Hogar deck build (Tundra Guild)

My second deck build of an alliances summoner: Hogar of the Tundra Guild. This was a very tough article due to a mediocre summoner in combination with a large variety of great units. In terms of general play-style I’d recommend playing him aggressive against most other factions. In this guide I’ll go into detail on what his ideal deck build looks like and how to play that build. As he is an alliances summoner you can also put in Tundra Orcs and Guild Dwarves units in his deck. I’ll include those but for now I won’t include Mercenaries. Summoner Wars is a game by Plaid Hat Games. It’s available on android / iOS / Vassal.

Basic idea
sum-HogarHogar is clearly designed to be used aggressively. The first wall and unit setup, the champions, the commons and the events that give you advantages by drawing cards, the Ice Golem’s to have walls in enemy territory and finally the Rune’s themselves that can be used to strengthen your existing units. I think an aggressive strategy is the best one to win against most factions as Hogar lacks strong economic tools to out last opponents (without Etch at least). His only real options to winning an economic war is by making better trade’s (like Moyra; this is a possibility as he has a lot of high attack value units) and / or having the opponent pay to remove runes (which is really not that expensive). For your opponent this means he can often win by surviving the first big push in a decent state. And Hogar doesn’t really have many tools to do movement tricks / remove or move away enemy units, so once your opponent stabilizes it can become impossible to win / finish him off.

All in all I’d rate Hogar as mid tier power wise. His ability and his Rune events are not as powerful as many other summoner (mostly since you can only reuse one rune once). He can still definitely pack a big punch, especially with some of the excellent Guild Dwarves and Tundra Orc commons and champions, but because he can’t win economically as easy and he only has limited assassination options his strategy and tactics are easier to deal with then some of the stronger factions.

Basic tactic and combo suggestions:
– Vognar, Scribe’s and Zuggdin have interesting synergy because you can use Scribe’s to put a Built and / or Rune unit on top of the draw pile so that you can guarantee their ability triggering (even both in the same turn with three scribe’s and the right draw (that one is extremely situational though)).
– Take into account that your opponent can discard your rune cards in their event phase. This means you should play (aggressive) runes especially when you are about to make use of them or if they don’t have the magic to remove it (and rune’s on Ice Golems can get countered if your opponent has two magic). Also, you can try to bait out them discarding your runes to gain a magic advantage. Which is probably only worth it for the bad rune’s as it’s only a 1 magic swing (they spent 2 magic, you spent 1 magic you could have built instead).
– Figure out which runes are most effective with which champions (I’ve put up some suggestions per rune). Especially the two attack runes are best used on a champion and the best target for the Master Rune is generally one of those. Because of the Master Rune and because you only get three champions, don’t be too afraid to use some Runes on a common.
-Both Ice Golem’s and Avalanche can produce Ice wall’s. These can be combo’d with champions or commons that affect (ice) walls. An example would be using Avalanche, then healing the resulting Ice wall with Hailstorm or Architects.

ref-Hogar-backDeck build
– 1 Ragnor
– 1 Baldar
– 1 Blagog
– 4 Ice Golem (2 initially)
– 1 Marauder (1 initially)
– 1 Scribe (1 initially)
– 4 Berserker
– 4 Shooter
– 4 Defender

I generally don’t like heavily specialized decks as I want my decks to be flexible about how you use them depending on what you draw first. Secondly, as I said before I feel an aggressive deck is the way to go for Hogar, so ideally champions and commons that are affordable and can be used aggressively. Affordable here is even more important as there are a lot of good commons to summon and you can’t easily kill a lot of your own units / you have very few ways to get free magic (so basically you’ll only get what you kill / build). Thirdly I can’t rely too much on Rune synergy as they are too easily removed / don’t give enough of an advantage to consistently win the game. Finally, while commons can be great to be boosted, there are too many anti-common events / ways to kill them to only go common heavy, so there has to be the option of going champion heavy. Note: I’ll definitely take Rune synergy into heavy consideration, I just won’t base the complete build around it.

Champions

As my goal is to be aggressive I first looked at which champions have the most synergy with the rune’s and are still affordable enough to get out pretty early / consistently. One important consideration here is how likely they are to be killed in one turn as that will influence heavily whether or not an opponent will bother removing runes from them. This ended in a short list: Baldar, Blagog, Ragnor, Raldag, Krung, Gror, Grungor and Thorkur. In the end I decided on Ragnor (5), Baldar (4) and Blagog (6). Ragnor for his extreme flexibility; he’s a good champion that can deal with multiple commons and can make great use of multiple runes. Baldar because of his cheap cost and great anti-champion ability. And Blagog to assassinate / also deal with big champions. I really want to use Raldag (or Tordok) but using the strongest runes on commons is a bit too situational due to anti-common events; but still I’ll probably try that eventually as well.

I actually seriously considered most champions; here’s their evaluation (roughly in order of preference):
– Baldar (Rune of Power and incredible value at 4 magic, Rune of Shielding is useless on him though)
– Blagog (Rune of Power is great value on him and at 6 magic he does a lot of damage for his cost)
– Ragnor (Rune of Power and Rune of Heroism, extremely flexible unit against both commons and champions, not too expensive)
– Thorkur (Rune of Power and three ranged dice are pretty useful for assassination).
– Gror (Incredible with Rune of Heroism and his AOE attack, he can be hard to use with other units though. Rune of Power is also pretty good)
– Grok (Somewhat interesting as he also works with normal walls and can easily get 2 or 3 AV ranged because of that)
– Tordok / Ulfric (A bit more interesting due to being able to use rune’s on strong commons, but still not worth it; Tordok is the most interesting one)
– Rukar (Rune of Heroism is great, but Rune of Power is useless; in Hogar I think he’s slightly worse than Blagog)
– Krung (Rune of Power and Rune of Heroism, very strong, but too expensive for an aggressive deck)
– Grungor / Ugg (Rune of Power and at 6 magic not that expensive for 4 AV)
– Dwaf (Only interesting in a specialized deck focused on wall destruction as he’s not good enough otherwise )
– Krom (Too situational because he requires more specialized setups then Grok and only works with ice walls)
– Bragg (Only interesting in a specialized deck focused on Ice Walls as his ability doesn’t give you enough of a benefit otherwise)

Commons

cardbackFor commons the biggest rune synergy is high AV commons as those can use both the Shielding, Power and Heroism rune effectively and ideally don’t die instantly. High health commons can also be interesting as the Shielding, Shackling (Ice Golem) and Power runes can keep them alive / make them stronger. Common wise Ice Golem’s are my first pick. Mostly because of their ability to become summoning points (and get protected by Hogar’s ability / healed by Hailstorm) when one of the weaker runes is used on them.

Secondly I want a common that can pack a really big punch and can potentially be a recipient of one of the stronger Rune’s. I mostly considered Smashers, Berserkers and Crushers and ended up including primarily Berserkers. Smashers don’t work well with the Shielding Rune and Crushers don’t benefit much from the Power rune. Thirdly I want a situational common that has the reach to really help with assassination (and can throw two dice). For this I considered Marauders (2 health, 2 magic + rune), Shamans (1 magic, 2 health) and Shooters (1 magic, 1 health with 2 AV if next to an ice wall). In the end I ended up including Shooters as these will either be built or used to throw a lot of dice at a target and if I’m using them to throw a lot of dice I can probably get them next to a wall for one turn (Marauders being pretty expensive (4 magic)) and Shaman’s too unreliable without Raldag. Finally some Defenders to potentially lock down annoying units and deal with 1 health commons. Note: I need to test whether this build lacks ranged punch.

The other commons I seriously considered, but didn’t include (yet):
– Architect: This is one of the commons I might try eventually; I didn’t include them to be as aggressive as possible.
– Thwarter: Interesting to frustrate high damage champions. I didn’t include them because this is an aggressive deck.
– Fighter: I’d rather have a two magic mêlée unit or a one magic ranged unit; these don’t really fit well.
– Scribe: I don’t think adding more adds much to this deck.
– Guardsman: Possibly in combination with Raldag / Tordok; otherwise no.
– Spearman: Probably pretty good with a Rune of Shielding.

Other deck builds

This is the first time I really feel the need to discuss some of the alternative deck builds that are possible and why I didn’t go for those / don’t consider them as good in general:
1) Aggressive, Built units focus: Use Zuggdin and include Ice Golems, Assault Towers and Scribe’s and probably Architects. The idea here is to get Zuggdin out as early as possible and keep getting lots of free units in enemy territory. I don’t like this build as much due to it’s reliance on one champion (and Assault Towers not being as good here as in Bolvi).
2) Defensive, Ice fortress: Use Ice Golems / Shooters / Grok / Krom / Bragg / Avalanche / Ice Fortress to stay back and destroy the enemy from a distance. In its pure form this is not that good in my opinion as you will get out turtled (unless you include Etch, which might increase it’s viability).
3) Aggressive, wall destroying: Use Dwaf / Architects / Engineers / Ballista / Hail Storm. In its pure form I feel it’s too hard to quickly wall destroy consistently and this deck build is not flexible enough. Also the Tundra Guild lack the mobility to make this work consistently.
4) Aggressive, Raldag + commons: Use Raldag and include Ice Golems, Shamans and Crushers to maximize his effectiveness. I don’t think building the deck around Raldag is worth it (as it’s too dependent on one champion). I really want to try including Raldag in the main deck though as Raldag + Rune’s can be incredible. Tordok could also be interesting.

Playing the faction

ref-Hogar-frontThe starting setup is extremely aggressive. Still, unless you can get a few easy kills it’s probably best to go second as you can’t summon off your Ice Golem’s without Rune’s under them. Another reason to go first can be to safe your Marauder. Ideally your starting hand will contain a Rune of Shackling or Shielding to use on one of the Ice Golem’s to make it a summoning spot. It’s best to build magic pretty quickly as you want to be aggressive. I’d probably kill the Scribe pretty early, unless you don’t need the magic yet and can get draws from it. Don’t be too afraid to use the two powerful rune’s on the Marauder or even the Ice Golem if your hand is clogged (building one of your champions is not a bad idea either). Moving Hogar forward is also a good idea as he starts way back.

The basic idea to win is to quickly summon a strong common or champion off of the Ice Golem / your starting wall. Towards the mid game that means you can either go immediately for the enemy summoner due to a good draw / good dice / enough magic or you need to first deal with his units / walls. In that last case you can use your Berserkers / Shooters / champions to quickly take out walls & champions while your Defenders / Ice Golems / Shooters give protection / block off summoning spots. Key at this point is identifying whether you want to take a risk and throw lots of dice at a high priority target or whether you have enough of an advantage to slowly take down his defences. Hailstorm, Shielding Avalanche and the Rune of Nullification can be very useful here to keep up the pressure. Your champions (and some of your commons) don’t have the most health, so try to protect them from their sides. I’d recommend always trying to use the Master Rune, being able to reuse a Heroism or Power rune is very useful.

If towards the end game your opponent survived by sacrificing walls / dispelling your rune’s / giving up a champion to Avalanche, then you can still be in a great position as you applied enough pressure to gain a sufficient economic advantage. If not, then you are probably screwed. Baldar can tip the scale to your advantage; but other than that, there are no real tools in the end game to outshine most opponents. The rune’s are useful yes, but because they are so easily dispelled you can’t count on them. I’d recommend saving your Heroism / Power Rune’s for champions, but if you can for instance only summon two, it’s perfectly fine to use it earlier on a common.

Match up analysis

I might do a faction by faction analysis eventually, but I’ll start this off with a few general observations. Factions that have an innate economic advantage and that (can) survive your initial onslaught are very hard to deal with. Factions with strong anti common abilities are also particularly devastating. Finally anti-wall events. Yeah, there are a lot of bad match-up’s.

Summoner specific cards

CardDeckNotes
sum-HogarAlliancesBoth Hogar's stat line and ability are not that good. Two attack die for six health is pretty bad for a melee summoner. His ability will prevent your walls from being harder to kill which is not that useful in defense, but it will be useful when attacking. Especially if you have an Ice Golem or Avalanche out and they fail to kill it in time.
evt-AvalancheAlliancesA situationally powerful card. In general you'll probably want to use this on a powerful enemy champion or common so you can assassinate their summoner or other units instead (and even summon from it!). And it will nullify their ability for the time being which can also be useful. So it's basically a paralyze which will work best if you can prevent your opponent from hitting the wall. I'd recommend not using it on a champion unless it's on your side and it gives you the time to easily kill it or if you absolutely have to / it gives you enough of an advantage as having to pay three magic is pretty expensive. Note: You can also use this to protect one of your own commons / make it into a forward wall.
evt-HailstormAlliancesThis event can be used to damage all walls (your own included) for two damage. This can be essential to get some magic off of them or to instant kill them by surprise. Another big use is to heal a forward Ice Golem / Avalanche wall as those will be the only Ice walls you'll get. In general you'll probably want to use this event unless it's really clogging your hand at the start.
evt-MasterRuneAlliancesYou really want to use this card to search your discard pile as that will allow you to reuse a rune you already used before. I don't think there are many situations in which taking one from your draw pile would be really worth it. I'd highly avoid building this event as it's the only way you can reuse your most important rune's
evt-RuneofHeroismAlliancesThis is a very useful rune. Interestingly enough it's not necessarily best to use it on high attack champions as it being a base increase of 1 attack die means you can also use it effectively on a low AV unit. That might for instance cause your opponent to feel less threatened by it and not discard it. Best units for this rune: Gror (3AV AOE attack), Rukar (4AV with 2 damage on 5+), Ragnor (his average damage increases from 2 to 3), Krung (4 AV wild swing). On Blagog this one is not as good as the added die still only has 50% chance to hit. This can also be interesting on commons to give them a big attack (Marauder / Shooter especially as they are ranged). It's also pretty good on Smashers & Berserkers. On Crushers it slightly reduces the average damage as you only have a 46% chance to not kill yourself with a full health Crusher.
evt-RuneofNullificationAlliancesThis rune is a lot more situational. It can't be used against summoners, so you'll have to decide whether there are any champions (or commons) that are annoying enough to use this on or who you think your opponent cares enough about to use the two magic to discard this. Also note that you can't use this on your own units, so you can't nullify Rukar or Crushers.
evt-RuneofPowerAlliancesProbably the best of the rune's. It increases your average damage from 66% of the number of dice rolled to 100% of the number of dice rolled. So for each three dice rolled you are getting one more damage on average. This is best against high health commons or champions as it won't increase the chance of you killing a one health unit. This rune is best used on an unit that already gets to roll a lot of dice and preferably a champion as those are more likely to live more then one turn. Best units for this rune: Grungor (4AV), Baldar (3AV), Thorkur (3AV ranged), Ugg (4AV), Grok (potential 4AV ranged), Gruggar (5AV if at 1 health), Ragnor (he effectively does 3 average damage), Krung (3 AV wild swing), Blagog (5AV), Zuggdin (potentially 4 AV).

Common wise the same 50% increase of damage applies (i.e. for Smashers & Crushers). For Berserkers there's a 66% damage increase. Some intriguing commons to use this on would be Engineers or Ballista's for extreme wall destruction.
evt-RuneofShacklingAlliancesThis is very useful to use on your own Ice Golem's as you generally don't want to use one of the more powerful runes on it and the Shackling effect isn't too bad for an unit which main purpose is to be a mobile wall. It can also be used to keep a strong enemy champion out of the fight for just that bit longer. Do note that you don't want to use this one on a champion that's not going to move much anyway or an unit low on health.
evt-RuneofShieldingAlliances (x2)This can't be used on champions (for instance Thorkur would have been nice). Because of that it's a situational, but potentially useful rune. It's best used on a common that rolls a lot of dice, doesn't die instantly and against enemy champions or commons that roll a lot of dice. Also note that it's not overpowered on Guardsman, Built Ice Golems and commons protected by Tordok or Ulfric as these will still lose the shield on i.e. a 3 and 5 roll as 3's are still hits (but the chance of losing it is reduced). Other candidates to use this on are Marauders, Shaman, Berserkers and Crushers. Do note that the shield doesn't protect Crushers from their own ability.
evt-IceWallsRulesIce Golem's and Avalanche can create Ice Walls; other then those two Hogar has no means to create Ice Walls.
evt-RuneRulesMost important is that Rune's don't go in a player's magic pile, so you can't lose them that way nor will your opponent get lots of magic for killing your runed up units. Interesting to note is that the Master Rune is also a Rune Event card. Also, you can put multiple Rune's on the same unit. This is however generally not a good idea because all rune's can be removed at once for two magic. Finally it seems like an opponent can remove multiple rune's of different units at once (but has to pay 2 magic for each unit ofcourse).

Tundra Orc generic cards

CardDeckSSCF*Notes
chm-RaldagAlliances-1A bona fida support champion (glad to see more of these). His ability is most interesting in combination with commons like the Shaman (44% chance to do 2 damage becomes 69%) and the Crusher (58% chance for 4 damage with no wounds becomes 87% and 19% chance for 4 damage with 1 wound becomes 48%). Even with a 1 die common it's very nice to have a 83% chance to deal 1 damage instead of a 67% chance. Do note his ability does not work for the reroll for a fighter as that is not an attack. His one weakness is his stat line which isn't that great and as you want to use his ability you will probably be forced to fight champions with commons. Also note that a Crusher with Rune of Power has a 80% chance to deal at least 4 hits (no wounds).
chm-VognarAlliances0His ability is random and very dependent on how many 'Built' common units you have included. In a Hogar deck, without Scribe manipulation, it will trigger about as much as Zuggdin's ability (and also reveals a card to your opponent). However, the value in my opinion is greater as a free Ice Golem is worth two magic and should be very valuable in a lot of aggressive decks. Also, you can include Assault Towers to even further increase the chance of his ability triggering (which can be useful in very aggressive situations). Also note that his ability triggers on any attack and that any non-Built card will go to the bottom of your deck (which is different from Zuggdin). His main weakness is his high cost (which reduces the chance of him appearing early to be useful) and relatively low attack dice. I'd only play him if you are at least also using a few Scribe's and Assault Towers.
chm-ZuggdinAlliances0This champion should be valued mostly based on his health, av and cost as his ability is hard to make useful. The reason I say that is that there are only 7 rune cards and that by the time you have Zuggdin on the board in general at least half of those have been drawn. So if you get more then 1 or 2 triggers on his ability you are already pretty lucky. Finally his ability also shows your opponent your next draw. Still, he has a decent stat line with three attack and six health for six magic and you can do some draw stack manipulation to have him trigger more. For instance by purposefully not drawing / using cards so your next draw keeps being a Rune card (or by manipulating your draw pile with Scribe's). In general I don't think he's strong enough compared to the other champions you have use.
com-IceGolemAlliances (x7)0The key common for Hogar. These are not extremely easy to kill and can be changed into walls by adding an event card to them. As you only have six rune cards you can use on your own units, be careful not to waste them on Ice Golem's unnecessarily though (which can happen as you generally want to be aggressive). As they only have one base dice, use these as potential mobile walls primarily. Also remember that you can only summon off of them the next turn, so if your opponent has 2 magic, he can nullify your summoning point. In a lot of situations that will be worth it (for him / her). Note: Great target for shackling / shield rune.
com-MarauderAlliances (x6)0Only interesting in Hogar's deck due to the dependency on Rune's. They are somewhat interesting to use as there's no common that has 2 AV ranged consistently. However, this comes at a price. To make a Marauder ranged you have to use one of your precious rune's and pay it's summoning cost (4 magic total). Because of this I don't think they are worth it unless you really have one opening you have to capitalize on and therefore don't mind the increased cost.
com-ScribeAlliances (x5)0With one on the board, you can use it's ability to draw. With i.e. 3 you you can use it to choose one card and in what order you'll get your other 2 cards next turn. It's a clever ability, but I'd probably only use it because the scribe is zero magic and possibly in combination with Zuggdin and / or Vognar. So summon them, use your events and then kill them for the magic (unless you are playing Zuggdin or Vognar). And only use them if you can't get wrecked by catch-up events or if they can get killed very easily.
* SSCF = Secret Summoning cost formula = attack value + base health + 1 if ranged - (2 if common OR -3 if champion) - magic cost. I haven't included the worth of the ability as that's generally controversial.

 

Tundra Orcs generic cards

CardDeckSSCF*Notes
Base1Blagog's average damage is 2,5 per attack (5 max), which is good for his 6 magic cost. Compared to Rukar he does less average damage, does less maximum damage, has less life and is useless against units which require you to hit every die. Interesting mechanic though. Check Rukar's info for more comparison.
Base1Krung is an interesting champion. With his 9 life, three attack and his special he's a beast to take down. However, his 8 cost make him quite the investment. He can't really be used with other units or your own walls effectively as he will hit those as well. Often he'll cause the opponent to avoid him or focus all his attention on taking him down. Both can be used to your advantage to take control of the board. Still I'm conflicted on using him as he can be played around to an extent and might not give enough bang for your buck. One thing I'm sure of is that he's a champion you'll want to use aggressively as he'll otherwise impede your own units.
Base-1Ragnor will on average do 1,5 attack, equalling an average damage of 2 and has a 1 in 13 chance of not doing any damage. As his special also allows him to move and hit another target it's especially versatile against spread out / low hitpoint units. This flexibility and his relatively low cost is why I like him quite a bit. Be careful of his health though; it's quite easy to over extend him.
Base (x8)-1A fighters average damage is 1 (including the fury ability). This makes it a cost efficient unit. A nice trick is hitting a wall and then seeing if you trigger the fury ability, giving you a possible extra movement and attack. This means you should be very aware of your positioning when these are around (both as a Tundra Orc player and the opponent of one). And yes, there are situations in which Fury is absolutely crazy good ;).
Base (x5)2These can be very strong as they have two health and can do two damage at range for 1 magic cost. The chance of them doing the two damage is 44%. They are much less effective against 1 hitpoint units however as the same 44% chance applies while a normal 1 dice attack unit has a 66% chance of killing it. So mostly build them for magic against factions with 1 hitpoint commons.
Base (x5)2Another interesting common. It has four hitpoints but takes hits automatically. This basically means it's slightly better then a 2 hp common (which requires 3 dice on average) and slightly worse then a 3 hp common (which requires 4.5 dice on average). The main reason these are useful to use is that they have two attack dice and can be summoned for free with Reinforcements. Their auto hit mechanic can be both useful (i.e. against burn) and bad (i.e. against gorilla's). So take into consideration which faction you are facing.
Base (x3)
Reinf-1Rukar's average damage is 3 per attack (6 max) , which is good for his 7 magic cost. He especially excels at hitting enemy champions / summoners / walls. His only disadvantage versus Blagog (which I tend to compare him with) is that he's one more magic cost and has a slightly bigger chance of missing all together, other than that he only has advantages. This is why I'd consider him slightly better.
Reinf-1Gruggar is not a champion I feel is very good. While he can technically have an attack up to five dice, it's too easy to kill him off in one or two turns. And it's way too easy to ignore his one attack dice until you are ready to take him out. He's best used in tights spots where he can't be attacked from multiple directions so he actually gets to use his higher attack dice. Still he'll generally only get to use the four or five dice attack once. Minor note: You could injure him yourself to get his higher dice when you want it.
Reinf-1Bragg excels in more defensive match ups as your Freeze cards trade 1 for 3 instead of 1 for 2. And your ice walls basically require 6 hits to die instead of 3. Just make sure he doesn't die until you have taken advantage of his ability. As he's a two dice ranged champion, he'll be cost effective once you use him for at least one Freeze.
Reinf (x5)0The main problem this common has, is that one attack dice simply does not pack enough of a punch for the cost. It does however have three hitpoints, so will be hard to immediately kill. This can make it useful in conjuction with other units, i.e. to reinforce your attack quickly / outflank an opposing unit to get another attack in / prevent counter attacks. Still I'd only really summon these with Reinforcements.
Reinf (x5)0The thwarter is considered by many to be the best common the Tundra Orcs have. This may appear counter intuitive, but it's ability to completely block a 3, 4 or 5 dice attacking champion or summoner can be absolutely huge. Use these to block off avenue's of attack for big enemy units. They are much worse against single hit units, but aren't awful as they do have two hitpoints and only cost 1. Final note: These do get hit by your own attack dice normally. Chance to get hit: 13% (5 dice), 20% (4 dice), 30% (3 dice), 44% instead of 88% (2 dice).
chm-GrokSecond0First of all, note that it works for all walls, not just your own walls and ice walls. This makes him much better, especially against factions that use walls themselves like the Swamp Orcs and Mercenaries. To have him be really worth it, you should be attacking with at least two walls adjacent, which isn't impossible, but probably won't work consistently. Because of this, he's strongest in situations in which there's not much room to maneuver. Note: Grognack has three ice walls, Torgan up to fifteen (four by events) and Hogar as many as he has Ice Golem's with rune's / Avalanche. Because of this, this champion is best in Torgan and Hogar.
chm-UggSecond-1In terms of dice this is a monster. Four dice for 6 magic is great. Effectively he only has 5 health though, which makes him pretty much only decent when fighting high health commons / champions. With so many other great champions this means he's simply not good enough to include.
chm-KromSecond3Another champion that has synergy with walls; but only ice walls this time. He has a small area of effect attack based on them, it only goes off 2/3rd of the time though and the effect also hurts allies. This all makes it a pretty situational ability that's most useful if you are defending as you can more easily position an ice wall in the right position.
com-BerserkerSecond (x7)1A very interesting common. Compared to a Smasher it takes three dice (instead of four) on average to take it down. In terms of attacking power however it does slightly more damage (1.5 v.s. 1.33) per attack. So basically it's a choice between damage and survivability. Another advantage over Smashers it that it can get boosted by champions or events that make it harder to hit.
com-ShooterSecond (x6)0This is the common version of Grok. Understandably he can only gain one extra AV. Luckily he also doesn't care whether or not he's next to an enemy wall or non-ice wall. This makes him a pretty interesting common as it's not that difficult to get next to a wall and he only costs one magic.
com-CrusherSecond (x5)2This is easily the most strange common of the Tundra Orcs. Unhurt it has 60% chance to do at least 3 damage (20% for 4) against a target. Making it good for taking down high health targets (2.2 average damage). At 1 health it can only hit for 4 damage and has 20% chance of doing so (0.8 average damage). Naturally it's not very good against 1 or even 2 health units as the extra damage is overkill and it's more likely to miss. Also note that your Crusher ALWAYS takes wounds for it's misses, even that will destroy it. So worst case you are summoning it, you roll 2-4 misses and it dies instantly without having done anything (the magic does go to your discard pile).
* SSCF = Secret Summoning cost formula = attack value + base health + 1 if ranged - (2 if common OR -3 if champion) - magic cost. I haven't included the worth of the ability as that's generally controversial.

 

Guild Dwarves generic cards

CardDeckSSCF*Notes
Base-1Gror is easily the best Guild Dwarves champion due to his special and it's incredible synergy with one or even two Heroic Feats. Even without it his special ability is very useful as within two spaces means he can hit 12 squares. Naturally opponents will try to play around that, which is almost impossible when he's not yet been summoned (so it can useful to wait a few turns before actually summoning him). And when he is, it'll give you lots of space to do what you want. Just remember he also hits his own units, so he's pretty bad at wall crowding. And don't expect him to beat champions with more dice one on one. His strength is his area attack. Note: You can also hit your own walls / units to trigger his effect at a specific point you want to hit.
Base0His hitpoints can be valued according to what is attacking him. Against a 1 dice attacker, he has 4 hitpoints (6 attacks). Against a 2 dice attacker he effectively has 6 hitpoints (roughly 4-5 attacks). Against 3 dice attackers doing 3 damage against him costs 3-4 attacks, which is roughly 8 hitpoints if you include the effort to do the extra 1 damage (6-7 attacks if you need to hit him twice, which is 13 hitpoints roughly). And against 4 dice attackers it costs 5 attacks to kill him on average (13 effective hitpoints). For his cost and attack power this means he's an interesting champion unless you are facing a faction that can easily do extra damage like the Phoenix Elves.
Base-1Another interesting champion. With his changed mechanic (can only block one wound) he's no longer as powerful as he was. However, he's still interesting due to his three ranged attack. His ability can keep him alive longer, but won't safe him from concentrated attacks, so keep him safe. The one magic for one wound is something which I consider to be an average ability as you are basically paying 1 magic for 1 health. It can however be worthwhile to use one magic to get another three dice in (or if you have no further use for the magic). Note: He can also block Burn.
Base (x8)0Very useful common as it can be used to lock down enemy units while other units hit the enemy unit from ranged. And you can in example have Oldin hitting an enemy wall while a defender blocks the enemy units from getting next to Oldin. Also, any unit like a Lioneer or Cavalry knight will get stopped when moving past a Defender. Basically use it to control the battleground / defend your more important units and as it is only one cost it can be worth it to summon them where necessary.
Base (x6)0Another good common. Their 1 attack at range with 1 health isn't that good, but they make up for it by getting two dice if attacking close by. If used in conjuction with Defenders you can also safely throw one dice from range. Do remember they only have one health though, so I'd be careful about summoning them where they can be taken out for magic easily.
Base (x4)-1An interesting common. I'd call them situational as you won't have any use for these if you are defending from an aggressive faction. However if you are doing the aggression then they can be an extremely cheap way of throwing a lot of dice on the enemy walls. Once again remember that they only have one health though, so using them against in example the Phoenix Elves (Burn) can be very cost inefficient.
Base (x3)
Reinf0Four dice for six magic. Yet another hard hitting champion which his attack dice alone make him useful to use. His five health is a bit low for his magic cost. The worst thing I'd say is his ability, which I'd recommend to mostly use to quickly move him around to where he's needed. Unless you have defenders around to protect him. If you are using him offensively he will often die before he can attack the next turn.
Reinf1This champion I don't like. Eight life is nice, but one attack is really bad for five magic. And if you rage him twice you only have four hitpoints left and are once again back on 1 dice after that round. There are much better champions around for the guild dwarves. A plus punt though is that he can be adapted according to the situation. If you need one, two or three dice, you can choose when to get that amount.
Reinf-1Two ranged dice for five magic and four health is slightly expensive. His ability is very useful if you are using commons effectively as it reduces their chance to be hit from 67% to 33% (a two health unit will take six dice to kill instead of three on aveage). Otherwise it's completely useless. This is one champion you really need to keep safe or you'll lose him quickly. He's interesting to use with in example Ballista's.
Reinf (x5)0I don't really like this common very much. Yeah, it has three health and a special ability which makes it so you need on average six dice to kill one, however it doesn't do much in terms of damage and it costs two magic (three if you count not building the card itself). For two of these you could have a good champion out. Only reason I'd consider including a few of these is if I'm going champion heavy and I want to get some expensive meat shields out with Reinforcements.
Reinf (x5)1These are pretty interesting. You can very quickly punish a very defensive player (like Tacullu) as these can most of the time hit a wall from their own side of the battlefield. And they have three health, so there aren't that many ranged units that can take them out in one go. Still they are pretty expensive, so try to get them out with Reinforcements. Or if you are playing a very defensive faction, summon it manually. Note: You can hit anything at five distance, so you can also use them to in example ping a summoner.
chm-Grundor'sTowerSecond2For now this champion is only really interesting in Bolvi's deck as it's inability to move makes it easy to work around unless you can use the events that Bolvi can.
chm-DwafSecond-1This champion would fit great into a deck specialized in wall destruction as it gives you four attack against walls for five magic. In any other deck, he's probably not worth it as 2 attack die for 5 magic is not good.
chm-UlfricSecond0This is one of those very rare support champions. What makes me somewhat interested in this champion is that the common doesn't need to be adjacent to Ulfric, but that it's good enough to be adjacent to the wall Ulfric is next to. The idea I assume is to clog walls with commons and use Ulfric to protect the commons clogging the walls (this will also make that wall harder to hit!). His stat line isn't great, but pretty decent considering it's a (rare) ranged champion.
com-OathSwornSecond (x8)0This is a pretty interesting common as it will give you two AV and two health for one magic against units that cost two or more to summon. It's weakness are summoners, zero / one summon cost commons / champions and units that kill it in one hit.
com-ArchitectSecond (x5)0This is one of those units you either factor very heavily in your strategy around or you don't include them. The reason being that removing one wound generally isn't enough to make a unit survive and unless they are safely behind that unit they will probably get killed themselves. So you need to use them in bottleneck situations so that you don't need the three attacks.
com-AssaultTowerSecond (x5)2Two ranged AV and three health for two magic is a great deal. However, not being able to move is huge. In most cases you'll only get one attack out of them after which the opponent either avoids them or waits until they can kill them effectively. Because of this it's a very situational unit which is only viable if you can in some way get more innate value out of them.
* SSCF = Secret Summoning cost formula = attack value + base health + 1 if ranged - (2 if common OR -3 if champion) - magic cost. I haven't included the worth of the ability as that's generally controversial.

 

References
All Tundra Guild cards (especially strategy section and comments are useful)

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