What I Got WRONG About Streets of New Capenna | Magic: the Gathering | Nizzanotes #42

[@karlvestin7975]

I was convinced this was going to be a slow grindy format and that fixing would be super important. I am apparently terrible at predicting formats :)

[@NizzahonMagic]

That is what most people thought just looking at the set

[@derekcline950]

@@NizzahonMagic I'm definitely guilty. Though, like a lot of people, I thought Blitz would be good if the format turned out to be faster than we expected, which did turn out true.

[@troythewizard9940]

Nice to see that Blue - generally in Limited with the worst mechanics (tap enchantments, lowering power, combat tricks by altering base p/t, mana tithe counter spells) - finally have a format where those same things line up perfectly to actually succeed.

[@samuelrussell5760]

Blue also usually has the best card selection mechanics and that is pretty useful in limited. And connive was a big part of making blue big.

[@troythewizard9940]

@@samuelrussell5760 Yeah, I'm not saying Blue doesn't have powerful mechanics- it does. But it too has the largest roster of the worst mechanics compared to other colors. It's just nice seeing these USUALLY garbage things find a home, even if it's one Limited format.

[@harkingmadwing5112]

sky crier's draw ability is also especially good since you're mostly going to be doing it opponent's end of turn, often while they're tapped out, so them getting the xtra card isn't immediately relevant

[@dyne313]

I drafted Cemetery Tampering once and your assessment here is spot on. Even when I got to play it, it sat on the board doing nothing the entire game. Even in the Blue/Black deck with tons of cards that cared about the graveyard, it still did do much of anything. I would agree with your F wholeheartedly.

[@VolvoxSocks]

I've actually enjoyed this limited format overall. I think once I figured out it was actually a two color set with a third color splash my enjoyment went up quite a bit. I think every ally color pair core other than RG was competitive if constructed correctly. The issue with WU was that there wasn't as much set-up for payoff as the other decks and that most WU 'counters matter' cards were still mostly functional even without any counters.

[@strawhataddison]

I thought Rumor Gatherer was super good when i first saw it. Even in other formats it doesnt seem to perform as good as i thought it would.

[@melrauko]

Funny thing is it slapped the first time I drafted it

[@bryanleblanc5648]

Yeah same. I think it's a cool and balanced card, probably great in monoW token decks maybe, but compare the cost and ease with Spirited Companion, which is cheaper and guarantees a card and can be bounced or brought back for more cards. Rumor Gatherer is a sort of weaker version of Welcoming Vampire, and even Welcoming Vampire is sometimes worse than Spirited Companion bc if it dies immediately you draw zero cards. Even though Spirited Companion seems very simple, having the payoff immediately is really important sometimes

[@ДаняСмирнов-ч4ю]

I honestly think that 2 common cards would've made this format much better: a 1/1 deathtoucher and a 2/2 lifelinker (or a 2/3 maybe). In most previous formats these 2 creatures really helped to stabilize, for instance fang of shigeki trades 1 for 1 with almost anything. Obviously, these cards are often green and white (already busted colours), but I think it's possible to make them black

[@ccx368]

I mean, we had the 1/2 vampire deathtouch (which sucked), which was the only way deathtouch would have been useful anyway (stopping flyers). I think black just needed more -X/-X, since Deal Gone Bad was too slow/expensive. Red also could have used 1/2 more playable creatures

[@samuelrussell5760]

I think the set just in general lacks cheap defensive creatures at common. Most of the creatures are top heavy and many of the bottom heavy ones still want to attack (civil servant and darling of the masses). Backstreet bruiser, brokers initiate, and the sawjack are probably the only cheap commons that feel defensive (and the first two of those are still trying to become aggressive in the later game). That isn't enough to build a defensive deck.

[@beelor5777]

The set had a 2/3 lifelinker for 2. It needed to attack and become a 3/3.

[@ДаняСмирнов-ч4ю]

@@beelor5777 yeah, but it's not defense. You can't lean back with civil servant to block and gain some life. It wants to attack

[@ДаняСмирнов-ч4ю]

@@ccx368 agreed! The vampire was a 3cmc flyer and most of the time it was late for the party (

[@wesley147208]

I've only cast Incriminate in a RB sac deck full of menace creatures. It targeted two Gathering Throngs and it still felt pretty bad.

[@dyne313]

I drafted Brokers Ascendency at least once and boy was that a bomb!

[@aldrinvendt8524]

I actually really liked arc splitter. It felt good to put it on things like Darling of the Masses who wants to attack but doesn't really have the stats to do that consistently. It was also brutal with first or double strike creatures which often forced out a combat trick from the opponent, which I could then kill the creature in response to the cast.

[@LadyBernkastel92]

Re: Stimulus package: Man I wish the treasure deck was good, they had so many neat weird token messing with tools but like... it takes set up and, you just don't have time to set stuff up in this format.

[@gdiridium5525]

i made that deck come together in my last draft of the format, with 2 stimmy package, widespread thieving and Devilish Valet as finisher. I went 0-3 with it, but won a single game with a 32/3 valet (and nearly got a 64/3 the next game but opponent had held Knockout Blow in hand since t1) which was good enough for me

[@stuflames4769]

Love that you do these.

[@usmansabir3897]

Such a bad limited environment... just did maybe 8 or 9 drafts. I really hope they dont eff up dominaria

[@claudio3431]

I am also guilty of thinking this format was going to be slow, grindy and that fixing was going to be a must! I had trouble keeping up with how fast it came to be at the end! Thanks for sharing your thoughts on what you got wrong! It takes courage to actually recognize our misevaluations but even more to realize what was the reason for that. Cheers for the amount of work you put into these. Oh one last thing I have noticed in your set reviews is that while I already know that you are not a big fan of combat tricks given how situational they are, I think many times you are too focused on the worst case scenario with them. Being punished 2 for 1 is a possibility but its not always going to to be the case and I do believe that there is some negative feeling towards that situation that clouds your judgement every now and then! Not saying that tricks should be all first pickable and amazing but just something to consider!

[@NizzahonMagic]

The trick thing really depends on the format. In this one, I agree, they ended up being really good. But in a typical format, they are risky and situational enough that you only play them in aggro decks, so I think my evaluations are fine.

[@stefanoriva1738]

D+ Security Bypass???? That must be your greatest misvalutation ever! That card won a lot of games! One of the best blue aura ever and at common!

[@NizzahonMagic]

I think your evaluation is pretty hyperbolic, but yeah, I did underrate it.

[@jochentaminau7453]

It's still a 2 for 1 if the creature gets removed so I don't think it's that great, it's kind of a coinflip

[@stefanoriva1738]

@@jochentaminau7453 have you ever tried Expendable Lackey on turn 1, Security Bypass on turn 2? In a Brokers shell obviously, the vastly superior family... The removal in SNC are few and far between, and usually opponents don't want to "waste" them on a 1 drop... I wasn't exaggerating, that card won me a lot of games (or lost me, when opponents use it)! I always draft a couple of it in every deck with blue.

[@jochentaminau7453]

@@stefanoriva1738 Well yeah that's the best case scenario. And they wouldn't be using it on a 1 drop they would be using it on a 1 and 2 drop :D But I agree it has some game winning moments. Like I said it's a coinflip

[@josefelixladeiarodrigues5466]

Excellent video, I just would like to see this type of videos before the end of the season

[@NizzahonMagic]

Then watch Nizzanotes every week! Haha.

[@KarasuGamma]

Arc Spitter was definitely not an F. I won several games as a direct result of it, and the drafts where I had it usually finished positive (even the ones that weren't white).

[@Knurrbauch1]

Me too. it killed many creatures.

[@NizzahonMagic]

The data doesn't support that it is worth playing. You may have had your food experiences, but they are actually outliers.

[@Knurrbauch1]

@@NizzahonMagic That might be the case but maybe we just had the right deck for it. Creating a few treasure tokens and fairly big creatures that the opponent had to block.

[@spuds4ever]

I've heard a lot of people say the format and quite a few others say it's kind of slow but imo the thing that gives it that fast feel is that it's much harder to play defence from a lack of deathtouch, to blitz and attack triggers (civil servant, the shield 4 drops and a lot of strong common fliers). That's probably what I dislike about this format the most, very hard to get back momentum if you're on the back foot.

[@Redpoppy80]

The Virtuoso comboed with Bypass puts your opponent on such a fast clock that if you can't kill it in 2 turns you just lose.

[@TheTmcabral3]

Civil Servant was my favorite card of the format for commons. Full disclosure I love playing green white so take that into account

[@OrbGoblin]

Really excited to see your take on the Alchemy draft. I imagine coming on the heels of Capenna could only help it.

[@authorinabox]

Gathering throng was my absolute favorite common of all time, it was just so fun and powerful to play when you got more than one

[@ItsDangerousGoAlone]

The number one thing we all got wrong, this was going to be a fun format to draft. Lol

[@beelor5777]

Arc splitter was bad but it was so fun to get the wombo combo. Decoy and splitter is hilarious when it goes off.

[@5un5hine73]

Boy oh boy father's day with my kids and a nizzahon video drop Christmas came early

[@tedhand6237]

C frels a bit low for Make Disappear a card with a ~60% game in hand win rate. However since the community underrates it you can often get away with floating it then picking it up on the wheel.

[@corey2232]

I played a lot of this format, & any time I manage to snag a Gala Greeters, I desperately hope to get a Stimulus Package or two. It's not a GREAT card, but man is it fun to loop treasures for dudes & net extra value with all the other synergies in the format.

[@CI0udburst]

Me and my friends had our own prerelease event and I drafted a Riveteers deck and stimulus package paired with Ziatora was actually pretty good. Easy way to build a board state. Sac the 2 treasures to create the 1/1 citizens and sac one at end step with Ziatora and create 3 treasures in the process which you can use to create 3 1/1 citizens. Was a neat little “combo” I guess for a lack of a better word lol

[@riccardocalosso5688]

That's nice, but realistically, how many times are you gonna find ziatoras running around? We are talking about a mythic card here.

[@CI0udburst]

@@riccardocalosso5688 I know. Just thought I’d share my experience drafting the set

[@elerai1496]

My worst issue was that how swingy bombs were. One guy got Cabaretti Ascendancy, the other got Broker's Ascendancy. Guess who'll go 7-2? Alchemy New Capenna makes things a bit more even by giving you two shots at rares, but things can still be swingy. I kinda just gave up on the format after getting my Mastery Pass plus a couple more matches, now just saving gold for the next set.

[@NizzahonMagic]

This format didn't have a huge bomb problem for the most part. There were definitely some nasty ones, but not so many it warped things.

[@fastydave]

Hard pass on Alchemy limited for me. Without real cards the format isn't real either.

[@Scantronimus466]

Yeah, Alchemy sucks.

[@rpriske]

Agreed. 100%

[@francescocarelli6090]

maybe I'm hyoed by the combo that I drafted in last draft with halo fountain, but in the right deck I don't find so bad the cement shoes

[@Redpoppy80]

I think we all had misread this format.

[@erinaxel8562]

I just wanted to let you know, it is the Second Alchemy limited format. They offered a draft with New Cappenna Alchemy mixed into regular New Cappenna

[@NizzahonMagic]

It wasn't a pure Alchemy format though. It was the same set with 30 alchemy cards. Not the same as what this is

[@shadowofseattle1338]

I'm saving all of my coins for the new baldurs gate set, I'm super excited to be actually playing drafts for once

[@NizzahonMagic]

Should be interesting for sure.

[@altromonte15]

Maybe I've just been unlucky but I've found hostyle takeover to be entirely worthless, most of the time it kills just one thing and sometimes not even something I care about, if shield counters are in the picture. I've had 3 drafts with it and it did something maybe once? This set has a ton of creatures that are hard to kill, can rebuild easily, and gain value with etbs.

[@NizzahonMagic]

You just have bad luck. It has one of the highest win percentages on 17 lands, to go with my analysis.

[@Redpoppy80]

I second Nizzahon. I had so many games nearly won only to get Hostile Takenover and go on to lose cause I couldn't recover.

[@Agni1965]

Arc Splitter plus a high powered death touch critter would have been interesting. Format did not really have one, unfortunately.

[@JesGolbez]

What I got wrong? That this format would be worth drafting...

[@NizzahonMagic]

Nice

[@patricklafleche5847]

so was there a set that you reached a number games faster as you really enjoyed the format or one that took you longer as you didnt like the format?

[@riccardocalosso5688]

I am fairly sure that he posted almost 30 drafts each for eldraine and dominaria

[@rpriske]

Question: you are calling Hostile Takeover close to a one-sided board wipe... It just kills one creature, no? What am I missing?

[@NizzahonMagic]

You are missing that it does 3 damage to everything. So, you make their X/4+ into a 3/3, and your creature with less than 4 toughness into a 4/4.

[@rpriske]

@@NizzahonMagic I DID miss that. I was reading it as it doing 3 damage to each of THOSE creatures. (The two you targeted.)

[@samuelrussell5760]

The thing about overseer that is baffling is how obviously good it is. If it didn’t draw a card, it would still be a D+ or maybe even a C-. If there is a creature that draws a card when it comes into play and that card wouldn’t be absolutely terrible if it didn’t draw a card, then it is absolutely bonkers.

[@justinleandoer6821]

I remember the 1/1 3 colorless mana thopter in core set 2021 the drew a card when it entered and that wasn't unbalanced. So my guess is the 2 power is what made it over powered and a good trader in combat.

[@samuelrussell5760]

@@justinleandoer6821 That's a fair way to look at it. Definitely the 2 power is important. A 1/1 flyer with no other abilities for 3 mana is probably just an F. It doesn't feel like a whole card of value, so if you add on drawing a card when it comes into play it doesn't feel like it's a whole 2 for 1. 3 mana for a 2/1 flyer isn't a good card, but it isn't a straight F. It could see play in some decks even if you wouldn't feel super good about it. So when you add on drawing the card, it's pretty much a straight 2 for 1. They have to deal with the flyer and you still get the card that you drew. Another example is spirited companion. A 2 mana 1/1 doesn't really feel like a whole card even with the enchantment synergies. So letting it draw a card is probably okay (even if it is a key common, particularly for the enchantment deck).

[@justinleandoer6821]

@Samuel Russell that companion was one of my favorite cards in neo. I miss neo so much :( :( your spot on when it comes to the 2 for 1 advantage being the biggest difference in card lvl. Vs like a 1.5 for 1 with a 1/1 body

[@TheGemoChamp]

The alchemy limited will be hard to do a set review if WotC can modify the cards Willy nilly.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Yeah it will happen some for sure, but not a ton.

[@alanturnbull9163]

I really was too high on maestros in general. This format just became “draft UW_”

[@eighthelement]

First format where I couldn't break 50% win rate then stopped playing. It was hard to figure out.

[@NizzahonMagic]

I had a rough start, but actually ended up doing pretty well in the end, got mythic both months! But yeah, was tough start.

[@abcdefghijkl5408]

Had the same experience but kept grinding....got to 61% eventually

[@justinleandoer6821]

Alot of people fizzled out fast in this set. Probably because we were spoiled with NEO

[@rpriske]

What I got wrong: I thought it looked like a fun set to draft. Nope.

[@beelor5777]

Shards of Alara limited was fun, this ain't it. Lol

[@crovax1375]

Your draft experience is vastly different then mine

[@NizzahonMagic]

How do you normally draft?

[@crovax1375]

@@NizzahonMagic by choosing cards from the draft pool on a round by round basis until all cards have been selected

[@NizzahonMagic]

@@crovax1375 Lawl. I am trying to figure out how your experience could be different, so that's not the kind of answer I am looking for

[@crovax1375]

@@NizzahonMagic I'm going to avoid writing a novel, but generally speaking, I tend to prioritize removal and top end threats.

[@NizzahonMagic]

@@crovax1375 Are you drafting at an LGS or a more competitive environment? I am just struggling to understand how you could come to way different conclusions if you played this format competitively 50+ times.

[@kolby169]

Sky crier won me a game by drawing a bunch of extra cards with queza out

[@mikevitrosoo621]

Calling red green the worst deck is just simply a false statement, u/b and golgar both take that prize not to mention boros is kinda terrible. Bant is the most aggro family but they are not the best i have to agree with thunder some that i enjoyed and had great success with gruul and rakdos decks much more than i did with anything else and i found connive deck in particular to be my worst stats as i did not like the ability

[@NizzahonMagic]

Look at the data. You will see it packs up my conclusions.

[@nitrosmob]

The enemy colors aren't as supported by themselves, so your statement is false as well. Allied colors were the name of the game with a third splash usually for a family. Of the friendly colors Nizzahon is correct and R/G was the worst. Connive is looting with upside, so what's not to like.

[@thunderphenom5114]

@@nitrosmob connive decks were terrible for me, and gruul always got me 5 plus wins no contest.

[@gunnertlc7728]

No way hostile take over is an A+

[@NizzahonMagic]

In addition to just being insanely powerful and difficult to beat based on my experience, it is also the second best card in the entire set according to 17lands, behind only Sanctuary Warden (which I also gave an A+ to). How good does a card have to be to get an A+ from you?

[@JohnChronakis]

I wonder if SNC gets more flak than normal, just because of its position after NEO, which was very well received (and rightfully so). If it had followed VOW, would reviews be more sympathetic? Personally I vastly prefer drafting SNC rather than VOW.

[@TheEvolver311]

Naw it would still be getting the shade because most people assumed it was going to be a draft format in which tricolor decks would be the norm and it just turned out to be a 2 color tempo format

[@RisottoNero-z1w]

Man, all the tempo makes the 3 color uncommons barely relevant

[@marpj6138]

No Brazen Upstart? Have played the format that does not deserve a B at all

[@NizzahonMagic]

It was a B-. So I overrated it, but not an insane amount. It was still a very nice 2 for 1, just sucked it was Cabaretti. Haha

[@youbluethatone1017]

Hi Everyone I Needs a Home

[@Methylimidazol]

Pretty funny that you have the two-mana 2/1 with connive a higher rating than the two-mana 1/1 with double strike and connive. You know, considering that the latter will always deal at least 2 damage.

[@NizzahonMagic]

It also doesn't Connive on ETB and needs a whole other card to be spent to Connive. That is a drastic difference in general - and even more so when setting up Celestial Regular and the like.

[@Methylimidazol]

@@NizzahonMagic Yeah, well, that's true. You can tell I skipped this set. :D

[@erickwalter2828]

What a lousy limited format

[@fastydave]

Nah

[@authorinabox]

Once you get used to the different than usual fell, I think that it was extremely fun