With the new Magic: The Gathering set, Street of New Capenna, Wizards of the Coast brings us five brand new Commander decks. New Capenna is inspired by modern urban gangster movies, with five warring crime families fighting for control of the city. Each family is centered on a combination of three colors, and each utilizes new mechanics to gain the advantage in battle. With each new Commander deck specializing in one of these new mechanics, we will take a look at and review each deck.
Image Credit: Wizards of the Coast
As we break down the theme, value, and potential upgrades of the various decks, we will see which families have the strength to take New Capenna, and which mechanics are worth synergizing around. We’ll also look at the new mechanics and how they operate.
Each Commander deck package includes:
- 99-card deck with one foil Commander
- 10 double-sided tokens
- 1 deck box
- 1 life wheel
- 2 collector booster sample packs (The collector booster sample features each of one foil common or uncommon and one rare or mythic rare with an alternate art treatment, both from the Streets of New Capenna set)
Obscura Operations
Image Credit: Wizards of the Coast
Deck Color & Mechanic
This deck is a mixture of the Esper colors white, blue & black. With a focus on attacking, the deck revolves around the new Connive mechanic. When a creature Connives, you draw a card and then discard a card. If you choose to discard a nonland card when doing this, the creature with the ability has a +1/+1 counter placed on it. Using this mechanic can help keep you at an aggressive pace, continuously attacking. You will want to keep filtering through your deck as you draw and discard to also help power up your creatures.
Deck Commander & Ability
The Commander in the deck is Kamiz, Obscura Oculus. She has a power and toughness 2/4 and is a Legendary Creature – Cephalid Rogue. To trigger your Commander’s ability, you will have to attack. Keep this in mind before choosing this deck that it is based on attacking frequently, which may not be compatible with your playstyle. With Kamiz on the battlefield, whenever you attack one creature becomes unblockable and connives, while another attacking creature with lesser power than Kamiz gets double strike. Kamiz has a total converted mana cost of one colorless, one white, one blue and one black, so getting her out quickly with plenty of equipment and a Voltron strategy would be your best bet.
Deck Cost
At the time of release, purchasing the deck as singles costs $175.10, while purchasing the complete deck costs $77.15.
Recommendations for Improvements
If possible, adding things that help with graveyard synergy and pulling cards back into your hand would help this deck tremendously. Also look to add as many powerful Equipment cards as you can, as your aim should be to make your Voltron creature unblockable. Infect is even an option for one-hit knockouts. The overall power of the deck as purchased is roughly 5/10, with a potential upgraded power level of 7/10.
Maestros Massacre
Image Credit: Wizards of the Coast
Deck Color & Mechanic
The next deck is the only family in New Capenna that has both red and blue. Using the Grixis combination of colors, this deck contains blue, red & black. Many instants and sorceries in this colors are very powerful; however, with the mechanic highlighted by this deck, Casualty, you can easily get double the value out of your spells, making it that much more powerful.
If a spell has the Casualty keyword on it, you may sacrifice another creature with a determined power of X or greater to copy the spell. If the spell is targeted, you are allowed to choose new targets for the copy. Look to get value from copying powerful spells to directly impact your opponent’s game. Also, try and give yourself as much sacrifice fodder as you can. Cards with death triggers can give you a great amount of extra value.
Deck Commander & Ability
The Commander for this deck is Anhelo, the Painter. He is a 1/3 Legendary Creature – Vampire Assassin with Deathtouch, and has a converted mana cost of one blue, one black, and one red. His ability allows you to treat the first instant or sorcery spell you play every turn as though it had Casualty 2, allowing you to sacrifice a creature with power 2 or greater to copy it. The amount of options you have with this mechanic is awesome, and you should be copying one spell each turn without a doubt.
Deck Cost
At the time of release, purchasing the deck as singles costs $115.18, while purchasing the complete deck costs $59.44.
Recommendations for Improvements
Be sure to stick a few extra turn spells into the deck for easy back-to-back turns if you’re looking for upgrades. Being one of the stronger preconstructed decks already, it wouldn’t take too many upgrades to make this deck very efficient with high synergy. The overall power of the deck as purchased is roughly 6/10, with a potential upgraded power level of 9/10.
Riveteers Rampage
Image Credit: Wizards of the Coast
Deck Color & Mechanic
Get ready to swing big with this deck. With the combination of colors of black, red and green, this deck represents Jund. It utilizes the new mechanic Blitz, which is an ability on creatures that will let you cast them for an alternate cost. When you cast a spell this way, the creature gains Haste, and you must sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step. When the creature dies, it also draws you a card. With all this, you should easily be able to use the alternate Blitz cost to cast huge creatures, swing in for big damage, get synergy off a death trigger, and draw a card.
Deck Commander & Ability
The Commander for this deck is Henzie “Toolbox” Torre. This Legendary Creature – Devil Rogue has a converted mana cost of one black, one red, and one green, and comes with a power and toughness of 3/3. His primary ability bestows the Blitz mechanic on every creature spell you cast with a converted mana cost of 4 or greater, with the Blitz cost equal to its regular mana cost. Henzie also makes Blitz spells cost one fewer colorless mana for each time you’ve cast your Commander from the command zone during the game. Look to cheat out big creatures fast and gain instant value from them.
Deck Cost
At the time of release, purchasing the deck as singles costs $140.00, while purchasing the complete deck costs $65.99.
Recommendations for Improvements
When improving the deck, you should lean towards adding cost-reduction spells, which will help with casting big baddies and gaining that value from their sacrifice. With enough reduction, you can gain some great synergy from colorless Eldrazi spells as well. The overall power of the deck as purchased is roughly 6/10, with a potential upgraded power level of 8/10.
Cabaretti Cacophony
Image Credit: Wizards of the Coast
Deck Color & Mechanic
This deck champions the Naya combination of colors, red, green, and white. It may be difficult to tell at first, as the mechanic isn’t directly on the Commander itself, but this deck uses the new Alliance ability. This ability word gives you value for creatures entering the battlefield under your control. The effects that trigger from a creature entering differ depending on the card itself.
Also leaning on old traditions with this deck, you’ll be looking to create as many tokens as possible to trigger the Alliance ability on your cards and gain as much value as possible while going wide and Goading your opponents. (Goaded creatures must attack if able, and must attack a player other than you if possible.)
Deck Commander & Ability
The Commander for this deck is Kitt Kanto, Mayhem Diva. When she enters the battlefield, she will create a 1/1 green and white Citizen creature token for you. Her primary ability allows you to tap two untapped creatures you control to Goad someone else’s creature, also giving that creature +2/+2 and Trample until the end of the turn. This happens during each player’s combat, so you’ll want to have plenty of tokens. Kitt Kanto, Mayhem Diva herself is a Legendary Creature – Cat Bard Druid, with a power and toughness of 3/3 and a converted mana cost of one colorless, one red, one green and one white. A wide board and Goading your opponents can lead to some aggressive politics and fun gameplay.
Deck Cost
At the time of release, purchasing the deck as singles costs $114.04, while purchasing the complete deck costs $74.99.
Recommendations for Improvements
Adding things like fast mana ramp, exile and return cards to create more tokens, stax cards to slow down your opponents while Goading their creatures, and having creatures that give you value from tapping them could give this deck a big boost. Add in some extra combat cards from the red side and you’re starting to get competitive. The overall power of the deck as purchased is roughly 6/10, with a potential upgraded power level of 8/10.
Bedecked Brokers
Image Credit: Wizards of the Coast
Deck Color & Mechanic
The last deck we have to break down consists of a Bant color combination of green, white, and blue. Its main objective is to put plenty of counters on your creatures; not just +1/+1 counters, but everything from Trample counters to the new Shield counters, which the Commander of this deck likes to produce. This deck is themed around using the Shield counter mechanic, and they can be amazing for preventing damage removal. If a creature has a Shield counter and would be dealt damage or destroyed, you just remove the counter instead. However, it leaves room for exile effects, which many decks can make use of, so it’s not foolproof. The goal of the deck is to boost your creatures’ power based on the number of counters you’ve distributed and swing through.
Deck Commander & Ability
The Commander for this deck is Perrie, the Pulverizer. Being a Legendary Creature – Rhino Soldier, and having a converted mana cost of one colorless, one green, one white and one blue, you would expect slightly better than a power and toughness of 3/3. The biggest benefit of this Commander is that he can protect himself, as he places a Shield counter on a creature of your choice when he enters. Perrie, the Pulverizer’s primary ability is where he gets better. as he can boost one target creature by +X/+X and give them Trample until end of turn whenever he attacks, where X is the number of different types of counters on permanents you control.
Deck Cost
At the time of release, purchasing the deck as singles cost $124.59, while purchasing the complete deck costs $69.44.
Recommendations for Improvements
This is a deck that could benefit from some upgrades. It gives a good enough base you can build in a few different directions with options. One might add blink effects to abuse the Commander’s Shield counter ability, and stax cards to simultaneously slow down the opponent. Having the Simic colors in the deck also helps with options. The overall power of the deck as purchased is roughly 5/10, with a potential upgraded power level of 7/10.
Magic: The Gathering Streets of New Capenna Commander Decks, Ranked
#5 – Bedecked Brokers is going to be tough to play. Shield counters can be cool, but there are so many ways around the mechanic, like exiling creatures or reducing their toughness to 0, that it might make it quite difficult to keep a board presence. It’s also lacking in card draw.
#4 – Obscura Operations may have the best resale value, but will also need the most upgrades to play, and has a strategy more likely to get you targeted. It’s probably has the strongest Commander, but relies on the whole deck to run.
#3 – Riveteers Rampage can be tough to keep a board presence if you’re Blitzing all of your big creatures in, as you’ll be sacrificing them at the end of the turn. It may be easy to get overwhelmed and lack a board presence. For this deck, you’ll need to sacrifice board state for instant value, which may be good enough at the right times and may not at others. With some upgrades, this deck can run quite smoothly, but would still have a hard time keeping up with really competitive decks.
#2 – Cabaretti Cacophony could still use a few upgrades, but it will still run smoother as its preconstructed self than the other three already listed. The token generation can be crazy, which helps with moving the tempo of the game. One problem is that its strength makes you a target. However, this deck is more equipped to fight back.
#1 – Maestros Massacre is the most solid of all five of the decks. It is prone to be removed right away because of this, but it plays a lot of control and can double the value of this very early on. Doubling your card draw is also amazing. If you want to make the fewest amount of upgrades out of the box, this deck is the best. If you want to upgrade the deck, it’s also the most likely to be the most competitive.
It seems as though Wizards of the Coast is keeping up with the trend of releasing quite powerful preconstructed decks. As the format of Commander grows and becomes more fine-tuned, the days of preconstructed Commander decks being very weak and introductory are slowly going by the wayside. The Riveters, Brokers and Obscura decks are going to need some more upgrades to keep up with more competitive play, but the Maestros and Cabaretti decks could be played directly out of the box.
Overall, none of the new Commander decks are too flawed or lacking, and they all seem to be decently balanced.If you’re looking to get into Commander, you really can’t go wrong with any of these, as each one introduces new mechanics and new cards while carrying an overall style and theme.
As Wizards of the Coast keeps including and reprinting more and more Commander staples into these decks, you may expect the value of some staples to decline slightly. However, these decks themselves still hold their resale value, also making them great in terms of financial value.
Now that we know about the five families vying for control of the Streets of New Capenna, let’s go sling some spells!
