#Streets of New Capenna Commander

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Parnesse, the Subtle Brush by Svetlin Velinov

[5ecardaday]

Commanders of New Capenna

Another weekend, another brand-new release from me. This time it’s back to the schedule as normal, with the results of last month’s Monster Popularity Contest (a monthly patreon poll where supporters vote to see their favorite monsters, NPCs, and other enemies come to life.) These five friendly mugs are the face commanders from the commander decks released alongside Streets of New Cappena. Each one serves a different family, and plays a different role in the glamorous politics of this 30′s-themed fantasy setting.

If you’d like early access to more content like this, the ability to vote in polls like the one mentioned above, and other patron-exclusive releases like monthly subclasses and more, you can sign up to support me for as little as $2/month!

[folansstuff]

I need to find a good basic land art to bling my Henzie deck out. I wish I liked the actual Streets of New Cappena basics, but that specific art deco vibe is just not for me.

Ideas?

[niuttuc]

Today’s recent budget commander sleeper is a mythic from new capenna reminiscent of the Titans of old, but with even more stuff stapled on it!

It’s very easy to overlook the different elements of the text. This is a big flying threat that immediately gets you to see two more cards and rebates its own card advantage, then triggers its own ability to neutralize an attacking threat for an entire turn cycle. Beyond that, it will KEEP generating card advantage and keeping threats down every single turn as it ALSO triggers when it attacks, and its neutralizing trigger works once for each card discarded, but not even to its own ability!

This card does so much, I think any deck could use it, but anything that particularly is trying to get ETBs and/or discard, from Brago to Cycling, will gain a colossal amount of advantage from this curve topper.

It currently retails for less than fifty cents.

[urabrask-the-hidden]

my boy. my baby boy

im feeling super normal about this. Don't worry.

[loreleywrites]

*wave*

New follower here so I don't know much about you. Hope you don't mind the twofer.

What has been your favorite MTG product or storyline?

What MTG related projects have you been a part of?

Thanks for following!

It feels a little unfair to promote Distant Planes since it was published in 1996 and copies are like $30 now, but it's an anthology book with a lot of delightful stories in it and a bunch of pretty solid entries and a few mediocre ones and one really bad awful stinky one, but it has some of my favorite deep cut characters and moments in it.

As for Magic projects, in an official capacity I have written all the planeswalker VO for MTG Arena since War of the Spark. I also have been on the name/text teams for Modern Horizons, Theros: Beyond Death, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, Zendikar Rising, Strixhaven: School of Mages: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, Streets of New Capenna, The Brothers' War, March of the Machine, March of the Machine: Aftermath, and all the associated commander decks associated with those sets. I also wrote for Thunder Junction next year.

I've also written a few MTG videos with IGN this year.

Unofficially, I am a founding cohost of The Vorthos Cast, a podcast all about Magic's flavor, story, and characters. We release new episodes every Monday.

[mad-god-of-dungeons-and-dragons]

explaining why i refer to the three colour combos as ikoria/capenna instead of tarkir/alara

as i have said once before, i refer to the three colour combinations as ikoria triomes and new capenna families, rather than the typical shard/wedge way that players usually do. i have decided to put it out there in case anyone else uses these terms.

it’s mainly because i only really got into the game around 2019-2020, and didn’t interact with the fandom at all until this year. so the first exposure i had to the three colour combos were the names given to them in ikoria: lair of behemoths and later the allied combos in the streets of new capenna. they were the only names i had really seen for them.

for the families, it’s for that reason. i saw new capenna before i knew anything about alara. i’d heard about in bits of lore i had read, but nothing on the colour combos. so i just refer to them as the first name i knew for them.

but for the enemy wedges, i have a bit more behind my reasoning. with the families, each trio was centred around one colour. for example, brokers is white-centred, with green and blue as its allies. then each of the other families follow the same pattern. even alara did this. however, tarkir broke this pattern. instead of the central colour having both its enemies as it’s companions, it focused on one and added an allied colour and an enemy colour. for example, abzan is white centred and has black and green as companions. but this breaks the pattern previously established, as the white centred enemy trio should have red and black as companions. tarkir does not do this, but ikoria picks up the pattern. and i only care about the patterns so much coz i am autistic, and if you have any autistic friends you’ll know how much we love our patterns.

so, for example, my two main commander decks are my cabaretti bright-palm deck and my indatha ixhel deck.

if you have any questions feel free to ask.

[markrosewater]

While you're passing along notes to the gatherer team can you tell them that the Streets of New Capenna Commander cards only have their extended art and not the normal versions.

Will do.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Skyway Robber by Denys Tsiperko

[jasper-pagan-witch]

I used to run a black, blue, white commander sphinx deck so I have 2 fav sphinxs if you're up to doing two (if not, just choose one you like better ;A; thank you for the opportunity!) Conundrum Sphinx or Enigma Sphinx

Hey there, welcome to the inbox!

Oh you should adore the Obscura head from the Streets of New Capenna set, Raffine. She's a WUB Sphinx too!

So let's start with Conundrum Sphinx. It's a 4 power, 4 toughness Blue Flyer for 4 energy, which is already really awesome, and then it's got its sweet little bonus ability.

Whenever Conundrum Sphinx attacks, each player chooses a card name. Then each player reveals the top card of their library. If the card a player revealed has the name they chose, that player puts it into their hand. If it doesn’t, that player puts it on the bottom of their library.

Ooooo I see good potential for a spell here! I'd go about this one as a spell to draw resources one needs to oneself. I'd implement some divination, as that would cover one of the two Blue costs for it. Perhaps divining to find out what it is you need or to get ideas of avenues to explore for attaining those resources? Then I'd have another Blue cost and two generic costs for the spell to cover, which would probably be correspondences to enhance the divination or to attract things.

And now for Enigma Sphinx, a 5 power, 4 toughness White-Blue-Black Flyer for 7 energy. Not only that, but it has Cascade, which allows you to exile cards from the top of your library (deck) until you exile a non-land card that costs less than Enigma Sphinx, which you can then cast without paying its cost. Then the Cascaded-and-exiled cards get put on the bottom of your library in a random order.

...That reminds me, I need to put together that Green-Blue-Red Cascade deck that's been living rent-free in my head.

And for its final ability, whenever Enigma Sphinx gets put into a graveyard, you instead put it back in your library as the third-from-the-top card. Talk about a rebound.

This would be a fun idea for a very annoying protective servitor that just keeps coming back when "destroyed". I'm thinking howlite, sodalite, and obsidian for the colored energy (White, Blue, and Black, respectively, though I use howlite for both White and Black energy) and then other protection correspondences for the four generic costs? It would be fun and pretty tough right off the bat.

Thanks for sending these in! I don't usually use Sphinx cards either in play or in my craft, but this has given me some fun stuff to think about! Feel free to drop by any time to talk shop about MTG magic!

~Jasper

[paupermodern]

Tournament Report 1/14/24

Pauper Modern Event at Jared’s

(my prize, a $14 foil commander card)

  By Todd Murdock

  INTRODUCTION

Our meta for the past year has been all about the RW Synthesizer decks that have for the most part, dominated the top spots in our monthly-ish tournaments. For much of that time I had been grinding away doing my best to get my mono Green Self-Assembler Tron deck to work, but I just could not keep up with all of the cantrip artifacts and newly downshifted Swiftspears. The format had just become too fast. I tried a quick stint playing my own Swiftspears with the mono red Hot Dog deck, but I just didn’t like the “if you can’t beat it, join it” feeling. I knew I could beat it. And that is when I heard people were having success with Delver of Secrets again (one of my favorites). 

The printing of Tolarian Terror in Dominaria United meant that if you played UB Delver, then you could match the Terrors with Gurmag Anglers. They both wanted a mass of spells in the graveyard, but then there was a catch. Angler wanted to delve away the spells, whereas Terror needed to keep them for cost reduction purposes. So playing them out of order was BADBADBAD and there were times when I was forced to do such things in a game. So, I had some success with that deck and felt more overall in control, but it still wasn’t quite enough to bring home the wins.

The big game changer was the printing of Lorean Revealed (a LOTR card) that lets you island cycle for one mana can’t be underestimated. You can get away with playing a 17 land card because the four copies of Lorean Revealed are lands 18-21 early game or draws three more cards in the late game.This pushed me closer to wanting to play mono blue.

The downshifting of Cryptic Serpent was also big. It is costed virtually the same as Terror, both being seven manna creatures which are cheaper for every sorcery and instant in the graveyard, but now you weren’t chopping yourself off at the knee with the delving Angler. The question was: Is giving up the black removal cards worth the consistency of playing no tap lands and just counterspells for removal? The thought of playing all basic islands with no tap lands interested me. Last month I tried that mono blue strategy and it felt much, much better. I was doing great for the day, and then I ran smack dab into Jared’s mono blue Faerie Ninjas and he literally out tempo-ed me. He just ninja’ed and spellstuttered and danced circles around me and my Delver crew. My Spell Pierces, Negates and Dispels did nothing against a well placed Spell Stutter Sprite because those were ETB triggers, I wasn’t prepared for those. I went home wounded but even more determined than ever. I knew exactly what I had to do and part of it was to think outside of my mono blue box.

And so now we have arrived here on the fourteenth of January at Jared’s on a very sunny Sunday noon. It had been cold and raining for the previous few days and it felt good to see the sun, to feel its warmth.  I surprisingly arrived first, but others started spilling in the door even before I could get all of my gear and riding armor off. Chris walked in with the pizza and we were ready to go!

HYPOTHESIS

I needed a more robust counterspell suite and to take on more of a Control role, especially in games two and three because negate was not cutting it, so I came up with Psychic Barrier and Mana Leak instead.

I also needed a way to stop things like Ninjitsu and to take out essential, one-toughness creatures to neuter a spellstutter sprite counter, so I came up with Gutshot.

MATERIALS

My Decklist  (U Delver/Serpents)

17 basic islands (very pretty ones from Streets of New Capenna)

4 Delver of Secrets

4 Tolarian Terror

2 Cryptic Serpent

2 Murmuring Mystic

4 Preordain

4 Lorien Revealed

3 Gutshot (yes, a red spell in my mono blue deck)

4 Thought Scour

3 Otherworldly Gaze

3 Consider

3 Spell Pierce

2 Vapor Snag

4 Counter Spell

1 Lose Focus

(Sideboard)

2 Tormod’s Crypt

4 Annul

2 Steel Sabotage

1 Dispel

2 Psychic Barrier

2 Mana Leak

2 Echoing Truth

  Contestants and their Decks:

 Me (Todd)-  U Serpent/Delver

Jesse- W Glitter Squad

Chris- UR Electromancer Storm

Ben- UB Proliferate Infect

Jared- U Ninja/Faeries

Rob- U Ninja/Faeries (*same build)

Brian- WB Tithing Blade

Jordan- WB Tithing Blade (*different build)

There were two other players that also began the tournament, but for personal reasons were forced to drop out in the early rounds.

PROCEDURE

Eat pizza, drink, smoke and do whatcha gotta do to get ready. Each wizard had their own unique pre-game warm-up rituals to prepare for battle.

Jesse inputs the names in the box and it gives us the match pairings.

We agree to play three fifty minute rounds, the best of 3 games wins the round.

DATARESULTS

Match 1

Me vs. Chris

U Delver/Serpent vs. UR Electromancer Storm

Game 1 - The first game went pretty fast. Chris got in some early damage, getting me down to fifteen, but I was able to fill my graveyard quickly with instants and sorceries and came out with a Tolarian Terror. I hit them for five and followed up with a Cryptic Serpent, hitting for eleven the turn after that. Chris was at four and I was holding counterspells. I had the game. 

Game 2 - The second game was a much longer and grindy-er game. They boarded in counter spells and I foolishly walked into several of them. With several delvers and serpents countered in the graveyard I finally landed a Tolarian Terror and was able to protect it. But that meant I couldn't counter Chris storming off and playing Galvanic Relay, drawing massive amounts of cards. In the end they left me at three life when I passed the turn back to them. I had a five-five serpent and was completely out of counterspells. They had no creatures and I believe no cards in hand, so if they drew a lightning bolt or any other three damage spell, then they had the game before I could finish them off with the final serpent attack. Chris drew his card…        and the serpent got to attack.

Results : I win 2-0

  Match 2

Me vs. Ben

U Delver/Serpent vs. UB Proliferate Infect

Game 1 - I play UG Infect in modern, and I had thought about building this UB Proliferate version when Phyrexia: All Will Be One came out. So I was interested in what Ben was going to do. The first game went off without a ton of interaction. He only did two damage to me, but was able to get me up to six infect before I was able to take him out with a mix of serpents and delvers.

Game 2 - This was ALL Ben’s game from beginning to end. He boarded in some counter magic and kept control. Now it didn’t help that I only had two lands for pretty much the whole game, but any time I tried to get back into the match, he just shut me down. He had 27 life and I got him to 24. I died at ten infect. Sad face. 

Game 3 - The good news was that the previous game let me see Ben’s deck running on all of its cylinders and so in this game, I knew exactly where to attack. I stuck and protected my threats while countering early infect spells. At first I was attacking with a one-one Delver. He already gained life and was up to twenty two within a few turns. Then my delver flipped. I attacked for three and I dropped a second Delver. I then hit for four damage for a few turns. When the second delver flipped, Ben was able to destroy one of them. However, I was able to replace the destroyed Delver with a Tolarian Terror, which I saw as an upgrade. I finished the game with only three infect to my name. 

Results : I won 2-1

Match 3

Me vs. Jared

U Delver/Serpents vs. U Faerie/Ninjas

So this is it, the rematch that I had been preparing for. This is the deck that caused me to build my deck this way.  Jared and I were both 2-0 so far and whoever won this match took the whole day. I took a deep breath and waited to see how things would play out. 

Game 1 - Both decks came roaring off of the starting line. Jared went first and opened with a Faerie Seer, scrying two, so I knew I was safe for a turn one Delver. On my next turn, the Delver gods were smiling and I got a first turn Delver flip! I hit Jared for three on each of the next four turns. By the time I had him at eight, he had gotten me down to twelve. It was a race.  He was hitting me for four damage each turn and with my recently flipped second Delver, I was now hitting for six. 

I like that math and I took the win.

Game 2- This game, I mull to six and am worried but end up with a good hand. I let the first several turns go by, not trying to play an early threat that I couldn't protect. I knew I had inevitability if I played my cards right. I finally had some mana and counter magic so I stuck my first Delver. I was able to attack with it twice before Jared found a way to get rid of that Delver. By then, it was too late. I was able to easily cast Tolarian Terror and keep it alive to hit for five, getting Jared down to nine life. I finished the game by landing a Cryptic Serpent and with two or three different counterspells in hand as backup, there was nothing that Jared could do to get out of the situation. Serpents for the win!

Results : I won 2-0

CONCLUSION

I came in first with U Delver/Serpent 3-0-0

Brian came in second with BW Tithing Blade 2-0-1

Jared came in third with U Faerie/Ninjas 2-1-0

Chris 1-1-1

Ben 1-1-1

Rob 1-1-1

Jordan 1-2-0

Jesse 0-3-0

REFERENCES

I chose three LOTR magic boosters as my prize. I pulled a $14 foil Last March of the Ents (pictured at the beginning of the report). It is a green card that draws cards equal to the greatest toughness of one creature, so it immediately went into my BG Shelob, Child of Ungoliant spider kindred (tribal) deck where creatures with big toughnesses are the norm. 

Which brings us to the next gathering, and I chose it to be a Command Fest. So I will bring that Spider deck along with a dozen others to play and to share and I will see you all next time. This Command Fest is a PROXY FRIENDLY EVENT. So I will be sending out an email soon with websites where you can easily (and for free)  print out your own proxies on your own color printer so people can play whatever decks and cards they want (within the commander ban list of course). I am hoping to have both casual and competitive decks and pods, so everyone is welcome! See you there! Cheers!    -Todd

[niuttuc]

Today’s recent budget commander sleeper is another from the New Capenna precons, and a boon for any somewhat creature-based boros deck.

Boros ramp has come a long way in the past few years, but there is little as effective as this in most decks. The base rates of getting two 1/1s for 3 isn’t great, but it’s a nice way to enable the engine of this card, providing blockers and ramp. The ability can be activated with summoning sick creatures, for free, multiple times a turn, at instant speed. If you have any untapped creatures left before your turn? Free treasures. If you have any creature out when you play this, you can start making treasures immediately.

This is a 3-mana “rock” that’s an enchantment with a huge upside, more resilient than an artifact. Making treasures is quite a bit better than just making mana, either for artifact synergy or just if you want to stockpile the mana for a big turn.

The flavor and art are pretty great, the card is cheap, and any deck that’s somewhat creature-based in Boros (and up) can take advantage of this very easily, not just token decks.

[eastsidemags]

Happy Birthday Magic (the Gathering)!

How’s it going fellow gamers? Hop into our way-back machine as we travel 30 years into the past…

Magic: The Gathering débuted in August of 1993, and had a modest initial print run of 2.6 million cards with fantasy illustrations to match. Over the next decade, it would inspire a genre of collectible-card games such as Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon.

We really REALLY wish we had some original Magic the Gathering sets from back in the day to offer you but since we don’t have any in stock, we’re offering you 20% off the following Magic the Gathering sets we currently have in stock*:

Unfinity

Phyrexia: All Will Be One

The Brothers’ War

March of the Machine

March of the Machine the Aftermath

Streets of New Capenna

Dominaria United

It’s not just booster packs though! Of course boosters are part of the sale but you can also grab Commander Decks, Challenger Decks, Bundles and more awesome WotC (Wizards of the Coast) products*!

PLUS we’re offering a BONUS! Spend $100 or more and get (1) FREE box of Dragon Shield sleeves on us*!

PLEASE NOTE: Magic the Gathering Universes Beyond set Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth are NOT included in the sale.

Come on by and let’s get our game on!

*all products available at a discount while supplies last

[headskerlon]

Quick draft zendikar rising guide

It developed the ongoing Phyrexian story arc as well, by reintroducing the rebelious Phyrexian Praetor Urabrask, who may serve as a major adversary to the rest of the Phyrexians at this story's culmination. Considering Theros: Beyond Death didn't have any sort of written story published for it, finally knowing what happened to Elspeth is awesome. It also has some huge new story elements, such as the return of the demon tyrant Ob Nixilis and Elspeth, the Planeswalker who managed to escape from the underworld in Theros: Beyond Death. Finally, we saw hideaway make a comeback for the first time in Standard since 2007's Lorwyn. It also introduced five new mechanics: shield counters, connive, casualty, blitz, and alliance. The set is split between the five families: the green, white, and blue Brokers the white, blue, and black Obscura the blue, black and red Maestros the black, red, and green Riveteers and the red, green and white Cabaretti. The set has a three-colour-matters focus, like Ikoria and the Tarkir before it, which we didn't see a whole lot of in 2021. Here is everything announced for Magic: The Gathering in 2022. It'll tackle new genres and plenty of crossovers, while also revisiting some pivotal moments of Magic's history. RELATED: Magic The Gathering's Innistrad: Crimson Vow Draft Archetypes ExplainedĢ022 is shaping up be a very, very different year for Magic. Now it's over halfway through 2022, we've just had Double Masters, and it's time to look forward to what the rest of the year will have to offer. The key to the Zendikar Rising draft format is staying open to as many archetypes as possible. Seeing Felidar Retreat at 1 should come as no surprise to anyone who has played against the card, which can be almost unbeatable given a few activations. Get some kind of bonus or discount for each cleric, rogue, warrior, wizard under your control. Listed above are the top 20 cards that players were least likely to pass in Premium Drafts. We had no idea what Strixhaven was, or even the names of what were then called Innistrad: Werewolves and Innistrad: Vampires. The Ultimate Guide to Zendikar Rising Draft Zendikar Rising Mechanics. It doesn't seem five minutes since Magic: The Gathering's Zendikar Rising had just been revealed, when Wizards of the Coast announced the sets that would be coming in 2021. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth – TBA 2023 Welcome to a Zendikar Rising Draft Guide In this Zendikar Rising Draft Guide I discuss the Top 3 Commons for each Color, I rank each Color based on its powe.Pioneer Challenger Decks – October 14, 2022.Game Night: Free-For-All – October 14, 2022.Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40,000 – October 7, 2022.Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate – June 10, 2022.Streets of New Capenna – April 29, 2022.Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty – February 18, 2022.Secret Lair x Street Fighter – February 17, 2022.Innistrad: Double Feature and Commander Collection: Black – January 21, 2022.

[crowes-nest]

Rhyssa

This is the fourth of a few design stories that I’ll be posting over the next few weeks. If you don’t know what that means, scroll down until you see the post explaining it.

...

Time for a weird one. Rhyssa Valanar was the BBEG (big-bad-evil-girl) of my campaign, so I knew she had to have a big impact on the game when played. She’s also a princess, and since I envisioned these cards being played in a multiplayer environment at first, I was inspired to make use of a flavorful multiplayer mechanic: monarch!

June 2021

The idea is that Rhyssa really wants to retake the throne, and will go on a rampage if anyone else has control over the monarchy. Your opponents can stop the rampage by letting you keep the monarch, but then you’ll get to draw a card every turn - which is the lesser of two evils?

I was pretty satisfied with this design for a looooooong time, actually. I even did the art-over-the-frame treatment I do to all my finished card designs:

October 2021

That’s right - it might have been temp art for Eva and G'nock, but this time that’s actually Rhyssa!

Still, I started getting uncomfortable with this design around the time I switched from a multiplayer, commander environment to a jump-start environment. The monarch still works in 1v1, but, as any pauper player will tell you, it’s not as fun as it is in multiplayer. The other reason I wanted to move away from this was that the entire point of the monarch mechanic is to pass it around the table. Making a card that wanted you to hold onto it forever just felt wrong.

So, I decided to rework her. The new version was made after I changed the way I made these custom cards. Instead of saving every variant that I make to my hard drive, I now just keep the most recent version. Still, if I do enough digging I can usually find a paper trail of changes.

August 2022

Fresh off the image editing software I use to make these cards, we have one of the most busted designs I’ve ever made. 5 mana for a 5/4 with vigilance is already fine, but she also comes with a free edict effect AND the monarch AND indestructible? Ridiculous. It didn’t take long for this to shoot up to 7 mana, where it’s at least comparable to dusk mangler from streets of new capenna. She’s still quite a bit better than dusk mangler, but I think people who played in that campaign would be upset if she was just as powerful as some mediocre uncommon, all things considered.

The other issue with this card is actually a minor rules quirk - indestructible doesn’t prevent damange from going through, it simply means that the card won’t die as a result of taking damage. So, if your opponent attacks you with two 5/5s, and you have the monarch, you would say “oh, Rhyssa is indestructible, so I’ll use her to block one of the 5/5s”. Rhyssa takes 5 damage (gets 5 damange marked on her), but doesn’t die because you’re still the monarch and she’s indestructible. Except, oh no, the other 5/5 your opponent attacked with got through. Now your opponent is the monarch, Rhyssa loses indestructible, and dies as a result of having 5 damage marked on her. Not how you want this to go, huh…

Final Version

So now I have this version. It’s not as resonant as “Rhyssa has indestructible as long as you’re the monarch”, but it still gets the job done. I’m still a little uncomfortable designing a monarch card for 1v1 play, but on reflection I think it fits, actually. The monarchy permanently alters the state of the game once it’s introduced, which means that Rhyssa is as impactful as the BBEG should be, and she costs 7 mana, so she won’t be ruining board states until late into the game. At the very least she's an exciting card with a cool connection to a flavorful mechanic.

[8bitsupervillain]

Can all the companies just cool it with releasing things for some time? Not even a particularly long time, three months. Can we go three months without some new hype cycle for product to happen?

We just went through the hype, release, and apparent cultural death of Dr. Strange 2. Do we really need to now be barraged with the hype cycle for Thor? Streets of New Capenna JUST came out two weeks ago, do we really need to be in the hype cycle for Battle for Baldur's Gate? We just started the hype cycle for Battle for Baldur's Gate, do we really need to start the cycle for Warhammer 40k commander decks, and Double Masters 2022, and teased very slightly for Dominaria United and The Brothers War. Much less trying to drum up hype for the 2023 sets!