After all, we normally see either fantasy settings or futuristic ones, whereas the ideas of New Capenna feel decidedly more modern-day. It’s the second Standard-legal set of 2022 and, with such a unique setting, a lot of people are quite excited to see how well mobsters will translate into MTG. I think where it becomes the most dangerous is when a card is creating a huge blast of Treasures that come into play untapped.Magic: The Gathering’s second major set of the year, New Capenna, is here, taking the classic fantasy card game into a world of gangs and mobs. Like a little bit of mana boost is enjoyable, so I don't mind Treasures coming in untapped most of the time. The Command Zone’s Josh Lee Kwai tweeted recently that maybe all Treasures should follow in the steps of two New Capenna cards and come into play tapped, so I asked Verhey for his thoughts on both that idea and the concerns at large. While they can be a great way to both ramp out big cards and more easily fix your mana, some players are worried they may be too powerful now that they are easy to generate en masse. Speaking of Smuggler’s Share and Smothering Tithe, a hot topic amongst Commander players recently has been the power and prevalence of Treasure tokens in the format – something Verhey confirms is “a thing we're certainly talking about and evaluating.” Originally introduced in Ixalan in 2017, these artifact tokens that can be tapped and sacrificed for one mana of any color have since become a common mechanic that can (and often does) show up in any set. So upping that a little bit is pretty meaningful.” Gavin Verhey on Treasure Tokens in Commander “We love being able to try and make more narrow, niche cards that are targeted in a sense – the one place where we have been bending that a little bit is for white, just because white has lacked staples for a long time that are what it needs in Commander. Smuggler’s Share struck me as a more broadly powerful design, and Verhey says that’s intentional (although it does depend somewhat on the decks you play against).

The push to help white has been clear, but WOTC has also expressed a desire to make new Commander cards less generically powerful, instead fitting into more specific strategies so they don’t become auto-includes that homogenize the format. Even still, Verhey says “I think this card has a huge chance to shine,” comparing it to the likes of the Treasure-generating staple Smothering Tithe – though it’s a lot more “fair” than Tithe, by Verhey’s own admission. To that end Smuggler’s Share doesn’t actually draw you cards unless your opponents do, and it doesn’t make you Treasure tokens unless your opponents are playing multiple lands (or cracking fetch lands) themselves. “For Commander, we still need to find ways to have be able to get card advantage and be able to get some amount of mana ramp in very white ways, and one way white can do that is by setting rules or taxing the opponent,” Verhey explains. Verhey says Smuggler’s Share is a card of his own design, and it strikes me as one we’ll see a lot of going forward. This white enchantment (which can be seen in the gallery above) continues a recent initiative WOTC has been very open about, attempting to provide better card draw and mana ramp options to white – a color that has traditionally struggled with both of those things in the Commander format. “We’re making plenty of Commander decks every year, and one of the things that we’re going to need to do to make that work is to try out different themes and find new and different themes to create.” In sets like new Capenna that have more than two precons, Verhey explains they generally try to make at least one of those decks a “slam dunk” in terms of what people already know and love about a color combination or strategy, but they also want at least one deck to be “a little out there,” both to keep things fresh and to potentially find new ground worth returning to later on.īut while Obscura Operation might be a little bit off the beaten path for a precon, one card in particular stood out to me as something we probably could have seen coming: Smuggler’s Share. Verhey says a saboteur-themed precon is something WOTC has never actually done before. “What we really wanted to capture was the feeling of the Obscura,” Verhey tells me, “and the Obscura in New Capenna can get in any locked door, they know all the secrets, and it was a great fit for Saboteurs.” That means you’ll be sneaking creatures past your opponents defenses to steal knowledge for yourself, frequently in the form of cards to play. New Commander Cards (shown in gallery above)Īccording to Verhey, this precon went through the most tweaks and changes of the five from New Capenna.

Streets of new capenna lands