There’s nothing like a good crime noir trope. Streets of New Capenna delivers on that and so much more. It’s a dirty and gritty follow-up to the glitzy and smooth Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty that fires on cylinders, continuing the streak of excellent sets for Commander.
I’ll review the whole set by picking the Top 5 cards in each color, multicolored, and colorless, giving them some depth of treatment. I’ll also call out some Honorable Mentions and pick the best common (that doesn’t happen to be in the Top 5) and uncommon (ditto). Competition will be fiercest in the multicolored category, which has roughly twice as many cards as the individual colors. It is, after all, a set based around three-color factions. There are fifteen multicolored legendary creatures (plus a planeswalker), which creates a kind of unfair competition, so I’ll break down multicolored further into legendary and non-legendary categories, skipping the Honorable Mention for the legendaries.
Remember that this is a set review for Commander only. There are definitely cards that won’t see play in the 100-card format that’ll be bombs in Limited or other Constructed formats. Also note that I’ll be talking about the cards in the context of the broadest swath of Commander play. If something has implications for high-powered games, I’ll make specific note of it.
White
Top Common
Top Uncommon
Honorable Mentions
Top 5
5. Rabble Rousing
I’m a bit of a sucker for hideaway cards, so this one gets me. We only need to attack with five creatures in order to get to the ten we need to cast the hidden card. What’s really nice is that, since we’re playing white, we also have Windbrisk Heights at our command for double hideaway action.
4. Sanctuary Warden
There are plenty of counters that we don’t want or care to have on our creatures. The -1/-1 counter on Devoted Druid springs to mind, as do any -1/-1 counters that our opponents have spread around (like with The Scorpion God). We can also get very janky and remove age counters from cards with cumulative upkeep, like Royal Decree and Glacial Chasm.
3. Halo Fountain
Citizen token tribal will be a new archetype just so folks can try to win the game with Halo Fountain’s third ability. Untapping tapped creatures screams Opposition to me, since we can then tap down additional things. And any card that makes Storm Herd viable is okay in my book.
2. Mysterious Limousine
Mysterious Limousine is dripping with flavor; existing passengers need to get out so that new ones can get in. I’m a fan of the flexibility in getting to lock away something new. We can use the card other offensively or defensively. On the offensive side, we can keep revolving through our creatures that have good enters-the-battlefield triggers. Defensively, we can get rid of the newer, greater threat on the table.
1. Giada, Font of Hope
In the running for my favorite card of the set, Giada, Font of Hope fills a role in our Angel tribal decks. Never before have we had an on-tribe mana creature to go with Angels. Giada would be worth playing if it just created mana, but that’s not her best ability. Our Angels enter the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter for each Angel we already control. This is 1) bonkers and 2) a replacement effect modifying how the card enters the battlefield, meaning that it won’t count itself.
Blue
Top Common
Top Uncommon
Honorable Mentions
Top 5
5. Reservoir Kraken
Four-mana 6/6s with trample and ward 2 don’t come along every day. It would seem like it’s easy for opponents to tap down Reservoir Kraken, but there’s a political aspect that makes it more difficult. The player to our left can play chicken with the player behind them in priority order. That player can do the same with the one behind them. It all comes down to who might be willing to take one for the team.
4. Out of the Way
Bouncing any permanent and drawing a card makes this snazzy uncommon worthy of top consideration. It’s not spectacular, but it gets the job done. Making it cheaper to bounce something green elevates the card. I suspect that most of the time the green thing that gets bounced will be a creature, but there are things like Doubling Season or even Aura Shards that need to get gone for a short period of time. Remember that we can also bounce our own things to protect them.
3. Cut Your Losses
Mill 75% of someone’s library or half of two players’ libraries? Definitely worth the one extra mana over Traumatize and the sacrificed creature. I like mill strategies as a secondary win condition, preferring to cast Rise of the Dark Realms (which gets back whatever we sacrificed) after a big mill.
2. Undercover Operative
I’m a huge fan of Clone effects, since they’re generally much cheaper to cast than whatever they’ll be copying. Undercover Operative offers a compelling variant, giving you a shield counter if you happen to copy your own creature. The card will need to play in a deck that’s more than just Clone tribal, since that’s where it could blank most often.
1. All-Seeing Arbiter
What clinches the top spot of the blue cards for All-Seeing Arbiter is its combination of abilities. The first will have us burning through the deck, getting gas for being aggressive. That ability can also put relevant things in the graveyard if we’re using a reanimation strategy. The second ability, which triggers whenever we discard a card (not just from the first ability), will blank some creatures that we definitely want off our face. In the case of a Wheel or Windfall, we’ll get as many triggers as cards we discard, which will really neuter a potential attacker or two.
Black
Top Common
Top Uncommon
Honorable Mentions
Top 5
5. Illicit Shipment
Even knowing that I’m not a fan of blanket tutors in general, the moderately costed double tutor raises an eyebrow. I imagine that casting Illicit Shipment will often get Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond, or whatever other two-card combos live in the black deck’s spaces.
4. Shadow of Mortality
A two-mana 7/7 when our life is 27 or lower? I’m there for it. Fifteen damage in a Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow deck? There for that as well.
3. Sanguine Spy
Sanguine Spy’s activated and triggered abilities work well with each other, since we can choose a creature with the right mana cost to make the trigger happen. Adding the combination of menace and lifelink means that we’ll often be able to gain back the life lost to the drawn cards. An all-around winner that fits well into either a Vampire or Rogue deck.
2. Cemetery Tampering
More hideaway action, this one shining in graveyard/reanimator decks. It’ll slip into one of my three builds of Karador, Ghost Chieftain. Even once the hidden-away card gets played, Cemetery Tampering will let us continue to mill if we like—and given the decks it’ll shine in, we probably like very much.
1. Angel of Suffering
I see two ways to play this Nightmare Angel, both of them attractive. One involves playing a dedicated reanimator deck and letting the opponents do the heavy lifting in getting cards into our graveyard. We can also put stuff into the graveyard when we damage ourselves, such as putting a shockland onto the battlefield untapped. Note that Angel of Suffering doesn’t prevent life loss (like from Cut of the Profits). The other goes all in on Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, defying anyone to take a big swipe at us.
Red
Top Common
Top Uncommon
Honorable Mentions
Top 5
5. Hoard Hauler
Sure, it’s conditional, but it also means that there are times when it’ll be bonkers. If someone is saving up Treasures, they’re not going to sacrifice them to prevent us from creating them. The crew cost of three is also a decent rate for a 5/5 trampler.
4. Jaxis, the Troublemaker
Jaxis turns dead cards, like extra lands, into value. You get the benefit of the creature, whether it’s for a strong enters-the-battlefield trigger or just a huge attacker, and then it replaces the card we’ve discarded when the token dies. Wins all around.
3. Call in a Professional
Call in a Professional makes me want to put Flaring Pain back into a deck. I don’t think we play enough cards that prevent damage prevention. That we also get to deal three damage to something means that we can get a potential blocker out of the way as well. Remember that protection in its various guises is also damage prevention, so when someone sticks Lavinia of the Tenth in front of our red attacker, they’ll have a surprise coming.
2. Urabrask, Heretic Praetor
As Praetors tend to do, this version of Urabrask expands our possibilities while limiting those of our opponents. It’ll be a good idea to play some library control alongside this Urabrask, like Sensei’s Divining Top or anything that reveals the top card, like Oracle of Mul Daya. That way, we have more information on deciding whether or not to exile said card to play this turn. Opponents don’t get a choice; they have to play the card this turn or lose it for good.
1. Arcane Bombardment
On the first reading of this card, I shrugged. The second time through, I realized that you copy everything that’s been exiled with Arcane Bombardment up to this point. That makes it increasingly more exciting every time. It’s probably best in a deck that also has blue in it so that we can cast sorceries on our own turns and instants on everyone else’s.
Green
Top Common
Top Uncommon
Honorable Mentions
Top 5
5. Cleanup Crew
By the time we’re casting Cleanup Crew, there will be a juicy target of one kind or another. It’s most likely to be an artifact or enchantment, but there will often be plenty of good arguments for exiling a card.
4. Topiary Stomper
I think that Plant Dinosaur is probably all that needs to be said about this card. The limitation won’t be a limitation for long.
3. Vivien on the Hunt
So Birthing Pod that doesn’t cost mana to activate? It’s a bigger up-front payment than Birthing Pod, but in the long run ends up cheaper. The fact that it doesn’t have an ultimate ability keeps it from being a super top-tier card, which I find a positive instead of a negative. Niche is better for the format than generically good.
2. Titan of Industry
This one is all about flexibility on a giant body. I imagine that the two most-chosen modes will be destroying an artifact or enchantment and putting a shield counter on something. We’ll probably only create the Rhino Warrior token if we want an enters-the-battlefield trigger of some kind, and we’ll only gain the five if our life total is at a crisis point.
1. Fight Rigging
What puts Fight Rigging at the top for me is that it’s inexpensive and it keeps on doing something even after we’ve cast the exiled card. Hideaway 5 is going to offer up something spicy, and in green, it’s not going to be long before we have something with six or greater power. I think that lots of players are going to undervalue this one.
Multicolored (Non-Legendary)
Top Common
Top Uncommon
Honorable Mentions
Top 5
5. Scheming Fence
Not just a card that shuts down a relevant nonland permanent, it gives us any abilities it has. Imagine the swing on Turn 2 from turning off Llanowar Elves or another mana creature and stealing that ability. Later in the game, we’ll likely blank something even spicier.
4. Unleash the Inferno
I’m a fan of this card’s flexibility. We kill a six-toughness creature and nuke a Sol Ring. When there’s an artifact or enchantment that has a higher mana value, we can always target something with lower toughness. Kill a middling creature, knock out an Aura Shards or Strixhaven Stadium. The real dagger is killing a creature and the mana rock that they used to cast it.
3. Ziatora’s Envoy
Cut from the same cloth as Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder, Ziatora’s Envoy encourages us to either make it bigger or unblockable—maybe both. In the absolute worst case, we put the card in our hand. If we’ve buffed it with a Sword of Fire and Ice or Colossus Hammer, we’re off to the races. We also shouldn’t ignore the fact that it’s a 5/4 trampler for four mana. Sure, three pips of that mana have color requirements, but there are plenty of easy-on-the-wallet ways to make a nice manabase in Commander.
2. Void Rend
Nine simple words and we can’t really say much more about the card. Kind of like the Obscura, it’s simple, cold, and efficient.
1. Riveteers Ascendancy
It doesn’t matter how or why the creature gets sacrificed; we can bring back something smaller from the graveyard. Importantly, this is in mana value, not power, which gates the power of the card a great deal—as does the fact that the creature comes back tapped. Still, we can get the benefits from it four times in a turn cycle, once on everyone’s turn. With solid enters-the-battlefield triggers, we’ll get lots of value.
Multicolored (Legendary)
Top Uncommon
Top 5
5. Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder
It’s all fun and games until Xenagos, God of Revels gets involved and someone takes lethal damage from a six-power commander.
4. Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer
As a commander, Rocco will get a little expensive to cast multiple times and get good creatures. It’s probably the case that we’ll wait until we have enough mana to get a decent-sized creature. Of course, we can always try some Cloudstone Curio tricks, bouncing Rocco back so that we can go up the chain to the next mana value creature.
3. Jinnie Fay, Jetmir’s Second
In a world in which we create Treasure (and other) tokens with startling ease, this delicious replacement effect will be making armies of Cats or Dogs. It certainly goes right into a Rin and Seri, Inseparable deck, replacing the 1/1s with either 2/2s or 3/1s. You can replace making Cats with Dogs or vice versa. Creating Dogs ups the damage factor quite a bit. What’s great about Jinnie Fay is that we can build pretty much whatever token-creating deck we want with her. It’s a brewer’s paradise.
2. Ziatora, the Incinerator
You had me at “Incinerator.” I actually think that the three Treasure tokens are overkill, but I’m not going to turn them down when I Fling a Lord of Extinction at someone’s face. Let’s remember to do double duty with Stalking Vengeance, too.
1. Jetmir, Nexus of Revels
Remember when this was one of the early previews, alongside Lord Xander, the Collector, and everyone got up in arms over the latter? Jetmir is the one that’s going to kill people. Vigilance at three creatures is nice for defensive purposes. Trample at six creatures might be enough to eliminate a player. Adding double strike at nine? Dead.
Colorless
Top Common
Top Uncommon
Top 5
5. Suspicious Bookcase
“Psst…Ziatora’s Envoy! Over here, through the not suspicious at all bookcase!”
4. Getaway Car
Love the interaction here of being able to bounce a utility creature in order to get its enters-the-battlefield trigger again. The crew cost is low enough that nearly every creature will be able to climb into the Getaway Car and feel the scene.
3. Unlicensed Hearse
Graveyard control is an important part of Commander, and Unlicensed Hearse delivers. We could run this card all day without ever actually attacking with it. There’s going to be a point where it’d be silly not to, since it’ll be six, eight, ten, or more power—all for the low crew cost of two.
2. Luxior, Giada’s Gift
This card is going to be savage. Until the Rules Update, it didn’t actually work by any rule of Magic, because equip planeswalker had no in-game meaning. Now that it does, we’ll be able to swing with Sarkhan the Mad and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. The various Gideons and Chandras will have their turn in the red zone. Maybe we’ll see commander damage kills from Lord Windgrace or Teferi, Temporal Archmage. Just the fact that planeswalkers will be less vulnerable will make them even more valuable than before—and reinforces the RC’s choice to not make all planeswalkers into commanders.
1. The Triomes
Finishing the cycle was the right call here. We need—I daresay we truly want—affordable, quality mana-fixing in Commander. Land bases are still too expensive, and I’m not even talking about OG dual lands. I believe that there should be an in-game cost to playing three-, four-, and five-color decks, not an outside-the-game one.
One of the reasons I’ve stopped grading each color with new sets is that they’re just routinely good these days. If there’s an upcoming set where every color doesn’t get a B or better, I’ll go back to it. For now, Streets of New Capenna gets top marks all around. The cards are thought-provoking and spicy without being simply generically good, the kinds of things that players need to tease extra value out of and lead to the best games of Commander.
As always, we have a channel on the Commander RC Discord server dedicated to discussing my articles. If you disagree with my picks or thing there are cards I’m sleeping on, pop on by and join the more than 6,000 friends willing to engage on this and a host of other topics. See you there!
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