Magic: The Gathering’s latest Streets of New Capenna brings us to a glitzy, art-deco plane ruled by five devilish mob families, and we were blown away by the world building and the aesthetic. This new set toes the line between the glam and gritty, making it the perfect location for crime stories, and by extension, a Snooping Newsie out to get the latest scoop (even if this card didn’t make our final cut).
We limited ourselves to what we had in the studio, some cards we pulled from past media drops. The Obscura Operations Commander pre-con also contributes several key pieces and the land base to this deck.
This deck’s theme relies on the Investigate mechanic (which produces Clue tokens), and a mix of creatures, enchantments and other spells to help you dig for the truth and answers. Like our other brews, we’ll also be including suggestions for alternatives and replacements to tune up your deck, and several potential combo wins, assuming you have access to the pieces.
Commander (2)
1x Hargilde, Kindly Runechanter
1x Wernog, Rider’s Chaplain
These two cards were originally from the Secret Lair x Stranger Things drop, and have since been reprinted as Hargilde, Kindly Runechanter and Wernog, Rider’s Chaplain respectively, both of which are available in Streets of New Capenna’s set boosters.
They both synergize nicely, and Wernog is also a combo enabler should you have Krark-Clan Ironworks (which is in our list of recommended upgrades) and Eldrazi Displacer on board, with 3 mana (one of which is colorless) to spare.
Colleagues & Contacts/Creatures & Planeswalkers (13)
1x Academy Manufactor
1x Cyberdrive Awakener
1x Disciple of the Vault
1x Eldrazi Displacer
1x Erdwal Illuminator
1x Ethereal Investigator
1x Junk Winder
1x Leonin Elder
1x Marionette Master
1x Nadier’s Nightblade
1x Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge
1x Thraben Inspector
1x Triskelion
Our colleagues in the newsroom and our friends on the street are going to help us get more value out of our clue tokens, whether it’s through causing life loss, improving our investigative efforts, generating more clues and tokens, or turning said clues into 4/4 flyers you can swing with. Some redundancies, like Disciple of the Vault and Nadier’s Nightblade, were included to make the life loss strategy easier.
This iteration of Tezzeret is like that editor who’s constantly breathing down your neck that you don’t want to cross, but also begrudgingly helps you when you’re in a pinch. His ability to enable Improvise for your creature spells (which helps with casting your commander) and the +2 which keys off the number of clue tokens you can create are great here.
Instants (20)
1x An Offer You Can’t Refuse
1x Anticipate
1x Brainstorm
1x Confirm Suspicions
1x Costly Plunder
1x Deadly Dispute
1x Devious Cover-Up
1x Disdainful Stroke
1x Disorder in the Court
1x Dovin’s Veto
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Fateful Absence
1x Last Word
1x Obscura Charm
1x Path to Exile
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Telling Time
1x Utter End
1x Void Rend
1x Whir of Invention
It’s not unexpected for investigative journalists on the crime beat in such a dangerous city like New Capenna to get tangled with both sides of the law. Sometimes, you run into people who threaten and cajole, misdirect, or plot direct harm when you get too close, and that’s why removals and counterspells are so important.
Some of these spells were chosen for flavor reasons (like Fact or Fiction, because fake news exists), but they all serve to help protect your commander and combo pieces, save you from a threat, or to buy time and help locate an answer.
Some of these instants, like Costly Plunder, Deadly Dispute, and Whir of Invention also work with the tokens you produce.
Sorceries (8)
1x Austere Command
1x By Invitation Only
1x Depopulate
1x Farewell
1x Rise and Shine
1x Time Wipe
1x Universal Surveillance
1x Vindicate
Some board wipes and removals here, and card draw in the form of Universal Surveillance, which gets paid for with improvise.
By Invitation Only is just on theme here, because press events tend to be that way. Farewell is also one of our new favorite wipes, and Rise and Shine turns all your clue tokens (and treasure tokens and food tokens etc) into beaters. This is also where tutor cards will go if budget is not an issue.
Scoops / Enchantments (13)
1x Blind Obedience
1x Ghostly Prison
1x In Too Deep
1x Mechanized Production
1x Monologue Tax
1x Propaganda
1x Search the Premises
1x Smuggler’s Share
1x Thorough Investigation
1x Trail of Evidence
1x Underhanded Designs
1x Wiretapping
1x Witness Protection
Again, we’re going heavy with the flavor here. Some of these enchantments represent incidents that an investigative journalist might want to investigate, or nasty things that a crooked press might be used for.
Several enchantments here serve to help you buy time and even the odds when your opponents start drawing way too many cards or casting too many spells, or keep nasties that want to hit you away.
Cards that generate more clues like Search the Premises and Thorough Investigation are also included, and with that many clues, winning with Mechanized Production may not be a distant dream! I mean, it’s a great way to represent you breaking that big story and getting it off the presses, right?
We put in Wiretapping as an homage to one of the biggest scoops in investigative journalism history, but the extra card draw isn’t bad either.
Tools of the Trade / Artifacts (7)
1x Arcane Signet
1x Inspiring Statuary
1x Scythe of the Wretched
1x Sol Ring
1x Tamiyo’s Journal
1x Tempting Contract
1x Time Sieve
We’ve included a handful of staple mana rocks here. Inspiring Statuary is a must if you want to get an extra use out of those clue tokens, and Time Sieve can get you extra turns.
Tamiyo’s Journal provides a helpful tutor option, and lets you search for combo pieces such as Triskelion and Scythe of the Wretched, which can cause infinite ETB (enter the battlefield), LTB (leave the battlefield) and death triggers when the combo goes off. This can work with Disciple of the Vault or a similar card to cause infinite life loss.
Lands (37)
1x Ancient Den
1x Arcane Sanctum
1x Choked Estuary
1x Command Tower
1x Darksteel Citadel
1x Darkwater Catacombs
1x Esper Panorama
1x Exotic Orchard
1x Fetid Heath
1x Havengul Laboratory // Havengul Mystery
1x Inventors’ Fair
1x Myriad Landscape
1x Obscura Storefront
1x Path of Ancestry
1x Port Town
1x Prairie Stream
1x Raffine’s Tower
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Seat of the Synod
1x Skycloud Expanse
4x Snow-Covered Island
4x Snow-Covered Plains
4x Snow-Covered Swamp
1x Sunken Hollow
1x Thriving Heath
1x Thriving Isle
1x Thriving Moor
1x Vault of Whispers
Of special note are the artifact lands in this list, which count for various effects that key off the number of artifacts you have in play. Inventors’ Fair can be fairly handy, and Havengul Laboratory // Havengul Mystery can create clues in a hurry, and also bring a helpful creature back from the graveyard.
Breaking News (Deck Upgrades & Variants)
1x Anointed Procession
1x Ashnod’s Altar
1x Authority of the Consuls
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Esper Sentinel
1x Fabricate
1x Krark-Clan Ironworks
1x Nim Deathmantle
1x Opposition Agent
1x Rhystic Study
1x Supreme Verdict
1x Twilight Prophet
1x Urza, Lord High Artificer
Immediate upgrades in Black, Blue and White mean putting in better and more efficient counterspells, removals, wipes and ways to protect yourself and/or punish your opponents, and we’ve suggested several of them above.
Demonic Tutor, Enlightened Tutor and the like can make searching for answers more efficient, while highly effective creatures with helpful abilities like Twilight Prophet and Urza, Lord High Artificer can enhance your deck even more.
Adding Krark-Clan Ironworks to the deck provides an outlet for you to sacrifice your clue and other artifact tokens, and a combo piece that works with Wernog (and/or your Marionatte Master) and the Eldrazi Displacer.
And there you have it! We hope you enjoyed this deck idea as much as we did brewing it for you. If you decide to build this deck, be sure to let us know how you fare at the card table!
The Streets of New Capenna set for Magic: The Gathering is currently available at your favorite local game store! If you want to experience what it’s like to sling spells in a fantastical version of the roaring ’20s, you don’t want to give this set a miss!
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