Pointed Discussion

In my opinion, one of the best any color lands in existence.

5/5

I think this card is a little overrated. E.g. Shimmering Grotto requires two lands to give you colored mana, but it can give you 1 colorless on its own without doing damage. It's a bit less useful in the early game, but solid throughout. Terramorphic Expanse can give you whatever you want, but you have to wait one extra turn because the land comes into play tapped. City of Brass gives you whatever you want right away, at the cost of one life. It's great in the very early game, but once you've had a chance to get more mana sources out, you basically stop using it. They all have their advantages, and this one might be slightly better than the others because the early game is more important. But it's not THAT much better.

Incredibly useful, while other painlands may do colorless, any color mana on your first turn is a huge advantage.

An all colour land that only costs 1 life?
I would take that if my opponents didn't keep finding ways to keep tapping it (and me) to death.

Extremely useful in almost any deck that uses more than one color, especially for the early game. Remember that the only point of damage you take that matters is the last one.

You suffer that one damage.

What we have to realize is that in cut-throat tournament play, that one turn or pay 1 for any color makes a HUGE difference when you're aiming for a turn 3-5 win. They need to get things out asap. 1-4 life for a higher guarantee of getting those things out is VERY much with it.

This is one of the best Magic cards ever designed. Flavor, usefulness and balance, artwork...it's just awesome.

@Marlinflake

This adds to your total mana count while groto decreases it if you need to fix. Expanse comes into play tapped, and you can only fix one color. This can produce anything for the rest of the game, while contributing to your mana total. 1 life is not that important.

If this weren't reprinted as much as it was, I'm certain it would cost a small fortune. Mana fixing this good rarely comes cheap. The life loss is obviously almost always negligible, except against burn maybe.

Clearly a 5/5, IMO.

modern masters reprint? actually the art should be city of brass

I bring my City in a Bottle EVERYWHERE!

Brut...

@RisingSeraph
I love that quote. One of the best for new players.