Search the City

Search the City was originally released as a rare card in the 2012 Magic: The Gathering set Return to Ravnica. It was designed to reflect the dense, labyrinthine nature of the Ravnica plane, an urban setting where exploration and investigation are central to the identity of the Azorius Senate faction. The card mechanics encourage players to track multiple spells of the same converted mana cost, mirroring the slow and methodical process of a detective combing through city records.

The card was illustrated by the artist Eytan Zana, who utilized a digital painting style to emphasize the verticality and imposing scale of the Ravnican architecture. While the card is often cited by the community for its high difficulty in achieving its effect during gameplay, it remains a notable example of top-down design, where the flavor of a police state or bureaucratic investigation is translated directly into the game's mechanics.