Depopulate – Streets of New Capenna
Date Reviewed: May 4, 2022
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.25
Casual: 3.67
Limited: 4.00
Multiplayer: 3.33
Commander [EDH]: 3.17
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
It’s interesting that since Theros Beyond Death with Shatter the Sky, they seem to have found a way to make four-mana Wrath of God effects which they like. Depopulate’s draw-a-card clause is a little more variable than Shatter the Sky, which might gain it more attention in formats where multicolored creatures are a little less common. Having said that, I’m not sure you necessarily only use these kinds of cards where you’re sure your opponent isn’t going to draw a card – sometimes you just have to get things off the table and do it now.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 4/5 (sweepers are always a thing in limited, yet you do have to be careful with this clause in a three-colored set)
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander [EDH]: 3/5
Shatter the Sky, Part 2. It’s interesting to see another riff on Day of Judgment so soon after that one, but this is still an interesting tool. A lot of the creature token generation in this set spits out multicolored tokens, so Depopulate might well give you back the card you spent to cast it. Letting your opponents draw a card can be a bit of a downer, but I still think that it can be a fair price to pay to just kill everything for four mana, a mana cost which is the gold standard when it comes to board wipes. I think which of the two you want to cast depends on how your deck plays out, but this still is really useful to all sorts of decks.
Constructed: 3.75
Casual: 4
Limited: 4 (not without risks, but board sweepers are excellent)
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 3.5 (won’t be the first sweeper a deck will turn to, but it’s good as option number three or four in a pinch)
They really don’t want to reprint Day of Judgement or Wrath of God anytime soon, they’re constantly making new versions with a weird upside to this. Odds are your opponent is going to draw a card with this (and likely you too) in constructed and in commander which could be advantageous. At the end of the day if you need a pretty cheap board wipe this does the job and it does it well despite the card advantage your opponent(s) might get.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
Commander [EDH]: 3/5
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