City of Brass

City of Brass was originally introduced in the Arabian Nights expansion in 1993, designed to evoke the mystical flavor of the One Thousand and One Nights. The card functions as a versatile land that provides any color of mana at the cost of one life, establishing it as a foundational utility card in Magic: The Gathering. Its inclusion in the 2003 World Championship Decks allowed players to acquire exact tournament-legal replicas of high-level decks played during that year's competition, making powerful staples more accessible to the public.

The 2003 iteration features the iconic artwork by Ron Walotsky, who rendered the titular city with a striking sense of ancient, shimmering majesty. Walotsky's illustration captures the legendary, somewhat hazardous allure of a desert metropolis, leaning into the high-fantasy aesthetic that defined early Magic card design. The World Championship versions of this card are distinguished by a gold-bordered frame and the signature of a top-tier professional player on the front, marking them as artifacts of a specific competitive era rather than the standard printings used in official tournament play.