Streets of New Capenna was the second Standard Magic: The Gathering set released in 2022. Set in a new location, a booming city on a devastated plane, it swept us through the gritty alleyways and glamorous locales of its titular metropolis. A far cry from the usual MTG fantasy themes, New Capenna featured art deco architecture, film noir aesthetics, and a fair few demonic beings, as well as a suspicious absence of angels.
Read on, and we’ll fill you in on plenty of details about Streets of New Capenna’s factions, characters, cards, and story. To set the scene, the set takes place in a city that built by angels, that fell to the grip of five demon crime families battling for street supremacy. The Planeswalker Elspeth Tirel had some special interest in the city, too, while the demon Ob Nixilis looked to be tied up with the gangsters as a shadowy ‘Adversary’.
We’ve rounded up everything there is to know about Streets of New Capenna. If you’ve already walked the city’s avenues and are after a broader overview of the current year, read our guide to the 2024 MTG release schedule, or check out the full list of MTG set release dates for 2022.
But if you’re new to town, prepare yourself for a life of crime.
Streets of New Capenna release date
Streets of New Capenna was released in late April. It came to MTG Arena on April 28, 2022 just one day before the global tabletop release on April 29. The set’s five Commander decks, one for each of the Streets of New Capenna factions, also dropped on April 29.
A week of prerelease events took place before that, beginning on April 22. As usual, there were a few weeks of card previews in the run-up to the set’s release.
Though plenty of cards were shown off before this, officially spoiler season for Streets of New Capenna kicked off on April 7, and lasted until April 14, when the set’s Commander decks were revealed.
Streets of New Capenna cards
You can find a handy selection of Streets of New Capenna cards below. Check out the Magic: The Gathering YouTube video below for the set’s “official debut”, exploring its mechanics, new cards, and going into greater depth on the New Capenna setting.
Streets of New Capenna featured five legendary demon creatures that lead New Capenna’s crime families. They’re some of the more exciting cards from the set, with Raffine in particular showing up in the best MTG Arena decks for years to come.
Other Streets of New Capenna spoilers include full-art land cards, a cycle of three-colour triome lands, and a cycle of Ascendancy enchantments.
It’s worth taking a long, hard look at these gorgeous basic lands, shown on March 3, 2022, which reveal the city of New Capenna in more detail, and display the art-deco influence on the set in full glory. Each one is swimming in gold panels and strong lines, gleaming glass and stark concrete.
In this entirely urban setting, much like MTG Ravnica, there are no Islands, Plains, and Swamps, as such, just waterfronts, stations, and sewers.
Moving along to the five triomes, these three-colour lands match up with the five three-colour crime families that hold New Capenna in their grip (more on them below). Each one depicts a location of importance to its family, from Xander’s Lounge for the Maestros, to Raffine’s Tower for the Obscura. As you may have noticed, each one also features the name of its family’s demonic leader.
Another notable set of cards are the Charms, Instant spells which have three different possible effects. Charm cards are designed quite regularly in Magic, typically appearing in MTG sets with multiple factions.
Streets of New Capenna Characters
The demonic Planeswalker Ob Nixilis had become involved with the crime families of New Capenna, and was a major villain in the release. In the first chapter of Streets of New Capenna’s story, the crime family leaders speak of an ‘Adversary’ gaining in power and influence. This turns out to be Nix himself, who seems to be on the warpath, offing one of New Capenna’s faction leaders, Xander, in Chapter 4.
Chapter 3 of the story puts the Planeswalker Vivien in the company of the villainous Tezzeret and the Phyrexian Praetor Urabrask. Now that we know Wizards isn’t above compleating Planeswalkers, this obviously put her in quite the precarious situation. Good thing, then that Urabrask was well up for betraying his brethren.
The Phyrexian Praetors, Magic’s latest villains, were appearing one by one in sets around this time, on the lead-up to the March of the Machine showdown. Streets of New Capenna, unsuprisingly, gives Urabrask a new creature card.
Streets of New Capenna Factions
Streets of New Capenna focused on the (wrong)doings of five factions, five crime families: each of which is associated with three colours and have their own keyword ability.
Like the city of New Capenna itself, whose gleaming buildings bely a seedy underbelly, each family has a respectable front disguising its criminal activities.
First up, we have Obscura in White, Blue and Black. This family is full of gifted mystics who are all about surveillance, and who use illusions to maintain a façade, while scheming in plain sight. Their leader, Rafinne, is a demonic sphinx. According to WPN, their Commander deck, ‘Obscura Operation’ is for “players who love strategising and saving their big reveals for later in the match”. As with the rest of the faction Commander decks, it was released on April 29.
Then there’s the Maestros, in Blue, Black, and Red. These are assassins, “old money vampires”, who maintain a front as art aficionados, sponsoring culture and the arts, but are happy to kill to maintain their luxurious lifestyles.
There’s no hiding their leader, Xander’s, demon side, since he’s got glowing eyes and giant horns – but he’s also half vampire. Or was, we should say – since Ob Nixilis bumps him off early on in the plot. The Maestros Commander deck ‘Maestros Massacre’ is all about winning “no matter the cost”, having you sacrifice creatures to copy spells.
Cabaretti, in Red, White, and Green, are druids who are the life and soul of the party. They’re all about feasts, fun, and go-wide strategies keeping the ‘Halo’ (a powerful magic substance) flowing. All that fun comes at a cost, and it’s said if you can’t afford to pay “you might find it hard to leave.” Their leader, Jetmir, is a portly cat-person. Also a demon, of course. The Cabaretti Cacophony Commander deck is for players who like to “play loads of low-cost creatures”.
Next up, the Riveteers. They’re Construction workers and artisans, though they’re also pretty good at knocking things (and people) down. In Black, Red, and Green colours, this is the rowdy and rough, brute force family. Apparently, they’ve used their gifts to turn the lower city levels into a gigantic lair for their dragon-demon leader, Ziatora. The Riverteers Rampage Commander deck focuses on “high-speed, hard-hitting attacks”.
Which brings us to the Brokers in Green, White, and Blue. We already saw a glimpse of their antics in their Ascendancy card. A demonic law firm, with aggressive, tireless solicitors, they’re also followers of a doomsday prophecy, believing the city will fail “when the Halo dries up”. Until then, they’ll be looking after their own, as suggested by their defensive Commander deck ‘Bedecked Brokers’. Oh and they’re led by a bird demon, Spara.