MTG’s most unlucky goblin family can’t stop dying

While many worlds in the MTG multiverse are full of wonder and excitement, an equal number are rife with peril.

It can be a dangerous world – or worlds – out there for a Planeswalker in Magic: The Gathering. Even beings of immense power struggle when clashing against the planes’ greatest threats, from the might of Phyrexia to the schemes of Nicol Bolas.

If things are rough for Magic’s most powerful beings, the regular folk of the planes aren’t faring any better. The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is continuing the story of MTG’s doomed Doobin clan, and this latest twist in the tale is far from a happy one.

The Doobin family is MTG’s unluckiest clan

The Doobin family are characters hailing from MTG’s plane of Ixalan. The Doobins are goblin members of the Brazen Coalition, a motley group of pirates that sail the plane’s seas, led by Admiral Beckett Brass.

During MTG’s first trip to Ixalan back in 2017, two otherwise unrelated cards were unexpectedly linked by their flavor text. Ixalan’s reprints of Lightning Strike and Hunt the Weak both featured the last words of a Doobin brother; Grick and Brunt respectively.

While MTG cards featuring a character’s last words could spotlight suitably epic moments, epitaphs for beloved heroes across the planes, these cards are nothing of the sort. The Doobin family have never appeared elsewhere in MTG, making their last words here entirely tongue-in-cheek, a bit of black comedy highlighting the risks that the daredevil Brazen Coalition frequently throw themselves into.

The third Doobin meets their end in Lost Caverns of Ixalan

In the lead-up to The Lost Caverns of Ixalan’s card reveals, players were wondering if the Doobin saga would continue, perhaps even with a lucky escape for another clan member.

While a third Doobin – Nirk – briefly appears in The Lost Caverns, they are fated to meet the same end as their siblings. Nirk Doobin’s last words appear in the flavor text of Hunter’s Blowgun.

Has the Doobin family been wiped out?

MTG’s return to Ixalan is shaping up to be a huge success. With incredible art and memorable new mechanics, further Ixalan adventures may well be requested by players in the near future. If another return is on the cards, you can be that more unlucky Doobins will be along for the ride.

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