Last updated on January 9, 2024
Sol Ring (LotR Elven Ring of Power) | Illustration by Randy Gallegos
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is the latest set from WotC, and it’s bursting with flavor. It looks like a set for everybody; it’s for new and experienced players alike, as well as fans of both MTG and Middle-earth.
At the heart of the set are the mythical limited Rings of Power. What are these rings, and most importantly, how does somebody go about acquiring such a powerful artifact?
What Are the (Sol) Rings of Power in Magic?
The Rings of Power are special serialized Sol Rings that showcase three different pieces of art. Their artwork depicts the rings of power belonging to the humans, elves, and dwarves and created by Sauron. There’s also a single special copy of the new The One Ring card depicting The One Ring that ruled over the others.
How Many Rings of Power Cards Are There?
There are six versions of the Rings of Power and seven depictions of The One Ring.
There are two main groups: non-serialized rings, and serialized rings. The Commander all-star Sol Ring represents the serialized nineteen rings given to the men, elves, and dwarves of the world with a new mythic rare, The One Ring, getting a mechanically unique card all its own.
How Many Serialized Rings Are There?
There are six total types of serialized Sol Rings, representing the nineteen rings of power created by Sauron to control Middle-earth. There only exist a set number of each, making collecting them incredibly difficult. There are:
- Sol Ring (Human): 9,000
- Sol Ring (Dwarven): 7,000
- Sol Ring (Elven): 3,000
- Sol Ring (Double Rainbow Foil, Human): 900
- Sol Ring (Double Rainbow Foil, Dwarven): 700
- Sol Ring (Double Rainbow Foil, Elven): 300
The Elven, Dwarven, and Human rings all feature different art related to their respective tribe by artists Randy Gallegos, Erikas Perl, and Anastasia Balakchina respectively. In place of the Sol Ring rules text, they have a portion of an elvish poem detailing who these rings were made for:
“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die…”
What About The One Ring?
If the rarity of the elven rings still isn’t quite exclusive enough for you, to add an extra level of ultimate rarity, there is only a single copy of a serialized The One Ring in a gorgeous traditional foil treatment written in the Black Speech of Sauron. A single copy of this treatment exists. It’s the ultimate collector’s piece for a Magic and Lord of the Rings superfan.
This is the single rarest Magic: The Gathering card made in recent years and will be randomly found in an English language collector booster. Your chances are less than 0.000003% to open it in a single pack because it's only showing up in one of the over three million produced collector boosters.
Where Can You Open Rings of Power?
All the remaining serialized Rings of Power can be opened in any language collector boosters in place of the fourth traditional foil commons in the pack. You can’t find these Rings of Power anywhere else; they’re only contained in collector boosters. No chance of these turning up in Limited unless you're getting spicy and drafting collectors!
- MAGIC MEETS THE LORD OF THE RINGS—Experience the beloved story of The Lord of the Rings through the gorgeous art and thrilling gameplay of the Magic: The Gathering collectible trading card game
- JOIN THE FELLOWSHIP—Immerse yourself in Middle-earth with unique game mechanics and stunning art that draw you into this epic tale
- BEST BOOSTERS FOR COLLECTORS—Collector Boosters are a shortcut to the coolest cards in a set, with packs full of Rare cards, shiny foil cards, and special alt-art, alt-frame cards
- FIND YOUR OWN RING OF POWER—Collector Boosters are the only boosters that may include Serialized Elven, Dwarven, or Human Sol Ring cards. These cards have the same play mechanics as their non-serialized versions. The Serialized 1 of 1 Ring was originally in an English Collector Booster but was found on June 30, 2023.
- COLLECT BORDERLESS SCENE CARDS—Every Collector Booster contains at least 1 Scene card with Borderless art that’s one piece of a larger, multi-card scene; collect them all to piece together a full view of the most iconic moments from The Lord of the Rings
What Is a Double Rainbow Foil?
Wizards of the Coast has been going crazy with new, flashy foils. For the foil versions of the three Sol Rings of Power, they’ve returned to the Double Rainbow Foil treatment introduced in the Brother’s War serialized retro artifacts.
Visually, they have a rainbow shimmer under light, making them striking pieces of art to behold in person. This treatment is exclusively used on serialized cards.
Double Rainbow Foil vs. Non-foil Versions
Beyond the treatment, there are no mechanical or visual differences between the Double rainbow Foil and Non-foil versions of the Rings of Power. There are ten times as many non-foil versions to open, making it far more likely you’ll see a non-foil in person, albeit still very unlikely.
What Are the Chances of Opening a Rings of Power Card?
Each kind of Ring of Power and their two treatments shift around the likelihood of opening one in a random collector booster. Your chances for each in place of the foil common are:
- Sol Ring (Human): Less than 0.3% (1 in 333 packs)
- Sol Ring (Dwarven): Less than 0.25% (1 in 400 packs)
- Sol Ring (Elvish): Less than 0.1% (1 in 1,000 packs)
- Sol Ring (Double Rainbow Foil, Human): Less than 0.03% (1 in 3,333 packs)
- Sol Ring (Double Rainbow Foil, Dwarven): Less than 0.025% (1 in 4,000 packs)
- Sol Ring (Double Rainbow Foil, Elvish): Less than 0.01% (1 in 10,000 packs)
Your chance of opening any form of a Ring of Power is 0.715%. Less than 1 in 140 packs is likely to contain one of these mythical objects. Unless you’re opening entire pallets worth of collector boosters, your chances are slim to none to see a Ring of Power unless luck is on your side.
How Much Are Rings of Power Cards Worth?
Prices for these rings are likely to change over time.
Star City Games has their current market prices for the foil serialized rings going for around $2,500 (Elven), $1,800 (Dwarven), and $1,500 (Human). Their non-foil counterparts are currently listed at about $800 (Elven), $500 (Dwarven), and $400 (Human).
CardKingdom doesn’t have the foil options available for preorder, but the non-foil rings are currently listed at approximately $300 (Elven), $250 (Dwarven), and $200 (Human).
This is a decent range for what you can expect to pay for these, with direct sales from somebody who opens one likely going for the lower-end price range while purchasing from a larger company may be on the higher end. I’d expect to pay over a grand for the foil versions of any of them and between one to five hundred dollars for the non-foil versions.
The serialized The One Ring currently is going through a bidding war, and it hasn’t yet been found. It started with a bounty of $100,000 by Dan Bock on Twitter, with others coming forward outbidding them. Cassius Marsh raised the bid to a million, with another bidder upping the bounty to over $2,000,000 USD. How much it’ll eventually sell for is unknown; somebody may end up cracking it and not even know what they have. Much like the One Ring was lost for generations in the possession of Sméagol, this ring may also disappear without a trace.
Why These Numbers?
The total number of rings corresponds to the elvish poem found in Chapter 2 of The Fellowship of the Ring explaining the power of the one ring the story is centered around, which reads as follows:
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for the Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
There are 300 Double Rainbow Foil Elven Sol Rings and 3,000 of their non-foil counterparts, referencing the “Three rings for the Elven-kings”. Similarly, there are 700 and 7,000 dwarven rings for the seven “Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone”, and 900 and 9,000 human rings for the nine “Mortal Men doomed to die”.
Cleverly, the Human ring art hints at the dark destruction the rings of man would cause, transforming them into the horrific Nazgûl, which translates from Black Speech as “Ring-wraith.”
The serialized The One Ring represents the ultimate single ring that rules over the other rings of power. An ultimate treasure, one ring to rule them all.
Are Rings of Power Cards Legal?
All Rings of Power and the serialized The One Ring are legal in Constructed formats their original card is legal in. The Rings of Power are Sol Rings and share the legality of all other Sol Rings. They can fit into any of your Commander decks or can be a one of in your Vintage deck as Sol Ring is restricted in Vintage and banned in Legacy.
The One Ring is Modern legal alongside the rest of the main set, meaning you can play it in Modern, Legacy, Commander, or Vintage as the ultimate flex.
Alternatives to Rings of Power Cards
Should you want in on the Rings of Power action but aren’t willing to gamble with collector boosters or buy these coveted pieces directly for hundreds or thousands of dollars, you can find representations of The One Ring in six other forms.
In every Commander deck, you’ll find a Sol Ring depicting The One Ring in the hands of Sauron as he created it.
The One Ring (the unique card) is available in its normal version, foil, Bundle Alt-Art Promo, Extended Art, and Extended Art Foil.
Draft, set, and collector boosters can contain the main set version and its foil counterpart.
Bundles and gift bundles include the promo alt-art version in foil alongside the other three cards depicting the scene where the ring is cast into Mount Doom. This version can also be opened in collector boosters in non-foil.
The extended art The One Ring (in both foil and non-foil) can be opened in collector boosters.
Will You Succumb to the Temptations of the Rings?
Sol Ring (LotR Humans Ring of Power) | Illustration by Anastasia Balakchina
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is shaping up to be a legendary set highlighted by mythical rings. Everyone can get in on the fun with versions easily accessible from Sol Rings in Commander decks and bundle promos, but if you want to truly set your collection up with a shiny new bauble, the serialized Rings of Power are perfect for you.
Pick up the perfect product for you to celebrate the joining of these two iconic fantasy properties with rings of unlimited power. Are you ready to take a chance on being the one to crack the ultimate The One Ring and go down in history as the luckiest MTG player of all time? Leave a comment below, or come join the official Draftsim Discord.
Take care, and happy hunting!
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