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Editor: Yaro Starak. Sunday 20 October 2002.
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 Card Review: Grand Coliseum, City of Brass and Tarnished Citadel
Grand Coliseum comes into play tapped. T: Add 1 to your mana pool. T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Grand Coliseum deals 1 damage to you.
Expansion: Onslaught.
Whenever City of Brass becomes tapped, it deals 1 damage to you. T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
Expansion: Arabian Nights, 7th and other sets.
T: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool. T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Tarnished Citadel deals 3 damage to you.
Expansion: Odyssey
David Chapman
City of Ouch vs Tarnished Citadel vs Grand Coliseum.
The utility of these three cards is dependent on one thing
only; the type of deck you are running.
City of Brass functions best in a deck where you want to
splash for a third colour. It allows you to do this without
harming your mana base - though not without harming
yourself. The main problem with the City is that it keeps
on hurting even after your mana is sorted, which can
often be an issue.
Tarnished Citadel, on the other hand, is best suited to a
two-colour deck which requires both its colours early
in the game. Its extremely painful ability will only be
used once or twice, until you have both colours up and
running; afterwards it taps only for colourless.
Lastly, Grand Coliseum. Coming into play tapped as it
does, the Coliseum should see most of its Standard play
in control decks. In such a deck, it serves as an extra
four copies of the relevant pain land. It may also be used
to splash in such a deck, but with few exceptions control
decks work better as two-colour decks.
Prices are already known for City of Brass and Tarnished
Citadel. The City should drop only slightly in price when
Coliseum becomes legal, and the Citadel will fall somewhat
in price - though this would happen anyway now that the
block constructed format is finished with.
Grand Coliseum currently trades for roughly £9, and I
would expect that to remain very close to the price for
most of its stay in Type II.
David
Rather than review these cards in different formats
(as you will never see City of Brass in limited
again!) I will be contrasting their efficiency and
their impact on Magic in the future.
Having the right mana when you want it is one of the
most important aspects of magic. All 3 of these lands
offer mana of any colour but they all come at a cost.
City of Brass - This land was around when I started
playing magic and it's longevity alone will give you
some idea of how good it is. Sure 1 point of damage is
not that much in the early game (unless you happen to
draw 2 of these in your opening hand!) provided you
can cast what you want. The profileration of the pain
lands, fetch lands, and the come into play tapped
lands means players have not had to rely on City of
Brass as their only source of multicoloured mana and
could play 3 or 4 coloured decks with ease.
The Future - The new Onslaught fetch lands (and the
current 7th ed pain lands) are for allied colours
only, makng City of Brass the non basic land of choice
in U/G, R/B, G/B, B/W and R/W decks in the new type 2.
Despite it's drawbacks most of these decks will play 3
Cities of Brass maximum.
Tarnished Citadel - This is great for producing
colourless mana but if you want something more
substantial you are really going to pay for it. The
citadel did see some use in Odyssey Block constructed
(where there are no dual/multi lands) but most decks
would not play more than 2 of these. 3 damage is too
much for most decks to handle so it is really only
suited to aggressive decks that play spells with
multiple mana in their casting cost.
The Future - Even though this card was printed a year
ago the future is bleak for the Tarnished Citadel. The
new Onslaught lands are much better (and less painful)
and will knock this non basic out of contention in
type 2.
Grand Coliseum - Similar to the City of Brass, the
Grand Coliseum has the added benefit of producing
colourless mana but it does come into play tapped
making it suitable for specific deck types. Aggressive
beatdown decks (read U/G and R/G) may suffer if they
play this and would be better off with a City of Brass
(or a Bird of paradise, in some cases).
The Future - The metagame will dictate how much play
the Coliseum sees (type 2 that is) but it is still a
solid nonbasic for slower control decks and may even
replace City of Brass as the multicoloured mana
producer of choice.
The verdict - City of Brass retains it's crown as the
best all round multi land but the Grand Coliseum is
not too far behind and may overtake it in the near
future. Tarnished Citadel on the other hand has been
relegated to the Magic junkpile.
Value
City of Brass - $6
Until next time
Dan
Well, first I think I should figure out the context in which I'll be
looking at these. For example absolutely none of them are good if mono
colour decks are the call of the day and looks a bit like we're being
herded to less colour decks after the chaos of Invasion. So I'd have to say
that unless an opposed colour deck arises (well okay, so there is already
green/blue and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere) you can make do
with 7th Ed pains, Odyssey filters and Onslaught sac and searchs. But
anyway, let me kick it first with my usual formatting:
Limited: Well really only the Grand Coliseum is relevant anymore. And I
think it's probably about a 7-8th pick for draft. Because I tend to end up
using 3 colours in a roughly 10-10-3 distribution of spells I quite rate
the all colour producing lands especially because for preference I go for
decks that need to get smooth colours or they just sit there languishing.
In sealed it's usually even harder to go for two colours so the Coliseum is
even better. I would pretty much always use a Coliseum if I got one in
limited, even in two colour decks.
Constructed: This will fill the gap of Yavimaya Coast very nicely in
green/blue decks (I feel the deck can probably handle one comes into play
tapped land in the opening hand) and will probably make a few decks viable
in Onslaught Block (eg a white/black clerics deck, or some kind of many
colour deck using things like Krosan Tusker). Of course it is better in a
control deck than a beat down deck but who knows what form they will take.
The Mirari's Wake deck is looking reasonably impressive and that shouldn't
need land like this so it shouldn't see use there. It will help reactivate
tri-colour opposed decks which is good because they're often my favourite
kind although in all honestly without the gold cards they're probably not
worth the trouble. I prefer the Coliseum in basically all situations to the
City because I don't really like decks that run such tight mana curves that
they need it all available every turn and well Tarnished Citadel...babow...
Summing up I'm pleasantly surprised by the Coliseum and expect it to be a
big player in Constructed while it is legal in T2 and should make its way
to Extended as well.
Values:
Jason Street
We can consider lands as having different characteristics that determine how
good they are. Speed (coming into play untapped), Versatility (what it gives
you) and Reusability (Am I able to use it a lot). As an example, Strip Mine
is fast (comes into play untapped), not very versatile (you get colourless
mana or a one shot use), and it's not very reusable (it sacrifices to use
it's ability). Kjeldoran Outpost on the other hand is slow (you have to wait
a turn to play it), more versatile (white mana or a creature), and it's one
you will be wanting to use a lot.
City of Brass is fast, versatile and moderately reusable - it comes out
untapped, it lets you play any colour spell, and you can happily use it more
than once. Moderately reusable here means "you might drill your life total a
little too much".
Grand Coliseum is slow, but it is a little more versatile than City of
Brass, which makes it more reusable. Though it comes into play tapped you
may not need to cast something on your first turn. If you have to use it a
lot in the late game you can use it for colourless mana, which gives it
more reusability and more versatility - you're not forced to hurt yourself.
Tarnished Citadel is fast, and has a more versatile range of options when
you tap it for mana. Unfortunately it deals you three damage, making it
really prohibitive to tap it for coloured mana more than once. Is this bad?
Yes. You are Lighting Bolting yourself every time you use it for coloured
mana, and this is not good! It reduces the reuse to "Maybe I'll use it
twice, if I'm winning" so uless you're playing a lsow opponent you're just
helping them too much.
City of Brass is one I have a soft spot for, so I like it still. I think
it's a good choice for multi-coloured decks in type 1, as there's more of a
need for that first turn play. Grand Coliseum is still good though, and I
wouldn't mind picking up a bunch of them. One has to wonder how good it will
turn out to be in Type 2 - it may prove to be too slow for people's liking.
Tarnished Citadel still sucks, I wonder if there's a use with some form of
combo - possibly you can use it to cast Transcendence or to burn yourself
down before using a Mirror Universe, but why? There's easier ways to lose
life which are more productive (think Inernal Contract or Necropotence).
Prices
Jason
Daniel Merrifield
Well, well, well, for those people out there who like to take pain in order to
produce coloured mana, you have a new friend - Grand Coliseum.
However, as I am not a big fan of pain lands such as this one (although it is
tempting to use), pains lands can be and always extremely useful cards.
First of all, lands such as City of Brass, Tarished Citadel and Grand Coliseum
can be used in many different coloured decks without the problem of adjusting the
mana curve to fit them in. They also prevent the problem of not drawing the
right basic land.
Next, these lands will help decks which splash only a few cards of a certain
colour or colours. I know myself that splashing can be difficult in certain
decks, so these lands do come in handy.
Now, the first multi-purpose and multi-colour producing land to be reviewed is
City of Brass. Ah yes, Mr. Brass as I like to call it, has and always will be a
crowd favourite. I have seen many decks that go along the lines of:
Turn 1: Brass, birds, go
However, City of Brass has, in my opinion, a very painful drawback. It anyone
taps it, you take one damage. It doesn't matter why it was tapped, either! I
take this into consideration when I choose whether or not I want to use it in a
deck, and so should you.
Next on the list is Tarnished Citadel from Odyssey. This guy is also fairly
aweful, in my opinion. Let's discuss its pros and cons.
Pros:
Cons:
Now for the newest edition from Onslaught, the fabled Grand Coliseum.
(Side Note: Major part of the storyline.)
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, all the painlands mentioned are useful. However, in my opinion, Grand
Coliseum is the better choice. It's up to you to decide which one suits your
deck.
Daniel
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Grand Coliseum (Rare)
Tarnished Citadel (Rare)
Dan Turner
Danesh Jogia