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Magic: the Gathering's latest expansion is Streets of New Capenna, with a decided mobster theme. With every new expansion to the card game, there will be cards that stand out far above the pack when it comes to raw power.
Time will tell what actually winds up being the most used cards in the expansion, but these cards now lead the pack when it comes to power and usefulness.
Magic: The Gathering's Streets of New Capenna is brand-new but quite powerful
As always, this list may vary in usefulness and range from person to person, and some cards were left off. New charms and the tri-colored lands are on that shortlist.
Those will wildly vary in power, and the lands will almost certainly be used, depending on what kind of deck users are running. Triomes have stuck around for a while now and will undoubtedly continue to be helpful.
The charms are all pretty helpful for one thing or another, but other than Riveteers Charm, the others don't quite seem to be quite as grand. Elspeth, the Resplendent, also almost made the list for her ability to keep herself around and for being able to generate angels. But which are the best?
Top five cards in MTG's Streets of New Capenna
5) Bootlegger's Stash offers unprecedented treasure generation (Green artifact)
Bootlegger's Stash is easily going to be useful in both Standard and Commander. It's getting more hype for Commander, though, to be honest. It's a little expensive to cast (6 mana, 1 green), but it doesn't require any further activation.
This artifact grants all lands that users control, "Tap: Create a treasure token." For those who are patient, this is going to be hilarious.
Red/Green treasure decks could be very scary in Standard too. Creating treasure tokens on an opponent's turn is just amazing. That way, gamers can keep their mana open for responses.
4) Obscura Interceptor is a brilliant new control option (White/Blue/Black creature)
Obscura Interceptor is a Magic: The Gathering creature with Flash and Lifelink, already making them a fascinating card design. As far as Magic: The Gathering goes, Esper (White/Blue/Black) is well known for control options. This is going to be the new Esper/Tempo counter creature, especially in the mid-game.
It's reminiscent of Venser, Shaper Savant in its own way. Since this has Flash, it can be dropped on an opponent's turn. When this enters play, it connives. That's a new keyword that has users draw a card, then discard a card. If it's a non-land card, the conniving creature gets a +1/+1 counter.
When this creature comes into play and connives, gamers may take a spell and return it to its owner's hand. So they can use this in response to a powerful spell being cast, wait for that player to commit their resources, and bounce it back to that person's hand without an effect. This will 100% see use.
3) Ziatora’s Envoy will Blitz opponents down at high speed (Black/Red/Green creature)
What a Magic: The Gathering card! Ziatora's Envoy is a 4-cost 5/4 with Trample, so it's likely to deal early-game damage. When it deals combat damage to players, look at the top card of the deck.
If it's a land, they can play it, and if it's a spell with Mana Value less than or equal to the amount of damage done, they can cast it without paying that mana cost. If users choose to do neither, they put the card in hand.
It also has a Blitz cost of 5 mana (1 Black, Red, and Green). Blitz is a new mechanic, and when cast for that cost, it gains Haste and "When this creature dies, draw a card." It's also sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step.
The more damage this does, the bigger spells it can cast without spending mana, making it a pretty amazing value if left unchecked.
2) Void Rend is an uncounterable permanent destroyer (White/Blue/Black spell)
Void Rend is another Magic: The Gathering card that is 100% going to see use across various formats. It's a 3-cost Instant, requiring one of each of its base colors. But Esper control/tempo decks are going to love this card. Why? It can't be countered!
Uncounterable spells are amazing in Magic: The Gathering, and this one destroys a target non-land permanent. Planeswalkers? Check. Artifacts? No problem. It has a wide variety of uses since it can safely destroy any non-land on the board.
1) Ob Nixilis is unreasonably strong, creating a fun new win condition (Black/Red planeswalker)
Hands down, Ob Nixilis is the best card in Magic: The Gathering's Streets of New Capenna expansion. It's even better when considering that his 3 Loyalty planeswalker has a 3 mana cost. He can come into play with a duplicate of himself that isn't a legendary, so say hello to Esika's Chariot shenanigans.
Dropping this on turn 3 and making an opponent discard a pair of cards is absolutely devastating. The copy of this creature has a Loyalty number based on the power of the card sacrificed to create it through the Casualty keyword.
A great way to win is to combine this with Esika's Chariot, make a few copies, and pop their -7's all at once. The target player draws 7 cards and loses 7 life, so game over.
These are far and away the best cards in Magic: The Gathering's current expansion, but they aren't the only great cards. The expansion is filled with exciting possibilities and will undoubtedly shake up the best decks in the current meta.
Note: The article entirely depicts the author's personal opinion.
