Pointed Discussion

Absolutely love this artwork. Not the best card to pull from the set, but certainy good. Looks stellar with black borders. I bet it's absolutely gorgeous in foil.

Finally, pain land that has a flavorful explanation for the pain. It's hard to see why a Temple Garden allows you to pay life for quicker mana, but ringing which slowly grinds away at you in exchange for hidden knowledge makes sense.

It reminds me of one of Lovecraft's stories, but I can't think of which one it was.

The artwork is amazing. While I don't really need the card, I wouldn't mind pulling one. Great for cube too.

Worth noting: In the original Arabian Nights stories, the City of Brass was an Amalekite city that earned God's wrath and was slain in a single night...except for the queen and her bodyguards, who were somehow trapped in stasis. Just looking over the walls could drive the weak-willed into suicidal horror, and even the most strong-willed felt a pall of sorrow while walking through. Oh, and be careful about trying to go near the queen--the bodyguards will go out of stasis just long enough to kill you.

So originally, it damaged you because you're slowly suffering agonizing sorrow. Psychosomatically agonizing sorrow.

That. Artwork. Damn!

I've always been a fan of the 7th Edition City of Brass artwork.
Now It's like that city got a restauration recently, so they revisited it after all those years and took a picture of it.

I had actually given up on getting a black border City of Brass, and then they go ahead and print this. Absolutely gorgeous art.

Looks so good with the black border, modern frame, and new artwork. I really want to replace the ugly ones in my decks now D:

@DarthParallax
How is this underpowered? Maybe in this set it seems so, but it is one of the best 5-colour lands in the game.

probably...they've honestly just been keeping it at rare because a Silver Set symbol would maybe clash a bit (albeit pleasingly) with all the gold/brass in the art. Best to leave it at a flavor-fitting Rare, if an almost mildly-underpowered one.

This card's closest comparison is Birds of Paradise. Is it better or worse?
Honestly? I don't care.

I'm playing it in every Djinn of Wishes of Deck I make. :D

And every Djinn of Wishes deck I make will include ALI FROM CAIRO. ^_^

Yes, this is how I roll, Gatherer. B|

It's underpowered, SAUS3, because the only lands REALLY worth paying life into are Shocks and Fetches. I GUESS I've seen City of Brass make 'serious' decklists, but I always thought that indicated they were building on a budget.

Compare it to the Xth Edition standard of lands: Yeah, it's Pure Gold.

Compare it to some of what we've seen in Green at common and uncommon, though? It somehow seems worse. I'd say Mox Opal gives it very stiff competition, even with the Metalcraft. I think this sort of effect is close to being "Uncommon" in the next year or so, especially considering how powerful the Guildgates are. Command Tower is technically not really any more common or rare than Sol Rings with the same expansion symbol, but they gave it a black set symbol for show. City of Brass could be uncommon if they wanted.

I think it's Rare for Limited: there's SO many goodies in this set, if it were Uncommon, Modern Masters Draft would have Colors of Decks similar to Ravnica Block Draft, only with Hyper Stupid Cards.

This actually is arguably one of the best lands in my WUR-splash-B Modern deck. I really only need to tap it for mana in early turns before my mana base stabilizes, and even then only once or twice. Solid, affordable, and effective, I will be trading for more of these.

Ali from Cairo is the most flavorful way to prevent this from killing you.

This is a reprint that makes me happy. It's been forever since this classic was reprinted. And now it gets reprinted with a black border and the best art since the original. It should have been a Time Spiral timeshifted card, but this makes up for it.

@ MasterOfCruelties:

The White Ship?

@MasterofCruelties: Actually not a Lovecraft story, but he used it in his mythos, so forgivable mistake. This is Dim Carcosa from the King in Yellow cycle written by Chambers.

Or maybe it's Irem, but that involves lizardmen, so I don't see it.

Best art from any set that it's appeared in my opinion. Agreed that it should be lowered from a rare to a uncommon. It's just "fading" as time goes on (IE: Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire).

Besides that I've always HATED pain lands!! .5/5

@Doaj

I can confirm that it most certainly is.

@DarthParallax
I have to agree with SAUS3. Birds of Paradise is not the closest comparison to this card, being that it requires green mana and is a creature. There are very few lands that give unconditional mana of any color, can be used every turn and don't come into play tapped. You have this card, Forbidden Orchard, Forsaken City, Lotus Vale, Gemstone Caverns, and Glimmervoid. If you really need a five color land that doesn't come in to play tapped, this card is one of the best and least situational.

Apparently Darth hasn't heard of TES; which is a brutally good legacy deck and consistently runs City of brass as a 4-of and consistently kills between T2-T3.

This will always be a good land; and given that it's damage there are even a host of ways to prevent, redirect, or simply ignore the damage altogether.

Coming soon in Journey Into Nyx: Mana Confluence. Never thought I'd see the day when they would fix City of Brass. Note that neither card is better or worse than the other; Mana Confluence simply removes a lot of confusion from the original. For example, you can tap City of Brass for while you're on 1 life and cast Lightning Bolt on top of the damage trigger to defeat an opponent on 3, or your opponent can Rishadan Port your City of Brass and repeatedly deal 1 damage to you. Having it as a life payment makes it much more intuitive. Whatever the case, I'm very excited for the new card — my Cascade Reanimator deck can finally run 8 Cities of Brass instead of just 4!