Fans of Magic: The Gathering have been waiting for any information on the upcoming set: Streets of New Capenna. It is set in a brand new world in the universe of Magic: The Gathering and is inspired by urban gangster movies thanks to its art deco design and focus on organized crime families. But for those curious about what this newest set will contain got a sneak preview from a certain source: Magic's Head Designer Mark Rosewater.
Much like how he's operated in the past, Rosewater released a blog post full of curated clues to what Streets of New Capenna would bring to the game. Those clues were the following:
- five mana costs, using existing mana symbols, that we’ve never used before
- a spell that costs 13BB
- a mechanic we’ve tried to get in numerous sets finally finds a home
- a creature type theme for a draft archetype that’s never been used before
- a red creature that can make token copies of creatures you control
- a card that adds WWUUBBRRGG
- a mechanic which first premiered in a Standard-legal set in the 00’s sees a return to Standard
- a card that makes Cat and Dog tokens
- a draft theme caring about a threshold in the graveyard we haven’t cared about before
- multiple white cards capable of drawing a card each turn
- “Then if you control ten or more creatures, you may play the exiled card without paying its mana cost.”
- “Copy target spell you control that wasn’t cast.”
- “As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature, discard a card, or pay 4 life.”
- “If exactly three colors of mana were spent to activate this ability,”
- “Create a 1/1 blue Fish creature token”
- “When you cast this spell, copy it.”
- “WUBRG, T, Sacrifice CARDNAME:”
- “where X is the number of permanents you’ve sacrificed this turn.”
- “Count the colors of the sacrificed creature,”
- “You may cast any number of the copies without paying their mana costs.”
Since Streets of New Capenna isn't just the return of an older set, there aren't a lot of frames of reference for these mechanics. However, the first teased mechanic: that of five new mana costs that we've never seen used before, does hold a lot of intrigue. Considering a certain Kamigawa planeswalker brought back the use of Phyrexian Mana, it appears WOTC is leaning more into multicolor cards for this set.
What helps support this line of thinking is the return of shard-colored factions -- organizations represented by three of Magic's five major colors -- something that hasn't been seen since the Alara block back in 2008-2009. With this increased focus on multicolor in mind, some of these rules really stand out like "count the colors of the sacrificed creature" or "if exactly three colors of mana were spent to activate this ability."
Finally, Rosewater teased some notable creatures coming to Streets of New Capenna:
- Creature – Devil Warrior
- Creature – Raccoon Rogue
- Creature – Bird Assassin
- Creature – Plant Dinosaur
- Artifact Creature – Treasure Dog
- Artifact Creature – Angel Warrior
- Legendary Creature – Sphinx Demon
- Legendary Creature – Cat Citizen
- Legendary Creature – Cephalid Advisor
- Legendary Creature – Vampire Demon Noble
Considering the promo art for Streets of New Capenna shows a demon in the new cityscape, the presence of a Devil Warrior isn't a major surprise. However, the inclusion of creatures such as Bird Assassin, Plant Dinosaur, and Cephalid Advisor does draw the eye and set the foundation for just how creative and imaginative this set will be.
Streets of New Capenna is set to release both physically and digitally April 28th.
