The developers at Wizards of the Coast have unveiled Topiary Stomper, a new creature card due to release as part of Magic: the Gathering: Streets of Capenna later this month.

CBR can provide this exclusive first look at Topiary Stomper, a standard rare Plant Dinosaur sentinel card. This green mana creature has two mechanical feats, making it particularly deadly in combination with its 4/4 attack and health. The first is Viligance, which allows Topiary Stomper to attack without Tapping. This makes Topiary Stomper somewhat unique as a green mana card, as over half the cards which possess Viligance are white mana cards, and only 13% are green mana. Topiary Stomper's abilities don't end there, though; when the player sets Topiary Stomper on the battlefield, they get to search their deck for a basic land card. They can then place it on the battlefield Tapped before shuffling the deck. Topped with Topiary Stomper's low mana cost to summon, this makes for a powerful addition to anyone's library. However, all this power does come with a price: Topiary Stomper can't attack or block unless the player controls seven or more land cards.

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Topirary Stomper Sneak Peak

For flavor, it's rather hard to beat the monstrous, regal, yet oddly adorable sight of a gigantic hedge dinosaur wreaking havoc through city streets. With green mana, it perfectly suits decks for either the Riverteers, Cabaretti or Broker crime families at the heart of Streets of New Capenna. Topiary Stomper might serve the Riverteers' hard-fisted ways, not to mention their artisan background as builders. It might also suit a deck based around the Cabaretti, who hail from bards and druids, making the plant-based dinosaur perfect in terms of connection to nature and artistic inspiration. Topiary Stomper could also serve as a guard or sentinel for the Brokers to keep the illusion of law and order in place.

In terms of strategy and specific intention for the card, Jules Robins, lead desinger on the set, stated, "I think this concept started more from the question “What’s Magic’s twist on the sort of nature you could find in a city?” than from the angle of the families, and the game mechanics are more about supporting an additional sideways strategy beyond the main focus on the families’ strategies. He also confirmed the topiaries are created by the Cabaretti family.

Streets of New Capenna is the latest expansion for Magic: the Gathering, combining its unique flair for fantasy with the roaring American 1920s era, complete with flapper style and art deco design. Gameplay centers around a war between five crime families vying for control over a mysterious magical power source called Halo. This expansion brings back the concept of Triomes, deploying three mana types for each crime family. Another returning feature is Hidaway, a mechanic which makes players draw a certain number of cards, choose one to exile face down, then put it into play for free when certain conditions are met.

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Streets of New Capenna is Magic: the Gathering's first expansion since Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty was released in February. While Streets of New Capenna references 1920s America, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty presents a futuristic Japan, complete with anime, manga and pop culture references.

Tabletop prereleases for Streets of New Capenna start on April 22, followed by a digital release on April 28 and a paper release on April 29.