Wednesday 4 May 2022

New Capenna Commander Preliminary Review Part I

 

0 - unplayable in 40 card singleton

1 - effectively unplayable

2 - has low tier constructed decks it might go in

3 - has mid tier constructed decks it does go in

4 - pretty powerful stuff with several potential homes, able to perform well in lower powered cubes

5 - powerful stuff that is either just too narrow or has too many superior alternatives

6 - fringe cube worthy

7 - cube worthy

8 - cube staple

9 - unpowered cube bomb

10 - powered cube bomb 



Perrie, the Pulverizer 1

Surprisingly low power card. I might play it for fun in a high synergy situation like proliferate but broadly I like my three colour Hill Giants to do rather more for me, ideally right away. 




Kamiz, Obscura Oculus 1

You could pretty much use the previous review for this one too. Yes, it does do a bit more for you right away, but you still need to have attackers making it conditional as well as weak. 





Anhelo, the Painter 2

Now this is an interesting one for sure. Far too narrow for limited settings but there is a lot of potential power to unlock here if built around well in constructed. I am imagining a deck full of spells that make decayed tokens as well as a bunch that Fork nicely. Sounds fun to build and to play. 




Henzie "Toolbox" Torre 1

Cool ability but sadly on a vanilla body. A fun, interesting, build around card that is great design for EDH. For cube this lacks power to say the least. There are not loads of dorks or situations where blitz is better than just playing the card in question. Some for sure, but a long way off what playing a three colour 3/3 to facilitate would need. 




 Kitt Kanto, Mayhem Diva 2

This is closer to fine on power level. You get passable stats on two bodies, a tiny bit of EtB value, and the ability to do something right away. I wouldn't bother testing this if it were mono coloured. This is OK but it isn't competing. Closer to cube playable still means not cube playable. 




Phabine, Boss's Confidant 0

Wildly over cost for what is offered. The body is not becoming of a six drop. In 1v1 play the ability is rather calmed and much riskier ensuring you are not playing this for any reason. 




Kros, Defense Contractor 0

Low power nominally but utterly unplayable in 1v1 regardless. I do really like the idea of a tapper that buffs but a white one drop rather than this gold four drop monstrosity. A nice clean 0/1 that just taps to tap a dork and put a +0/+1 counter on it or something. That is probably a bit too good and likely needs to buff power (and only target your opponents stuff) but interesting untapped design space at least. 




Boxing Ring 2

This is a little too narrow sadly as I do like the mechanics in many ways. Needing a creature with the same mana value is going to make fighting a rare occurrence. Further to that you need your dork to either win or usefully trade. I like making treasure and I like green removal but I simply don't see how I am getting the consistency of this card to where I need it to be. Rimjaw Raptor will eagerly await the time that I manage! 





Spiteful Repossession 0

In 1v1 this is not going to give enough return to be playable. Even if you sac all your lands before resolving this you are paying five mana to do five or so damage and make that many treasure. That is a whole lot of hoops to jump through for unreliable and awkward returns. 




Mari, the Killing Quill 3

Not quite enough power by herself but pretty close. A 3/2 deathtouch for 3 that exiles opposing dorks and can connect to draw cards and make treasure. The issue isn't power it is reliability and risk. Against decks with dorks to exile connecting is that much less likely and against all decks a 3 drop with 2 power and often no immediate effect on the game are just asking to fall behind to a wide array of cheap removal effects. I will play Mari in a somewhat more tribal list and I will empower her with some zero mana removal effects and she will be really cool. 




Vazi, Keen Negotiator 0

Awkwardly bad in 1v1. A five mana 3/3 haste is obviously laughable. The tap effect does nothing if you do not produce treasure yourself and when it does do something it seems to give your opponent a massive advantage! Here, have a load of mana to use at your discretion, try not to kill me with it please...



Rain of Riches 6

This seems powerful in general. It is a five mana upfront cost which is certainly not nothing and makes it unsuitable for a number of decks, as does making use of the cascade mechanic. Although in turn the cascade mechanic is pretty open to abuses as well so there are some perks to constructed things for this. If you break down the parts of this card you are getting at least two cards and you are paying at most 1 mana net from that, likely less. The treasure takes the cost from 5 to 3 and then the cascade triggers will themselves offer mana back. Then, you also get to turn any other treasure you might have into a card and more mana. In a meaty midrange red deck I think this will be excellent however it is likely a bit too much of a value card with a few too many ideal requirements to get enough cube play. There isn't quite enough treasure stuff floating around in cube to push this on the one hand. On the other cards like Outpost Siege and various iterations of Chandra are rather more appealing and playable ways to draw extra cards in the more aggressive red builds. I do none the less love this card and entirely plan to build a Cascade deck around it.





The Beamtown Bullies 3

Not terrible as a body but not good enough. Equally the ability is no good in 1v1 in any sort of normal deck. The only use for the Bullies is to cheat cards into play that are bad like Phage and Leveler and that sort of thing. A quirky combo card and not the worst. Get a card in the bin then pay four mana and win. Yes, it can be disrupted but you can protect against such eventualities. The issue this combo has outside of EDH is in redundancy and not in vulnerability as you might expect. 




Mezzio Mugger 2

Cool card but even at the relatively lower blitz cost of three it is going to be tough getting much value out of this. Hit two lands and one is wasted. Hit two non-lands and you are going to need an average of five further mana or more to play both cards, even assuming both are playable/useful. Muldrifter this is not. Playable I guess but barely and not the kind of card that often approaches its ceiling. The ceiling is draw 3 card for three mana and do three damage to something which is outstanding but it so unlikely to achieve all those things in a useful time frame, if at all





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