It’s a problem we’re all aware of, and I’m sure you’ve experienced it yourself: you’re sick of bouncing your Hoarmurath (and high helm and sable shield and…) in minion vs minion games, and you wish there were an alternative way to be evil while competing with evil.  Well, now there is (other than his hogness, who is just lame ;)).

Meet Dwar.  Dwar has a speech impediment, but don’t let that fool you.  He’s a nasty convert to Sauron, and he’s ready to open up a can on anyone who looks askance at him.  Dwar has the lovely ability to tap to give +1 prowess/+1 body to all characters in any of your companies, provided that he’s at a haven.  What’s more, he’s a sage, so you can leave him untapped and waiting either to play VoM or tap for combat, depending on your needs.  Here’s a deck that lets you take full advantage of this killer combination of abilities:

Pool

Orders from Lugburz
Foul-Smelling Paste

Lt of Angmar *
Lt of Morgul *
Tros Hesnef *
Lt of Dol Guldur
Muzgash
Shagrat
(4 more of your choosing)

Characters in Deck
3 Dwar the Ringwraith
Burat
Wuluag
Tuma
Lagduf
The Mouth
Baduila

Resources

3 Swift Strokes
3 Bold Thrust
3 I’ll Report You
3 Prone to Violence
2 We Have Come to Kill
1 No Better Use

2 Voices of Malice
2 Weigh All Things to a Nicety
3 Dark Tryst
1 Bade to Rule

2 Threats

3 Black Mace
1 Thong of Fire

1 Regiment of Black Crows

Hazards (many options can be used — here’s one)

3 The Moon is Dead
2 Spells of the Barrow Wights
1 Seized by Terror
1 The Way is Shut
1 Faces of the Dead

2 An Unexpected Outpost
1 Revealed to All Watchers
1 Rolled Down to the Sea
2 Heedless Revelry

1 Adunaphel
1 Daelomin at Home
1 My Precious
1 Mouth of Sauron
1 Uvatha the Horseman

3 Wisp of Pale Sheen
3 Chill Douser
2 Barrow Wight
3 Stirring Bones

Key Sideboard Cards

Ice-Orcs
Orcs of Gundabad
Petty Dwarves (for vs Red Hills)
Woses of the Eryn Vorn (for vs Red Hills)

1 Long Grievous Siege
1 Tribute Garnered

Blackbole

Ancient Black Axe (vs underdeeps boys)

2 Alone and Unadvised (for when they split up — or get split up by your attacks and/or hazards — and run)
1 The Balance of Things (same)

Play Tips

You can crush most companies with this deck.  However, if they do a lot of haven squatting, or if they have the hog in their company, or if they have a lot of scouts and always manage to cancel attacks, you may be in a spot of trouble.  Basically the idea is to attack your opponent every turn, hopefully playing something at the site first (item, ally, or faction).  The backup characters are easy to play, especially with We Have Come to Kill.

The hazards are intended to disrupt tight companies (send Ufthak away with Faces of the Dead, capture Gorbag with Spells of the BW, and beat on the rest with your company on the next turn).  Problems ensue vs. decks that can either cancel everything or are split up so much that you can’t hunt them all, or rely mostly on their rw’s/hog’s company.

Sideboard in the appropriate factions for the regions your opponent is occupying.  I listed the most important, but others can be quite useful as well (e.g. Grey Mt Goblins, haven factions, even Snaga-Hai, which are surprisingly easy to steal).

I’ve only played the deck 4 times, and I won three of the games.  The loss came when I forgot I couldn’t cvcc the hog’s company, and let him come up and take the Iron Hill Dwarfhold so that I could capture him and feed him to Shelob.  Karmi pointed out the illegality of my capture only after the Great Shadow himself was tucked neatly away under Lt of M’s cloak.  Too bad….

I haven’t yet figured out a way to make this deck work for the Balrog himself, though it seems like it should be possible, given his ability to have 3 (or even 4) leaders in a company ( =  more command cards playable).  If anybody has succeeded in doing so, I’d like to hear the story….

MP Count

This is where the deck has some trouble.  Presumably you’ll get 2 Maces and the Thong, as well as the regiment and a couple factions.  Add to that massive character points (2 lieuys, 3 troll bros, and Lagduf) and some kill points from CVCC and you’ve got the following breakdown:

Character: 10
Ally: 1
Faction: ~6
Item: 7
Kill: 4
Misc: ~1
Total: ~29