As the set’s release date draws nears, all eyes have turned towards The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. Not only is this MTG set the latest and greatest direct-to-Modern set, but it also has a killer feature: collectibility. To aptly celebrate the MTG set’s release, there lies The One Ring within a Collector Booster.
Rather than the boring ol’ $30 The One Ring card, this variant is totally unique. Boasting its own art and foil treatment, this is a one-of-one serialized copy of the card. On par with the rarest MTG card ever printed, this promo has understandably whipped the MTG community into a frenzy. Since it’s worth over 2 million dollars at the time of writing, it’s no surprise that players want The One Ring.
Unfortunately for MTG fans hoping to find The One Ring, Wizards hasn’t made it easy. According to the WPN store, the chances of opening the serialized The One Ring are <.00003%. This means The One Ring should be found within one out of roughly three million Collector Boosters. Obviously, this means the serialized One Ring isn’t going to be easy to find, however, it may be even harder than expected.
According to some MTG players, Wizards might put The One Ring where it’s least expected…
A Gift Within a Gift
Since the serialized one-of-one The One Ring can only be found in Collector Boosters, unsurprisingly, many MTG players are incredibly excited to start cracking packs. Sure, the odds of finding The One Ring may be fantastically low, but there’s still a chance you get lucky. With the lucky winner potentially never needing to work another day in their life, it’s no wonder players are excited!
Considering the dismal odds of finding The One Ring, cracking Collector Booster boxes, not packs, seems to be the way to go. While this may seem like a sensible, if expensive, approach, not every MTG player is convinced by this strategy. According to some players on Reddit, The One Ring may have been placed where players least expect it.
Suggesting this theory recently was Reddit user and “marketing professional” u/Swimming_Net_6102, who mused that “The ‘One Ring’ card will be found in a Gift Bundle.” Explaining this suggestion, Swimming_Net_6102 noted how this approach could guarantee The One Ring is actually found. Considering the number of Collector Boosters boxes that get locked away as investments, this is a real concern.
Unlike Collector Booster boxes, Swimming_Net_6102 highlighted that Gift Bundles are typically purchased to be opened and enjoyed rather than hoarded. As a result of this, it seems significantly more likely that all the Gift Bundles will be opened. That will be the case, at least, provided that this Gift Bundle product isn’t stuck on store shelves.
Alongside potentially guaranteeing The One Ring’s discovery, this release strategy may also ensure a touching human element to the story. While some players may be uninterested in this detail, for Wizards, this would be a marketing goldmine. Subsequently, it seems sensible that Wizards may do what they can to subtly ensure an average player finds The One Ring.
A Sensible Suggestion
After hearing this suggestion from Swimming_Net_6102, many MTG players quickly agreed that this marketing ploy sounds sensible. Reddit user u/Absinthehouse, for instance, remarked that they “had the same thought,” as did many other users. Alongside this, Absinthehouse also added to the reasons for this release strategy for The One Ring would be beneficial for Wizards.
Rather than releasing on June 23rd with everything else, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Bundle: Gift Edition is being released on July 8th. Thanks to this marginal delay, the hype and sales of Collector Boosters could remain consistently high for an extended period. After all, until The One Ring is found, every Collector Booster theoretically has better odds. This makes them all the more appealing for any MTG fan hunting for this prized collectible.
Alongside this significant bonus to placing The One Ring within a Gift Bundle, u/HeyApples further highlighted this strategy keeps the card’s discovery interesting. As was proved during March of the Machine, having a significant storefront pull an ultra-rare serialized card can be incredibly unsatisfying. Since stores don’t tend to crack gift bundles for singles, this theoretically shouldn’t happen with The One Ring. As Swimming_Net_6102 mentioned, this greatly improves the human aspect of the card’s discovery, which is a marketing goldmine.
While each of these reasons is incredibly compelling on its own, not every MTG player was persuaded. In fact, some players, such as u/probablymagic, even claimed this could be illegal! Potentially, this could be the killing blow to the Gift Bundle theory. However, it seems Wizards hasn’t crossed any lines for better or worse. Rather than trying to bait and switch anyone, it has always been known that Gift Bundles could contain The One Ring.
The One Ring Lottery
Given all the compelling reasons shared today, you might think investing in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Bundles is the way to go. As tempting as that thought is, however, it’s important to note one thing. We don’t know where The One Ring actually is.
Players could present compelling arguments one way or another all day, but no one knows the truth. We won’t know where the serialized The One Ring is or was until it gets found. Subsequently, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens once The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth actually launches.
At the end of the day, we only know one thing for certain. This is that whoever finds this prized copy of The One Ring, will be an awful lot richer. As we mentioned earlier, the current bounty on The One Ring stands at €2,000,000. Should the card actually sell for this price, it’ll become the most expensive MTG card of all time by quite some margin.
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