The latest Magic: The Gathering set, Streets of New Capenna, is out now. It features warring crime families in a fantasy metropolis that evokes New York (or Burton-era Gotham) — but with dragons, rhinos, and other fantastical creatures.
The families are The Brokers, The Obscura, The Maestros, The Riveteers, and The Cabaretti.
If you want to find out which family you fall into, you can take a quiz on the Wizards/MTG website and get rewarded with an MTG Arena code for a family card sleeve. I was placed into The Brokers!
There’s one new mechanic for each family in Streets of New Capenna — five new MTG mechanics to wrap your head around.
Connive
Whenever a card or ability makes you connive, you draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, the creature that connived gets a +1/+1 counter.
Casualty
Spells with casualty let you sacrifice a creature with power equal to or greater than the number next to the casualty keyword. If you do, you copy the spell — turning a good effect into a much stronger one.
Blitz
Blitz is an alternative cost (often cheaper) that gives the creature haste and “when this creature dies, draw a card,” but you must sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step. Hit hard, hit fast, then cash in a card.
Alliance
Alliance triggers whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control. Cabaretti cards reward you for steady creature drops with buffs, pings, tokens, and more.
Shield Counters
Creatures (often from The Brokers) enter with shield counters — protective counters that prevent the next time the creature would be dealt damage or destroyed. Instead, you remove a shield counter.
Returning Mechanic — Hideaway
Hideaway returns as hideaway N. When a permanent with hideaway enters the battlefield, you look at the top N cards of your library, exile one face down, and put the rest on the bottom in a random order. Later, if the card’s condition is met, you may cast the exiled card without paying its mana cost.
Given the family focus, there’s a lot of Commander potential in this set. There are five pre-made Commander decks alongside Set Boosters, Collector Boosters, and more to help you fill out the 281-card set or supercharge your favorite decks.
Buy Magic: The Gathering — Streets of New Capenna
