We’ve been getting quite a few different card previews for Streets of New Capenna from Wizards of the Coast over the last week. They’ve shown off a few of the charms from 3 of the families in the set, and today, they had a little more for us. In their World Building video, hosted by the Command Zone, we got 3 more card reveals and they’re pretty sweet!
Head of Household
Surprise surprise, WotC decided to show off the 3 Crime Family heads for the same charms, the Maestros, the Obscura and the Cabaretti!
Let’s break each of these down, as they’re all very unique and interesting.
Raffine, Scheming Seer
Raffine is a 3 mana 1/4 with Flying and Ward 1. On it’s text there’s a new ability, Connive. Connive means to “draw X cards, then discard X cards. Then put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each nonland card discarded this way.
This seems like a pretty interesting card, as it has potentially to enable graveyard synergies, as well as be a really great advantage engine. It almost compares to Sphinx’s Revelation in that you can really sculpt your hand in just a few attacks. Now this won’t be used in traditional control I don’t think, as you need to have a decent number of attacking creatures.
Where I can see this making waves is in the Esper Midrange shells that play a bunch of token generating planeswalkers. Often times you can have a decent number, 3,4 or 5 tokens attacking and you can generate some great value there.
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Lord Xander, The Collector
Next up, we have Lord Xander, the Collector. He’s a 7 mana 6/6, and his abilities are pretty crazy. When he enter play, your opponent discards half of the cards in their hand. When he attacks, the defending player mills half of their library. Lastly, when he dies, your opponent sacrifices half of their nonland permanents.
Now you’d expect that this is a “Grixis Control” finisher, as it’s abilities really pick your opponent’s game apart, but there’s a better home for this guy. The typing for this creature is really unique, he’s a Demon Vampire Noble. Where I think that this will shine is in Vampires.
Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord makes this card insane. With his -3, we can cheat this into play incredibly early, and effectively win the game on the spot. If Xander comes down on turn 3, Your opponent is more than likely discarding about 3 cards, which is backbreaking. If you get to untap with him, then they’re milling half their library.
The only downside to putting him down that early is that more than likely, there isn’t a board presence for your opponent so if they have a removal spell, then they don’t lose much, if anything.
We know that we’re getting more vampires in New Capenna, so this should help bolster this deck in formats like Historic and Pioneer.
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Jetmir, Nexus of Revels
Lastly, we have Jetmir, Nexus of Revels. Jetmir is a 4 mana 5/4 and also has some very cool abilities. His abilities are focused around granting buffs to your creatures based on the number of creatures you have in play. If you have 3 or more creatures, they get +1/+0 and Vigiliance. If you have 6 or more, they get +1/+0 and Trample, and if you have 9 or more, they get +1/+0 and Double Strike.
Effectively if you have 9 or more creatures, your creatures will get +3/+0, Vigilance, Trample and Double Strike, and that’s pretty insane. An immediate home for Jetmir is going to be in token decks, where the ability to create a wide swath of creatures. Right now, Selesnya Tokens is a top deck in Standard, so Jetmir only helps to build that up.
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What are your thoughts on these guys? Who are you most excited to play with? Let us know!
