Amber Steel Dwarf’s Mine is a popular deck in Lorcana’s Set 6 meta, consistently performing well in tournaments.
This deck takes an aggressive approach by playing low-cost Characters. Although these Characters have low stats, they generate a lot of Lore, forcing your opponent into a defensive strategy to clear out those low-cost Characters. Because the deck is built around low-cost cards, you might run out of resources quickly. However, the list has multiple draw cards to help keep your engine running.
Overall, your main strategy is to generate Lore as quickly as possible and win the game before your opponent can stabilize their board. However, the list has a couple of cards that can banish your opponent’s Characters, the plan isn’t to win the board, but more to remove a potential attacker, making it harder for your opponent to banish your exerted Characters.
Dwarf’s Mine Decklist
How to Play
1-cost Plays
Our early 1-cost Characters, each with their unique abilities will play a role in our strategy. Let’s take a look at Cinderella – Ballroom Sensation, she’s a 1|2 Character that Quests for 1 Lore. Not too great for an aggressive strategy, however, she can Sing 3-cost Songs for us, which means we can play Songs like Let the Storm Rage On or Strength of a Raging Fire without having to use our Ink. This allows us to continue developing Characters on the field, while still playing a Song to banish one of the opponent’s Characters.
As for Daisy Duck – Donald’s Date, she’s our strongest 1-cost in terms of Lore generation and difficulty to banish early in the game. With a 1|4 stat line and questing for 2 Lore, you’re going for an aggressive start, gaining Lore and forcing your opponent to challenge Daisy Duck – Donald’s Date more than once or have to wait until they have an attack with 4 Strength.
However, with Daisy Duck – Donald’s Date‘s crazy early start, she has her downside, giving your opponent a card draw when she quests. This might help your opponent find that card they”ll need for upcoming turns, but since you’re playing aggressively, giving them extra cards won’t be a huge problem since they’ll struggle to play them as fast as you play your cards.
Happy – Lively Knight is a 2|1 Character, so it could be used to Challenge an exerted Character. However, we will need him for our Seven Dwarf’s Mine Location later in the game. Happy – Lively Knight Quests for 1 Lore and gains Evasive during your opponent’s turn, becoming a difficult exerted Character to banish, which increases his odds of sticking on the board.
2-cost Characters for high Lore
Piglet – Pooh Pirate Captain Quests for 1 Lore, but if you have two or more other Characters, Piglet – Pooh Pirate Captain gives 2 extra Lore when he Quests. 3 Lore early in the game, which often you’ll be able to have it active on turn 3. Make sure that before you Quest Piglet – Pooh Pirate Captain play your Characters on the board to fulfill his condition. Your opponent will try to banish him immediately to prevent the 3 Lore Quest.
Lilo – Escape Artist is another low-cost Character who Quests for 2 Lore, her 1|2 stats makes her an easy target for your opponent to banish. However, Lilo – Escape Artist is one of your strongest Characters in this deck, thanks to her ability, which allows you to play her, exerted, on the board if she’s in your discard, at the start of your turn.
This means we’re not too worried about her getting banished since we can still get access to Lilo – Escape Artist from our discard. However, two things to keep in mind, first, Lilo – Escape Artist will join the board exerted, which means your opponent can Challenge and banish her during their turn before you get value from her. This isn’t too awful for you since it’s forcing your opponent to challenge her, which you can either protect or at least you’re diverting one of their attacks onto Lilo – Escape Artist, making it harder for them to control your field.
Second, you have to use 2 ink to play Lilo – Escape Artist from your discard, which might slow you down from making certain plays in your hand. In many cases, you’ll avoid playing her from your discard to make sure you can play other stronger lines and hold her off for future turns.
Mr. Smee – Bumbling Mate Quests for 2 Lore, but will deal 1 damage to himself when he quests. So we can Quest 3 times for 6 Lore before Mr. Smee – Bumbling Mate is Banished through his self-damage. The self-damage isn’t a huge problem, since your opponent won’t sit around and allow you to Quest for 6 Lore with Mr. Smee – Bumbling Mate, and on top of that, we can always use Rapunzel – Gifted with Healing to heal him, and draw cards off of her ability.
Calhoun – Marine Sergeant is another Character that generates Lore for us, but she acts differently. Calhoun – Marine Sergeant has +1 Resist and when she Banishes a Character through a Challenge during your turn, she’ll generate 2 Lore for you. This is an extremely strong ability, as you’re able to weaken the opponent’s side of the board by banishing a Character and getting 2 Lore in the process. Ideally, you want to Challenge a Character with 2 Strength or less, making sure Calhoun – Marine Sergeant isn’t Banished through herself and keeping her in play for the upcoming turn.
Control Cards
Let the Storm Rage On deals 2 damage to one of the opponent’s Characters and then draws you a card. So you’re targeting a low Willpower Character to remove it from the board and at the same time, you’re not losing on resources.
Since this deck can play multiple Characters in one turn and go wide on the board, Strength of a Raging Fire is a great addition to the list, allowing you to deal damage to one of the opponent’s Characters equal to the number of Characters you have in play.
A 2|6 Location that generated 1 Lore at the start of your turn. It’s a low-cost Location you can easily have in play and force your opponent to try to clear it out. Seven Dwarfs’ Mine – Secure Fortress will be used for its damage ability, whenever you move a Character to it, you can deal 1 damage to an opponent’s Character. If the Character moved is a Knight, you can deal 2 damage instead. This means Happy – Lively Knight and Doc – Bold Knight are key Characters to move to Seven Dwarfs’ Mine – Secure Fortress for the added damage.
Pete – Games Referee is matchup dependent, capable of shutting off your opponent from playing any of their Action cards. This can be a huge blow for your opponent on certain turns, especially if they’re relying on an Action card like Be Prepared to control the board.
Card Draw
Doc – Bold Knight is best played when you’ve emptied your hand as he’ll discard all cards in your hand to draw you 2 cards. So having 1 or less cards in your hand means you’ll gain more after discarding, getting to make more plays later in the game.
As for Rapunzel – Gifted with Healing, she can heal up to 3 damage, and for each damage she heals, she draws you 1 card. So you can draw up to 3 cards with Rapunzel – Gifted with Healing, but you’ll often be fine with 1 or 2 draws.
Defensive Characters
Pluto – Guard Dog can join exerted, acting as a blocker to rest your other exerted Characters. Pluto – Guard Dog‘s 5 Willpower makes him resilient, tough for opponents to knock out, and while Pluto – Guard Dog has no damage, he gains 4 Strength, which means he could banish an opponent’s Character through Challenge.
As for Kida – Protector of Atlantis, her On Play ability reduces the Strength of all Characters in play by -3 until the start of your next turn. You’re not planning to Challenge with your Characters, so this is a huge blow for you, but your opponent will not struggle to Challenge and Banish your exerted Characters, forcing them to find other ways to stop you from Questing for Lore.
Other Cards to Include
- John Silver – Ship’s Cook can mess with your opponent, preventing one of their Characters from challenging on the upcoming turn. This can keep your exerted Character safe and gives you an extra turn to Quest with.
- Chien-Po – Imperial Soldier is a big body to drop on the board, using him as a blocker to protect your exerted Characters.
