The One Ring: Modern Problems Require… The Fires Of Mount Doom?
One Ring To Rule Them All
With the recent release of the long awaited MTG x Lord Of The Rings Magic set, our beloved Modern format has gained a new staple. The One Ring has awoken.
Already this new card has worked its way into classic Modern decks such as the following (all links to Twitter posts from folks who placed in MTGO challenges):
These are but a small taste of the decks trying the Ring out at the moment. The community at large seems to be attempting to put it into as many decks as possible to see where it fits.
No doubt the card is strong, some would even say too strong. But is there any recourse? What can be done?
What Stops The Ring?
Truthfully, few things completely stop every aspect of The One Ring. However, there are many ways to make the card significantly worse so let’s check those out!
Damage Can’t Be Prevented
I think one of the largest things overlooked by players at the moment is how relevant the text “damage can’t be prevented” is when going against the Ring. Here’s some rules text from Bonecrusher Giant’s Scryfall page:
So we can see that, if an opponent is relying on the Ring’s protection to buy them a turn… you can really get their goat with Stomp and other effects like it. You may have to target yourself, but this will allow you to damage the Ring’s bearer.
Below are a few more cards that might be playable ways to answer the Ring’s protection specifically:
Countermagic
As usual, the best way to stop a good card from taking over a game is to just counter it before it can resolve. These are the best counters in the format currently and will continue to pull their weight when it comes to stopping the Ring:
ETB Effects Don’t Trigger
Any static effects that turn off abilities that care about “entering the battlefield” will also stop the Ring’s protection from triggering. In the past, Hammertime played some number of Hushbringer so this isn’t unprecedented. However, Hushbringer itself won’t work so you’ll have to look to Elesh Norn and Strict Proctor (shown below).
Punishing Card Draw
Another decent way to attack The One Ring is to punish the card draw that the Ring offers. Below are four options but personally I do think the black cards are a little better because they pressure the life total of your opponent which is very relevant vs the Ring due to its innate life loss.
Remove The Ring’s Ability To Be Activated
This option is similar to punishing their card draw as that’s essentially what stopping Ring taps does. Still, these are more options to think about that you can play proactively. Karn in particular is fun because you get to run The One Ring as a wishboard target for him! (Note: Pithing Needle and Sorcerous Spyglass also fit in this category)
Exile The Ring
Finally, you can just exile the Ring in response to its first tap to stop all card draw. This requires good timing and access to limited instant speed artifact exiling spells but it is maybe the cleanest solution to the Ring.
These Cards Are Cool, But What About Specific Decks?
I think the key to managing yourself in a format defined by The One Ring is to mix the above categories of cards together. The One Ring has a lot of flexibility to it because it has both a strong ETB and a strong activated ability which stresses the answers you need to deal with it. Below are my choices:
Temur Rhinos
Rhinos runs four Force of Negation stock which is a great place to start. In the past, the deck has also been known to run some number of Bonecrusher Giants as well. If I was going into a field in which I expected to run into the Ring a lot, Rhinos with Crushers over some number of Dead//Gone and Dispute main would be my first choice.
5c Creativity
I also think that 5c Creativity, with some adaptation, could also be a good deck to answer the Ring. Spell Pierce and Binding are excellent ways to keep the Ring in check but… Creativity has access to all the colors of the format. They can adapt to run Narset, Elesh Norn Mother of Machines, Tear Asunder, and Stony Silence in any number.
Additionally Yawgmoth running Orcish Bowmasters, Coffers Control with Sheoldred and Bowmasters, UW Control with Narset. There are lots of ways to start adapting for our new metagame.
Wrapping Up
Whether The One Ring is bannable or not (it’s far too early to say anything definite on that topic), it’s for sure going to be popular in the coming weeks. I hope this article can serve as a sort of reference sheet for those of you who are looking for ways to attack the new boogie man of the format.
If there are any other cards or decks you think should be in this article, let me know!
Thank you all for reading, I’ll see you next time. :)
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