Pointed Discussion

I may be shooting myself in the foot by saying this, but... I actually like Rupture Spire more than this.

This is still an excellent and iconic card, and definitely worth using in any 4-5 color deck. (For 3, we have Alara, and for 2, we have Ravnica.)

This is a classic card for multi-color decks. It was generally a lot more useful before there was an abundance of other lands that could produce any color. Now with cards like Undiscovered Paradise, Rupture Spire, Shimmering Grotto, the "Vivid" lands, etc., I believe there are better options. I do like Rupture Spire because you pay the cost once and have no drawback afterwards.

Rupture Spire is nice as a mana fixer, but for more aggressive playstyles that need that extra mana colour early on, City of Brass fits the bill.

@weretarrasque. I agree. The idea that this card is better than rupture spire largely operates under the assumption that the any color mana is essential to the strategy as soon as the mana is possible. Although sometimes this is the case, it usually isn't. In addition, people seem to forget that life IS IN FACT an important factor in the game. It is still the primary method of victory/defeat in the game, and inching yourself closer to defeat everytime you have to use mana simply isn't worth the risk (in my opinion)

The reason that this is better than Rupture Spire is that if you are playing 5 colors, than in the extra turn that you waste from Spire, you could have played the mana that you needed. Also, about life, the only life point that counts is the last one. A victory at 1 life just as great as at 10 life.