For the longest time, the iconic Black Lotus was considered the most expensive card in Magic: the Gathering. Fast forward to 2023, and there is absolutely no dispute that Black Lotus has now fallen off that proverbial throne.
This is thanks to Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. Alongside all the other crazy things that the set offered, Wizards of the Coast released the first-ever one-of-one serialized card that Magic has ever seen: The One Ring. This card went mainstream, creating news headlines across North America until MTG icon and rapper Post Malone eventually bought the card for two million dollars. This purchase makes the one-of-a-kind serialized Ring the most expensive card in all of Magic.
Now, this doesn’t mean The One Ring’s other variants are quite as expensive. There’s only one of these in existence. That’s where the value comes from.
That also doesn’t mean other copies of The One Ring are inexpensive. Thanks to The One Ring being absurdly powerful in both Commander and competitive formats, even the cheapest iteration holds a hefty price tag. It’s certainly not two million dollars, but it’s not 50 cents either.
Well, The One Ring appears to be getting a few new printings, and one of them could be worth thousands of dollars!
The One Ring: Holiday Edition
The contents of the new MTG Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Scene Boxes was announced yesterday. These boxes each contain a six-card scene full of mechanically unique cards, and players are freaking out. We took a look at that here.
Announced alongside the Scene Boxes was the new treatment appearing in the Special Edition Lord of the Rings Collector Booster Boxes, a part of the holiday release. We knew that some sort of special treatment was coming out alongside this new special edition pack, and the latest treatment did not disappoint.
Besides being begrudgingly challenging to read, these new Rock Poster treatments look like they came right out of a Secret Lair.
New Treatments
Announced by Brooke Trafton, the man who found the original two million dollar Ring, are two new variants of The One Ring that will be available in the upcoming Special Edition Holiday Release Collector Boosters starting November 3rd. At the time of writing, more information regarding this product will be released later today.
Notably, revealed yesterday by IGN, each of these crazy Rock Poster treatments (The One Ring on the left of the above pic) will have a serialized variant, with only 100 copies available. This is an incredibly limited number of cards, and special numbers within this serialized lineup (1, 69, 100, etc.) could easily go for thousands of dollars. They won’t be as expensive as the true One Ring to Rule Them All but expect to see some wacky sales in MTG’s future.
The other variant (the right card of the above tweet) is something we haven’t seen before now. It’s hard to know if more of these will be available in the Special Edition packs or if this is a one-off treatment for The One Ring. We should learn more about this at the upcoming MTG Vegas preview panel.
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New Releases Don’t Stop Here
It appears that the Rock Poster treatments and the cards being previewed as part of the Scene Boxes aren’t the only new cards we’re getting! This preview from The Nerd of the Rings showcases two never-before-seen Modern legal cards and a full art reprint to a Commander favorite!
Riders of the Mark
Riders of the Mark and the card below mark two of the new Hildebrandt cards coming out as part of the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth holiday release.
Riders of the Mark is a seven mana creature that gets cheaper to cast for each Human you control. If you attacked with it this turn, Riders of the Mark also creates a ton of Humans itself on the endstep. The downside is that the card bounces to your hand. Of course, if the Human tokens survive, you get access to a cheap 7/4 Trampler with Haste that threatens to make more Humans. Otherwise, your creatures get wiped, and you’re stuck with a seven mana creature.
Will this card see play in Modern? Maybe at some point (probably not), but its unlikely until some changes are made. Thanks to Fury, the current metagame is really hostile for typal creature decks.
Minas Tirith Garrison
Minas Tirith Garrison would be a lot better if it had Haste. This is a fantastic card for Human typal creature decks in Commander, but does suffer the same issue that Riders of the Mark does in terms of being Modern viable.
Another thing holding Minas Tirith Garrison back that isn’t necessarily holding back Riders of the Mark is the card always costs four mana. For Modern, that is a very expensive mana value. Should your Minas Tirith Garrison resolve, survive, and attack with a full board of Humans to tap, the payoff is enormous. So many things have to go right, however, that this card just doesn’t seem to cut it for Modern.
For Commander, Minas Tirith Garrison is a great way to get value out of a go-wide Humans token strategy.
Read More: 24 New MTG Lord Of The Rings Cards Officially Revealed!
Pact of Negation
Pact of Negation is an infamous card that tends to screw someone over whenever it resolves. Most of the time, it’s the player that got their spell countered, because if someone runs Pact of Negation, they’re generally trying to win with a combo sequence right after it resolves.
Occasionally, it’s the person who played the counterspell. Five mana is rather hefty to pay at the next upkeep, generally causing the Pact of Negation owner to skip their turn. In most cases that this card is run, players will not have the resources to pay for the Pact on the following turn. If the win attempt is stopped, the game is over.
Either way, this full art Pact of Negation (apparently being dubbed the Hildebrandt art) looks great! Do note that this is a Commander printing, so legality for Pact of Negation will not be affected (I don’t think it would’ve been affected regardless).
At the time of writing, the cheapest iterations of Pact of Negation go for a little under $10, making this a decent, but not homerun, reprint.
More to Come!
This is just the tip of the iceberg for all the spoilers that will be dropping this weekend. After two weeks of silence, the floodgates have been opened. We’re getting our first look at Lost Caverns of Ixalan cards, as well as a deeper look into the Lord of the Rings Holiday Release and some new cards for Ravnica Remastered. That all drops soon, so be sure to keep tuned in here for all the details!
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