Plays well with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Downside, doesn't help fill your graveyard, up side it's something good to do with tokens.
TreeTrunkMaster
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
It's kinda nice that the counters don't come off after one use, it would be better if you had a way to untap it and get a couple counters on there quicker than 1 a turn until you can use it.
TDL
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
I like this card. It's got EDH potential.
krumtheslow
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(10 votes)
proliferate makes this a lot cooler now.
VampireCat
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Works well with Eldrazi Spawn or Proliferate.
MarlinFlake
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(7 votes)
Deep Water makes this produce blue. Think of how many storm crows you could cast with this baby then!
EpicBroccoli
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Seems silly that even after all that trouble, you only get colorless mana. This should obviously be .
cathode01
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This card has a LOT of strategic potential. Instead of chump blocking and "wasting" your blocker... exile it instead for a charge counter. Or do mean things to your opponent like take control of their army with Control Magic-like effects, then exile them.
TheHGW
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Combine with Rubinia Soulsinger or Preacher/autocard to take away all their creatures and keep them from getting them back. Gets around invulnerable and even protection just nicely.
Deepfried-Owls
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Also works well with something like Blade of the Bloodchief or whatever. Stuff like that.
Proliferate definitely makes it nicer but there were already a couple of counter tinkering stuff that still made this very awesome.
This is a wonderful card in EDH, partly because it's always good to have a way to deny your opponents the ability to steal your creatures, partly because the games go longer and it will have more time to build up. It's good to use with tokens, or with decks/cards that can temporarily steal things from your enemies. Dominus of Fealty in particular is absolutely brutal with City of Shadows. I think if they were to print a version of this today, it would tap for 1 mana right away, as having to exile a creature is a steep price to pay just to make this a crappy colorless only land, and even when you've exiled two creatures, that's still a stricter requirement than even Temple of the False God. It's curious that this is the only land in Magic history to have storage counters that you don't remove.
SirZapdos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Nice card. Very flavourful. Early sets like The Dark, Fallen Empires and Homelands are undeniably weak by today's standards, but they all have pretty cool flavour.
This card would work well with the various red betrayal spells, like Act of Treason, Mark of Mutiny and the like.
Ragamander
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Combos hilariously (but not particularly effectively with Misthollow Griffin.
@Nukleik - Even though the card is printed with the word 'sacrifice', the card is an exile mechanic (as shown in the Oracle printing). As such, the Angel doesn't stop the exiling.
Mode
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Wouldn't it be perfectly fine to have an Oracle wording that's true to the sacrifice part of the card's original wording?
{T}: Sacrifice one of your creatures, but put it into exile instead of putting it in your graveyard. Put a storage counter on City of Shadows.
Of course it sounds a bit weird like that, and the current Oracle wording is what a card like this would use if it were printed these days. But since City of Shadows originally used the sacrifice keyword, it should also trigger cards like Mortician Beetle i think.
lkeasbey
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I think the Oracle text should read Exile each creature sacrificed with City of Shadows.
{T}, sacrifice a creature: Put a counter on City of Shadows.
Ferlord
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I think this is more EDH-worthy than people give it:
A creature of yours is dying? Tap and exile it to City of Shadows!
The biggest problem is that it doesn't tap for anything initially.
cszui
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Just to be clear about this... the oracle wording makes this not to trigger Savra, Queen of the Golgari's ability? is that correct?
Don't get me wrong, this is still an incredible card, and is going straight into my EDH proliferation deck, but it would have been that much cooler to be able to fit into a Savra deck too.
Arachnos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Can you say Eldrazi?
Salient
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is the dark that The Dark was named after.
It's still a unique and flavorful mechanic, all these years later. Same with Maze of Ith. Can't beat a classic :)
Aquillion
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It's too slow. If it started with one counter, it would be usable today, but without that it just doesn't seem worth it -- saccing a creature and waiting at least one turn before you can get any mana out of it at all is rarely worth it, and you have to sac two before it's helping you ramp up your mana at all. By the time you can actually use the ramped mana, it's three turns later and you're wishing you'd done something else.
SaintsEnd
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This and unearth were a match made in heaven. unearth, swing, then use this to exile!
ZaisConsultant
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
For added flavor, sacrifice a creature with shadow.
Comments (29)
Proliferate definitely makes it nicer but there were already a couple of counter tinkering stuff that still made this very awesome.
I hear removal and mass mana are good in EDH.
This card would work well with the various red betrayal spells, like Act of Treason, Mark of Mutiny and the like.
Thx
{T}: Sacrifice one of your creatures, but put it into exile instead of putting it in your graveyard. Put a storage counter on City of Shadows.
Of course it sounds a bit weird like that, and the current Oracle wording is what a card like this would use if it were printed these days.
But since City of Shadows originally used the sacrifice keyword, it should also trigger cards like Mortician Beetle i think.
Exile each creature sacrificed with City of Shadows.
{T}, sacrifice a creature: Put a counter on City of Shadows.
A creature of yours is dying? Tap and exile it to City of Shadows!
The biggest problem is that it doesn't tap for anything initially.
Don't get me wrong, this is still an incredible card, and is going straight into my EDH proliferation deck, but it would have been that much cooler to be able to fit into a Savra deck too.
It's still a unique and flavorful mechanic, all these years later. Same with Maze of Ith. Can't beat a classic :)