Should You Buy the New Capenna Commander Decks?

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Should you buy the upcoming Commander Preconstructed decks for Streets of New Capenna? Yes, yes you should. I don’t normally come out and say that every person should buy a new product like this, but I’ve only seen a little bit of it so far, and I’m convinced that anyone considering playing any Commander now or in the near future should go ahead and buy them. These are the most pushed precons and the most pushed set we’ve seen since War of the Spark rolled in back in 2019. I know that’s only about three years ago, but in terms of today’s pace of set releases, that can feel like an eternity. Why should how much a set has been pushed matter? Why should you not skip this set like you may have with the last several sets? Simply put, these are going to be interesting, efficient, and fun cards to play with for a long time.

From a financial standpoint you could suppose that Streets of New Capenna will be just as popular as many other sets. It is very reminiscent of the Alara block with the multi-color emphasis, and appears to be combining the tools from Khans block as well; excellent legendary Creatures and identities for each color combo that make the set feel like it has actual factions within it. This simply suggests that people will likely buy plenty of this set. People will want to draft it, people will want to buy packs of it, people will want to play with excellent pieces of it for tournaments at multiple levels, and people that play Commander will be eating up this set until Commander Legends 2 releases this summer. In short, people will buy lots of this set, and the prices might actually end up being fairly cheaper for the regular versions of cards. Meanwhile, premium versions of Streets of New Capenna cards will likely be cheapest earliest on. I don’t doubt for a moment that this set will continue to be sought after for many years. It’s going to be an easy call to pick up special versions early on, and snagging regular versions a month or so into its release will likely be the cheapest way to go about getting your Commander fix. As has been the trend since project booster fun, the regular versions of cards will actually be really affordable. I have an article I’m working on about how much more affordable Magic has become since project booster fun took action, but I’ll save that for another day.

So, now that you know you should be picking up cards from New Capenna for the purposes of playing them for a long long time. Then what else is there to consider? Just buy Streets of New Capenna (well, pre-order it I guess). This set is pushed. The efficiency of the set is clear from the spoilers we’ve seen thus far (about half the set). This is probably most exciting for every person not playing Commander. For competitive Commander players it is also probably very exciting. That leaves traditional Commander players like me struggling with how we feel about sets like this. Yes, we’re excited for all the new toys like everyone else is, but those new toys can come at a cost. They might push us into using only strictly better versions of cards or losing out on the pet cards we’ve adored for so long. So, sure, it’s exciting, but more importantly is that it is showing us enough powerful and efficient cards to demand we seriously consider playing these cards in either new builds or as ways to upgrade existing builds.

Yet, sets like this can also bring about brand new brewing opportunities and brand new build around Legendary Creatures and themes. Just looking at the face Commanders for the Preconstructed decks is beyond exciting. These cards are pushing us into new avenues within pre-existing archetypal approaches. What do I mean by that? Well, let me explain. Let’s take a look at each face legend and talk about how they offer new insight into older archetypes.

Kamiz, Obscura Oculus

This is a decent enough rate for a four mana 2/4 that offers our existing attackers a fantastic boost. Making your Creatures unblockable is excellent. Putting counters on those unblockable Creatures is also a nice upside. Oh, did we even consider that when we go wide we get to double up with double strike? That’s a lot of things to consider, but what this deck does do is create an Esper-themed attacking matters deck. That is new territory for Esper, and that means you can take decks that care about combat and care about churning through the deck for card selection and combine them. You can leverage +1/+1 counters and evasion to create truly terrifying combats where you can easily threaten people with plenty of unblockable damage. That’s awesome. Using Ninjas and Rogues and combining them with Angels and Knights makes for some amazing opportunities to brew up wild new combat matters themes.

Anhelo, the Painter

Now this is nasty Grixis commander. Sacrifice is nothing new to Black and Red decks, and being able to leverage smaller bodies with enter-the-battlefield effects is awesome. I love the idea of sacrificing a Zombie to double up your Army of the Damned tokens. Then flashing it back to give yourself over 80 power in Zombies over two turns. Combine that with the sneakiness of Blue and you can double up your extra turn spells and really make the whole table groan. Anhelo, the Painter is hyper efficient as well; a 1/3 with Deathtouch for a mere three mana is solid, but the static ability is beautifully Grixis as well. Sacrificing fodder and doubling up big strong spells is exactly what every Cruel Ultimatum and Nicol Bolas playing player wants.

Henzie “Toolbox” Torre

So, I’m a little surprised to see a Commander with the theme in its name. Toolbox decks have silver bullets for every situation. They aim to play plenty of tutors to enable them to shut down troublesome strategies no matter what crops up. This Blitz ability allows you to make every Creature spell over four mana into a “Ball Lighting” styled one-shot. The crazy upside to this is how you get to reduce these costs by recasting Henzie “Toolbox” Torre as many times as possible. As a 3/3 for 3 mana it’s very efficient, and also offers tremendous upside. Now, it’s clearly worth mentioning that this is a Jund Commander and Jund is known for grinding out card advantage. There are so many Creatures that want to die in these colors, and when they do die they give you so much more. This type of deck building is not new to Jund, but having a Commander that lowers your costs to zip Creatures into play and provides a repeatable sacrifice outlet is awesome. Oh, and those Creatures replace themselves. Also, if you have a way of popping Creatures prior to combat, you get to draw those cards right away. Oh, and you’re free to cast as many Creatures as possible each turn. Oh, and colorless Creatures (with enough Commander cast triggers built up) can be basically free to cast. That’s some sweetly sick value. So much value, and so many pre-existing shells that can be remade in this card’s image. This is going to be a great deck.

Kitt Kanto, Mayhem Diva

Ah, the Goad mechanic makes a return. I love Goading people’s Creatures, and although this isn’t something I can put into my Thantis, Warweaver deck, it is exciting to see it in a Naya build. Naya is probably better positioned to abuse people attacking others. The cute little citizen tokens and the cute little ability to tap as many pairs of Creature tokens as you have to send pumped up attackers every which way but yours is wonderfully fun. Using this along with untap effects like Seedborn Muse or Unwinding Clock (think artifact Creature tokens) is some janky nastiness to make people beat each other up. Also, don’t forget that you can double or triple pump the same Creature to play some nasty little games with other people’s life totals. This is the type of Commander-centric design that enables you to build an interesting tokens deck or goad and tokens deck to achieve some great new game states.

Perrie, the Pulverizer

This Bant commander is super solid. It’s another efficient enough body, but what makes it shine is the ability to pump up your Creatures based on the number of counters that exist on permanents you control. Huh, so the color most known for blink effects and using counters has a new toy? Awesome. Also, being able to blink Perrie, the Pulverizer and then pop new shield counters on other permanents is pretty fantastic. Also, all those cool little toys from Ikoria with all of their ability counters all just got so much better. Those mutated Creature piles that died to removal are all so much better with this little totem armor counter. Also, don’t forget that you can leverage this as a way to get one-sided board wipes that wipe out everyone else’s stuff, because they don’t have the shield counters like you do! Sign me up for this combat based goodness. I mean Rafiq of the Many is awesome, but having another combat-based Bant commander (with a decidedly different feel) is just fantastic fun.

Overall, the face Commanders for Streets of New Capenna’s Preconstructed Commander set look excellent. I get no commissions if you buy things, and I’m always honest with you. On that note, I honestly feel these are layups to pick up. I can’t wait to see the rest of the deck lists, and I fully expect them to have excellent mana bases, solidly efficient new cards, and to be well-rounded powerhouses out of the gate. I’ll be sure to include a guide to tweaking them if you’re interested in that (I know I will be). That’s all for today, but until next time, may the new streets, crosswalks, and the cards be ever in your favor!