The newest Magic: The Gathering expansion, Streets of New Capenna, launched on April 29th. Since then, the Hotspawn team has put the new cards through their paces across hundreds of games. Here are some of our favourites!
Image Credit: Ryan Pancoast / Wizards of the Coast
If you’re looking to get started with Magic: The Gathering, check out our review of Streets of New Capenna’s Commander decks.
Ryan’s Picks
Luna’s Picks
- Raffine, Scheming Seer
- Ob Nixilis, the Adversary
- Bootleggers’ Stash
- An Offer You Can’t Refuse
- Lord Xander, the Collector
Image Credit: Eric Deschamps/Wizards of the Coast
Giada, Font of Hopes
Very well done on this one, Wizards of the Coast. Mono-white has always had its problems with mana ramp, especially if you wanted to play Angel tribal specifically, as many of the better Angel cards start to have hefty converted mana costs and it can be hard to stay on curve. A legendary creature and with a CMC of one white and one colorless, Giada should be in every angel deck.
Just to begin, she is a Legendary Creature – Angel with 2/2 power and toughness that also has Flying and Vigilance. That alone is better than some cards.
However, on top of that, you can tap Giada to add one white mana to cast an angel spell. It doesn’t end there either; each subsequent Angel you play now enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each angel you already control. That can start to add up!
Once you pair Giada with cards like Resplendent Angel, Righteous Valkyrie, Bishop of Wings, Youthful Valkyrie and Speaker of the Heavens, mono-white is starting to look a lot more aggro and competitive. (Ryan Shay)
Titan of Industry
As soon as I saw this card, I instantly got Elder Gargaroth vibes. Green has plenty of huge creatures that like to trample, but this card doesn’t just stop there. With a converted mana cost of three green and four colorless, it’s not a cheap spell, but gives you a ton of value on entry. Titan of Industry is also great for those who play devotion decks and cards like Nyxbloom Ancient.
You shouldn’t have trouble getting your way to seven mana in mono-green anyways, and once it’s cast, you get to choose two of its four entry options. These options are that you get to either destroy an artifact or enchantment, a target player gains five life, create a 4/4 Rhino Warrior token, or you get to put a shield counter on a creature you control. Topped off with a 7/7 power and toughness, as well as Reach and Trample, this card is a powerhouse. (RS)
Ziatora’s Envoy
This card comes in one of my favorite color combos, that being Jund (black, red & green). One of my more budget picks, this card has a lot of potential. This creature has a converted mana cost of one black, one red, one green and one colorless, making it not too expensive to cast.
Already I like the card when I see its total CMC is four and it has a power and toughness of 5/4 while also having Trample. This card comes with a lot of text, but basically, when it deals combat damage to a player, you get to look at the top card of your library. If that card had a mana value less than or equal to the damage dealt to the player, you can play it for free. If you don’t, you put that card in your hand. If done properly, you could cast some great spells for free using this, and even catch people off guard through the use of its Blitz ability. (RS)
Image Credit: Volkan Baga/Wizards of the Coast
Arcane Bombardment
This one is crazy. I can not wait to get my hands on one of these and test out casting multiple spells for free every turn. It mostly fits into a mono-red or blue-red deck type, as you’ll want to be casting as many instants and sorceries as possible. Whenever you cast your first instant or sorcery each turn, you get to exile an instant or sorcery from your grave. Then, you get to copy each card exiled this way previously, and cast any number of copies without paying their mana costs. It works kind of like the Storm keyword in a way.
Although it’s a bit expensive with a converted mana cost of two red and four colorless, if you can get this enchantment out, it should pay off. (RS)
Luxior, Giada’s Gift
Here we have something that I myself haven’t seen in my years of playing the game. Whenever a new mechanic, ability or some new combo comes out, I get super excited and with this artifact, we get just that. Having a converted mana cost of only one colorless, it will be easy to get on the field. Equipping a creature costs three colorless, while equipping a planeswalker costs one colorless.
Once equipped, the creature Luxior, Giada’s Gift is attached to receives +1/+1 for each counter on it, and the equipped permanent is no longer a planeswalker, but now a creature in addition to its other types. This card makes planeswalkers into creatures with power and toughness equal to their loyalty count!
This means you can now enchant a planeswalker, equip it with other things, and enemies can’t attack it directly unless they have spot removal. I can’t wait to see the neat tricks people pull with this card. (RS)
Raffine, Scheming Seer
This Legendary Creature – Sphinx Demon is the boss of the Obscura family in New Capenna. Her dark visions started occurring once she sided with archdemons when the angels fell during the city’s inception. Her prophecies were discarded by people as they were grim, but unfortunately for them, they came true.
Raffine, Scheming Seer was used heavily in the most recent championship as a part of the amazing Esper Midrange deck. For the cost of three converted mana, you are getting a 1/4 flying Creature that has Ward 1. Raffine’s ability triggers when any creature attacks, so she doesn’t need to attack to generate value, making her pretty handy at times. (Luna Meschiari)
Image Credit: Matt Stewart/Wizards of the Coast
Ob Nixilis, the Adversary
Ob Nixilis, the Adversary is one of the most expensive regular version cards in New Capenna. He was a human tyrant who decided to become a planeswalker once he realized he was manipulated by demons. Ob Nixilis also became a demon when he was cursed by the Chain Veil.
Ob Nixilis, the Adversary has a converted mana cost of one colorless, one black, and one red, and has Casualty X, meaning you can sacrifice a creature with power X or greater to create a non-legendary copy of the planeswalker with X starting loyalty. If the copy is placed, a 1/1 red Devil creature token can be created. You can then use the other copy to force enemies to lose 2 life unless they discard a card, and gain 2 life in the process. (LM)
Bootleggers’ Stash
Bootleggers’ Stash is an Artifact with a converted mana cost of five colorless and one green. With Bootleggers’ Stash on the battlefield, you can tap your lands to create treasure tokens, which persist across turns, instead of losing access to unspent mana. That makes it a great card in Commander, but do keep in mind that it is scalable determined by the number of lands in play.
In certain formats, you can use Bootleggers’ Stash with Time Sieve to create infinite consecutive turns for yourself. How? Just sacrifice five Treasure Tokens and tap Time Sieve. You will then get an additional turn, and you can continue to do this as many times as you want, provided you can still draw cards from your library. (LM)
An Offer You Can’t Refuse
An Offer You Can’t Refuse is essentially a budget alternative to Swan Song for Commander, although there are differences that make them interesting and unique. For a converted mana cost of one blue, you can counter a noncreature spell. Instead of a 2/2 Bird token, you give the countered spell’s controller two Treasure tokens. That immediately seems like it should not be worth it and in some cases, it isn’t. However, the ability to counter any noncreature spell can be an enormous advantage. This is the edge that, if used correctly, can turn the tide of the battle. In theory, you can even counter your own spell for mana ramp. (LM)
Image Credit: Martina Fačková/Wizards of the Coast
Lord Xander, the Collector
Lord Xander, the Collector is a powerful Legendary Creature and is the boss of the Maestros family in New Capenna. This Vampire Demon Noble provides a couple of ways to reduce the enemy’s resources through the course of the game. With a converted mana cost of four colorless, one blue, one black, and one red, he is quite expensive to play, but he has an immediate impact on the course of the game.
He offers three different abilities to significantly pressure your opponent. The first ability is triggered when Lord Xander enters the battlefield. When this occurs, the opponent will have to discard half of the cards in their hand. The next ability is triggered when Lord Xander attacks. Now, it is the opponent’s library that gets milled by half. Last but not least, the third ability happens when Lord Xander dies. In this case, the opponent has to sacrifice half of their nonland permanents.
Now, if this is not a game-winning card, I don’t know what it is! (LM)
What are your favourite cards from Streets of New Capenna? Have you discovered any cool combos or interesting ways to use these cards combined with cards from past sets?
