Sorcery cards may not be as flashy as instants, but their drawback of only being castable during your own turn does often allow for more powerful effects than you can find on most instant cards. A case in point is that almost every wrath effect that’s ever been printed comes at sorcery speed. As a result, players turn to sorcery cards when looking for powerful one-time effects that their decks need.
The Streets of New Capenna is no different in this regard. As we’ll shortly see, Capenna sorceries appear to have added a number of powerful removal and reanimation effects to the card pool. So, without further ado, let’s dive in.
8 Whack
Why is it that black usually ends up with the best color hate cards? While you’ll probably never see Whack included in the mainboard of a deck, there’s no doubt that this will be an abundant sideboard hate card in many Standard decks running black mana.
This removal spell gets around the shield mechanic quite nicely, which is a keyword that many of the newly printed white cards have. Furthermore, one mana removal is almost always a guaranteed tempo swing in your favor.
7 Strangle
Speaking of one mana removal, red’s new Lightning Bolt is looking quite tempting, despite the appearance of the previously mentioned shield mechanic in this set. Although this card doesn’t hit the face, it’s been a good while since red had one mana removal that dealt three damage in Standard.
Of course, that’s assuming that you don’t include Wizard’s Lightning. You'll find that mono-red always rears its head at the beginning of Standard formats, so don’t expect the release of Streets of New Capenna to be any different. Our advice: protect your neck.
6 Grisly Sigil
Now, here’s an interesting card. A potential one mana Lightning Helix in black is nothing to sneeze at, but the setup for this effect seems somewhat problematic. How do we create a deck that reliably deals noncombat damage to creatures we’re trying to remove?
It remains to be seen whether there are other cards in Standard that are playable enough to activate Grisly Sigil, but there’s no doubt a lot of brewers out there are going to the drawing board with this card. Alternatively, this card could also find a home in a lifegain matters deck.
5 Patch Up
Reanimating three cards for three mana is an amazing deal, but we’re not sure the one drops out there are good enough to bring Patch Up into the Standard fold. However, Historic is a different case entirely.
This card seems like a perfect fit for UW and WB auras, which both feature the one and two cost creatures you need to stick to the battlefield in order to win. It wouldn’t be surprising to see a couple of copies of this card added to the sideboards of both decks, and maybe even the main.
4 Graveyard Shift
Over many years of Magic, we have seen all kinds of five mana reanimation cards out of black. Some add counters to the reanimated creature, some provide the creature with additional types or keywords, but never have we seen this effect printed at instant speed.
Granted, there is a condition that needs to be met to turn this card into an instant, but putting five cards with different mana values into the grave isn’t all that hard to do. This will likely be a blowout blocker bomb in Limited, and is probably good enough to see Standard play as well if a graveyard strategy emerges.
3 Depopulate
Here’s a spin on the previously printed Shatter the Sky, and one that makes thematic sense with the Streets of New Capenna set. Unfortunately, chances are a ton of decks are going to be running multicolored creatures, so this will probably be a lot less reliable at providing card advantage than you might expect.
Nonetheless, four mana wrath effects are always playable in Standard, and this is sure to slot into a control deck nicely. Not to mention, this card's story implications for the New Capenna setting are rather dire. It looks like Ob Nixilis is coming back with a bang. Too early?
2 Corpse Explosion
If Depopulate didn’t tickle your fancy, here’s another wrath effect to whet your appetite — and this one hits planeswalkers too! As is the case with Graveyard Shift above, if a graveyard strategy emerges in Standard it is near certain that this card will end up in its sideboard. Heck, it’s a powerful enough effect that it might even make it into the main.
The ability to choose how much damage your wrath is hitting the board for should not be underestimated, as wiping out your opponent’s creatures while keeping your own intact is almost always a game-winning play. Drowning Pool said it best: let the bodies hit the floor. And the walls. Maybe some chunks on the ceiling too, for good measure.
1 Fatal Grudge
Two mana edicts are pretty typical, but not when they act as cantrips! As we’ve stated in other articles, the problem with edicts (sacrifice effects) is that your opponent gets to choose, but that becomes a lot less of a problem when your edict replaces itself with a new card in your hand. If there aren’t too many go wide or token strategies running amok in Standard, Fatal Grudge is going to be a very good card for the format.
This card may also find a home in Historic’s Rakdos Arcanist deck, as it usually has Elemental tokens filling the field thanks to Seasoned Pyromancer. But really, can you blame those cute little red elementals for holding a grudge?
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