What Happens in Streets of New Capenna?

Streets of New Capenna sounds like the biggest victim of 1 set per setting. It could really do with at least 2 sets, one to introduce New Capenna and the main plot, and then a second to focus on Ob Nixilis' takeover and the return of the Angels.

I feel like the single set visits to planes has really done damage to the story, makes it really hard to get into the story in any way since the last Ravnica. 2 set blocks should be the way

"Ob Nixilis enters stage left, Vivian tries to 360 no scope him with an arrow but he swats it down, so she tells Elspeth to deal with him while she deals with the incoming draft chaff" Might be my single most loved sentence of MTG lore ever.

It's almost like this, like Kamigawa, should have been two sets. One set with Elspeth rediscovering her old home with Urabrask and Tezzeret doing actual things. Then a second with the Halo story being more fleshed out.

I think I know EXACTLY what happened here. This set was not initially meant to be for Elspeth, it was meant for Davriel Kane. He is a literal 1920's style character who specifically makes complex deals with demons to gain power, to such an extent that he's currently in hiding on Innistrad. The fact that he was an accountant might even imply that he was working for the Brokers, perhaps as a black aligned Maestro plant, before gaining the power to planeswalk. So I have the supreme feeling that they top down made this plane to be his home, and then just decided to not use him, perhaps because he's not the biggest of characters or they went in a different direction with the main storyline. Either way, it's still safe to say that this is his home plane, no matter how this story played out in the end.

I feel like they were hoping revealing elspeths home plane would help carry the set but I’d agree they seem to have tried to fit too much into one set. I’d also agree that it seems like maybe the story or overall the set was very different and changed to fit newer parameters within this ongoing developing story.

I honestly really enjoyed the writing of the story this time around... with one exception. The ending lore dump absolutely reeked of "hey we have a word limit and you're getting too close to it." But the actual writing style of the author I found very endearing and excellent. And The Side of Freedom is my new bar for all future.upcoming side stories

I feel like WotC's visual design for settings is almost always on point, as it is with New Capenna. Unfortunately, worldbuilding and storytelling is more than just visuals, and I get the feeling that was sidelined in pursuit of ticking off as many gangster tropes as possible.

This story had so much potential, but was so overstuffed that the depth of any individual plot line was razor thin. This story was a great outline for a full size novel.

The visual style and flavour of the set is absolutely my favourite in all of magic. I just really hope that we return to the plane at some point in the future.

I don't think it's fair to compare Ravnica and New Capenna. Ravnica has had 10 sets, cards from supplemental sets, online stories, novels, and comic books to establish its setting and flavour. New Capenna has had one set, and an online story. New Capenna hasn't had the same opportunity to fully describe itself to the playerbase that Ravnica has/had. I think New Capenna highlights the need for the return of 2 to 3 set blocks. As you put, Ryan, this story had so much content to cram into a single set, such that it felt like simultaneously everything was going on, and little at all. I think a three set block would have suited this particular story and the sheer amount of activity within, but even a two set block would have given us a full set to establish and immerse us in the world, and a subsequent set to give us all the action and send us off to the next. (eg Kaladesh-Aether Revolt & Amonkhet-Hour of Devastation.) It's truly a shame, because this set has gorgeous art direction. Still, I enjoyed what I read from the New Capenna story, and it excites me for the rest of this newest Phyrexia arc.

I'm grateful Magic Arcanum explained the new lore on prerelease day. It was extremely fun playing Jetmir for tonight's prerelease, but all the flavor text had me curious about the story.

Had a terrible day at work, seeing this as I clocked off definitely brightened my mood. Thank you Guys!

I like to compare the Tarkir block with Streets of new Capenna. Both have five 3 colour bosses and families and a war or conflict between them. But the fact that Tarkir had 3 different expansions made the story more clear and easily to understand. I hope that Wizards will make more 2 or 3 expansions blocks for each world in the future. Sorry for my bad english

Honestly I think this story mostly brought down by being written as s vehicle to carry along the overarching phyrexian narrative with planeswalkers running amuck rather than getting to stand up on it's own two legs, Ob Nixilis never has his motive explained aside from maybe generic power, what the hell is urabrask doing and wasn't he disliked by the other phyrexians, and why suddenly tie in a planeswalker to a world where she almost certainly was never originally supposed to be born in. The chaos between 5 mob families and urabrask alone could have carried a story, maybe even a few sets worth, but what we got was a bizarre road trip

Elspeth continues to be the biggest underdog out of the main characters in mtg. I really hope she gets a proper badass heroic moment at some point. EDIT: I'll add this - magic has this pattern of making really cool and interesting places and characters and completely undermines it by constantly going back to and relying on a tiny handful of preexisting characters while making the rest pretty empty feeling. they don't ALWAYS do this, but it happens wayyyy too much. I really wish they'd actually make the stuff specific to the plane the main focus and make the planeswalkers and such a little less of the focus. I get that planeswalkers and big bads and stuff are like THE thing they're doing but it just feels so lame to constantly have the same characters over and over and over just in different backdrops.

Hearing that Xander died puts a tear to my eye, he was such a dashing fellow, and awesome card

Fantastic video, I always look forward to these. On the note of the jambled up stories: Bring. Back. Block. Structure. Honestly, who can tell me what happened on Kaldheim vs what happened in Return to Ravnica block and give me both very cleanly and clearly? We don’t have the time to appreciate set stories and flavor with one set coming out with a crap ton of cards that won’t be remembered flavor wise in about a years time…

I love the higher quality editing that this channel has now been getting. The new card transitions in and out and the glowing effect around the cards both look great! Even with all that extra quality in editing you were still able to produce this video on time for prerelease too.

This might my favorite part of the build up to a new set. Really appreciate the concise version of the story, and the mess that comes from trying make sense of it all