MTG's Streets Of New Capenna's Biggest Mistake Was Its Lack Of Cops
Before launch, Streets of New Capenna was my most-anticipated Magic: The Gathering release of the year. I was so down for the sexy art-deco setting and its five demonic crime families vying for control. It was vastly different from the high fantasy Magic had long been rooted in, taking us to a dirty, glitzy, urban mess of a world.
Now that it’s been out for a few months, my opinion on it has tempered somewhat. It was a tough act to follow the knockout success of Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, but what we got in New Capenna ultimately felt flat. It had all the glamour and revelry we wanted from a Great Gatsby-esque world, but it lacked something. It lacked cops.
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Streets Of New Capenna is focused on the five families: the art-stealing, assassinating, aristocratic Maestros; the party animal Cabaretti, the sneaky blackmailing Obscura, the rough-and-tumble workers group The Riveteers, and the dodgy legal firm the Brokers. Except the Brokers weren’t always part of the plan.
According to head designer Mark Rosewater, the group that would become the Brokers went through a number of iterations. One of its first incarnations was as the justice system of New Capenna – the cops seeking to take down the other four families. Of course, this being New Capenna and them being cops, this group would’ve been rife with corruption. It made perfect sense: this is the group who are based in white mana, which stands for order, control, and hierarchy in Magic. We can even see it in the Brokers’ mechanic that made it to print, with shield counters letting you protect your own permanents more easily.
And yet, we never saw this cop faction make it to the final release. It was decided
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