The first episode of Magic story for Streets of New Capenna was published on the Magic: The Gathering website on Monday, revealing, not just a dollop of fresh lore, but also brand new information about the characters and cards that will appear in the upcoming MTG set.
As well as plenty of sumptuous art deco artwork, the Streets of New Capenna story, titled ‘Homecoming’, reveals several planeswalkers who’ll almost certainly be showing up on cards in the new set, which arrives April 29. It also teases the appearance of another Phyrexian Praetor – the maniacal robots who seem set to be Magic: The Gathering’s next main villains. Finally, a new spoiler was unveiled: the Instant card, Maestro’s Charm.
Perhaps the most surprising character reveal in the story is the appearance of the planeswalker Vivien Reid, last seen on an MTG card in 2020’s Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths set. This nature-loving planeswalker seems out of her comfort zone in the thoroughly urban plane of New Capenna, though new artwork shows her sporting 1920s garb to (somewhat) blend in. Rather delightfully, it seems as though she’s transformed her Arkbow into some form of weaponized briefcase.
Planeswalker villain Tezzeret, who just had a new Magic card in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, also makes a brief appearance. In the story, he’s leading Vivien to meet a character he says stands for “freedom”, the red-aligned Phyrexian Praetor, Urabrask. Assuming Urabrask is getting a card in Streets of New Capenna, this’ll be the third Phyrexian creature card Wizards of the Coast has printed in just over one year.
As for the plot implications, Tezzeret’s been a bona fide bad guy up till now, but here claims to be on Vivien’s side. Urabrask is known to be the nicest of the Phyrexian Praetors, but that’s kind of like being the least irritating counterspell card. It’s therefore not yet clear if Tezzeret’s on a road to redemption or if Vivien is on a path to corruption, dare we say compleation?
A new Magic card from Streets of New Capenna was also spoiled yesterday, in an image at the very bottom of the Homecoming story. Maestros Charm is an Instant spell costing one black, one red, and one blue mana. It can have three different effects depending on which mode its caster chooses and comes in two different art styles.
This card looks to be part of a cycle, meaning there’ll probably be five Charm cards in total – one for each Streets of New Capenna faction. We’ve already had a peek at another cycle of cards, too, with Brokers Ascendancy, which came with the first Streets of New Capenna spoilers.
It seems probable that each faction will have a rare Ascendancy and an uncommon Charm card in the set. We predict more of them will be among the first Streets of New Capenna previews.
Keen to know more about the mean streets of New Capenna? Check out our Streets of New Capenna guide for more info on the setting, characters, key dates, and every spoiler we’ve seen so far. And if you’re a lore-lover, you’ll be pleased to find that after Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, story in Magic: The Gathering is building up to new heights.