It’s every magic players favorite time, spoiler season. It’s like Christmas, but we get it multiple times a year! I get so hyped up for new sets and this one is going to be crazy with the first shard based set we’ve had in a long time. So lets jump right into see what’s going down on the mean Streets of New Capenna.
That’s MR Orfeo to you. Better put some respect on that name or you get the horn. While he is functionally a 4/4 for four mana, he doesn’t have to be attacking to trigger his ability. That means you can pump a random evasive creature and swing in for a billion.
When you hit something sweet, it feels like this larcenist just stole the game. When it misses you just played a much worse Wind Drake. Try to make sure your mana supports playing this one in the first five turns to up the chance of scoring something.
Three mana planeswalkers are always tricky because repeatable value that early can ruin a game. Imagine your opponent curves out random creature into this on the play. They get to make a devil to have a blocker and have two planeswalkers ticking up putting serious pressure on your hand and life total.
If you ever tried to be the Imminent Doom mage in Amonkhet Remastered, then you know what you are getting yourself in for with this. Mostly crushing disappointment. When you pull it off, it’s legendary. Most of the time it’s a three mana do nothing.
The abilities on this charm are kind of obscure…The one mana tax to have access to either Smother or Negate is nice. While there aren’t that many targets for the reanimate, you might be able to get someone really good with it being an instant.
This is such a huge tempo swing that your opponents are never going to be playing around because it’s rare. They’ll think you’re just holding up mana for a card draw before bouncing their spell and cracking in for potentially four lifelink damage.
It’s going to be hard to get more than one treasure off this unless you catch them unawares as a 3/3 isn’t that hard to deal with. There aren’t a ton of other haste creatures floating around either, but it does trigger off of Blitz so that’s a nice little bonus.
This is a nice little beater early on that might get you a card or two if things line up right. Turning Exotic Pets into a cantrip is pretty sick. Having to connect to draw the card is going to drastically drop its effectiveness later in the game.
If you never got to experience the sheer joy of playing against Ill-Gotten Inheritance then you are in for a treat. Sometimes its hard for sarcasm to come through in writing, but it is really, really annoying to play against especially with the extra triggers on this one from drawing cards. Sitting there on a 3/4 body means that you didn’t even have to play a do nothing to get the party started.
Getting a connive for every attacking creature can be completely insane. You’re going to be able to craft your hand into exactly what you want while stacking +1/+1 counters on a creature. It even provides you with a large butted evasive creature to abuse this ability with.
The Naya version of the mana fixing curve topper isn’t quite as impressive as some of the others in the cycle, but it’s still something you are going to want to play when you’re in these colors.
Rigo can be a huge bomb or a middling playable based off of how many ways you have to make 1/1 tokens. Getting to cash them in for an entire card each while protecting itself can pull you ahead in a hurry.
You really need to build your deck around it to get some good use out of this card. The best strategy would be to have a bunch of blitz creatures so that you get even more value out of them. The only problem with that is your opponent can choose to trade with the creature instead of giving you the opportunity to sacrifice it.
Making your opponent sacrifice their highest casting cost means you will usually get the creature you want. If that’s not what you’re into, then perhaps I can interest you in drawing three cards for three mana. What’s behind door #3? That little guy, don’t worry about that little guy. He’s not going to come up.
I’ll have some of what Rocco is serving up. Chord of Calling on a stick gets you what you want, when you want it. Even if you just grab a two drop with this, it’s well worth the five mana for two creatures.
There are going to be a lot of times when this is just a creature, but when you need this, you really need it. Shutting down a planeswalker, vehicle, or piece of equipment is a great add on that is basically just thrown on to a solid body.
This is a huge body in this format especially for the low cost of four. It’s going to be rare that you end up having two treasures early enough to play this off of them, but when you do it’s going to be a massive tempo swing.
This is a great example of a card that wouldn’t be playable if it didn’t fix your mana early. It’s at least one mana too expensive, but a 4/4 flyer is huge and the life gain can help stabilize.
I’m looking at this as a hard to cast bear that will very rarely have some upside. If you don’t have any other self-mill, it’s going to be real rough to turn this on. It does go up a bit if you are looking to curve into things like Corpse Appraiser.
A strange variation of Terastodon that makes 3/3 flying angels. You can’t make your lands into creatures, but you can upgrade some random tokens into legit angels that can end the game in a hurry. You can even hit an opponents creatures if you’re in a pinch.
The last card in the fixing cycle so the same type of things apply here. A decently sized creature that shuts down another creature for a whole turn would get played without the fixing, so feel free to play multiples of these.
This isn’t a stimulus package that I’m interested in. Four mana for either two treasure or two 1/1s is pretty sad even if you can transform future treasures.
If your deck is looking for a Phantom Monster, then that’s what you are getting 90% of the time with this. Serviceable card, but nothing that I’m going to jump through any hoops for.
Instant speed Chart a Course is a solid card and it even helps you build towards turning on your other threshold cards by potentially adding two mana values at the same time.
I want to hop on the train that Toluz is conducting. When he dies, even if you did nothing else, he replaces himself with whatever you connived away when he came into play. If you start conniving away other cards, he becomes an insane value machine that your opponent is going to do everything in their power not to kill.
This is a lot of words to say kill a creature, maybe pick off a treasure token. Draft it like that’s what it is and if a better situation comes up, that’s just a bonus.
Three mana kill anything is a fine spell if you can manage the mana for it. That it a strong enough effect to splash into a two-color deck. As far as the cannot be countered goes, you can just pretend that’s not on there 99.9% of the time.
Huge flying dragon who can pick off your opponent’s creatures by sacrificing your own is a bomb in any era of Magic. The three treasure tokens may not matter at that point in the game, unless you have some payoffs running around, but it’s not like it costs anything extra to get them.
This is a great body for the cost that demands they deal with it or get buried in both card and mana advantage. I really doubt I am ever going to Blitz this unless it straight up kills my opponent because it’s just too much value to give up.
An equipment that does nothing except let you ping away blockers. Did they forget to put modified in this set? It actually does something with tramplers, but not something I’d want in most decks.
The old knuckle dusters are pretty expensive for what they do. Having six mana into giving one creature double strike might win you a few games on a huge trampler, but not enough for me to want to play it.
Another subpar mafia themed equipment that will spend most of its time sitting in a sideboard somewhere. The situation where you want to play this is when you go wide on tokens and have an abundance of cheap life linkers.
I was hoping for a MEOW, but had to settle for a meow. Really replaceable card as a 3/2 for three tends to trade down. The scry sort of evens it out, but the main reason to play this is to have a colorless card to fill in your curve.
The value of this is going to heavily fluctuate on how many ETBs you have. If you have some cheap effects like Corrupt Court Official, then this is a great enabler. The return is even optional so you can also just use this as a decent haste critter.
The ultimate filler card that I’m going to be sadge every time I have to play. This isn’t on the same level as Papercraft Decoy and that was questionable to play. There are enough 1/1 tokens floating around that this will be a real feels bad.
Do I really need to explain how bad this card is for limited? I can assure you that you shouldn’t be playing it no matter what kind of crazy concoction you came up with. Put it down slowly…now step away….good…
As someone who has sent many a glitter filled surprise, I usually don’t open any suspicious packages. If my deck wants both of these abilities, I’m willing to take the chance on this one.
I was going to make a paragon of mediocrity joke, but I’m really torn on where to put this as it’s really a card you have to see in play to properly grade. I think it will play well as putting counters on it can add up quickly and it has some value as a colorless noncommittal pick. Obviously drop this down if you are only playing two colors.
Short Sword is always fluctuating between good and filler card depending on the format. You might have to pay the extra two up front, but that’s for the instant speed and the first strike that you can really catch someone off guard with.
This is another card that is heavily dependent on the composition of your deck as a four power double striker hits like a freaking truck. It’s really not that difficult to curve a two color two drop into this into another multicolor card to swing for eight. It’s also nice that the ability is granted at the beginning of combat so you don’t have to worry about getting blown out by a removal on one of your other creatures.
It’s going to be pretty suspicious if this ends up being any good. It could be a side board card for matches that turn into giant board stalls, but I think I’m going to close the book on this early.
This could turn into something huge, but it takes a while to grow and it’s not even good to play it early because nothing is going to be in the graveyard. I guess it is incidentally good against the five different mana values deck, but even that’s not exciting.
These are up there with the best common duals we have ever had. Being able to fix your mana and later cash it in for another card is a huge deal. Don’t wait around to pick these up as they are going to go fast.
They got tired of waiting for people passing priority on Evolving Wilds. You get your land and you get it now. While a little narrower on what you can get, you do get a free life thrown in. These are going to be key to being able to play all your three-color cards or splash in your two-color decks.
These are great, but hard to grade properly. You will rarely take them pack one pick one, but if you are already in the right colors, you are taking them over anything but straight bombs.
Wrap Up
The artifacts are really unexciting and mostly just filler cards for when your deck didn’t get there. On the other hand, all of the lands are really key cards and a lot higher picks than you are currently thinking they are.
That brings us to the end of our set reviews. Keep checking back for more articles on how to take over the Streets of New Capenna.
If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.
Josh is a member of the elite limited team The Draft Lab as well as the host of The Draft Lab Podcast. He was qualifying for Pro Tours, Nationals, and Worlds literally before some of you were born. After a Magic hiatus to play poker and go to medical school, he has been dominating Arena with over an 80% win percentage in Bo3 as well as making #1 rank in Mythic.
