Hello Happy People! Streets of New Capenna was released and now we have a few days large and in charge with it. I am taking another look at a Top Ten slate (including two Honorable Mentions) of cards that debuted in the set!

First, I wrote up my top slate of cards that includes an uncommon hitting #2 (and would have been a breakaway #1 in a normal set without the three basic land cycle).

Remember to make my list you need to be good at kitchen table formats like Commander, Type Four, Five Color, Highlander, and multiplayer. Ready for my next slate of cards?

Honorable Mention #1 (#24 Overall) - Depopulate

For four mana, this sorcery will let everyone who controls a multicolored dork (likely in Commander if you control your leader) draw a card. Then you destroy all dorks. Four-mana mass removal spells like Day of Judgment and Damnation are heavily played in Commander, so this is right on queue. But giving your foes (and likely yourself) a free card can make this appear less like a feel bad moment, like Arcane Denial that gives them two cards. That's makes this better in some metagames at the kitchen table that frown on mass removal spells, but there are some where this would never be played since giving away cards is against that metagame's raison d'etre. In some metagames this would be a top five card from my first list and in others it would make any list, so I am giving it Honorable Mention here.

Honorable Mention #2 (#23 Overall) - Jetmir, Nexus of Revels

Jetmir is a go-wide win-con in the Command Zone for Commander decks. This is an on-curve four mana 5/4 with three abilities that pump him and your team! Have at least 3 dorks? They get +1 to their power and vigilance - which is very strong in Commander and multiplayer where they can swing and keep up defenses. How about at least 6? Another power pump and the evasive ability of trample! Nice! 9 or more? That's another +1/+0 and double strike. Even a 0/1 Kobold becomes a 3/1 vigilance double strike trampler and 1/1s are now dealing at least 8 damage from the pumps and double strike! Just run him with a few mass dork makers like Increasing Devotion and Deranged Hermit and more! Break the game quite quickly and win! Also note that Jetmir becomes a Commander Damage threat as an 8/4 with double strike and trample. Great card for the game winning fun times!

#10. (#22 Overall) Endless Detour

This three mana Bant colored instant is very strong, very flexible, and worth the slot in a lot of brews. You can bounce to the top (or bottom) of a library three cool things. Tucking is like exiling as they both answer indestructible stuff, but they can Tutor for it again. You can bounce - a card in the graveyard (nice answer to targeted reanimation or reloading a valuable card like your Rout to your top of library to deal with a board state out of control); a card from the stack (a great way to answer any spell on the stack as well as things not normally able to be countered like Last Word and Supreme Verdict); or a non-land permanent (you can use this to bounce something of yours about to die or any problem from a planeswalker about to go off to a Mind's Eye to a Consecrated Sphinx). It's very strong in Type Four since you can only cast one spell per turn so bouncing a spell cannot be further countered or enacted with and bouncing a permanent cannot be recast that turn. Good card!

#9. (#21 Overall) Fatal Grudge

This cheap sorcery will let you sacrifice a nonland permanent you control and then force each foe to sacrifice something that shares a type with it. That scales up in multiplayer, and the obvious places are sacrificing dorks or a Treasure token for a bigger card. It does replace itself. Love it in Rakdos Aristocrats builds looking for sacrifice outlets that push your board position open where you can sacrifice things like Bloodghast.

It's also nice in Rakdos Midrange where you can sacrifice something that had value after it arrived to the battlefield and did its thing like Ravenous Chupacabra and Flametongue Kavu. It also answers enchantments as you can sacrifice an enchantment like a Saga and then force your foe's to sacrifice an enchantment. Note that if you sacrifice something with multiple types it's a lot easier to handle, like a Solemn Simulacrum where your opponents can sacrifice a mana rock or Birds of Paradise past its prime, Blood or Treasures, a done-it's-thing Eternal Witness or Karmic Guide and loads more. Great card in multiple brews!

#8. (#20 Overall) Call in a Professional

Ever since the first expansion sets gave us Chain Lightning and Incinerate in Legends and Ice Age respectively, we had Lightning Bolt variants get play. A 2-damage burn spell in Shock has often gotten Standard play as have Bolt variants, and there we have a three mana instant Bolt that deals 3 damage to any target, and it shuts down damage prevention and life gain this turn, both of which are pretty nifty like protection from Red or Congregate. I like doing this in response to a big life gain effect, and normally "can't gain life this turn" effects are 2 mana at instant speed so here we add a mana and a Bolt effect to make it more versatile. I definitely see this getting good play at the kitchen table!

#7. (#19 Overall) Angel of Suffering

I adore the synergy of Angel of Suffering. Five mana for a five-powered flyer is on curve. Then when you would be dealt damage instead prevent it and mill twice that many cards. I love this in 100 deck formats like Highlander and Commander. Imagine this with something like the on-color Pestilence. You could activate it twice a turn, take no damage, keep the enchantment since you control the Angel and win the game with 8 damage every four turns in a 4-player game as long as you have B to spend and win the game quite quickly. See also Pyrohemia or Withering Wisps. You could also tag team this with Red's Earthquake effects that won't hit the Angel since it flies or deal damage to you. It also loves Sultai decks that want self-mill to trigger their stuff. Strong synergy with this one.

#6. (#18 Overall) Gala Greeters

This 2-drop 1/1 Elf Druid is pretty slick with its triple alliance triggers although just one per turn. One will created a tapped Treasure, one will add a +1/+1 counter here and the last will gain you a pair of life. In a 20-life format a two mana 1/1 that grows over time into a major threat is pretty good. Here though you can only use it once/turn and it would just be an attacking 2/2 on turn 3, and a 3/3 on turn 4 if you begin to over-commit to the board, so I don't like it in 40 life formats like Commander as much, so it drops to my second list. I did toss it into a build where you turned the Treasures made here into 2/2 or 3/1 Cats and Dogs (check it out here).

Top Five Time!

#5. (#17 Overall) Body Launderer

A Hill Giant with deathtouch is okay and will trade up. Looting a card each death is powerful. When it dies it returns a non-Rogue of that power or less to the battlefield, which is nice. A death trigger that loads up your graveyard with goodies is highly valuable at the kitchen table. You can find that Reanimate or Karmic Guide and then discard that reanimation target like Archon of Cruelty. It's very synergetic in two popular black centric builds - Reanimation and Aristocrats. Both are beloved in Commander and other kitchen table formats.

#4. (#16 Overall) Lord Xander, the Collector

Our highest-scoring gold card (of four) is this Grixis 6/6, a bit behind the curve as you'd like a 7/7 with flying or something for that cost. You get three abilities that are pretty nasty for your foes for that seven mana investment, though. On arrival, you can force a foe to discard half of their hand. That only works on one foe, so it doesn't scale up in multiplayer and Commander. Then when it swings the player, it is attacking mills half of their library. And then when the Vampire Demon Noble dies, you can force a foe to sacrifice half of their nonland stuff.

That's a lot, but again, expensive to cast which drops it in Commander and only hits one player for multiplayer, hence hitting here on the second list, but it's pretty powerful as a Commander and one of the best leaders of a family. This might be one of the best cards in the set for Type Four as well since you have infinite mana but can only cast one spell per turn, so getting big interaction sewn into a body is pretty strong.

#3. (#15 Overall) Slip Out the Back

Our highest-scoring 1-drop, instant, and Blue card is this fun uncommon. You can place a +1/+1 counter on target dork to grow it, and then you can phase it out. Phasing is a better response at instant speed than hexproof (cannot answer mass removal) or indestructible (cannot answer exiling, tucking or bouncing). It also cannot be targeted or removed in future opposing turns at a multiplayer table, so if you cast this in response to Player B casting Wrath of God on your Commander to save it, then Player C cannot untap and then try to use sorcery speed removal on it like Vindicate. That makes Teferi's Protection better than Heroic Intervention. However, I wish this would phase out any permanent, and it has added synergies in token maters brews like Simic +1/+1 counters or the brand-new Bant token-matters theme we just got. Good answer to your foe's answer!

#2. (#14 Overall) Rob the Archives

Our second highest scoring card on our second highest scoring list and top uncommon and Red card is this fun sorcery. This ability and casting cost was just printed two sets ago for the first time as Reckless Impulse and it already made it into 5,388 decks in EDHREC.com in just a few months. This already outpaces it with the casualty ability to sacrifice a 1/1 or bigger to copy it for another cost.

This will be an instant replacement. It'll get play in more places since you can sacrifice anything like Recurring Skeleton that self-recurs or fodder like a 1/1 Goblin token or something that dies at the end of the turn with blitz like Riveteers Requisitioner and you get the idea. Great synergy here with a lot of things Red is trying to do. Good card flow and even without a casualty you still can potentially get 2 for 1 for two mana. Nicely done!

Ready for the top card?

#1. (#13 Overall) Elspeth Resplendent

Our third and final planeswalker is this fun 5-drop. Coming with a nice 5 loyalty is this mono-White version of everyone's favorite Sun's Champion...er...Sun's Nemesis. Elspeth's +1 will let you choose a target creature (you can choose a foe's) and then place both a +1/+1 counter on it and a flying, first strike, lifelink or vigilance counter on it as well. That's nice and way better than your normal "It gets +1/+1 and flying until the end of the turn" since both are in the forms of counters, and you can layer up multiple keywords over a few turns. Just the first ability alone slides into multiple new brews like Azorius and Bant counters matter as well as older things like Boros and Naya Voltron decks.

Giving your Commander flying is strong when they have a combat damage to a player trigger like Silas Renn, Seeker Adept which just needs a White partner to make work. Then you can -3 Elspeth and dig 7 cards and place a permanent (any, not just non-lands) with a cost of 3 or fewer onto the battlefield with a shield counter on it. You don't need to create a small dork deck to make that work as even a land like a Kor Haven or a cheap dork like Esper Sentinel that every White deck runs or the powerful recursive Academy Ruins that you grab with a shield counter is pretty nice. Both are very strong in multiple kitchen table play, so hitting at #13 overall is this fun card!

And there we go! What did you think of my next list? Anything I missed? Just let me know and have an awesome day!