it can still raze a city.
Ok, maybe i didn't think the statement through, but it's still an epic feeling spell.Man what? Are we talking a Lego model city or something?
You have 4x40' radius blasts, so 4x80' diameters. That's not enough to level a city BLOCK, let alone a city. Even if we look at, say, London in the 1400s, you couldn't do more than seriously damage a single cathedral, or the palace of Westminster with that. Even bronze-age cities are far too big for that spell to do more than horrify people by blowing up the Acropolis or something.
Sure, there might be fire, but I guarantee a few well-placed lower-level spells could spread much wider and nastier fires than MS, especially with Control Weather or the like to encourage winds (to spread the fire) and prevent rain.
Combining posts 357 and 358 results
Gate 12
Mass Heal 11
Meteor Swarm 9
Prismatic Wall 15 (17-2) --Taste the rainbow?
Shapechange 14
True Polymorph 11 (9+2) --Like Words with friends, but for your corporeal forms.

(Dungeons & Dragons)
Rulebook featuring "high magic" options, including a host of new spells.