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The One Ring

Legendary Artifact

Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{4}
Color identity
C
Rarity
mythic
Set
The Hobbit Commander
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#88
Buy on TCGplayer
The One Ring card art
The One Ring draws you cards equal to its burden counters at the start of your upkeep — meaning it snowballs from one card to two to three with every lap around the table, all while granting indestructibility the turn it lands. The cost is real: each draw step adds a burden counter, and eventually the life loss becomes lethal, but in high-powered shells that win before that clock matters — especially ones that reset it with Displacer Kitten or just fold the game with Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools // Thrasios, Triton Hero — the downside barely registers.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern banned
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

The One Ring is banned in Modern, where it warped the format by providing too much card advantage too cheaply and consistently in non-rotating 60-card shells. Legacy and Vintage tolerate it because both formats have the interaction density to answer it, and Vintage's power level is already stratospheric. Commander gives it a pass for the same reason every four-mana artifact gets more slack in a 100-card singleton format: you can only draw it once, the game goes longer so opponents have more answers, and the burden counter clock is a genuine constraint when games stretch to turns 10 and beyond without a combo finish.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Tevesh Szat, Doom of FoolsThrasios, Triton Hero

Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools // Thrasios, Triton Hero

63.5% of decks · synergy 0.56

Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools // Thrasios, Triton Hero is a cEDH staple that wants maximum card velocity to find its combo pieces, and The One Ring is the single best engine for that — drawing three or four cards per cycle while Thrasios converts spare mana into even more cards until the deck finds its win.

02
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy

Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy

50.7% of decks · synergy 0.44

Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy generates absurd amounts of mana in the early game and needs payoffs to spend it on; The One Ring is a four-mana investment that turns that surplus mana into a card-draw engine, pulling Kinnan toward the infinite-mana lines that close the game.

03
Sauron, the Dark Lord

Sauron, the Dark Lord

53.0% of decks · synergy 0.40

Sauron, the Dark Lord has a direct mechanical hook — The One Ring is a Ring-bearer enabler that fuels the Ring tempts you trigger, and Sauron rewards every instance of the Ring tempting you with a 3/3 token, making the artifact a source of both card advantage and board presence simultaneously.

04
Frodo, Sauron's Bane

Frodo, Sauron's Bane

46.0% of decks · synergy 0.40

Frodo, Sauron's Bane wants to level up through the Ring tempts you mechanic, and The One Ring is the most efficient repeating source of those triggers in the format, accelerating Frodo toward legendary status while generating card advantage along the way.

05
Thrasios, Triton HeroYoshimaru, Ever Faithful

Thrasios, Triton Hero // Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful

44.3% of decks · synergy 0.38

Thrasios, Triton Hero // Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful runs a tight cEDH package built around generating and spending infinite mana, and The One Ring slots in as a premier draw engine that pulls the deck toward its combo pieces faster than almost anything else in Simic colors.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

5,792 decks
Mind Over MatterThe One Ring

Mind Over MatterThe One Ring

Near-infinite card draw; Infinite self-discard triggers; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite looting; Near-infinite untap of permanents you control; Near-infinite mana permanents you control can produce

View combo details →

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data isn't available at the moment, so check current listings on TCGPlayer or Cardhoarder before buying. The One Ring has historically been one of the most expensive non-Reserved List cards in the game given its cross-format demand and unique mythic status, so expect a significant buy-in regardless of timing.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.