The core encryption mechanic of MTG Lord of the Rings is finally revealed!

The MTG Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth crossover is arguably one of the most ambitious projects TCG has ever embarked on. Bringing a new look at Tolkien’s beloved series, many MTG gamers are incredibly excited about this straight-to-talk product. There are actually a series of game-changing things being offered in this deck, such as a real sequence card from The One Ring which has several players guessing how much zeros in the order cost. However, the bigger question is what happens when a ring seduces you.

We’ve already seen some of our favorite characters, like Frodo and Gandalf, in their MTG skins. However, we haven’t been able to fully understand what some of these cards do… yet. Many MTG players were wondering what the Tempting the Ring feature on these early spoilers meant, and the mechanic was finally revealed at Magic Con Minneapolis. Here’s what happens when a ring seduces you!

What is “the ring tempts you?”

Ladies and gentlemen, you might want to sit down and snack on this meal. Tempting the Ring is a layered mechanic with a lot of moving parts.

So, for any of this to begin to interest you, The Ring must seduce you. Once Ring Temps is yours, you will get the logo above. This is unlike Monarch in that this changes control between players. Everyone can get tempted by The Ring and get their own copy of The Ring.

Once the ring seduces you, you need to select the ring bearer. This would be a creature you control who gains whatever abilities The Ring is able to grant.

Each time The Ring lures you, you will gain the next ability on The Ring emblem above. The first ability you acquire is the first ability. Every time you feel tempted, you will gain ability in the shadow of what you already have. All of these abilities belong to your ring bearer. The first time you’re lured, you’ll instantly gain the first ability on The Ring, allowing your Ring Bearer to become unlockable by creatures with more power than themselves.

Once you’ve been tempted by a ring enough to unlock all available abilities, your ring bearer will be unlockable by creatures of greater power, will loot it when attacking, and will cause your opponent to sacrifice any creature it stopped at the end of combat (combat damage will still be dealt), And if you connect with the opponent, you will hit all your opponents for an extra three lives.

Note that the first ability will make the Ring Bearer legendary, so be careful about choosing a creature that you have multiple copies of.

Nitty-Gritty Stuff

This is the big new mechanic for the Lord of the Rings collection, and chances are many MTG players will relate to it. There will be a whole host of corner cases that include this. We hope this article helps answer probably the most common of them:

• Choosing a creature to be your ring bearer is not a targeting ability. Your opponent cannot respond to your choice with their actions. Once you’ve been tempted by a ring (this trigger solves), there’s nothing stopping you from successfully choosing your ring bearer.

• You can only have one ring holder at a time, and you can choose a new one each time your ring entices you. This also means that you can decide to keep the ring bearer as is, but you will not be able to have more than one ring bearer.

• You don’t need to control a creature in order to be tempted by a ring. A ring can still seduce you, but you will simply fail in choosing a ring bearer. This will allow you to successfully unlock the next ability on The Ring regardless of your board status each time The Ring lures you.

• If you have all the abilities unlocked in The Ring and they lure you back in, you can simply choose another ring bearer, and nothing else will happen.

• As soon as you lose control of a creature or otherwise leave it on the battlefield, that creature will cease to be the bearer of the Ring. This does not mean that you can choose a new one; You must be tempted again to do so.

How does the ring seduce you?

This preview card from the recent MTG Con Minneapolis is a great representation of how the new Lord of the Rings cards can seduce you. The literal operator on the card says, “The ring tempts you.” Congratulations, you have been seduced by the ring.

Call of the Ring is a very funny magic in black color which is the dream of the master player. Not only can you evolve your Ring very quickly, but this can draw you an extra card each time you choose a Ring bearer at the cost of two lives. For reference, you can be lured by The Ring multiple times at a time, so this can draw you more cards than you think. You get all this as an enchantment for a dirt cheap mana value of two.

This will also allow you to get additional value from your other creatures who are interested in being the bearer of the Ring – there may be many of them.

Read more: Everything you need to know about The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth

The Lord of the Rings: Tales from Middle-earth Cards care bearer of the rings

The above card previewed alongside the core mechanic of MTG’s Lord of the Rings crossover is an example of an overall trend for the deck – these cards get additional buffs when they’re your ring bearer.

Admittedly, the new Sauron isn’t the most powerful card in the world. It certainly pales in comparison to Call of The Ring’s magic. However, it can still be a powerful tool for leader decks that are concerned with reviving their creatures.

For five mana, Sauron, the necromancer, is a legendary 4/4 horror avatar with danger. When you attack, Sauron will banish a creature from your graveyard. This will create an attacking 3/3 Black Wraith avatar that gains the menace.

Honestly, this ability is very powerful – until you realize that the soul will be banished in the final step. This can create some moments with some crazy cards like the Master of Cruelties, but it’s hard to accumulate value consistently with this card – unless it’s your Ringbearer.

If Sauron is your ring bearer, the creature will not be banished at your step. This trigger will still happen, but your token will simply fail to negate if it’s Sauron if your ringbearer is at resolution. Sauron won’t check again on the next final move to see if it’s still there – once a token passes the requirement once, your opponent will need to deal with it. Notably, if your Sauron is dealt in response to this trigger, your token will be banished.

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