An Offer You Can’t Refuse – Streets of New Capenna
Date Reviewed: May 23, 2022
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 3.00
Limited: 2.75
Multiplayer: 3.00
Commander [EDH]: 3.13
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
I’m pleasantly surprised how many classic lines of this type made their way into Streets of New Capenna. Their number is still limited, of course, but apparently a lot of those lines work better as card names than I would have guessed. And you’ll probably be seeing this one around, because one mana for Negate is a very interesting offer indeed. Technically, there are times when might actually want to refuse it – in a long game and/or a format with expensive cards, it can accelerate your opponent into something nasty. But if you think about formats like Legacy, where you might win on the spot with some kind of cross-generational combo, that’s irrelevant; and one mana is easier to hold up to protect yourself than two.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander [EDH]: 3/5
This actually is quite an interesting spell, a bit of a weirder take on spells like Spell Pierce and Negate. Disrupting a play for one mana is a good deal, and this is a hard counterspell unlike Spell Pierce, but the downside is that your opponents get Treasure tokens in the process. That’s always an interesting bit of tension: is giving them two mana worth the denial? In some cases, it very much is, and things like Stony Silence make that more or less irrelevant. While there are ways to make this more of a blowout, even just at face value, I think this is a sneakily good tech option against certain decks, and one mana is definitely less of a red flag than other mana combinations. An Offer You Can’t Refuse seems priced to move better in deeper formats, if I had to guess, but sometimes two Treasures is an acceptable exchange for saying “no”.
Constructed: 3.5 (not for every deck, but phenomenal in the decks that do want this)
Casual: 3
Limited: 2.5 (the main threats of Limited tend to be creatures, so whiffing on those is more of a downside)
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 3.25
An intriguing take on counterspells, a negate for one mana is something to consider for control strategies just because of how cheap it is. Sure you give your opponent two treasure tokens but at the end of the day is that so bad since you’re in a control deck? Can’t you counter their big spells that they’ll use the treasure for? I think this is going to be seen a lot in older formats because it’s a hard counter that shuts down in the early game as well as the late game where turns usually don’t go past three or four.
I think this is going to be one of the better cards of the set if I’m being honest, definitely a front runner for best uncommon by far. A one mana hard counter is too hard to pass up! Constructed is where this card will shine, it might be too much in favor of your opponent for limited and commander games.
Constructed: 4.5/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander [EDH]: 3/5
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