With its Art Deco stylings, Streets of New Capenna is a set that’s positively oozing with flavor. With borderless alternate-art cards and showcase frames a plenty, Wizards of the Coast has created a set that’s almost as fun to look at as it is to play. To our surprise, however, stellar art isn’t the only look into the lore-rich world of New Capenna.
Play Those Funky Tunes, Wizards of the Coast
Believe it or not, Streets of New Capenna has an official soundtrack. As a vast improvement over the ambient music available on MTG Arena, this soundtrack is a real treat to listen to. While the soundtrack’s genre might not be to everyone’s tastes, the album nevertheless opens a vivid window into the spectacular Streets of New Capenna.
Like the set, the Streets of New Capenna soundtrack is inspired by the glitz and glamor of the 1920s. Heavily influenced by jazz, blues, and swing music, the soundtrack perfectly suits a prohibition-era speakeasy loaded with gangsters and demons. Thanks to how good the soundtrack is, it feels almost criminal not to have it on in the background while Drafting the set.
The same is true for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, which has its own official soundtrack. Similarly comprised of fifteen songs, the set’s soundtrack gives the plane of Kamigawa more ambiance. Unlike the Streets of New Capenna soundtrack, however, there aren’t instrumental versions of every track available. This may diminish the experience for some players if they choose to listen to it while playing.
It is unclear if Wizards of the Coast will be releasing more soundtracks for individual sets in the future. We wouldn’t be surprised to see them become a mainstay of top-down designed and single-block sets. For Dominaria United, however, we’re not expecting a full atmospheric soundtrack since it’s a story-focused set kicking off a four-part arch. We’d welcome being presently surprised, however.
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How Did We Miss This?
As someone fond of gaming soundtracks, it’s remarkable that these stellar tunes managed to go under the radar. Admittedly, we can’t say we were expecting this from WotC, but that’s no reason for this to be downplayed. On DailyMTG, only a single post mentions Streets of New Capenna’s soundtrack, with Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty receiving the same treatment.
Thanks to being released on the same day as the set launched, it’s no wonder these posts got overlooked. This has left many players missing out on the musical treats of New Capenna, as the soundtrack hasn’t been prominently advertised. As far as we know, there’s also no recommendation for an LGS to play the sweet jazz stylings of New Capenna during FNM.
Given that Wizards of the Coast presumably spent a good deal of money to commission not one but two full soundtracks, this lack of advertising baffles us. If Wizards assess why these soundtracks haven’t been as popular as they desired, we can only hope that they know it’s a marketing error instead of a lack of interest from their customer base.
With how many products Wizards has been releasing throughout the past year, it’s hardly surprising that something has fallen through the cracks for many players. With any luck, this could be another reminder to Wizards to slow things down rather than continue to overload us with releases.
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