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Mana Curve Simulation: How Rebuild the City Rewrites Land Plays
If you’ve ever chased a six-mana spell that reshapes your board and your options, Rebuild the City is the kind of card that makes you grin and grimace in equal measure 🧙♂️🔥. This rare from March of the Machine: The Aftermath doesn’t just splash three colors into your deck; it dumps a tidal wave of potential onto your battlefield. When you run a mana-curve simulation, the card’s effect isn’t simply “play six, get three copies of a land.” It’s a complex, multi-layered engine: you invest six mana, copy a land three times, and each token enters as a 3/3 creature with vigilance and menace, while still tapping for its mana in their own right. The result is a swarm of threats that pressure opponents and warp the late-game tempo in ways that are as flashy as they are practical 🧙♂️🎲.
Card profile at a glance
- Name: Rebuild the City
- Set: March of the Machine: The Aftermath (MAT)
- Rarity: Rare
- Mana cost: {3}{B}{R}{G} (six mana, three colors)
- Type: Sorcery
- Oracle text: Choose target land. Create three tokens that are copies of it, except they're 3/3 creatures in addition to their other types and they have vigilance and menace. (They're affected by summoning sickness.)
- Flavor text: "The Phyrexian design had to go, but the materials could be put to good use." — MAT flavor
- Illustrator: Sergey Glushakov
In practice, you’re not just spawning three extras; you’re amplifying a land’s intrinsic value and turning it into something that can threaten a board state while continuing to contribute mana. If your chosen land taps for multiple colors or duals into your three-color identity, the tokens echo that flexibility—each token a 3/3 creature that can swing once your next turn arrives, all while your mana base hums behind the curtain. It’s a design that rewards careful timing and color-splashy thinking, which is exactly what modern Multicolor MTG wants to celebrate 🎨⚔️.
Why this card shakes up the mana curve
Six mana for a spell that effectively creates three additional threats is deceptively efficient in the right shell. The simulation shows several compelling dynamics:
- Board presence spike: The three 3/3 creature-tokens immediately multiply your threat density. Even if they’re tapped to produce mana on the original land, their on-board presence can force adjacency pressure on your opponent’s life total and planeswalker resources 🧙♂️.
- Late-game inevitability: In a midrange or ramp-forward strategy, you’re steering toward a point where your mana curve crystallizes into a crescendo. Rebuild the City accelerates that crest, turning a late-game inevitability into a scheduled arrival that opponents must address or risk being overwhelmed 🔥.
- Risk-reward calculus: The tokens have summoning sickness, so they can’t attack on the same turn they appear. That gives opponents a window to respond, while you still enjoy increased mana generation from the original land. It’s a thoughtful tempo swing, not a slam-dunk win button ⚔️.
- Color identity and synergy: With a B/R/G identity, you’re drawn to effects that reward multi-color mana and land abuse. Targeting shock lands, vaults, or utility lands can create token copies that press multiple angles—combat pressure, mana acceleration, and even late-game fuel for recursive engines ♠️💎.
From a design perspective, Rebuild the City embodies a thematic paradox: you’re “rebuilding” a city on the backs of mana bases and land copies, while the board becomes a battlefield of versatile threats. It’s exactly the kind of spectacle that MTG fans crave: a moment of exuberant chaos that still feels playable in a competent shell 🧙♂️🎲.
Strategic takeaways for your deck-building filtered through the simulation
If you’re piloting a Jund or Grixis-inspired strategy, consider how you can leverage the simulated mana curve to maximize impact. Here are actionable ideas inspired by the results:
- Target high-impact lands: Choose lands with strong late-game or utility roles—planeswalkers’ home bases, or lands with unique mana abilities. Copying those lands keeps your color requirements intact while multiplying board presence 💎.
- Protect the tempo: Since the tokens come with summoning sickness and are still lands, you’ll often want destination removal or tempo plays to keep your opponent from stabilizing. The card rewards you for sequencing and board-presence pressure 🧙♂️.
- Commander considerations: In EDH, Rebuild the City can anchor a three-color mana strategy, especially in decks that already lean into land synergies. It scales with your deck’s land count and can flip late-game boards into a flood of threats that opponents must answer ⚔️.
- Synergy with fetches and tutors: In formats where fetch lands or tutoring is common, Rebuild the City can amplify the value of those effects by making more copies of a versatile land than you started with, turning a single fetch into multiple pressure points 🎨.
Flavor and lore fans will appreciate the flavor text nod to the Phyrexian era’s reuse of materials. It underscores the unsettling elegance of a world where even a “rebuild” is a blend of salvage and strategy—the kind of paradoxical charm that makes MAT cards feel fused to the MTG multiverse’s ongoing story 🧙♂️.
“The city’s bones still hum with power, and now they walk the streets as three bold guardians.”
As with many standout rare cards, the market pulse around Rebuild the City tracks its art, rarity, and potential for synergy. It isn’t a universal auto-include, but in the right shells, it delivers a resonance you’ll hear echoed in casual matches and the occasional tournament lineup. If you’re curious to explore more about this card’s place in the broader metagame, keep an eye on EDHREC and competitive MTG circles, where fans keep mapping the curve of chaos it invites 🧙♂️💎.
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