City of Death – Doctor Who
Date Reviewed: November 1, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.00
Casual: 3.75
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 3.63
Commander [EDH]: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
“City of Death” is yet another card name I’m a little surprised hasn’t been used before. But it was worth the wait – note that unlike Return to Ravnica‘s populate mechanic, it doesn’t specify a creature token. That means you can go nuts on duplicating Treasures, Food, or Clues, copies of whatever crazy permanent you targeted with Fractured Identity, or even double and triple up on Smaug death triggers. It might be a little slow for the more aggressive token decks, but it has enough versatility to become a popular card in other casual decks.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
I’m not sure what the City of Death is a reference to, but the name seemed fitting for a card review right after Halloween. And it’s a card that has a fair few bits of intrigue about it, so let’s talk about that.
Three mana for a treasure token is not a great rate of return, but it allows you to go from three mana on turn 3 to five mana on turn 4…or six mana, as it turns out, because City of Death duplicates a token of your choice each turn. The obvious pairing is that treasure token you made the previous turn, but even if you don’t have treasure, you can definitely make this pop with creatures or other tokens.
There’s a lot of weird things City of Death can do, but seeing this as a mana acceleration spell that can do a lot of different things over the five turns it sticks around is promising. I’m not sold on this being a star in Legacy, but it’s a unique effect that can do damage, especially if you can put this out on turn 2.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 3.5 (a bit of a particular build-around, but a promising build-around)
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 4
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