Today, Wizards of the Coast launches the latest expansion for Magic: The Gathering, with the card game taking a detour this time around into the realm of Art Deco-inspired urban fantasy with Streets of New Capenna. The new set revolves around the titular city, divided around five key crime families who each have their own three-colour alignments.

The card art clearly takes inspiration from the architecture and art of the early 20th century, merging aspects of real life design and stylistic elements with the fantasy worlds that MTG is known for. There are 10 full art ‘Metropolis’ basic lands, some of which clearly take inspiration from the 1927 film Metropolis.

The five major crime families featured in the set are each distinguished by a unique three-colour alignment, boss and mechanic.

• The Obscura are aligned with white, blue and black. Their deal, as gifted magicians, is using illusions and magic for deception, manipulation and blackmail. Their unique mechanic is Connive (draw a card and discard a card. If a non-land card is discarded this way, put a +1/+1 counter on the creature that connived.)
• The Maestros are aligned with blue, black and red. They’re cashed up vampires, who are both shady assassins among the elite and connoisseurs of fine art. Their unique mechanic is Casualty (sacrifice a creature with power N or greater to copy any spell tied to this ability.)
• The Riveteers are aligned with black, red and green. These craftsmen are masters of intimidation and destruction. Their unique mechanic is Blitz (creatures with blitz can be cast for an alternate cost to gain ‘haste’ and ‘when this creature dies, draw a card’. Sacrifice the creature at the beginning of the next end step.)
• The Cabaretti are aligned with red, green and yellow. They’re a cult of druids, whose power of influence extends far beyond the lavish parties they throw. Their unique mechanic is Alliance (whenever another creature enters the battlefield, a unique effect is triggered.)
• Finally, the Brokers are aligned with green, yellow and blue. Seemingly boring solicitors, in reality they follow a grim doomsday prophecy. Their unique mechanic is Shield (if a creature with a shield counter would be destroyed or dealt damage, remove a shield counter instead.)

Some of the unique art styles employed in the card art can also be seen in the showcase treatments, which feature ‘Skyscraper’ and ‘Golden Age’ styles as seen below.

Streets of New Capenna is available from today on both MTG Arena and as physical tabletop cards, the latter of which I had a chance to play at an MTG event earlier in the week. While I’m personally an MTG novice, the game is still welcoming to newcomers even with the card expansion, although sets like the Commander decks are obviously geared towards players who have an idea how they want to build a deck and tackle their opponents. You can check out the look of the set below, including a look at one of the Maestro Face Commanders of the Commander deck, Anhelo the Painter.

You can also see a cinematic trailer for the launch below: