Magic: The Gathering’s Streets of New Capenna Is All About Crime and Art Deco

The latest and greatest expansion for Magic: The Gathering, Streets of New Capenna, is set to release later this month both physically and digitally. Following up on the most recent expansion, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, the expansion delves into five crime families vying for power in the city/plane of New Capenna. A mysterious substance called “Halo” fuels much of the plane’s magic, and everyone wants it, and the expansion’s story follows the disruption of the Halo supply. In a press pre-briefing attended by ComicBook.com, Wizards of the Coasts offered a breakdown of what to expect from the new Magic: The Gathering expansion.

In terms of planeswalkers, Elspeth is part of Streets of New Capenna and comes to the plane in order to look into her origins at the behest of Ajani while also looking into the history of New Capenna. Vivien is also in New Capenna, looking into the balance between civilization and the natural world, before running into the Phyrexian praetor Urabrask. Ultimately, Elspeth and Vivien get caught up in the fight between the mob conflict over Halo thanks to encountering a young girl that can create the substance. All of this conflict traces back to The Adversary, who is actually Ob Nixilis.

The five families fighting over Halo in New Capenna include The Obscura, centered in Blue complemented by White and Black; The Maestros, centered in Black complemented by Blue and Red; The Riveteers, centered in Red complemented by Black and Green; The Cabaretti, centered in Green complemented by Red and White; and The Brokers, centered in White complemented by Green and Blue. In short, the five families all have different sorts of colors attached to them with goals that do not always align.

In terms of new mechanics in Streets of New Capenna, there are a couple of them. Connive, for example, has players draw a card, then discard a card. If the discarded card is a nonland card, a +1/+1 counter is added to the creature that was targeted. Connive is largely associated with The Obscura faction.

On the other hand, The Maestros have Casualty, which allows a player to sacrifice a creature with a certain level of power in order to copy the spell with Casualty on it. The Riveteers have Blitz, which allows players to cast a creature for the Blitz cost instead of the normal cost, and it gains haste but dies at the end of the turn. It also allows the player to draw a card when it dies.

The Cabaretti faction has Alliance, which causes an effect whenever another creature enters the battlefield under the player’s control. In a given example of Devilish Valet, Alliance doubles Devilish Valet’s power whenever another creature enters the battlefield under the player’s control. Last but not least, The Brokers get Shield Counters, which are exactly what they sound like: if a card with a shield counter would be dealt damage or destroyed, instead a single shield counter is removed. Hideaway is also a returning mechanic for the expansion.

Streets of New Capenna also features “Golden Age” cards with special frames and art styles. Each three-color card in the set can appear in the Golden Age treatment, and there is a special gilded version of the Golden Age cards with an embossed frame and metallic sheen. There are other frames and full-art basic lands, for example, but the Golden Age cards are the most noteworthy. In general, it’s all inspired by art deco and fashionable looks.

As noted above, Magic: The Gathering‘s Streets of New Capenna expansion is set to release in Magic: The Gathering Arena and Magic Online on April 28th with a full, physical release on April 29th. Additionally, the prerelease for the new expansion is set to start on April 22nd. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the popular tabletop (and increasingly digital) card game right here.

What do you think about what we have seen of the Streets of New Capenna expansion thus far? Are you looking forward to checking it out when it releases later this month? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming!