MTG Players Wonder Why Lord Of The Rings' Ring Mechanic Has No Downsides
Over the weekend, Magic: The Gathering players found out what it means to be tempted by the Ring, a new mechanic coming up in Magic's Lord of the Rings crossover set, Tales Of Middle-earth. We knew that there would be temptations from the Ring ever since March's preview, but we didn't know how it would work until MagicCon Minneapolis.
It turns out, there's very little downside to being tempted by the Ring. Whenever a card says "the Ring tempts you," you march down an escalating series of rewards from an emblem called The Ring. The first time you're tempted, you get the emblem and assign a creature to become your Ring-bearer, making it legendary and more evasive. Get tempted again and your Ring-bearer will make you draw and discard a card whenever it attacks. Tempt again and it'll cause all blocking creatures to be sacrificed at the end of combat, and tempt a fourth time for your Ring-bearer to cause all opponents to lose three life whenever it deals combat damage to a player.
Related: Magic: The Gathering's Lord Of The Rings Crossover Is Going To Bankrupt Me
Astute Lord of the Rings fans might notice that being tempted by the Ring has all upsides and no downsides, which is very unlike how the Ring is portrayed in either the books or the movies (just look at Gollum). When asked why being tempted by the Ring didn’t come with Gollum-creating side effects, head Magic designer Mark Rosewater explained that it just made the Ring a less tempting offer.
"We tried granting downside effects," Rosewater wrote on his blog. "It wasn’t fun and it made players not play the mechanic. We did find having the Ring makes the Ring-bearer more of a target for your opponent to kill, and that did feel like a downside while not stopping
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