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 agree that New Capenna should have been two sets, but the story arc that really needed an additional set was Kaldheim. That set was criminally underserved.
@@richardwilliams8008 Kaldheim was unbearable. Hey, here's TEN different realms each with their own history, culture, gods, and populations! QUICK let's run through them, maybe we can get each of them half of a paragraph! I hope we see more of Tyvar. I wasn't even a big fan of him personally, but if he shows up again it will at least mean that Kaldheim left some sort of impression.
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
@@JM64 Third sets almost always were mechanically bad. *Maybe* the story was better, but the worst option WotC could go with is a return to three set blocks. Last thing we need are more Saviors of Kamigawa, Dragon's of Tarkir, Avacyn Restored, Dragon's Maze, etc... So many third set stinkers. Any set can be relatively poor, but almost always the third set is worst than the two that precede it.
@@timbombadil4046 "mechanically bad" in and of themselves maybe, but the whole point of blocks is mixing and matching cards from every set in said block, besides the fact not every set needs new mechanics; new effects and/or synergies for said mechanics sure, but not every set needs their own version of landfall or morph or riot or... Not to mention Dragons of Tarkir was my first set so 🥲🙃
@@leol3301 Depends on the set and the story being told. 2 can work well for *most* sets, but the ones that need 3 really need 3. Tarkir couldn't have been done without 3 sets without otherwise harming K.o.T and D.o.T Either way I'd rather have too much of a plane than too little of one, which is what we've been getting with these one set releases lately
"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.
yep should definitely go back to at least 2 sets. Set 1 introduces the setting, plot threads and mechanics and ends on an exciting cliffhanger, Set 2 introduces twists, conclusions, and exploration of the mechanics (Amonkhet did a great job of this imo). In Capenna, Set 1 could've been the intro to the crime families and the cliffhanger is Ob coming back and gaining control, then Set 2 is Elspeth on the run and the reawakening of the angels as the big showstopper ending. Give the audience time to enjoy a new setting before jetting off to a new place. I'm sure there are hundreds of people out there who would've liked another set on Kaldheim or Kamigawa. Unfortunately WotC seem determined to have Commander tie-ins do the heavy lifting.
Maybe do a reverse Fate reforged approach? Start in the past, Show us the conflict with the phyrexians, the origins of the families and their Leaders, maybe do the Leaders either as MDFC or transform cards, one pre demonic pact and one afterwords. Then Go to the present and Show us how Capenna has changed and how the famalies have evolved.
Agreed. Doing New Capenna in one set is like trying to imagine Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon as a single set. It would not have worked because it would have been too much action in a single set and not enough setup. Streets of New Capenna has too much action and not enough setup for a single set. Strixhaven had a similar feel where the story had a lot of action, but the cards of the set made up for the limited world building of the set's story. All of the major characters had cards that reflected the story extremely well, but this one didn't have that.
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 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.
interesting thought, a few months back (before his big kickstarter) there was a rumor that Sanderson was going to do a sequel book, so maybe they were keeping him free for that? Now though, I wonder if WotC could afford him. lol
@@ryanconrad2786 I don't know if they can afford him but I remember him telling in an interview, I believe it was with The Professor, he wasn't planning on work with them again because of the way they treat his book. They, wotc and Sanderson, agree to make it a free story but the wotc decided to sell the book anyway.
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.
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 think, if they had made this an old-style block, it probably could have worked. Between the Elspeth stuff and the Phyrexian plot....yeah, they could have made it last for 2 or three 3 sets instead of just sticking it onto 1.
They kinda said so, they had the idea of demon gangster art deco world and later added Elspeth story. But they do this with all the worlds, Kamigawa was the same way as was all the worlds in the bolas arc. They often come up with the world and themes before they lock in the story.
@@tgs9929 true but with Kamigawa and even most planes in the bolas arc they didn’t try to jam as many new things into one story so the stories were more successful generally speaking
@@Wiitigo_X I disagree, Kamigawa rebooted itself, introduced Kaito, tied in the phyrexia plot and had the wanderer face and back story revel as well as featuring Tamiyo’s family. I think the story needs more room to breath but I think that more chapters in the story than the default 5.
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.
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 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.
Thanks for noticing! I've been trying to make incremental improvements over the past two years, but when you write your own scripts, perform them, record them, edit them, and animate them, it doesn't leave a lot of room for 'playful innovation.'
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
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.
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
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 think the lore dump and the "everything and nothing is happening all at once" also describes Neon Dynasty. Which is sad because the cards themselves are super cool and flavorful, but the stories are lacking severely
That's also how I see it. They need to come back to the 2-3 sets per story block, because that is essentially where it all suffered. Not only this set, but also several before. You have so many to establish and lore to dump for a new plane and on top of that the story should also progress. That leads to such hasted stories like this or also Neon Dynasty or Kaldheim. I don't get why they still refuse to do that when they even saw the problems themselve in the newest Innestrad set which was made a 2 part set last minute.
Maybe if New Capenna was split into two parts, one where it focuses on the plane and another where it focuses on Phyrexia. Although it is a new plane and its success is still unknown.
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…
Kaldheim? Uh. Well. Um. Vorinclex ran into a wall and … I think Kaya stabbed things. Yeah, hard agree on the need for a return to blocks, it’s just a bunch of whiplash and a very, very shallow dip into every setting’s lore.
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.
At this point MtG stories are so boring and repetitive that I can't even watch Ryan telling them and believe me, he makes them 10 times more interesting than they really are. He carried them for a while but there is nothing interesting in them anymore. Having the same planeswalker rotating wouldn't be so bad if: a) they really rotate (out of tens of walkers in the game only a handful is making appearance over and over again). b) they fit the plane the action is set on (Vivien in New Capena just doens't feel right. If you want a green walker that fits a city just make up a new one). However, as long as draft is decent I will play the game. And the game is most important part after all. Still, if they really put some care into the story they could make an extra buck by selling books or something. War of the Spark have shown that with this level of narration, publishing books doesn't make any sense.
If you wanna see some heroic Elspeth moments I’d go back and read the story for original Theros/Born of the Gods/Journey into Nyx and then Return to Theros as well if you never read those. All those stories centered around Elspeth and developed her character a lot
Good news guys! Elspeth is now the main protagonist in the Phyrexian storyline! And we can already assume she will return in March of the Machine with a BANG and save the multiverse! I speculate that she'll return from the Sylex Blast transformed into a true Archangel, or even into a godlike pre-Mending planeswalker... Go read the All Will Be One stories, they're awesome. :) PS: Elspeth was also central to the Dominaria United story. She has a beautiful epic moment where she inherit Jaya's last flame and bursts into a supernova of light that blows up an entire battlefield. Elspeth is a beast!
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
Ob Nixilis's inclusion, at least to me, felt like someone just grabbing at the most obvious answer to what planeswalkers should be in the set, and no one pushing back. Sure, demon planeswalker on demon world, but I think we could have had a much more interesting story if they started setting up Davriel as a more important character to the story here. He's someone we know is very adept at conversing with demons and getting them indebted to him rather than the other way around, which fits really well with the mafia world of New Capenna. Plus his fashion style is something that could fit into this world with very little adjustment if any needed at all.
THANK YOU! I have seen so many people justifying the inclusion of angels in the set with the ending "implying they were freed", but literally nowhere is there even a remote reference to this at all. I was almost convinced something was going over my head.
New Cappenna felt like it was an excuse to do shards of Alara color combos now that Alara has been put back together, but they didn't really think about differentiating the families from the shards until the set was like, releasing lmao.
Good summary👍🏻 I think they do the lord a disservice spending so little time on each plane. It’s quite a shame: early Magic had such tremendous and developed lore, and the Bolas arc was very well-developed as well. It seems they dropped that as soon as Bolas was locked away, and started trying to fly through it to keep pace with product development.
It's not just a poor man's Ravnica. It's a poor man's Amonkhet (a single settlement built on an otherwise decimated plane where nobody remembers what happened previously), and a poor man's Innistrad (angels go missing, monsters take control, everyone fighting the monsters copes with what's left of the angelic influence, and then the angels come back later). Besides the plane's aesthetic, everything about it has been done better elsewhere in Magic's past.
I was a casual player for a long time. I kind of lost interest when they changed the release format and did the whole "Return to Everything We Already Did Before" sets. I'm not sure about the new settings but I'm glad to see them introducing new planes again. I think the only one set per plane is another thing. I did prefer the annual cycle with a trilogy for each plane. It seemed to work better for theming and worldbuilding and also serve to feature mechanics better.
I really appreciate that you do this. I've recently decided to complete a collection of all Story Spotlight cards, and it frustrates me that there's no given order anymore, after there used to be up until around War of the Spark. So I use these videos to put them in chronological order to the best of my ability. So I just wanted to say thank you for doing this and for making sure you discuss all the Story Spotlight cards, regardless of whether or not they fit in with the written story!
I found your channel recently after coming back to mtg after an 18yr hiatus. Your channel, and Magic Historian, are my 2 favorite mtg channels. Your voice is smooth, sense of humor isn't too cringe, and you lay out the lore & flavor of mtg in a very digestible format. Keep up the good work!!
It felt to me like the story needed at least two more chapters, maybe exploring further how the absence of the Adversary and the supposed return of the angels changed everything. Might have been interesting to tie that in with Vivien and Elspeth needing to recover Ob Nixilis' stash of Halo, instead of surprising them with a convenient one from Xander. That could also be used to tie up Jetmir and Jinnie's stories, since they most certainly would be looking for that stash aswell. But I think the set (meaning the cards themselves) has enough space for all this. I didn't think any of the cards were particularly out of place, only that they weren't explained thoroughly enough. Though maybe a return to the plane in the future, after the Phyrexians are dealt with, could explore how the rest of the plane gets repopulated, and how Elspeth finds her literal home/birthplace (maybe even her own grave :o).
Ok, so I''m glad you mentioned the Angel cards. Those have been driving me nuts. A key part of the world is literally "ANGELS ARE GONE," and yet here we are, with Angels at common! COMMON! I could understand an artifact angel here and there as a facsimile of Angels, I can even accept a Mythic angel nightmare. But just regular angels at common???????????? It drove me nuts. Also, I'm a bit sad you didn't mention the fact Urabrask is betraying New Phyrexia, or that Elspeth seems absolutely fine working alongside him; because at the end Vivien name drops him and Elspeth reacts like nothing actually happened.
If it looks easy it's because I have a degree in communications and work very hard at writing my scripts to be as understandable as possible. Glad you appreciate them!
- hey, Elspeth, didn't you...like...killed literal Gods (plural)? - yes - and brought yourself back to life out of spite? - yup - and weren't you the plane's greatest hero, slayer of countless mythological beasts? - sounds about right - so... Why are we running away from 3 mobsters and an angry waiter? - ...forgot my spear in the other dress
I feel like Elspeth has the most established rep as a straight-up ass-kicker. She's been a knight and a monster slayer and all sorts of stuff. I think it's pretty wild she would lose 1v1 vs Ob in this story
Thank you for doing this! This story feels like it’s like one of those middle movies that need to set up for a new one. Like it’s all leading to the Phyrexians and we just sorta needed to get through this to get to that.
It reminds me a lot of Iron Man 2 in that way - felt like that movie only existed to introduce Black Widow and lay a lot of groundwork for The Avengers.
The very reason I watched this video was to know what Urabrask did in New Capenna. Disappointment doesn't even begin to express what I feel... But it's not your fault, of course. Great video, as always !
I love your channel! thanks to you I don't have to read through the kind of boring storylines the last sets had (except Crimson Vow/Moonlight Hunt)... keep on the great work!
I'm really happy to see that Ryan shares the frustration that so many people had with New Capenna's story. It really felt like the story in the cards was just completely different than the story we were told in the... story.
I defo agree the story is very overstuffed. Thank you so much for your amazing time and energy put into these videos! It gets me into the stories of Magic and honestly makes me feel seen as someone who primarily loves these worlds for their story potential. Honestly with all of the complaints I am still hyped for the set. The set up for the plane itself is super intriguing and even though I am not a mafia person I love the families aesthetics. Some friends and I got very into it and made characters and stories in the world of New Capenna while also trying to make slightly more sense of the mess the main story left behind, and also avoiding the Planeswalker part since we didn't wanna self insert into the grand plot with this project. A big gripe with the main story was how little characterization the world leaders of the crime families and other stuff got and it was a very fun task to do that ourselves! It has become a genuine brainrot of mine and while fanfiction does not make a good canon plot. It does help stomach the missing potential in this really fun world. I think there is a lot of potential to tell interesting stories! The watered down Ravnica comment makes sense but I feel any world will be in comparison. Which is why I think it is so fun to even just for myself and my friends who are MTG lore mages to add that nuance to these worlds. I guess I am saying that I am disappointed with the official story, but happy that the set exists and that it brought me and my friends together to "Fix it fic" this world with so much conceptual promise. Stories are amazing and I am glad this set gave me a springboard to get back into a writing flow. I hope for the audience of MTG Lore mages that when something in any plane or card excites you to create you do it as well! Even if it's not canon I feel like Magic has such an amazing multiverse to play around in and tell stories we wanna tell. While we have talented lore mages who give us the main stories I would love to see the community writing and creating whatever they want to in any plane MTG puts out. Exploring avenues they want too and just having fun.
I agree completely with the statement this set's story didn't come through in the cards. I had no idea who Elspeth was working for, but did get she was searching for home. The mob family story with Ob Nixulus was fine, but details of the angels and demons was not present in the cards. Loved this recap bringing it all together though.
I find this sets story to be a confusing mess. I'm particularly disappointed with Urabrask's poor showing. He is easily my favorite praetor and he got done dirty by this story. A praetor showing up should always be a major story point, but his presence is so unimportant that even in this review he is only mentioned twice.
And if (like me) you don't bother to read the side stories (which, yes, I really should), you literally have no idea he's there on the plane. That's how little impact he makes on the main story of the set. I can assume he's there to investigate the site of (one of) the Phyrexians' most significant defeat(s), and the Halo that enabled it, but as far as I'm aware he has literally no influence on the main Elspeth-centred story.
When I saw the new ob nixilis, and the card didn't make any mechanical sense to me, I said "I can't wait for the magic arcanum video that will explain this to me the gods know I'm not reading through all these descriptions to answer my own questions". Cheers Ryan and Nicole.
It's sets like this that make me think we should go back to 3 set blocks story wise and would also allow mechanics to be fleshed out in creative ways like the fact we only got one card with extort that I'm aware of
3 sets is too much. 2 would do. Set 1: Elpeth, and Vivian are investigating the world. Each for their own reason. Elspeth finds out about the angels and demons. Vivian finds out about the Phyrexians. Set 2: Ob Nixilis goes to war with 5 families. Giada awakens the angels. The angels help the 5 families defeat Ob, but it's too late for Xander.
Ob Nixilis always seemed to me like the kind of guy who would blow a perfectly good opportunity to execute his diabolical plan by monologuing it up. As Tuco says: When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.
With this time I'd call it an established pattern. Back on Zendikar (feeling old yet?) he had the Gatewatch caught and was ready to execute them. And instead he monologued at them until Nissa (iirc) managed to free them. I love Mob Nixilis dearly as I love many a MtG Villain but he is so far among the purest Disney Villains in Magic.
The story wasnt transparent through the cards unfortunatly. Than I remembered your youtube channel, but i forgot your name. I found it anyway, looking for the beard, freeing me from not understanding - understanding there isnt enough story. Thank you! :)
I feel like that will be true of any faction set just because of how popular Ravnica is. There is just SO much content there multiple block sets novels comics etc. A DnD book even. Any set will feel watered down compared to it
@@frostwalkerspodcast5864 Then they should try a different tactic. Organized Factions don’t always have to be the life blood or center of a plane. they can be just as effective as supporting elements to the wild building
@@rennac3152 I would agree that would be fun to see! I know Ikoria had a 3 color theme but that was settings and even then it was sort of glossed over. I think that being wanted for a future set but also conflicts between factions are an important part of MTG even before and after Ravnica. I think it becomes important to differentiate color based factions, tribes like the factions of Ixalan and sides of conflicts like the Brothers War. Those are all factions and it becomes tough to remove such a deep part of magic from it. Kamigawa had factions in the background but it was so in the background most people forgot about it when compared to the main Kaito and Tezzeret plotline.
@@frostwalkerspodcast5864 that’s on the writing teams. Cramming so much into one set or short story doesn’t let any one Area shine. They need to slow the f@ck down and let the world building and characters develop. Ikoria was alright. Ixilon did great given how many planes walkers they had to juggle with their story
@@rennac3152 Heavy agreement there! I hope this didn't come off as an argument. I am someone who still likes the less good worlds and I think my writer brain tends to like "I will fix it myself" and I know fanfic does not fix canon but still.
I love the setting and art direction for this plane and i think the mechanics are fun, but the story was lacking. Also, why was there no Riveteers side-story? We get 0 insight into Ziatora or any the other Riveteers, or what they're like. That annoys me
I think we're really starting to see the cracks form from having one-set stories. They're trying to shove as much into one set's worth of time in the spotlight what they would normally over the course of two or three. ...but then that leads me to our most recent visit to Innistrad and that theory kinda falls apart.
22:22 when the spoiler season begun for this set I also said to myself like "wow this set feels like an excuse for WotC to not return to Ravnica again"
I've read tons of other books by many other popular authors and loved their literature. My problem with Magic's writers is that they focus too much on representation and not enough on story. Thank goodness this channel exists. It's way easier to understand what's happening from one of these videos than I could ever understand reading from the website.
What I would have done if I was WoTC would have been a whole year of "clue tokens" instead of treasure tokens. Starting in Inistrad, you return to the original plane of clue tokens. Initial clues would have hinted at the wedding. Maybe reprint that blue-green tracker that made a clue for every land. Once you are at the wedding, more clues prop up, story wise related to new phyrexia and kamigawa. Scrap the blood tokens to avoid too many types of tokens at once in the set, and instead have black-red be proper vampires tribal. Perhaps a return to madness, or perhaps expand the dance theme with two creatures attacking per turn. Have maybe one archetype where clues shine, like "drawing a second card every turn" or "drawing during your opponent's turn", or "keeping mana open to cast flash / instants / pop clues". Throw in a couple clue tokens in kamigawa that relate to phyrexians and their designs. And then bam. Replace the brokers as a crime family with the police. Have one plainwalker investigate phyrexian plans there. Clues foreshadow the fact that the next set is going to be phyrexia or something like that. Completely scrap the "halo is treasures" subtheme, rework red-green into something else, and make white-blue-green control-and-clues a full standard archetype using cards from 4 different sets. Brokers and obscura now fully explore the potential of clue tokens. Some cards have you mill when you pop a clue. Information broker makes it so that every clue token is simultaneously a treasure token. Etc. The things that might have been. Alas...
I love that the Phyrexians are slowly(very slowly) being brought back to the forefront little by little. I do want them all back now but I'll take what I can get. These videos help a great deal thanks to your incredible storytelling Ryan. Biggest question I have is that if all the Praetors are receiving new versions I can't wait to see what Elesh Norn's is going to look like.
Amazing video!! I really think they are going to return to this plane within the next 3- 10 years. My guess is it's going to be in the same fashion as dragon of tarkir where the Angels are back and running the mobs terribly and it's up to the demons to take it back. I believe that explains the slight disconnect between the story and visuals to leave space for a return set with Giada (probably getting a spark) and the rest of the freed angels. Hopefully this comment ages well lol.
I understand why they want Planeswalkers in every set, but they need to do a better job of including them in the story. They all feel a little shoehorned lately, but Vivian is biggest perpetrator in this story.
For the angel bit, the flavor text on paragon of modernity says "No true angels have been created since the founding of New Capenna, but artisans have learned to craft elegant facsimiles." So I assumed that all the clan aligned angel cards were similar facsimile angels and not the true angels
The “this feels like a poor man’s version of ravniva” just hits. I never was too interested with this plane and even the story doesn’t sound that compelling. Maybe they should’ve developed over more sets like ravnica is usually handled
I feel the same as with every set from Eldraine onwards: Just 1 set isn't enough. Just 1 set gives me the impression that a plane is just a photograph, a lame parody of their source material with little original worldbuilding backing it up. Then we have our little boy Innistrad that has 2 sets and uses them to tell a compelling story in 2 acts with characters developing through it (see Katilda and her two legendary cards). WotC, please, use 2 or 3 sets per plane. Give us insights and true and compelling wordbuilding for the plane. Use intrigue in Strixhaven, have us wondering for a set what will happen when the Blood Avatar awakens and if the Defense against Black Magic professor will betray the school. Here I just see a lot of info/name dump in an unamusing story in a plane that we won't visit in +5 years just for the sake of dropping a McGuffin.
Totally agree with your assessment, they obviously changed this story very late in the game. If we take Vivien and Urabrask out, and we put the angels back on the world coexisting with the demons, then you basically eliminate the connection to the Phyrexians at all and the story is about the families (with both angels and demons working together) fighting for control of the city which seems to make a lot more sense given the cards
There were a few paragraphs sprinkled in as flashbacks that told us about Elspeth meeting with Ajani, but she didn't take an oath and officially join the Gatewatch, so much as promise her old friend she'd investigate New Capenna for him.
I am so disappointed that the Praetors have been having less and less impact over their respective story when they are supposed to be setting up a return to New Phyrexia
@@davidesciacca3527 Not really. Tezeret had a much bigger impact than Jin. Honestly, you could have taken Jin out of the story and still ended with the same results.
@@k9commander yeah of course Tezzeret has an enormous role in bringing Phyrexians around. But compared to Vorinclex, whose quest we ignore the goal yet (not the object, the use), and Urabrask, who is 100% useless and feels like a late addition, Jin Gitaxias actually spends time on Kamigawa studying kamis to be able after to compleat Tamiyo. That's not a small impact
I mean, for me that's the only thing that truly pushed the story forward in the last 2 years. Kaldheim and Streets of New Capenna hint at stuff but no clear advancement in the plot, Strixhaven and the 2 Innistrad close on themselves, having a praetor finding a way to compleat a planeswalker without him/her losing the spark is big. It's a deus ex machina in term of explaining how he did it (kami blabla), but still does it
Yes, I explained in two prior videos that I am between houses and temporarily living in an apartment, which limits the space I have to use, and the recording gear available to me.
I am glad we get to see some heroes take on Ob again. I mean this is the guy who almost drowned Gideon in a muddy puddle and broke Jaces jaw back in the Eldrazi arc.
I think the setting is really interesting but I agree with everyone saying it would have been better as a 2 set block. I felt the same way about Kamigawa too. One set just isn't long enough to really get to fall in love with a new plane. But I like it anyways because Elspeth is there :)
Ill be honest New Capenna and especially Kamigawa neon dynasty feel weird to me I want to like it but it just feels weird the jump from magic to future technology to Roaring 1920s again I want to like it but its hard too when tis being thrown at me 100 miles per hour.
With how many angels I got in my Obscura Pre-release kit, I was sure there would be some reveal that the Obscura had secretly released some of the angels to keep the other crime families in check or something like that. Turns out Obscura didn't really have much to do with anything, and it upsets me.
I was expecting Elspeth, when facing Ob Nixilis and while holding Luxior (or whatever her weapon was), to say "Say hello to my little friend!" Missed opportunity
I don't know I'm always more interested in the stories that center on the established planeswalkers (new capenna, zendikar rising)than I am the newer ones (ikora, neon dynasty)
I just find it weird that nobody (even here) is talking about the hinting at Elspeth also being a wayward Angel like Giada. For me when reading the story, that was a significant moment
I really do feel that they cut Davriel Kane, whether he was replaced by Ob, Elspeth or Vivian but there is no way he wasn't intended to be in this set.
Xander, the creature that decimates your hand, your deck and your board and is a powerhouse of a reanimate target. Gets murdered easily... It's hard to get invested in this lore, especially with the 1 set 1 setting.
To be fair almost every creature dies to Murder 'easily' so I'm willing to cut them some slack there. It did take a planeswalking demon to take him down though, at least in the story. The part that bothers me about his card is that he doesn't seem to "collect" stuff so much as put it into an opponent's graveyard through discard, mill, and forced sacrifice.
Personally, I would have liked to see Urabrask make a last-minute intervention to save Elspeth and Giada from Ob, seeing how he is personally interested in halo and in stopping Phyrexia himself, aligning his goals with Elspeth's ones.
Glad you do these so i don’t have to read. Whatever happened to your podcast type videos where you two drank coffee and talked about magic? I really enjoyed those.
Capena lore feels like it should of been 2 and the second set could be the angels that were left in stasis being very upset about the demons leaving them like that
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 agree that New Capenna should have been two sets, but the story arc that really needed an additional set was Kaldheim. That set was criminally underserved.
@@richardwilliams8008 Kaldheim was unbearable. Hey, here's TEN different realms each with their own history, culture, gods, and populations! QUICK let's run through them, maybe we can get each of them half of a paragraph!
I hope we see more of Tyvar. I wasn't even a big fan of him personally, but if he shows up again it will at least mean that Kaldheim left some sort of impression.
@@richardwilliams8008 I'd argue (and have in the past) that all the new planes should get two sets so they get a proper introduction.
The cards feature the angels as if they're already free and public knowledge they were always trapped in the statues...
@@richardwilliams8008 kaldheim had a story? 😅
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
2 is good, 3 is best.
@@JM64 Third sets almost always were mechanically bad. *Maybe* the story was better, but the worst option WotC could go with is a return to three set blocks. Last thing we need are more Saviors of Kamigawa, Dragon's of Tarkir, Avacyn Restored, Dragon's Maze, etc... So many third set stinkers.
Any set can be relatively poor, but almost always the third set is worst than the two that precede it.
@@timbombadil4046 "mechanically bad" in and of themselves maybe, but the whole point of blocks is mixing and matching cards from every set in said block, besides the fact not every set needs new mechanics; new effects and/or synergies for said mechanics sure, but not every set needs their own version of landfall or morph or riot or...
Not to mention Dragons of Tarkir was my first set so 🥲🙃
@@JM64 3 is a bit repetitive, 2 sets and a commander set is good enough already.
@@leol3301 Depends on the set and the story being told.
2 can work well for *most* sets, but the ones that need 3 really need 3. Tarkir couldn't have been done without 3 sets without otherwise harming K.o.T and D.o.T
Either way I'd rather have too much of a plane than too little of one, which is what we've been getting with these one set releases lately
"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.
yep should definitely go back to at least 2 sets. Set 1 introduces the setting, plot threads and mechanics and ends on an exciting cliffhanger, Set 2 introduces twists, conclusions, and exploration of the mechanics (Amonkhet did a great job of this imo). In Capenna, Set 1 could've been the intro to the crime families and the cliffhanger is Ob coming back and gaining control, then Set 2 is Elspeth on the run and the reawakening of the angels as the big showstopper ending. Give the audience time to enjoy a new setting before jetting off to a new place. I'm sure there are hundreds of people out there who would've liked another set on Kaldheim or Kamigawa. Unfortunately WotC seem determined to have Commander tie-ins do the heavy lifting.
Maybe do a reverse Fate reforged approach? Start in the past, Show us the conflict with the phyrexians, the origins of the families and their Leaders, maybe do the Leaders either as MDFC or transform cards, one pre demonic pact and one afterwords. Then Go to the present and Show us how Capenna has changed and how the famalies have evolved.
Agreed. Doing New Capenna in one set is like trying to imagine Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon as a single set. It would not have worked because it would have been too much action in a single set and not enough setup. Streets of New Capenna has too much action and not enough setup for a single set. Strixhaven had a similar feel where the story had a lot of action, but the cards of the set made up for the limited world building of the set's story. All of the major characters had cards that reflected the story extremely well, but this one didn't have that.
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 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.
interesting thought, a few months back (before his big kickstarter) there was a rumor that Sanderson was going to do a sequel book, so maybe they were keeping him free for that? Now though, I wonder if WotC could afford him. lol
Makes a lot of sense, and this annoys me because Davriel is one of my favorite planeswalkers.
@@ryanconrad2786 I don't know if they can afford him but I remember him telling in an interview, I believe it was with The Professor, he wasn't planning on work with them again because of the way they treat his book. They, wotc and Sanderson, agree to make it a free story but the wotc decided to sell the book anyway.
I believe they confirmed Dav was from a world already known to the players by the time of the novel.
@@adrianmelo7768 Dang, I didn't know they removed the freely available novella :/
That's quite a dick move, and I assume Hasbro's decision.
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.
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 think, if they had made this an old-style block, it probably could have worked. Between the Elspeth stuff and the Phyrexian plot....yeah, they could have made it last for 2 or three 3 sets instead of just sticking it onto 1.
They kinda said so, they had the idea of demon gangster art deco world and later added Elspeth story. But they do this with all the worlds, Kamigawa was the same way as was all the worlds in the bolas arc. They often come up with the world and themes before they lock in the story.
@@tgs9929 true but with Kamigawa and even most planes in the bolas arc they didn’t try to jam as many new things into one story so the stories were more successful generally speaking
@@Wiitigo_X I disagree, Kamigawa rebooted itself, introduced Kaito, tied in the phyrexia plot and had the wanderer face and back story revel as well as featuring Tamiyo’s family. I think the story needs more room to breath but I think that more chapters in the story than the default 5.
Had a terrible day at work, seeing this as I clocked off definitely brightened my mood. Thank you Guys!
Overnight shift? Cuz if so same.
night shift crew signing in
Have a better day, friend!
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.
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 agree! I’m getting back into magic after being away for years and the Cabaretti and New Capenna and they’re my absolute favorite.
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.
Thanks for noticing! I've been trying to make incremental improvements over the past two years, but when you write your own scripts, perform them, record them, edit them, and animate them, it doesn't leave a lot of room for 'playful innovation.'
@@MagicArcanum Sounds like a lot of work and stress, but the end product always looks great. I especially like your Flavor Wins and lore videos.
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
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.
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
Hearing that Xander died puts a tear to my eye, he was such a dashing fellow, and awesome card
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 think the lore dump and the "everything and nothing is happening all at once" also describes Neon Dynasty. Which is sad because the cards themselves are super cool and flavorful, but the stories are lacking severely
That's also how I see it. They need to come back to the 2-3 sets per story block, because that is essentially where it all suffered. Not only this set, but also several before. You have so many to establish and lore to dump for a new plane and on top of that the story should also progress. That leads to such hasted stories like this or also Neon Dynasty or Kaldheim.
I don't get why they still refuse to do that when they even saw the problems themselve in the newest Innestrad set which was made a 2 part set last minute.
Maybe if New Capenna was split into two parts, one where it focuses on the plane and another where it focuses on Phyrexia. Although it is a new plane and its success is still unknown.
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…
Kaldheim? Uh. Well. Um. Vorinclex ran into a wall and … I think Kaya stabbed things.
Yeah, hard agree on the need for a return to blocks, it’s just a bunch of whiplash and a very, very shallow dip into every setting’s lore.
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.
At this point MtG stories are so boring and repetitive that I can't even watch Ryan telling them and believe me, he makes them 10 times more interesting than they really are. He carried them for a while but there is nothing interesting in them anymore. Having the same planeswalker rotating wouldn't be so bad if:
a) they really rotate (out of tens of walkers in the game only a handful is making appearance over and over again).
b) they fit the plane the action is set on (Vivien in New Capena just doens't feel right. If you want a green walker that fits a city just make up a new one).
However, as long as draft is decent I will play the game. And the game is most important part after all. Still, if they really put some care into the story they could make an extra buck by selling books or something. War of the Spark have shown that with this level of narration, publishing books doesn't make any sense.
If you wanna see some heroic Elspeth moments I’d go back and read the story for original Theros/Born of the Gods/Journey into Nyx and then Return to Theros as well if you never read those. All those stories centered around Elspeth and developed her character a lot
Elspeth needs to fulfill her destiny, to become compleat.
I feel this hard.
Good news guys! Elspeth is now the main protagonist in the Phyrexian storyline! And we can already assume she will return in March of the Machine with a BANG and save the multiverse! I speculate that she'll return from the Sylex Blast transformed into a true Archangel, or even into a godlike pre-Mending planeswalker... Go read the All Will Be One stories, they're awesome. :)
PS: Elspeth was also central to the Dominaria United story. She has a beautiful epic moment where she inherit Jaya's last flame and bursts into a supernova of light that blows up an entire battlefield. Elspeth is a beast!
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
Ob Nixilis's inclusion, at least to me, felt like someone just grabbing at the most obvious answer to what planeswalkers should be in the set, and no one pushing back. Sure, demon planeswalker on demon world, but I think we could have had a much more interesting story if they started setting up Davriel as a more important character to the story here. He's someone we know is very adept at conversing with demons and getting them indebted to him rather than the other way around, which fits really well with the mafia world of New Capenna.
Plus his fashion style is something that could fit into this world with very little adjustment if any needed at all.
THANK YOU! I have seen so many people justifying the inclusion of angels in the set with the ending "implying they were freed", but literally nowhere is there even a remote reference to this at all. I was almost convinced something was going over my head.
New Cappenna felt like it was an excuse to do shards of Alara color combos now that Alara has been put back together, but they didn't really think about differentiating the families from the shards until the set was like, releasing lmao.
I watched this video for the soul purpose of finding out what Urberask was up to.
"Urberask was there".
Thanks wizards. Riveting story telling.
Good summary👍🏻 I think they do the lord a disservice spending so little time on each plane. It’s quite a shame: early Magic had such tremendous and developed lore, and the Bolas arc was very well-developed as well. It seems they dropped that as soon as Bolas was locked away, and started trying to fly through it to keep pace with product development.
It's not just a poor man's Ravnica. It's a poor man's Amonkhet (a single settlement built on an otherwise decimated plane where nobody remembers what happened previously), and a poor man's Innistrad (angels go missing, monsters take control, everyone fighting the monsters copes with what's left of the angelic influence, and then the angels come back later). Besides the plane's aesthetic, everything about it has been done better elsewhere in Magic's past.
I was a casual player for a long time. I kind of lost interest when they changed the release format and did the whole "Return to Everything We Already Did Before" sets. I'm not sure about the new settings but I'm glad to see them introducing new planes again. I think the only one set per plane is another thing. I did prefer the annual cycle with a trilogy for each plane. It seemed to work better for theming and worldbuilding and also serve to feature mechanics better.
I really appreciate that you do this. I've recently decided to complete a collection of all Story Spotlight cards, and it frustrates me that there's no given order anymore, after there used to be up until around War of the Spark. So I use these videos to put them in chronological order to the best of my ability. So I just wanted to say thank you for doing this and for making sure you discuss all the Story Spotlight cards, regardless of whether or not they fit in with the written story!
You're welcome - glad you find it helpful!
Subscribed! Your recaps are very helpful.
Glad you like them!
I found your channel recently after coming back to mtg after an 18yr hiatus.
Your channel, and Magic Historian, are my 2 favorite mtg channels.
Your voice is smooth, sense of humor isn't too cringe, and you lay out the lore & flavor of mtg in a very digestible format.
Keep up the good work!!
"isn't too cringe"
I must be losing my touch.
It felt to me like the story needed at least two more chapters, maybe exploring further how the absence of the Adversary and the supposed return of the angels changed everything. Might have been interesting to tie that in with Vivien and Elspeth needing to recover Ob Nixilis' stash of Halo, instead of surprising them with a convenient one from Xander. That could also be used to tie up Jetmir and Jinnie's stories, since they most certainly would be looking for that stash aswell.
But I think the set (meaning the cards themselves) has enough space for all this. I didn't think any of the cards were particularly out of place, only that they weren't explained thoroughly enough. Though maybe a return to the plane in the future, after the Phyrexians are dealt with, could explore how the rest of the plane gets repopulated, and how Elspeth finds her literal home/birthplace (maybe even her own grave :o).
Ok, so I''m glad you mentioned the Angel cards. Those have been driving me nuts. A key part of the world is literally "ANGELS ARE GONE," and yet here we are, with Angels at common! COMMON! I could understand an artifact angel here and there as a facsimile of Angels, I can even accept a Mythic angel nightmare. But just regular angels at common???????????? It drove me nuts. Also, I'm a bit sad you didn't mention the fact Urabrask is betraying New Phyrexia, or that Elspeth seems absolutely fine working alongside him; because at the end Vivien name drops him and Elspeth reacts like nothing actually happened.
I am always amazed at how easily and clear the story is told
If it looks easy it's because I have a degree in communications and work very hard at writing my scripts to be as understandable as possible. Glad you appreciate them!
Really elegant telling of a sadly kinda subpar story. I appreciate the work you guys do
- hey, Elspeth, didn't you...like...killed literal Gods (plural)?
- yes
- and brought yourself back to life out of spite?
- yup
- and weren't you the plane's greatest hero, slayer of countless mythological beasts?
- sounds about right
- so... Why are we running away from 3 mobsters and an angry waiter?
- ...forgot my spear in the other dress
I feel like Elspeth has the most established rep as a straight-up ass-kicker. She's been a knight and a monster slayer and all sorts of stuff. I think it's pretty wild she would lose 1v1 vs Ob in this story
I'm getting back in the game after several years without playing, your videos help to keep up with the many sets coming out. Thanks and keep it up
Biggest flavor fail is clearly not reprinting defenestrate over murder
Thank you for doing this! This story feels like it’s like one of those middle movies that need to set up for a new one. Like it’s all leading to the Phyrexians and we just sorta needed to get through this to get to that.
It reminds me a lot of Iron Man 2 in that way - felt like that movie only existed to introduce Black Widow and lay a lot of groundwork for The Avengers.
The very reason I watched this video was to know what Urabrask did in New Capenna. Disappointment doesn't even begin to express what I feel... But it's not your fault, of course. Great video, as always !
I love your channel! thanks to you I don't have to read through the kind of boring storylines the last sets had (except Crimson Vow/Moonlight Hunt)... keep on the great work!
I'm really happy to see that Ryan shares the frustration that so many people had with New Capenna's story. It really felt like the story in the cards was just completely different than the story we were told in the... story.
Boy howdy do I have an Ikoria for you :P
Always love your lore/story videos. Help me understand the sets! Keep up the awesome work!
I defo agree the story is very overstuffed. Thank you so much for your amazing time and energy put into these videos! It gets me into the stories of Magic and honestly makes me feel seen as someone who primarily loves these worlds for their story potential. Honestly with all of the complaints I am still hyped for the set. The set up for the plane itself is super intriguing and even though I am not a mafia person I love the families aesthetics.
Some friends and I got very into it and made characters and stories in the world of New Capenna while also trying to make slightly more sense of the mess the main story left behind, and also avoiding the Planeswalker part since we didn't wanna self insert into the grand plot with this project. A big gripe with the main story was how little characterization the world leaders of the crime families and other stuff got and it was a very fun task to do that ourselves! It has become a genuine brainrot of mine and while fanfiction does not make a good canon plot. It does help stomach the missing potential in this really fun world.
I think there is a lot of potential to tell interesting stories! The watered down Ravnica comment makes sense but I feel any world will be in comparison. Which is why I think it is so fun to even just for myself and my friends who are MTG lore mages to add that nuance to these worlds. I guess I am saying that I am disappointed with the official story, but happy that the set exists and that it brought me and my friends together to "Fix it fic" this world with so much conceptual promise.
Stories are amazing and I am glad this set gave me a springboard to get back into a writing flow. I hope for the audience of MTG Lore mages that when something in any plane or card excites you to create you do it as well! Even if it's not canon I feel like Magic has such an amazing multiverse to play around in and tell stories we wanna tell. While we have talented lore mages who give us the main stories I would love to see the community writing and creating whatever they want to in any plane MTG puts out. Exploring avenues they want too and just having fun.
I agree completely with the statement this set's story didn't come through in the cards. I had no idea who Elspeth was working for, but did get she was searching for home. The mob family story with Ob Nixulus was fine, but details of the angels and demons was not present in the cards.
Loved this recap bringing it all together though.
One could argue Urabrask being hidden for most of the set is perfectly on flavor for the praetor
always look forward to your videos! Thanks for this short, easy explaination
I find this sets story to be a confusing mess. I'm particularly disappointed with Urabrask's poor showing. He is easily my favorite praetor and he got done dirty by this story. A praetor showing up should always be a major story point, but his presence is so unimportant that even in this review he is only mentioned twice.
And if (like me) you don't bother to read the side stories (which, yes, I really should), you literally have no idea he's there on the plane. That's how little impact he makes on the main story of the set. I can assume he's there to investigate the site of (one of) the Phyrexians' most significant defeat(s), and the Halo that enabled it, but as far as I'm aware he has literally no influence on the main Elspeth-centred story.
When I saw the new ob nixilis, and the card didn't make any mechanical sense to me, I said "I can't wait for the magic arcanum video that will explain this to me the gods know I'm not reading through all these descriptions to answer my own questions". Cheers Ryan and Nicole.
It's sets like this that make me think we should go back to 3 set blocks story wise and would also allow mechanics to be fleshed out in creative ways like the fact we only got one card with extort that I'm aware of
This 100%. The stories have been terrible since they have had to condense them to five chapters per plane…
3 sets is too much. 2 would do.
Set 1:
Elpeth, and Vivian are investigating the world. Each for their own reason. Elspeth finds out about the angels and demons. Vivian finds out about the Phyrexians.
Set 2:
Ob Nixilis goes to war with 5 families. Giada awakens the angels. The angels help the 5 families defeat Ob, but it's too late for Xander.
Ob Nixilis always seemed to me like the kind of guy who would blow a perfectly good opportunity to execute his diabolical plan by monologuing it up. As Tuco says: When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.
With this time I'd call it an established pattern. Back on Zendikar (feeling old yet?) he had the Gatewatch caught and was ready to execute them. And instead he monologued at them until Nissa (iirc) managed to free them.
I love Mob Nixilis dearly as I love many a MtG Villain but he is so far among the purest Disney Villains in Magic.
The story wasnt transparent through the cards unfortunatly. Than I remembered your youtube channel, but i forgot your name. I found it anyway, looking for the beard, freeing me from not understanding - understanding there isnt enough story. Thank you! :)
“Watered down Ravinca” what a lot of these faction focused sets feel like.
I feel like that will be true of any faction set just because of how popular Ravnica is. There is just SO much content there multiple block sets novels comics etc. A DnD book even. Any set will feel watered down compared to it
@@frostwalkerspodcast5864 Then they should try a different tactic. Organized Factions don’t always have to be the life blood or center of a plane. they can be just as effective as supporting elements to the wild building
@@rennac3152 I would agree that would be fun to see! I know Ikoria had a 3 color theme but that was settings and even then it was sort of glossed over. I think that being wanted for a future set but also conflicts between factions are an important part of MTG even before and after Ravnica.
I think it becomes important to differentiate color based factions, tribes like the factions of Ixalan and sides of conflicts like the Brothers War. Those are all factions and it becomes tough to remove such a deep part of magic from it. Kamigawa had factions in the background but it was so in the background most people forgot about it when compared to the main Kaito and Tezzeret plotline.
@@frostwalkerspodcast5864 that’s on the writing teams. Cramming so much into one set or short story doesn’t let any one Area shine. They need to slow the f@ck down and let the world building and characters develop. Ikoria was alright. Ixilon did great given how many planes walkers they had to juggle with their story
@@rennac3152 Heavy agreement there! I hope this didn't come off as an argument. I am someone who still likes the less good worlds and I think my writer brain tends to like "I will fix it myself" and I know fanfic does not fix canon but still.
thank you for explaining new capenna thoroughly as im interested with the world of new capenna
I love the setting and art direction for this plane and i think the mechanics are fun, but the story was lacking. Also, why was there no Riveteers side-story? We get 0 insight into Ziatora or any the other Riveteers, or what they're like. That annoys me
At least we know they like punching.
But yeah, quite disappointing.
I think we're really starting to see the cracks form from having one-set stories. They're trying to shove as much into one set's worth of time in the spotlight what they would normally over the course of two or three.
...but then that leads me to our most recent visit to Innistrad and that theory kinda falls apart.
22:22 when the spoiler season begun for this set I also said to myself like "wow this set feels like an excuse for WotC to not return to Ravnica again"
I've read tons of other books by many other popular authors and loved their literature. My problem with Magic's writers is that they focus too much on representation and not enough on story. Thank goodness this channel exists. It's way easier to understand what's happening from one of these videos than I could ever understand reading from the website.
What I would have done if I was WoTC would have been a whole year of "clue tokens" instead of treasure tokens. Starting in Inistrad, you return to the original plane of clue tokens. Initial clues would have hinted at the wedding. Maybe reprint that blue-green tracker that made a clue for every land.
Once you are at the wedding, more clues prop up, story wise related to new phyrexia and kamigawa. Scrap the blood tokens to avoid too many types of tokens at once in the set, and instead have black-red be proper vampires tribal. Perhaps a return to madness, or perhaps expand the dance theme with two creatures attacking per turn. Have maybe one archetype where clues shine, like "drawing a second card every turn" or "drawing during your opponent's turn", or "keeping mana open to cast flash / instants / pop clues".
Throw in a couple clue tokens in kamigawa that relate to phyrexians and their designs.
And then bam. Replace the brokers as a crime family with the police. Have one plainwalker investigate phyrexian plans there. Clues foreshadow the fact that the next set is going to be phyrexia or something like that. Completely scrap the "halo is treasures" subtheme, rework red-green into something else, and make white-blue-green control-and-clues a full standard archetype using cards from 4 different sets. Brokers and obscura now fully explore the potential of clue tokens. Some cards have you mill when you pop a clue. Information broker makes it so that every clue token is simultaneously a treasure token. Etc. The things that might have been. Alas...
Thank you for the summary. I understand it way better with this video.
Glad to hear it!
I love that the Phyrexians are slowly(very slowly) being brought back to the forefront little by little. I do want them all back now but I'll take what I can get. These videos help a great deal thanks to your incredible storytelling Ryan. Biggest question I have is that if all the Praetors are receiving new versions I can't wait to see what Elesh Norn's is going to look like.
Be careful what you wish for...
New Capenna is a reminder of what can go wrong when designing strong mechanics first and then throwing a story on top.
This is my favorite pack and story
Amazing video!! I really think they are going to return to this plane within the next 3- 10 years. My guess is it's going to be in the same fashion as dragon of tarkir where the Angels are back and running the mobs terribly and it's up to the demons to take it back. I believe that explains the slight disconnect between the story and visuals to leave space for a return set with Giada (probably getting a spark) and the rest of the freed angels.
Hopefully this comment ages well lol.
I love this style of video thank you!!!
I understand why they want Planeswalkers in every set, but they need to do a better job of including them in the story. They all feel a little shoehorned lately, but Vivian is biggest perpetrator in this story.
Vivien is the planeswalker of tourism. What's she doing in Ikoria? Tourism.
I'd even go as far as to say we know more about Wrenn than vivien, and the former has had only 2 cards and 1 story appearance! Compared to vivien's 6
For the angel bit, the flavor text on paragon of modernity says "No true angels have been created since the founding of New Capenna, but artisans have learned to craft elegant facsimiles." So I assumed that all the clan aligned angel cards were similar facsimile angels and not the true angels
The “this feels like a poor man’s version of ravniva” just hits. I never was too interested with this plane and even the story doesn’t sound that compelling. Maybe they should’ve developed over more sets like ravnica is usually handled
I feel the same as with every set from Eldraine onwards: Just 1 set isn't enough.
Just 1 set gives me the impression that a plane is just a photograph, a lame parody of their source material with little original worldbuilding backing it up.
Then we have our little boy Innistrad that has 2 sets and uses them to tell a compelling story in 2 acts with characters developing through it (see Katilda and her two legendary cards).
WotC, please, use 2 or 3 sets per plane. Give us insights and true and compelling wordbuilding for the plane. Use intrigue in Strixhaven, have us wondering for a set what will happen when the Blood Avatar awakens and if the Defense against Black Magic professor will betray the school.
Here I just see a lot of info/name dump in an unamusing story in a plane that we won't visit in +5 years just for the sake of dropping a McGuffin.
Totally agree with your assessment, they obviously changed this story very late in the game. If we take Vivien and Urabrask out, and we put the angels back on the world coexisting with the demons, then you basically eliminate the connection to the Phyrexians at all and the story is about the families (with both angels and demons working together) fighting for control of the city which seems to make a lot more sense given the cards
Wait. So Elspeth met Ajani again AND jonied the Gatewatch off-screen? Really?
There were a few paragraphs sprinkled in as flashbacks that told us about Elspeth meeting with Ajani, but she didn't take an oath and officially join the Gatewatch, so much as promise her old friend she'd investigate New Capenna for him.
All I know about this set is that the soundtrack is absolutely fire
I am so disappointed that the Praetors have been having less and less impact over their respective story when they are supposed to be setting up a return to New Phyrexia
Jin Gitaxias did not have an impact on his own story?
@@davidesciacca3527
Not really. Tezeret had a much bigger impact than Jin.
Honestly, you could have taken Jin out of the story and still ended with the same results.
@@k9commander yeah of course Tezzeret has an enormous role in bringing Phyrexians around. But compared to Vorinclex, whose quest we ignore the goal yet (not the object, the use), and Urabrask, who is 100% useless and feels like a late addition, Jin Gitaxias actually spends time on Kamigawa studying kamis to be able after to compleat Tamiyo. That's not a small impact
I mean, for me that's the only thing that truly pushed the story forward in the last 2 years. Kaldheim and Streets of New Capenna hint at stuff but no clear advancement in the plot, Strixhaven and the 2 Innistrad close on themselves, having a praetor finding a way to compleat a planeswalker without him/her losing the spark is big. It's a deus ex machina in term of explaining how he did it (kami blabla), but still does it
Story time is my favorite time. Something looks different though!
Yes, I explained in two prior videos that I am between houses and temporarily living in an apartment, which limits the space I have to use, and the recording gear available to me.
@@MagicArcanum ahhhhh. Good luck on the move! Hope everything goes smoothly.
I am glad we get to see some heroes take on Ob again. I mean this is the guy who almost drowned Gideon in a muddy puddle and broke Jaces jaw back in the Eldrazi arc.
Super informative very clear and understandable much appreciated video thank you
I think the setting is really interesting but I agree with everyone saying it would have been better as a 2 set block. I felt the same way about Kamigawa too. One set just isn't long enough to really get to fall in love with a new plane. But I like it anyways because Elspeth is there :)
Thank you very much for this very cool Video 😊🤴🏻👍🏾 my favorite TH-camr and Plane 😊👍🏾 thank you very much , good Job
Ill be honest New Capenna and especially Kamigawa neon dynasty feel weird to me I want to like it but it just feels weird the jump from magic to future technology to Roaring 1920s again I want to like it but its hard too when tis being thrown at me 100 miles per hour.
With how many angels I got in my Obscura Pre-release kit, I was sure there would be some reveal that the Obscura had secretly released some of the angels to keep the other crime families in check or something like that. Turns out Obscura didn't really have much to do with anything, and it upsets me.
This is one of my favorite sets since Kaldheim, absolutely love the aesthetic
"There are 5 crime families who run the city, but only 2 are pertinent to the story."
Well that's disappointing...
I was expecting Elspeth, when facing Ob Nixilis and while holding Luxior (or whatever her weapon was), to say "Say hello to my little friend!"
Missed opportunity
I don't know I'm always more interested in the stories that center on the established planeswalkers (new capenna, zendikar rising)than I am the newer ones (ikora, neon dynasty)
New Capenna really gets by on bad ass Art Deco aesthetics and not much else.
I’m just glad the whole story came out before the major preview cards could spoil it
I just find it weird that nobody (even here) is talking about the hinting at Elspeth also being a wayward Angel like Giada. For me when reading the story, that was a significant moment
Also wtf even happened when Vivien met Tezzeret and Urabrask? I'm sure that'll be the topic of a later plot twist
It would be really cool if they did a sequel set to this one about the angels and the legendaries in it were the wedge colors instead of the shards.
Ajani: So how do we get strong enough to beat the Phyrexians?
Elspeth: Drugs.
I really think that each new plane needs at least two sets. One to establish a baseline and one to show how things change.
This is why stories should be done in 3 block sets.
New cappenna felt like it was suppose to be a full block, but got shorten down to fit how releases work now
I really do feel that they cut Davriel Kane, whether he was replaced by Ob, Elspeth or Vivian but there is no way he wasn't intended to be in this set.
This story feels like it would be from a "Mom can we have the Magic story? We have Magic Story at home. Magic Story at home: SNC" meme
What's happened ? Urabrask is surprising us 👀
You should do one of these on the side story that happened in the Magic Discord. The ARG was a blast!
Xander, the creature that decimates your hand, your deck and your board and is a powerhouse of a reanimate target.
Gets murdered easily... It's hard to get invested in this lore, especially with the 1 set 1 setting.
To be fair almost every creature dies to Murder 'easily' so I'm willing to cut them some slack there. It did take a planeswalking demon to take him down though, at least in the story. The part that bothers me about his card is that he doesn't seem to "collect" stuff so much as put it into an opponent's graveyard through discard, mill, and forced sacrifice.
Personally, I would have liked to see Urabrask make a last-minute intervention to save Elspeth and Giada from Ob, seeing how he is personally interested in halo and in stopping Phyrexia himself, aligning his goals with Elspeth's ones.
Glad you do these so i don’t have to read. Whatever happened to your podcast type videos where you two drank coffee and talked about magic? I really enjoyed those.
If you want to see more episodes of Cards and Coffee, you've gotta ask Many Worlds Tavern to sponsor us again :-)
Capena lore feels like it should of been 2 and the second set could be the angels that were left in stasis being very upset about the demons leaving them like that