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Magic: The Gathering takes a Godfather spin for upcoming Streets of New Capenna

Inspiration: ATLAS Bar (Image: Wizards of the Coast)
Inspiration: ATLAS Bar (Image: Wizards of the Coast)

It feels like it was only a short while ago when Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty was released, but the upcoming Magic: The Gathering set Streets of New Capenna is already up for release on 29 April.

Set in an all-new plane heavily influenced by Art Deco, New Capenna is a metropolitan city built by angels but now ruled by five families of demons (The Five Families, a la Godfather?).

Each family is vying for control over the supply of “Halo”, a magical substance left behind by the angels which have magic-enhancing qualities.

Malaysia's treasure #1, featuring Halo (Image: Chong Fei Giap/Wizards of the Coast)
Malaysia's treasure #1, featuring Halo (Image: Chong Fei Giap/Wizards of the Coast)

Magic: The Gathering players will follow the journey of Planewalkers Vivien and Elspeth, as they find themselves entangled with the teenage angel Giada while attempting to navigate the drama between the five different families, as well as one big bad Ob Nixilis.

Streets of New Capenna contains 281 cards, and features five brand new mechanics associated with the five different demon families: Connive, Casualty, Blitz, Alliance and Shield Counters.

The first new mechanic Connive is the signature mechanic of the Obscura, the family associated with Esper colours (Blue, White and Black).

Magic is coming (Image: Wizards of the Coast)
Magic is coming (Image: Wizards of the Coast)

Connive is a triggered ability on creature cards which allows the player to draw a card, and then discard a card. If a nonland card is discarded this way, the player puts a +1/+1 counter on the creature.

The second new mechanic Casualty is the Maestros’ signature mechanic. Maestros is the Grixis (Blue, Red and Black) family, and Casualty appears as an optional additional cost on certain spells.

(Image: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image: Wizards of the Coast)

Spells with Casualty allows players to sacrifice a creature with power N or greater, N being the number which appears after the Casualty text. When a player pays the Casualty cost, the spell is then copied and goes onto the stack.

The third new mechanic Blitz comes with the Riveteers’ Jund (Red, Green and Black) family. Blitz is an alternative cost which appears on several Riveteer creature cards.

(Image: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image: Wizards of the Coast)

Creatures with Blitz may be cast for their Blitz cost. The creature gains haste, and when it dies, the player (controller) draws a card. The creature will, however, be sacrificed at the next end step.

The fourth new mechanic Alliance belongs to the Naya (Red, Green and White) family known as the Cabaretti.

Alliance is a triggered ability on creatures which triggers whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control.

(Image: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image: Wizards of the Coast)

Different creature cards with the Alliance ability will produce different results when triggered, and they can all be stacked in any order when different creature cards with Alliance under your control are on the battlefield and another creature under your control enters the battlefield.

The last new mechanic Shield Counters is the signature mechanic of the Brokers, the Bant (Blue, Green and White) family.

(Image: Wizards of the Coast)
(Image: Wizards of the Coast)

Shield Counters are placed on mostly creatures (and sometimes, other permanents). If a permanent with a Shield Counter is destroyed by any effect, the Shield Counter is removed instead (and prevents any damage if the permanent is a creature or Planeswalker).

Shield Counters will, however, not work against any spells that make any kind of damage (combat, spell, etc) unpreventable. In that case, the permanent will both have a Shield Counter removed and damage dealt.

Besides the five new mechanics entering play in the upcoming set, Hideaway, is set to make a return in Streets of New Capenna. Hideaway was first featured in a few cards from Lorwyn.

The OG Hideaway lands (Image: Wizards of the Coast)
The OG Hideaway lands (Image: Wizards of the Coast)

Hideaway in Streets of New Capenna is not associated with any family, and the mechanic has been updated a little bit.

The updated Hideaway mechanic (Image: Wizards of the Coast)
The updated Hideaway mechanic (Image: Wizards of the Coast)

Hideaway is an ETB (enter the battlefield) triggered ability, and now comes with a number behind it. When a permanent with Hideaway N enters the battlefield, the player looks at the top N cards of their library, exiles one of them face down, and puts the rest of the cards on the bottom of their library.

The exiled card may be played without paying its mana cost once certain conditions are met.

Along with the launch of Streets of New Capenna, Magic: The Gathering has worked with five local artists from Singapore (Rachta Lin), Malaysia (Chong Fei Giap), Thailand (Hongtae Taecholarn), Indonesia (Richard Suworno) and the Philippines (Luis Esteves and Josh Corpuz) to produce Southeast Asia-exclusive Family Treasure Tokens.

Singapore's treasure (Image: Rachta Lin/Wizards of the Coast)
Singapore's treasure (Image: Rachta Lin/Wizards of the Coast)
Malaysia's treasure #2 (Image: Chong Fei Giap/Wizards of the Coast)
Malaysia's Treasure #2 (Image: Chong Fei Giap/Wizards of the Coast)
Thailand's treasure (Image: Hongtae Taecholarn/Wizards of the Coast)
Thailand's treasure (Image: Hongtae Taecholarn/Wizards of the Coast)

These Tokens are on a limited single print run and only available with the purchase of collector booster boxes (while stocks last).

Players can purchase collector booster boxes at participating WPN stores in the five countries listed above and/or online (Singapore only) to get their hands on the tokens.

Indonesia's treasure (Image: Richard Suworno/Wizards of the Coast)
Indonesia's treasure (Image: Richard Suworno/Wizards of the Coast)
The Philippines' treasure (Image: Luis Esteves & Josh Corpuz/Wizards of the Coast)
The Philippines' treasure (Image: Luis Esteves & Josh Corpuz/Wizards of the Coast)

Streets of New Capenna will be available as Draft Boosters, Set Boosters, and Collector Boosters, with factionalised Theme Boosters and Commander Decks for the player’s crime family of choice.

Jay Chan plays a lot of Dota 2 and MTG. He's terrible in Dota 2 and a scrub in MTG, and maybe spends too much money on both games.

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