What Happens in Streets of New Capenna?

[Music] [Applause] welcome to magic arcanum i'm ryan gomez behind the scenes is nicole burdick and we're so glad you're here because it's story time streets of new capenna introduces us to yet another plane within magic's vast multiverse this one packed with the glitz and glamour of the 1920s yeah the entire thing takes place within one massive art deco metropolis where five crime families fight for power and control over a magical substance called halo which gives us a prohibition era gangster film noir melting pot unlike anything the game has really done before the official story was once again told through freely available online chapters five in total but with another five supporting side stories that further flesh out some of the characters and events depicted on cards in the set and some of the cards in the set are designated as story spotlights however these spotlight cards deviate from the written story in some pretty substantial ways which has created a confusing narrative path the likes of which we haven't really seen since ichoria but fear not fellow lore mages for i am going to do my very best to sort out these differences and determine once and for all what happens in streets of new capana the story technically starts with a flashback to elspeth dying on theros but since we don't really learn anything new there i'm just going to move right ahead to the introduction of zander and his right hand man and hello they are maestros one of the five families of new capenna and they discuss their concern over the shifting balance of power currently happening across the plain and hello is mostly worried about someone called the adversary who seemingly came out of nowhere and is steadily growing his own forces by promising his recruits a generous supply of halo xander meanwhile is more concerned with one of the rival families the cabareti who are rumored to be announcing a new source of halo at an upcoming party called the crescendo now at this point we don't really know what halo is or where it usually comes from we're just told that supplies everywhere are drying up and xander is afraid that once it's gone new capenna will enter a period of anarchy and so xander tasks and hello with gathering as much information from the cabaret as he can get before returning to his private collection of art and books that are apparently relics of new capenna's creation even though he's read through this stuff many times he's still hoping to uncover a secret that will help his family survive the troubles he expects to soon befall them we then cut over to the cabaret where their leader jetmir is also having a one-on-one with one of his trusted lieutenants a woman named ginny she is eager to confirm everything is prepared for the crescendo the upcoming party during which her family will unveil something called the font which will change the dynamics of halo and thus bring the cabaret to the top in terms of power rankings now if you want to experience all the twists and turns and slow reveals you should take the time to read the actual stories because i'm just gonna explain things as they come up starting with the fact that the font is actually a person who is actually an angel and that is a really big deal the font is jada who has the ability to create halo and so the cabareti plan to use her as an endless source of this magical substance but jada isn't the regular girl everyone thinks that she is she's actually an angel on a plane where all of the other angels are currently trapped in stasis they were put there by the plane's demons who now siphon their halo and use it to protect their own controlling interests in new capenna you see long ago this plane was invaded by the phyrexians and if you don't know who they are i've got a whole video covering them so go check that one out if you haven't already their invasion was stopped when the angels and demons began working together but then those very same demons betrayed the angels and seized power for themselves and now rule things through the five crime families as demons do of course okay you got all that good because it's about to get a lot more complicated as we add some planeswalkers to the story first comes vivian who is on the plane searching for balance she came from a world where nature and artifice were in harmony until it was destroyed by nicol bolas and she has appraised new capenna as being too far leaning into industry for her tastes when she runs into another planeswalker and that's tezerette long time no see for this big cheese she remembers him fighting on the opposing side during the war of the spark but he tells vivian he's here working on the side of freedom now and would like to share his goals with her if only she'd be willing to trust him it's a big ask but vivian does follow teszeret deeper into the undercity where he promises to introduce her to urabrask one of the known phyrexian praetors these guys have been showing up a lot in the story recently and it's all building towards an eventual confrontation back on new phyrexia but we'll have to talk about that another time because the story keeps moving forward by adding elspeth to the mix she has come to new capenna in search of home literally johnny believes this is where she was born and held by the phyrexian invaders before her spark ignited and took her to tharos elsbeth is a noble character who has gone through a lot so you might want to check out my video covering her situation if you haven't seen it already earlier i mentioned the adversary this mysterious outside force who threatens to disrupt the balance of new capenna and they turn out to be another planeswalker named obnixalis short and sweet obnixolis was originally a human who took on a demon form after being cursed by the chain veil and that's not really part of this story but it does good to introduce all of the relevant characters so that the stage is set as we move on to chapter two else beth tries to get a feel for new capenna to see if it really is her home because a lot has changed since she was last here if it was here that she was born anyway so she takes some odd jobs around the city and eventually runs afoul of some maestro enforcers who are bullying a shop owner she defends the merchant and swiftly knocks out the enforcers which attracts the attention of angelo who recognizes there is something special about elsbeth and offers her a job within the family realizing that this might lead to more information about the plane's history elspeth accepts and begins working in the maestro's museum cataloging their art and artifacts eventually she catches the eye of xander who offers her more demanding jobs with the promise of providing even more of the information she's after this goes on for a little while with xander gradually revealing he has lost portions of his own memory and that's why he's obsessed with collecting antiquities in many ways he is as curious about new capenna's origins as elsbeth is then one night while out on an errand elsbeth comes face to face with vivian the two only get to talk for a moment as elspeth is being followed by other maestro agents who will report this back to xander but they do establish they are both interested in the mysteries around halo and new capenna's history with the phyrexians vivian promises to continue researching and will come find elspeth again when she has more information to share then vanishes into the night allowing elsbeth to complete her task and return to xander he tells her she's been doing fine work lately and promotes her to officer and gives her a knife but the real reason for his meeting with her tonight is to address the growing threat of the adversary it seems over the past few weeks xander has decided to treat this outsider as a legitimate threat since he's now got a stranglehold over the halo trade and is poised to upset the otherwise cooperative competition between the five families elsbeth is at first afraid she's going to be asked to confront the adversary but instead xander makes her an offer she can't refuse infiltrate the cabarete learn the location of their font and leave the back door unlocked he promises he'll take care of the rest in exchange elspeth will be granted full access to xander's personal archives no more drip-feeding information through these casual late-night chats after accepting the deal elsbeth gets a new wardrobe to go with her new knife something to help her infiltrate the cabareti and their lavish party scene she then heads to a bar known to be an entry point for cabaret recruits where she runs into ginny who is fascinated by elsbeth's name because she says she only ever sees it on gravestones which does kind of confirm elspeth is from this plane in a way nothing else really has yet anyway sitting next to ginny is jada which is elsbeth's entire mission but she doesn't know it yet ginny tells elsbeth she might have some simple jobs for her to perform and if she does them well enough she might become a full-fledged member of the cabaretti in time for the crescendo which is music to elspeth's ears so some time passes and we find ourselves at the crescendo which is basically a huge new year's eve party and all of the families are present elspeth is working as a waiter on behalf of the cabaret but she still doesn't know what the font is even though it's supposed to be shown off here tonight and xander clearly wanted her to help him steal it well before this point but here we are ginny and jada take to the stage and ginny gives a speech about how they promised to change the plane forever and now they're going to make good on that promise she gestures to jada who then fills a massive glass bottle with halo in a dizzying flash of light the assembled crowd goes wild with applause as elsbeth realizes the font is just this teenage girl who is going to be exploited by the cabaret for the rest of her life the story then cuts back over to xander who skipped the party and is enjoying some final moments in his carefully curated museum i say final moments because he is approached by abnyxillis still known as the adversary xander puts up a decent fight but in the end he's tossed from the balcony of his own museum murdered by opnixlus which is only the first step in his own hostile takeover of new cabana we cut back over to the crescendo where the applause of the party has been replaced with screaming as the agents of the adversary begin making themselves known through violence it seems every family has been infiltrated and the well-placed goons of obnixalis waste no time in rushing the stage eager to secure the font for their new boss elsbeth of course intervenes and fights off the initial wave of attackers she then asks jada if she'd like to leave the party and she replies yes and they make for a back door as they exit they are saved from another group of thugs by vivian and her magical arrows vivian says i told you i'd find you again and the now trio continue their daring escape heading out into the city streets hoping to get lost in the crowds before anyone else gives chase elspeth makes a quick visit to the maestro den and picks up a new sword from their armory and realizes the place has clearly been attacked by the adversary she then reconnects with vivian and jada and they find an abandoned warehouse to use as their hideaway for the night at this point they are the most wanted people in new capana jada confesses to elspeth she doesn't think she has enough magic within her to fix such a broken place and vivian is like yeah why bother with this at all when we have much bigger problems to deal with but elsbeth is resolute she doesn't want to abandon gianna and she promises vivian she will resume her anti-phyrexian quest as soon as she makes sure the girl is safe the next morning as jada is still sleeping elsbeth looks at her and wonders what was her history how long was she a pawn of the cabaret and how had she discovered her own power to make halo these are all really good questions but guess what they're not answered in this story at all what we do know is that ginny and some cabaret enforcers suddenly come crashing through the warehouse windows and quickly overpower the two planeswalkers jada reminds ginny that it should be jetmir who gets to decide what to do with the women and ginny begrudgingly agrees so the planeswalkers are put into handcuffs and stripped of their weapons before being marched back to a cabaret safe house which is actually an obscura safe house because the cabaret have already convinced the other families to shelter them as the adversary threatens all of them equally and so they should work together to stop him and after that they can all bow down to the cabaret because they'll still control the font great plan right yeah no the place is immediately attacked by riveteer brawlers and or maestro assassins any of whom might be working for the adversary it is not super clear while everyone is fighting elspeth even asks herself why these guys are going after jada and if they're willing to kill her because don't they also want the font but again this question will also never be answered our heroes bravely pummel everyone into submission and once again take to the streets of new capenna hey that's the name of the set anyway elsbeth silently wishes for one safe place one sanctuary and of course they immediately come across a cathedral adorned with you guessed it statues of angels they enter and else beth realizes the angels each give off a faint glow just like the one she noticed around giada a little while earlier and just like the one she's noticing around herself right now jada then asks if elsbeth can also hear it and she confirms that she can the it being a sort of music that seems to radiate from the statues elspeth asks what it all means and jada describes it as being home which elspeth really latches on to since that is what she has been searching for this whole time before they can celebrate this revelation however obnixalis enters stage left vivian tries to 360 no-scope him with an arrow but he swats it down and so she tells elsbeth to take him out while she deals with the incoming draft chaff so they fight and it's not even close op nixlas easily subdues elspeth but then he commits the greatest sin you can make against a hero character he starts monologuing this gives elspeth time to tell jada to flee but the young girl decides she's done running she's also glowing very brightly at this point so much so that elsbeth is having trouble even seeing her she tells the angel statues she's ready and then there's a brilliant flash of light which knocks abnixlas back and gives elsbeth another moment to recover jada's magic fills elsbeth healing her wounds and granting her the strength and energy needed to resume her fight with obnixolis oh it also turns her clunky broadsword into a much more elegant weapon that isn't named in the story but it does have a legendary card in the set with luxior elsbeth presses the attack on the demon and even manages to score a few good hits enough to make him realize he is beaten and so he planeswalks away the final scene takes us back to the maestro museum where elsbeth and vivian meet with angelo who has become the new ruler of the family to his credit he upholds the deal struck between elsbeth and zander and grants her access to the private archives elsbeth and vivian go over everything in the vault and confirm that long ago this plane was besieged by the phyrexians the angels fought back but needed help from the demons the demons put the angels into stasis and harvested their magic as halo which was the key to defeating the phyrexians this gives elspeth hope but she's also concerned because halo is now very hard to come by in new capana fortunately xander also had a private stash in this archive which elspeth is able to take with her when she leaves for dominaria to share what she has learned with a johnny and the rest of the gatewatch and that's it that's what happens in streets of new capana to recap elsbeth comes to the plane seeking proof of it being her home and information about how it would have survived a fyrexian invasion long ago she climbs the ranks in two different crime families and befriends a girl named jada who happens to be one of the plane's only non-frozen angels together along with help from vivian they stop a hostile takeover orchestrated by obnixalis and apparently break the other angels out of stasis ushering in a new age for the plane convinced that this is her home elsbeth decides to fight for it and the rest of the multiverse by taking the secrets of halo back to dominaria where she plans to stand against the phyrexians once more this leaves us with a couple of story spotlight cards that don't quite have a home or don't line up with the events from the written story the best way to cover those is with a little segment i like to call mustache minute now with eighty percent more beard ready here we go at no point is there a meeting of the five the leaders of the families are never in the same spot at the same time but we can assume this is more of a world building thing to establish how prior to the adversary getting involved there was at least respect between the different elements of organized crime structural assault is the other one that is a stretch i guess this fits in just after the crescendo when the families no longer trust each other because each has been infiltrated by members of the adversary's rogue faction but the story never really calls out anybody blowing up a building because of it then we get to the stuff that outright contradicts the story like daring escape note that in the art elsbeth is already carrying luxior the magical sword given to her much much later it's also kind of weird that jada's creature card can fly and is typed as an angel when in the story she behaves like a normal human until the very end at which point it is implied that she sort of gives up her physical form to rejoin the other angels and then there's urabrask who appears on just the one card compare that to vornclex on caldheim and gingotaxius on kamagawa both had their presence and actions reflected on other cards within their respective sets which makes this one feel like a very late addition to the story vivian also seems to appear on just her own planeswalker card and not in the art or flavor text of anything else this all makes me think the story went through some major changes after production on the set was already in motion it's also very confusing that the set contains angel cards when a major part of new capenna's world building is that the angels are supposed to all be frozen in stasis now apparently the ending of the story is supposed to mean that the angels are waking back up somehow unlocked by giada's magic but that wasn't super clear within the text and you can trust me on this because i read it several times and even so it doesn't explain why we already have pure black angels or ones with crime family watermarks on them to me this whole set feels like a poor man's version of ravnica you've got the competing multicolored factions all layered on top of each other in a dense urban landscape but new capenna seems to lack a lot of the charm that makes ravnica work i don't feel particularly attracted to any of the families xander was all right as far as crime bosses go and he was probably the most developed of them but he's dead now so we're left with this weird dumping ground of gangster tropes and expressions which should be enough to carry a top-down designed set but without a compelling story to tie it all together we just get a world that barely has room to do its own thing you got your crime families you got your halo shortages you've got a mysterious backstory with phyrexians and angels and demons and you've got obnixalis and you've got elsbeth and vivian and you've got present-day phyrexians and tesserat and you've got the angels coming back to life and you've got major characters implied to have died off screen it would be hard to make all of that work across two or three sets much less getting it all expressed clearly in just the one but that's what they did so now i'm asking you how do you feel about the story of new kapena does it translate well through the cards in the set do you understand what each character did and why let me know down in the comments and then make sure you like this video and subscribe to the channel so you don't miss the great stories you'll only find here on magic arcanum we'll see you [Music] you

Channel: Magic Arcanum

Views: 150,492

Keywords:

Id: 8wD9i-EHF7I

Length: 24min 34sec (1474 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 23 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Tangolino]

I think the story felt a bit off and I feel the video explains some of the problems with it. The setting and art look great (subjective of course), but the story could be a lot better, imo.

[u/HerrPupswindel]

I feel like they are realy dropping the ball with the last couple of sets.. I rly wish they would step up and maybe do the set cycles again. Even if you are not super invested in the story, it surely adds to the feeling of the game as a whole. I feel like WotC/Hasbro does not value this aspect enough.