Spoiler season for the soon-to-release Magic: The Gathering set Streets of New Capenna began officially yesterday, with a YouTube livestream on April 7 providing our first extended glimpse into this crime-filled world. Among the most tantalising topics discussed was the unveiling of a new planeswalker card: Elspeth Resplendent. The other two planeswalkers central to Streets of New Capenna’s story had new cards spoiled not long after, with the official MTG Twitter account showing Vivian, on the Hunt; and Ob Nixilis, The Adversary.
Of the Streets of New Capenna planeswalkers revealed so far, Ob Nixilis, The Adversary is probably the most unusual, as it features the brand new mechanic Casualty. This allows you to sacrifice a creature to create a non-legendary token copy of the card – two Ob Nixilises (or should that be Ob Nixili?) for double the demonic fun. The token comes out with starting loyalty equal to the sacrificed creature’s power, so you could theoretically use Ob Nixilis, The Adversary’s ultimate -7 ability on the turn you play him.
Elspeth Resplendent seems a fairly typical planeswalker at first glance. She has a powerful but costly ultimate ability, and a +1 power that grants a buff to a creature. Her -3 effect, however, showcases a new Streets of New Capenna mechanic: shield tokens. This ability lets you fetch up a small creature for free and stick a shield counter on it. The shield counter gives the critter limited invulnerability; if they would be damaged or destroyed, they instead lose a shield counter.
Vivien, on the Hunt is a fairly classic Planeswalker, with no new or unique mechanics. She’s pretty powerful, however, able to generate card advantage or fetch stronger creatures onto the battlefield with two abilities that both increase her loyalty count. Though her expensive mana cost of six works against her a little, she can create great, big 4/4 rhino tokens with her -1 ability, so can protect herself and easily make up for her cost. A huge win for rhino tribal decks everywhere.
These three are the only Streets of New Capenna planeswalkers announced so far. It’s possible Tezzeret will show up on a card, as he had a minor role in the set’s story. However, since Tezzeret, Betrayer of Flesh appeared in Neon Dynasty, it does seem pretty unlikely.
A Phyrexian creature card was also revealed for Streets of New Capenna on Thursday, so fans of these planeswalkers will doubtless be revealed not to see any more compleation going on. Urabrask, Heretic Traitor is apparently a friendly, fire jet-spewing metallic Phyrexian hellbeast, or so it would seem.
Check out our full guide for more info on Streets of New Capenna, including juicy world details, and all the key dates to write in your diary.