction and instantly have a fully workable deck to play.
Final Thoughts
The Dwarves of Durin Starter Deck makes a great pick up and play for new players, or those players new to playing the dwarf trait. With the dwarf trait itself being an incredibly fun and engaging way to play. The pre-constructed deck in this pack offers a very strong deck that can face many of the scenarios players will face whilst playing The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game.
