Pointed Discussion

Crafty Pathmage in red?

You mean:
Dwarven Warriors in blue?

Here's a deeper question - what happened to Dwarves in the Magic universe? They seem to have mostly vanished after Homelands... I guess that set really was awful.

As for this card, I guess you're supposed to combo it with Firebreathing and then pump up the creature's power after it goes by unblocked... which wasn't that great an idea 15 years ago.

Radagast, in the beginning, White had humans and angels, green had big beasties and elves, blue had merfolk and drakes, black had undead and demons, but red was overloaded with dragons, goblins, orcs and dwarves. I think it was less Homelands than Fallen Empires that really killed the Dwarves. Also, WOTC had to try to balance the goblins and orcs and dwarves, but kept giving the dwarves the short end. Finally they just gave up. They tried bringing them back in the Otarian cycle, but it felt like a half-hearted effort. There were a few in Shadowmoor as well. It's interesting that Orcs, too, are now pretty much gone.

It's sad they couldn't figure out how to make dwarves work, as now m:tg is largely without one of the quintessential fantasy creatures.

MR. Combo. This went well with so many creatures that I only point two for you: Marsh Viper and Murk Dwellers.

Now we have Goblin Tunneler for cheaper and, as its name suggests, he's a goblin.

Poor old dwarves could never catch a break. Fallen Empires was really the first attempt at tribal in Magic, but it didn't really take off until we got Slivers.

Big horns for a 1/1.

Oh, fond memories. This was in my first constructed deck with an overall plan (beyond stuffing it with a selection of good creatures, removal etc.) It involved these guys and Tawno's Wand together with pumpables like Soldevi Simulacrum and Howl from beyond.