Streets of New Capenna Limited Archetypes Guide

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Hey everyone! We’ve already went over all the individual cards and the mechanics of Streets of New Capenna so now we’re going to discuss all of the archetypes. Knowing these will help you to have a plan going into a draft and be prepared for the best options to pivot into if things start to go off the rails.

We have our usual batch of ten archetypes to go over, but with a Shyamalan twist. Half of the archetypes are the normal allied colored pairs while the other half are the three-color shards representing the families that run New Capenna.

I’m going to provide you with a skeleton of each archetype so you have an idea what they look like. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, it’s basically an example draft deck where you only use one rare, five uncommons, and not more than two of any common. It’s a great way to be able to set expectations for what a solid, but not overpowering version of the deck would be like.

Mana bases are certainly going to be contentious in this format, so I am keeping it simple for this exercise. For each of the two-color decks I am going to be doing eight of each color land with an on-color sacrifice dual land. For the three-color decks, I am doing eighteen lands with four fixing lands providing eight sources of each color.

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Azorius

The theme for the Azorius deck is creatures with counters on them. It does this through either shield counters or +1/+1 counters from connive. There is also the completely surprising (slight amount of sarcasm) subtheme of flying creatures due to containing blue and white magic cards.

This deck has a very low curve ending at four, but there are enough connive spells that it should mitigate any extra lands that you draw. Your goal of racing through the air is backed up by cheap defensive cards like Backstreet Bruiser, Hold for Ransom and Kill Shot.

My rare choice for this deck was Ledger Shredder because with so many cheap cards, it will quickly turn into a massive threat while crafting your hand into a masterpiece.

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Selesnya

Attention citizens of New Capenna! You have been recruited to take up your swords and battle a variety of monsters. The Selesnya deck is all about getting citizens to do the dirty work. I’m sure there’s a joke about how that’s how every government is, but I’ll let it go.

This version can start out quick by pumping up Civil Servant with Backup Agent.  I also made sure there were some value engines packed in off of Darling of the Masses and Rumor Gatherer. The removal is light and should only be used on must kills that are blocking the way.

The rare I choose was Fight Rigging because it helps keep your creatures just big enough to keep attacking while also eventually dropping a free spell. It’s also a nice combo with Cabaretti Initiate as a growing double striking raccoon isn’t a joke.

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Dimir

Putting five different mana values in your graveyard is the theme for Dimir. That is really fueled by a combination of casualty, connive, and self-mill.

The first thing you’ll notice is that I’m a liar and changed the mana base for this deck. Sacrifice lands are a good way to add an additional mana value to your graveyard so I was willing to deal with them coming into play tapped. I also made sure to add cards that can still provide value when milled like Expendable Lackey and Maestros Initiate. While the Threshold payoffs aren’t amazing, in a deck like this they are more a bonus than something you are actively working towards.

The reason I put Aven Heartstabber in is that it acts as either an enabler early or a payoff late. That’s pretty solid for only two mana.

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Rakdos

Are you ready for a shocking revelation? Rakdos likes to sacrifice creatures. I know, I know… I was flabbergasted as well. It’s a very efficient aggressive deck backed up by plenty of removal and of course the desire to sacrifice things.

The first thing I did when building this is throw in as many Body Dropper as I could. I would seriously play like six of them in this deck if I could. It triggers off every blitz while giving you an outlet to sacrifice creatures you already got value out of like Corrupt Court Official. Forge Boss will have your opponent wondering what happened to their life total as it keeps pinging away.

The rare I choose was Jaxis, the Troublemaker because outside of being awesome it really synergizes with this deck. Copying Night Clubber or Unlucky Witness while providing more sacrifice triggers is really everything that this deck can ask for.

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Gruul

Greedy Gruul is all about living that treasure life. While that is the main theme, I think its much better as a beatdown deck that happens to occasionally use treasures.

One of the first things you probably noticed was two copies of Antagonize. When you are in full aggression mode, +4/+3 is a lot of stats for only two mana. It lets you win almost any combat and sometimes outright kills your opponent. They should also be available fairly late. Similar to NEO red, the goal here is to kill your multicolor, value-oriented opponent before they can properly setup.

The rare I choose was Black Market Tycoon because it’s just a cheap mana dork that can sometimes blow up. Play it on turn two, make a treasure on end step of turn three, take two damage, make a treasure on turn four and drop Security Rhox while still having four mana to play with is a monstrous tempo swing. It also acts as a long game feed for Jetmir's Fixer.

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Brokers (Bant)

The Brokers guild feels like an extension of the Azorius deck that focuses on putting counters on its creatures. The real difference is that the green contributes a pretty big bump in power level for cards like Lagrella, the Magpie.

When building this, I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of two drops that put counters on creatures so that Celestial Regulator and Exotic Pets would both be better early. With the mana base, I assume I will never play anything on turn one so I wanted anything in that slot to still play well later in the game.

The rare that I choose was Brokers Ascendancy because it just piles on the counters until you overwhelm your opponent. Almost everything else in the deck is a creature to really take advantage of this.

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Cabaretti (Naya)

The Cabaretti family grows stronger through building alliances. It takes advantage of alliance by going wide through spells or creatures that produce an additional token when cast.

I know I just said this was an alliance deck, but I failed to put any alliance creatures in the deck. This is another version you can run based off curving out hard with almost everything being a two for one on its own. Most of all it can really can go off with one of my favorite rares in the set, Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second.

Jinnie lets you just blow up and this seemed like a prime opportunity to show you a build around version. The two Warm Welcome help you dig for her or trigger her once she’s in play. I probably should have added another finisher or Witty Roastmaster, but I think this type of build would do just as well as one packing those.

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Maestros (Grixis)

When you’re doing Maestro things, there are bound to be a few casualties floating around. Some of the normal Rakdos sacrifice payoffs really step it up when you have more value-based sacrifice outlets like Rooftop Nuisance.

The Body Dropper package pops up again to take advantage of the incidental sacrifices made with casualty. It looks like a lot of decks are going to be fighting over those and Corrupt Court Official. I also love Corpse Appraiser and would add more if the arbitrary rules of skeleton construction allowed me to.

I choose Hostile Takeover for the rare because it is a really strong draw into these colors for me. Being able to sweep the board while guaranteeing to save one of your guys and kill their biggest threat is a huge deal. There are plenty of cards that can survive it or have already given you value by the time they die.

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Obscura (Esper)

Conniving is what Obscura does best. Have you ever met an Esper opponent who wasn’t up to something? Exactly.

While I made sure to include a decent amount of connive, I didn’t want to have the deck entirely dependent on it. Queza, Augur of Agonies is a tank that puts a clock on your opponent and triggers off of every card draw including connive. Fake Your Own Death is in here because it combos with Corrupt Court Official and all the other ETB effects.

I choose Toluz, Clever Conductor for the rare because it provides an absolutely absurd amount of value if it ever dies. It puts them in a position where they have to use removal on it early or risk letting it get out of hand.

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Riveteers (Jund)

The hard-working Riveteers like to blitz their opponents faces off. Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t hear Riveteers without picturing them all wearing construction hats with Mickey Mouse ears on them.

Getting back to this deck, it actually doesn’t seem like it gains that much over the Rakdos sacrifice deck. At least not for the cost in consistency. I’m sure that it would be better if I had more rares or uncommons that went into it, but outside of that the green doesn’t seem to add enough to the general theme to be worth it.

Tenacious Underdog was the rare I choose because it does everything this deck wants. It keeps coming back providing more sacrifices and cards for a reasonable cost.

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Wrap up

Thanks for reading! By now you should have a pretty thorough understanding of how to handle yourself on the Streets of New Capenna. Check back later this week for my draft guide and two episodes of the Draft Lab Podcast.

I’m always open to feedback, let me know what you loved, what you hated, or just send dog pics. You can contact at:

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