List of Species in Magic: The Gathering - Dwarf

Dwarf

Native to Dominaria, Ulgrotha and Shadowmoor. Dwarves are short, stocky humanoids, red-aligned and possessed of a stubborn survivalist streak. They tend to live underground in mountainous areas right across Dominaria and pride themselves on their mining and metalworking skills, particularly their expertise in the crafting of weaponry and jewelry. The dwarfish love of treasure is legendary. Dwarves are fiercely territorial and constantly wage war against encroaching goblins, the semi-feral, insidious fellow mountain-tunnel dwellers. On Ulgrotha, Dwarves are widely traveled merchants and traders, and are generally seen as miserly and untrustworthy. Unusually among dwarves, some Ulgrothan clans travel by sea in small fleets of trading vessels. On Shadowmoor, the Dwarves are known as Duergar and rarely venture above their underground lairs and mines to the point that some dwarves believe the world above is a myth.

In the game, Dwarves have had a patched history. Their iconic status as a well-known fantasy race ensured their presence in Magic: the Gathering right from the beginning, but mechanically, they have very little to do that can't be done just as well by (ironically) their natural enemies, the Goblins. Both races are considered to be small-scale, red-aligned creatures, and Goblins are by far the more popular tribe. 2001's Odyssey block saw Goblins briefly replaced entirely by Dwarves as part of an experiment to "rest" several major creature types, but the Dwarves never managed to work as well as a single tribe as the goblins did. Until 2008's set Eventide which featured a few new dwarves, no Dwarf card had been printed since 2003 (Eighth Edition's Dwarven Demolition Team, itself only a reprint of one of the very first Dwarf cards). Prior to that, notable dwarves include the heavy-hitting Dwarven Bloodboiler and Dwarven Warriors.

(Balthor the Stout, Dwarven Blastminer, Dwarven Trader)