You might’ve noticed some cards from Tales of Middle-earth (LotR themed Magic set), that simply state “the Ring tempts you”. This is a new MTG mechanic, and today we’re going to explain all the rules regarding it. We’ll answer every question you might have, such as:
- What does it mean that the Ring tempts you?
- How do you play with the Ring tempts you mechanic?
- What is The Ring emblem?
- And more!
The Ring Tempts You Rules
This mechanic is tied to an emblem called The Ring. Here’s how it looks like.
So, when the Ring tempts you, if you don’t already have The Ring emblem, you get one. Then the emblem gains its next ability, and you choose a creature you control to become, or remain your Ring-bearer.
To recap, when a card says The Ring tempts you, here’s what you do:
- Check if you have The Ring emblem. If you don’t, you get one.
- You unlock The Ring’s next ability. (The first ability that’s unlocked, is the top one, and they progress towards the bottom of the card. You can’t skip abilities.)
- Choose which creature is now considered your Ring-bearer.
Example
Let’s say you play Call of the Ring, which is a repeatable effect for this mechanic.
When your next upkeep comes, the Ring tempts you for the first time. You don’t have The Ring emblem, so you get one. It gains the ability “Your Ring bearer is legendary and can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power”. Then you choose Grizzly Bears as your Ring-bearer. They are now legendary and can’t be blocked by bigger creatures.
Next upkeep, you already have The Ring emblem, so you won’t get a new one. You just unlock the next ability. Whenever your Ring-bearer attacks, draw a card, then discard a card. So now your ring bearing Grizzly Bears have both abilities. At this point, you could also choose another creature as a Ring-bearer.
So, when the ring tempts you for the third time, you’ll unlock the third ability. (Whenever your Ring-bearer becomes blocked by a creature, that creature’s controller sacrifices it at the end of combat.) When it happens the fourth time, you get the fourth ability. (Whenever your Ring-bearer deals combat damage to a player, each opponent loses 3 life.)
When it tempts you fifth and any other time afterward, the only thing that happens is that you can choose another Ring-bearer, as your Emblem is now fully powered.
- Your Ring-bearer is legendary and can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power.
- Whenever your Ring-bearer attacks, draw a card, then discard a card.
- Whenever your Ring-bearer becomes blocked by a creature, that creature’s controller sacrifices it at the end of combat.
- Whenever your Ring-bearer deals combat damage to a player, each opponent loses 3 life.
The Ring Tempts You – FAQ
Before we wrap up, here are some commonly asked question about this mechanic. If you want to know something that we didn’t answer, let us know in the comments below, and we’ll get back to you.
If you don’t already have one, you get The Ring emblem. Then you unlock the next one of its abilities, and choose which one of your creatures if your Ring-bearer.
There are four abilities, and they unlock from the top to the bottom:
1. Your Ring-bearer is legendary and can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power.
2. Whenever your Ring-bearer attacks, draw a card, then discard a card.
3. Whenever your Ring-bearer becomes blocked by a creature, that creature’s controller sacrifices it at the end of combat.
4. Whenever your Ring-bearer deals combat damage to a player, each opponent loses 3 life.
The Ring Emblem unlocks its next ability, but you don’t choose a Ring-bearer.
The Ring emblem is a predefined game object with four abilities, that you can unlock. You can see it in the paragraph above.
Yes, if you control a creature, you mast choose one of them to become a Ring-bearer. You can choose a creature that’s already a Ring-bearer.
Yes, it does, and it will trigger effects of cards such as Call of the Ring.
No, you can’t. There is no way of getting more than one under your control.
No, you can’t, since it’s an emblem and not a permanent card.
No, it doesn’t. This can be considered a bit of a favor-fail. It’s not much of a temptation, if there’s no downside, right?
It’s a non-playable card, which you can get in a token slot. It serves as a reminder for how the ring tempts you mechanic works. You can see how it looks below.
Conclusion
That’s it for today. If you want to explore more about the Tales of Middle-earth, here are some articles that might be interesting to you:
- Tales of Middle-earth Commander Decks
- MTG LotR Spoilers
- Full-Art Middle-Earth Map Basic Lands
- LotR Bundle: Regular VS Gift
Until next time, have fun, and may your Ring-bearer never die.
How does the ring’s legendary interaction affect multiple copies of the same card played in a game of commander? So if I have a Nazgûl on my board selected as my ring bearer, but play a second Nazgûl, what would happen?
Great question. Only the card that was chosen as your ring-bearer is your ring bearer. Even if you have three Nazgul in play, only the one that you selected as your ring-bearer is your ring-bearer, and none of the other two, even though they have the same name.
What if the ring bearer dies
Nothing happens. Until the ring tempts you again, you don’t have a ring-bearer.
How does it work with animated lands/crewed vehicles, if I choose them to be my ring-bearer? do those permaments remain ring-bearers, even if they stop being creatures?
cheers!
Yes. The land / vehicle stays your ring-bearer until another creature becomes your ring-bearer or another player gains control of it.
Can you choose the same creature? Like if I only have one creature and call of the ring can I choose the ring bearer repeatedly to draw every upkeep?
Yes, you can. And you’ll het the bonus. Here’s a part from release notes that talks about that:
“If the creature you choose as your Ring-bearer was already your Ring-bearer, that still counts as choosing that creature as your Ring-bearer for the purpose of abilities that trigger ‘whenever you choose a creature as your Ring-bearer’ or abilities that care about which creature was chosen as your Ring-bearer.”
What happens if you mutate on top of the ring bearer? I assume they would no longer be legendary since the name etc changes….would the mutate pile still be the ring bearer?
Yeah, “that pile” would still be the Ring-bearer. It’s still considered the same permanent, so the Ring-bearer effect still applies.