I know D&D's over, but I had to share
For this tactic, you just need to be a 7th-level human wizard, and you don't even need an artifact for it. Take Energy Substitution: electricity or sonic (Complete Arcane), Explosive Spell (Complete Arcane), Born of Three Thunders (Complete Arcane), Flash Frost (Player's Handbook II), and Snowcasting (Frostburn) as your feats. Make sure you have Locate City (Races of Destiny) and Lesser Globe of Invulnerability on your spell list.Prepare all of your spell slots with Energy Substituted (electricity or sonic), Born of Three Thunders, Flash Frost Locate City spells. Save all of your 4th-level slots for Lesser Globe of Invulnerability. Cast LGoI so you'll be immune to the havoc you'll be causing. Now grab some ice from the freezer and cast Locate City. Because of Snowcasting, it gets the [cold] subtype, but because of Energy substitution, it instead has either the [electricity] or [sonic] subtype. Flash Frost makes it deal 2 cold damage to everyone in the area, which then gets converted to 2 electricity or sonic damage. Born of Three Thunders makes that 1 electricity and 1 sonic, and forces a Fortitude save against being stunned and forces a Reflex save against being knocked prone. Explosive Spell only affects spells that force a Reflex save, so we've got that covered.Locate City affects a 10-mile/level radius, centered on you. At caster level 7th, that's a 70-mile radius, or a 369,600-foot radius. So you'll be doing 1 electricity damage and 1 sonic damage. Anyone who fails both the Fortitude save and the Reflex save will be pushed to the nearest edge of the area, taking 1d6 damage for every 10 feet moved. That's going to be a very forceful and painful trip indeed.Once you cast it, all structures in a 70-mile radius will get utterly destroyed, and approximately half the population will fail their saves and violently get killed