The Streets of New Capenna is perhaps the most interesting Magic the Gathering release in the last decade or so. Rather than your typical fantasy tropes, New Capenna is a world that appears to be one huge 1920’s inspired, art-deco style Metropolis. Built by angels but ran by demons, this new setting pits five criminal families against each other, each one lead my some sort of demon-touched mythical creatures.
The factions breakdown into Brokers a protection/control theme with a shield ability, Obscura, who focus on control/card draw with a mechanic called connive that lets you cycle cards for bonuses, Maestros, which let you sacrifice creatures for power, Riveteers, which have blitz, a speed themed bonus to spells and the Cabaretti, who get bonuses when your opponent plays creatures. All of these factions are three colours; the Brokers are Green/White/Blue for example. The overall design allows for sneakier play-styles, you’ll be thinking multiple moves ahead rather than just spamming monsters.
It’s an odd sort of set; in addition to the strange setting (which makes for some gorgeous card art and some very fun monsters), the mechanics throughout are novel. The set includes five legendary demon creatures, each one strong and interesting enough to build an entire series of decks out of. Our favourite has to be Jetmir, Nexus of Revels, the leader of the Cabaretti who is simply a hell-powered cat. It brings a horde of tiny creatures to cause utter havoc. (Also, this crime themed release features talking racoons. Because of course they do. )
Other cards of note include the Halo Fountain, an artifact that lets you untap multiple creatures you control. If you can pull it off, it’s also got an alternate win condition; if you have 15 untapped creatures and can summon five white mana, you win the game. Though if you can do all that, you’re probably either close to winning or your opponent is very entrenched.
Of course, the trick here is getting the right cards. The lovely people at Wizards of the Coast have given avid collectors a short cut of sorts. The Streets of New Capenna Collector Booster contains 15 Magic: The Gathering cards and 1 traditional foil double-sided token, with a combination of 5 cards of rarity Rare or higher. The rest are commons or uncommon, and you also get a foil art land card in that set.
Put bluntly, the collector boosters are expensive but also worth the time. We tore through some of the boosters and every time found something we really wanted and could readily use. Also, the art deco art-style of this deck really, really suits the super-shiny foil cards. These boosters will see you investing in the nicest deck protectors you can find.
