Commander 2022: New Capenna Commander Decks and Decklists

Today we’ll talk about perhaps the most iconic Commander product of 2022. That’s right, it’s time to discuss Commander 2022 decks! Of course, that’s the unofficial name, as these are officially known as Streets of New Capenna Commander decks. We recently got the full decklists, and you can find all of them below.

However, before we get to it, we’ll touch on what New Capenna Commander precons actually are. If you are a more experienced player, feel free to skip this next section.

New Capenna Commander 2022 Decks

New Capenna is a brand-new world in Magic the Gathering. It’s Magic’s take on the gangster movie, and that’s reflected in these Commander precons.

There are five crime families. Each one of them has three colors, and has a signature mechanic. All of this makes for a perfect setup for the biggest Commander product of the year, with five Commander 2022 decks, in the following color combinations:

	Deck name	Colors
	Obscura Operation	White Blue Black
	Maestros Massacre	Blue Black Red
	Riveteers Rampage	Black Red Green
	Cabaretti Cacophony	Red Green White
	Bedecked Brokers	Green White Blue

Intro or Full Versions?

In the past, Wizards released intro (or lite) Commander decks. These decks had lower power level and lower price. As an example, you can take a look at Kaldheim Commander decks.

However, the vast majority of the time, WotC make fully powered Commander decks. The most recent ones were Neon Dynasty Commander decks. They have higher power level, more powerful reprints, and have the standard price for Commander precons.

So, the question is: Are New Capenna Commander decks intro decks or the full versions?

Well, Wizards didn’t make a lite Commander deck since Kaldheim, which was over a year ago — back in February 2021. It certainly looks like Wizards are phasing out this product. Additionally, this is the big Commander release of the year, so it doesn’t make any sense to bring intro Commander decks back with this release. So this means that the New Capenna Commander 2022 decks are fully powered.

This means that these are powerful decks with 17 exclusive new cards in each one and with exciting reprints. The new cards will be thematically tied to New Capenna, but the reprints can be from anywhere.

Release Date

New Capenna Commander decks release on April 29, 2022. That’s the same day as the main set releases in paper.

New Capenna Commander Deck — Contents

Each Commander 2022: Streets of New Capenna Commander will likely contain (based on previous releases):

• 2 different foil commanders (the main commander, and a different commander to swap it with, if you want to)
• 98 regular cards
• 10 double-sided tokens
• 1 cardboard deck box (these are usually not the sturdiest, so we’d recommend one of the better Commander deck boxes)
• 1 life counter

You don’t just get the foil version of your main commander. There’s also a so-called foil-etched display version. It’s a slightly thicker card, and isn’t meant for competitive play. You can use it in your command zone, and that’s to its size, you won’t accidentally shuffle it into your deck.

Sample Collector Booster

On top of all that, these decks will also have a Sample Collector booster, which will include two cards:

• 1 rare or mythic with special treatment (foil or non-foil)
• 1 common or uncommon (foil)

This is certainly an exciting addition, as you could potentially get a valuable card in this booster. And that’s on top of the 100 cards which you already know that you’ll get.

With that said, let’s take a look at the five decks, main commanders and new cards. We’re starting with Obscura.

Obscura Operation

• Theme: Attacking, Connive
• Colors: White, Blue, Black (Esper)
• Main Commander: Kamiz, Obscura Oculus
• Obscura Operation Upgrade Guide

We’re starting with a very unusual theme for this color combo. The deck cares about attacking, and utilizing the connive mechanic.

What’s connive? It’s a new mechanic introduced with Streets of New Capenna. If you attack with a creature that has connive, you get to draw a card and discard a card (a little bit of a card selection). If the discard card wasn’t a land, you also put a +1/+1 counter on the creature that attacked.

All things considered, this is a pretty cool mechanic to have in a Commander deck. It promotes attacking, which makes for more proactive games, and card filtering is always useful. Plus, you can also do some graveyard shenanigans.

Kamiz, Obscura Oculus Review

Kamiz is very combat oriented. So, if attacking isn’t your cup of tea, it won’t be a great commander for you. On the other hand, if you do enjoy sneaking in with a big creature, then Kamiz is an amazing option.

Everything Kamiz does happens when you attack. First, one creature becomes unblockable and connives. Then you choose a creature with lesser power, and it gets double strike. Essentially it improves two of your attackers. It can also support some kind of a Voltron strategy. (That’s a strategy uses one big attacker, sometimes that’s a commander in order to win via Commander damage.)

Kamiz can offer you interesting deck building decisions, but it isn’t too strong by any means. You can use it as a fun commander, without worrying about becoming the biggest target at the table immediately.

Obscura Operation Decklist

Capenna Commander Decks New Cards – Obscura Operation

Some of the new cards below have the borderless treatment. Note, that in the precons all cards will have the regular versions. However, at the time of writing this article not all the regular images of the cards were available yet, so we used the borderless ones.

Maestros Massacre

• Theme: Copying instants & sorceries, Casualty
• Colors: Blue, Black, Red (Grixis)
• Main Commander: Anhelo, the Painter
• Maestros Massacre Upgrade Guide

Blue, Red and Black is the only three color combo in New Capenna that contains both Red and Blue. For that reason we expected the deck to care about instants and sorceries – and it does that, but wit an additional twist.

That would be the casualty mechanic, which lets you sacrifice creatures in order to copy spells. Getting double value from your spells is always fun, and there are a tons of creatures that can be sacrificed for value in these three color. This Commander 2022 deck certainly looks like it could be very powerful.

Anhelo, the Painter Review

1/3 deatchtouch are appropriate stats for an assassin. However the power of Anhelo comes from its ability that lets you sacrifice a creature with power 2 or greater in order to copy the first instant or sorcery spell you cast each turn.

This does provide some interesting deck building decisions, as you have to have a balanced mix of sacrifice fodder and worthwhile spells to copy. Nevertheless, it shouldn’t be too hard to build around it. One option would be to include creatures like Ardent Elementalist that works as a sacrifice fodder, and also has synergies with instants sorceries. Extra turn spells, like Temporal Manipulation are arguably the best ones to copy.

All in all, Anhelo looks like the best commander from New Capenna Commander decks, as you could build some really mean and efficient decks around it.

Maestros Massacre Decklist

Capenna Commander Decks New Cards – Maestros Massacre

Riveteers Rampage

• Theme: Big creatures, Blitz
• Colors: Black, Red, Green (Jund)
• Main Commander: Henzie “Toolbox” Torre
• Riveteers Rampage Upgrade Guide

Are you a fan of big creatures? If so this is a great deck for you! As you’ll see on the back of the deck box the heading of the deck’s synopsis is “Say hello to my massive friends”. This suggest that there will be some heavy hitters included in the deck.

Furthermore, the deck also has some support for the new blitz mechanic. That’s a mechanic that lets you play a creature (usually for a cheaper cost) and it gains haste, and the ability that draws you card when this creature dies. At the next end step you have to sacrifice it, so you’ll get your card back then if not sooner.

Henzie “Toolbox” Torre Review

Besides having a cool nickname, Henzie is also very powerful. It gives all of your creatures that cost four or more blitz. The blitz cost is equal to its mana cost.

However, thanks to the second ability that cost is reduced for each time you’ve cast Henzie from the command zone. You might even be able to cast Emrakul, the Promised End for free and with haste! Of course, that’s mostly Magic Christmas land, but there’s certainly some synergy with the big colorless Eldrazi creatures.

Of course you can also lean more heavily into the creature cost reduction theme with cards like Heartless Summoning. There are various paths to take with Henzie, and you’ll probably be able to find some interesting interaction with it.

Riveteers Rampage Decklist

Capenna Commander Decks New Cards – Riveteers Rampage

Cabaretti Cacophony

• Theme: Tokens, Go wide
• Colors: Red, Green, White (Naya)
• Main Commander: Kitt Kanto, Mayhem Diva
• Cabaretti Cacophony Upgrade Guide

Cabaretti Commander deck is built around a theme that has been around for a long time – creature tokens and going wide with them. It does provide a fresh take on it, as it gives you lot of uses for the random untapped creatures you have laying around. This is always welcome so that the deck has some own identity to it.

Kitt Kanto, Mayhen Diva Review

Kitt Kanto is a Cat, which is amazing. 10/10, would rate again.

On a more serious note, it’s nice that it comes with a token, as it already supports it second ability. That one lets you tap two untapped creatures at the beginning of a combat in order to buff a creature and goad it as well. (If a creature is goaded it must attack if able, and it must attack a player other than you if possible.)

This enables some mind games, or you can simply use it to make on of your own creatures better, whichever works for you. While Kitt Kanto isn’t the strongest commander out there, it does provide a different dimension to a popular strategy, and it’s certainly fun to build around.

Cabaretti Cacophony Decklist

Capenna Commander Decks New Cards – Cabaretti Cacophony

Bedecked Brokers

• Theme: Various counters (not counterspells)
• Colors: Green, White, Blue (Bant)
• Main Commander: Perrie, the Pulverizer
• Bedecked Brokers Upgrade Guide

This is probably the most interesting color combination for a Commander precon. Whenever Blue is paired with Green, there’s always some wacky stuff happening. This time around it’s no different, as the theme of Brokers deck are counters.

But wait, aren’t +1/+1 counters a regular occurrence in Commander precons? Well, yes – as far as the +1/+1 counters go, they appear often enough. However, this time the deck doesn’t support just spamming +1/+1 counters everywhere. Instead, it wants you to distribute various different types of counters, which opens up new possibilities in deck building.

Perrie, the Pulverizer Review

Four mana for a 3/3 is somewhat lacking, but as we all know the stats aren’t the most important thing about a commander. One very important property of a good commander is how it can protect itself. Perrie definitely delivers on that front, as it can give itself a shield counter.

When a creature with shield counter would be dealt damage or destroyed, you just remove a shield counter from it instead. So essentially, opponents need to spend two removal spells on it. Note, that they might kill it in response to the first trigger. If you have a better creature in play, you can also give the shield counter to it.

Second ability actually improves its stats, and can make Perrie a big threat, especially considering Commander damage rule. So when you’ll attack, can give Perrie (or another creature) +X/+X and trample, where X is the number of different kinds of counters among permanents you control.

As you can see Pierre has a soft built-in protection, a very relevant second ability and a fun deck building direction. While it’s certainly not overpowered, it does have many traits of a good commander, and is certainly a good option to pick up.

Bedecked Brokers Decklist

Capenna Commander Decks New Cards – Bedecked Brokers

New Capenna Commander Decks 2022 – FAQ

Before we wrap up, here’s some questions that you might have about this decks. If you have a question that we didn’t answer leave a comment below, and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

Conclusion

That’s everything we know so far about the Commander 2022 decks / Streets of New Capenna precons. We’ll update the articles once the decklists become available, so make sure to check back soon. Meanwhile, you can also read some of the following articles:

• Streets of New Capenna Spoilers
• List of All Commander Precons
• Upcoming MTG Sets

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