Streets of New Capenna Overview (Pt 2)

Let's not dally, shall we? Link to the list, for refreshment purposes

White
Why is Buy Your Silence so expensive? It costs five mana, as compared to Oblivion Ring or Banishing Light and it puts my opponent ahead on mana! Yike. I guess I've got a card for my Garbage Cube. 

After that though, I'm not seeing anything particularly positive or negative. Sure, Extraction Specialist is odd but the flavor is good, and the rest of the cards seem fine. 

I have a feeling this will repeat itself until I get to the Multicolored cards, given the design of New Capenna. Three color sets want to get flashy where the multicolor cards are. 

Blue
Even the Score is 100% the Glory of Cool Things and I love it. It won't ever trigger, except for the one time when it does and then suckers like me will never be able to stop playing the card. 

The Blue cards seem to be costed just a little more aggressively than White-some fantastic utility spells like Slip Out The Back, or Witness Protection, along with creatures that feel more appropriate for the mana value. Or maybe it just seems like the cheap Blue cards can really leverage someone into a mid-late game state, where I don't see that in White as much.

Black
It is almost certainly just me but I do want to try Cemetery Tampering in a Dredge deck. 

This is the color where things start to get my interest for the first time-Angel of Suffering is a new effect for Black, Dusk Mangler is expensive but seems like an effect that can swing a game. It wants to rely on some awkward game states, in my opinion-the '5 or more mana values in graveyard' language is confusing to me-do they mean five different mana values or combined mana values of five or more or any five cards with mana values? I asked a judge for clarification, and was told that it's the first one. So at least I know, but I don't think that's a very useful thing.

There's not much in the early game again but for a multi color set, they want games to really start around turn three or four, when the mana can be fixed. 

Oooooo. THAT is why Buy Your Silence is so expensive. 

Red
I am looking forward to Devilish Valet combo kills appearing soon. For the record, this is the kind of storm deck shenannigans I can get behind.

Sizzling Soloist reads as though there is an odd stacking ability. If you trigger the 'can't block' ability a second time, you don't have to target the same creature, so if I do this to two different creatures, do they both have to attack next turn? What happens on the third trigger? 

The rest of the cards seem fine, again. The glue that holds a limited environment together seems to be there. 

Green
Getting an exile effect in Bouncer's Beatdown is rare for Green! I'm a bit shocked by it. 

It is possible that Jewel Thief is the best 3 mana common we've seen in years. That suite of abilities and a Treasure token is Outstanding. But with it comes the knowledge that again: WotC has skewed this environment to start at turn 3 or 4, when the mana can be set up. Which means the rest of the color-while fine-isn't doing much. 

Multicolor
OK, so here's where all the glamour ought to be.

The cards that exile themselves from hand in order to colorfix mana-Glamourous Outlaw, Masked Bandit, etc. are a really neat way to address the troubles players might have getting the colors they need for three color decks. That they can come back and be a reasonable body later is also cool. Is it good to go down a card to get the colors you need? I don't know, but the ability seems helpful and paced for both Commander and Limited formats. 

The payoff cards for going into a color family are there, oddly nothing seems exciting for me. These cards aren't bad: instead I think of them as good role players, especially for Commander decks. I am hard pressed to object to this, especially when it looks like the Limited environment seems good. While not a Limited person, I'm pleased for those who are and acknowledge that WotC has been making some great environments for Draft over the past few years. 

Artifacts and Lands
Can I just start off with what a mismatch Cement Shoes is? People with cement shoes are dead. This is not what that card does. C'mon.

But of these, it's Unlicensed Herse that really stands out. Cheap to play and activate, with late game utility, this card could be extremely useful! I think it might be my favorite of the artifacts. 

The lands are an unusual lot: all of those lands can go to the graveyard, one way or another. The rares can be cycled, the dual lands can be sacrificed in the late game for cards, and then there's those strange lands that sacrifice when you play them to fetch out a basic. It's the sort of thing that makes me wonder if there is a graveyard-oriented set in our near future, as these cards could help fuel that. 

They're all fine; nothing outstanding but welcome enough.

Final thoughts
Well...reviewing some of my thoughts on Ikoria, the last three color set, (and wooo did I sorta kinda miss how powerful Companions were) I'd have to say that it feels like there's a lot in common. It's good. It looks fun! It doesn't seem to be taking many risks, though. I hope this set isn't forgettable; I dig the art and style here, but I wonder if it will be splashy enough.