This version of The One Ring will be Magic: The Gathering's rarest card to date
It's not going to be most powerful artifact in the game, but should be highly sought-after by collectors.
There was never a doubt that the One Ring, arguably the most powerful artifact in The Lord of the Rings lore, is going to show up in the upcoming Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond set The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™.
Sorry LOTR fans, but the new card The One Ring is unfortunately not going to be the most powerful artifact in Magic: The Gathering’s history.
That said, a version of it is going to be the rarest. Let's explain.
For 4 generic mana, this legendary artifact can immediately draw you a card, and give you protection from everything for one turn cycle. It can draw you more cards once you're able to untap it multiple times, but you will lose life too at your upkeep.
It's a small value engine, but it is definitely not among the most powerful artifacts in the game like Black Lotus, the five Moxes or Time Vault.
I mean, this is a given because cards from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ will be legal in the Modern format, and I cannot imagine the carnage a card with the power level of a Black Lotus or Time Vault will bring to Modern.
However, just like in LOTR lore, there can only be one Ring. Sauron only created one Ring to rule them all, and as such, Magic: The Gathering has specially designed The 1 of 1 Ring (Serialised 001 of 001) card.
Essentially, there will only be one such traditional foil The One Ring card printed in the Black Speech of Sauron using Tengwar letterforms when The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ is released on 23 June later this year.
This one and only precious card can only be found in a single English-language Collector Booster.
So for any interested party who wants to try their luck, remember to make sure you're buying English-language Collector Boosters, and not those in other languages.
Winning the lottery?
I guess Magic: The Gathering has now truly reached peak gacha.
The odds of hitting the jackpot in Singapore’s Toto lottery system is about 1 in 14 million.
Meanwhile, according to the odds provided on Collector Booster boxes ready for pre-order on Amazon, you have a less than 0.00003% (around 1 in 3 million) chance to open this precious card in a booster.
While it will be (slightly) easier than hitting the jackpot in Toto, the odds are still incredible.
I truly wonder what the secondary market price of this card might be like — assuming whoever finds it would be willing to part with it. Assuming it is ever found, and not tragically dumped in a landfill.
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ will be available as Starter Kit, Jumpstart Boosters, Commander Decks, Bundle Gift Edition, Bundle, Secret Lair, Prerelease Packs, Draft Boosters, Set Boosters, and Collector Boosters, and is scheduled for release on 23 June 2023.
Jay is a content creator who likes to hoard vintage photographic lenses, and loses too often in Dota 2 and Magic: The Gathering after work.
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