MTG Connive: How It Works and What It Does

Streets of New Capenna is almost here. Magic: the Gathering’s newest set officially hits stores April 29, with prerelease events set to take place a week earlier. Each new set introduces exciting new mechanics to the game of Magic, and Streets of New Capenna is no different. Much of the set is based around the five Crime Families and their power struggle for New Capenna. In addition to their own unique strengths, weaknesses, and personalities, each Capennen family comes with a brand new mechanic. In this article, I’ll cover everything you need to know about the Obscura family Mechanic: Connive.

Connive is a Keyword Action first introduced in Streets of New Capenna. When a creature connives, that creature’s controller draws and then discards a number of cards equal to the specified Connive value. Additionally, if the player discards one or more non-land cards, that many +1/+1 counters are placed on the conniving creature.

Drawing and discarding cards is by no means a new concept. Connive, however, puts a new spin on the time-tested “looting” effect. Read on for an in-depth analysis of this exciting new mechanic.

What Is Connive?
How Does It Work?
When Can You Use It?
Full List of Connive Cards
Best Cards
End Step

What Is Connive?

Connive is a brand new mechanic from Streets of New Capenna. Connive is specific to the Obscura Crime Family. This family uses the Black, Blue, and White color combination, also knows as “Esper”.

How Does It Work?

When Connive triggers, you get to draw a certain number of cards and then discard the same number. Although the number of cards in your hand stays the same, this lets you throw away cards you don’t need and get new ones. This is perfect for ditching lands when you’re flooded, filling your graveyard, or just finding the cards you need to close out a game. Also, when a creature connives, it gets a +1/+1 counter for every non-land card you discard.

Connive can have different values as well. For example, a creature can have “Connive 2”. This means you draw two cards, discard two cards, and then put a +1/+1 counter on the creature for every non-land card you discarded.

When Can You Use It?

Connive triggers in a number of different ways depending on the card. It’s most common for creatures to Connive when they enter the battlefield or when they attack. These are by no means the only instances, however. It really just depends on the card.

Full List of Connive Cards

Best Connive Cards

Body Launderer

Body Launderer is a 3/3 creature with Deathtouch that connives any time another non-token creature you control dies. This is powerful since it has the potential to trigger multiple times per turn. The best part about Body Launderer is his second ability. Whenever he dies, you get to return target non-rogue creature with equal or lesser power from the graveyard to the battlefield. This is the kind of self synergy that MTG players love. Use the Launderer’s first ability to dump creatures into the yard, then use his second ability to bring them straight to the battlefield.

Toluz, Clever Conductor

Toluz, Clever Conductor connives when it enters the battlefield, which is nice since it guarantees an activation (assuming it resolves). It also has a powerful static ability: Whenever you discard a card, you exile that card instead of putting it into the graveyard. Then, when Toluz dies, you get to put any cards exiled by her into your hand. This pretty much guarantees that you’ll net at least one card. And that’s in addition to looting and potentially placing a +1/+1 counter on her. That’s an awful lot of value.

Raffine, Scheming Seer

[C]Raffine, Scheming Seer[/c] has a lot going for it. It has built in evasion in the form of Flying, and built in Protection in the form of Ward. It enters the battlefield with four toughness, making it a great blocker. And, although it only has one power to start with, you can easily build it up with counters thanks to Raffine’s ability. Every time you attack Raffine lets you Connive X where X is the number of attacking creatures you control. This can get out of hand quickly in strategies that want to go wide.

Ledger Shredder

Ledger Shredder might not seem all that great upon first glance, but this card has a ton of potential.

For two mana (one and a blue) you get a 1/3 flyer that connives whenever a player casts their second spell each turn. That means it can trigger on both you and your opponents turns. There’s also a good chance you’ll be able to get a trigger immediately after playing it in the right Modern decks, since the format features lots of cheap spells like Mishra’s Bauble.

So, in the right deck, Ledger Shredder is automatically a 2 mana 2/4 with flying. The perfect stats to survive lightning bolts.

And of course, Ledger Shredder has the potential to get even bigger than that. Since most decks want to play multiple spells per turn anyways, there’s a good chance that you’ll get a trigger on your and each of your opponents turns, every time!

Ledger Shredder is a great offense and defensive tool in many decks, but it is especially powerful in graveyard decks that can really take advantage of its looting effect.

End Step

Connive brings a lot of value to the Esper colors and has the potential to have an impact in constructed formats. Just how big that impact will be remains to be seen. Nevertheless, this mechanic along with the other four mechanics from the Capennan Crime Families is sure to bring exciting new interactions for quite some time.

Now what are you waiting for? Get out there and start brewing!

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