A real-world reprint!

I went back and forth between this and Dwarven Warriors. There were flavor issues that I feel support using dwarves over goblins — Ridgerunner Lookout would have changed as well. Dwarves would be more suitable to having a grudge against a government they feel has abandoned it’s war veterans, whereas goblins tend to be less decisive in their volatility. I’d also love to have a reason to see dwarves pop up in a set; it just doesn’t happen often enough.

In the end, the Tunneler won out for costing reasons. He gives Feint an interesting tool early enough to make the ability even more of a tempo advantage, and he drops a turn before the face-down morphs start arriving (thereby not clogging the turn 3 options).

Either way, the “power 2 or less is unblockable" ability should be awesome in this set, and I think this is the perfect opportunity for a familiar reprint.

Not that those are bad reasons for including the Tunneler, but at this point he's been included in both core sets since being printed in Rise of the Eldrazi, simply because combat has become so much more prevalent and that effect has a subtle power that can be picked up late in a draft.

If it works, it works, but there is value in making sure your reprints capitalize on a cache of nostalgia and cleverness of application.

Don’t get me wrong; it kind of breaks my heart that the scales tip away from the dwarves. I spent more time than I probably needed to debating the pros and cons both ways, and while I’d love to see the right way to put dwarves into the set and story, this just wasn’t the place.

I think you misunderstood my point — I'm not saying this should be Dwarven Warriors, but that this should be an entirely new card. I'd rather see an adapted Goblin Tunneler effect specific to the block, than a Goblin Tunneler, as the Tunneler has practically been elevated to Core Set staple. But it's not something as timeless as Naturalize or Cancel,rather something closer to a pinger or tapper, which receive new iterations on a regular basis.

Just looking at the flavor text, if it's supposed to a Trench Digger, make a Trench Digger.

You mean as timeless as Disenchant and Counterspell, right?

It seems to me that if you want this to be a dwarf, you should just make it a dwarf. The card doesn't need to be a strict reprint... it could just be an homage with a cheaper casting cost.