The ultimate Magic: The Gathering chase card, the MTG One Ring, has been found, and that has instantly tanked the price of booster boxes. Because each MTG Lord of the Rings pack no longer holds a(n infinitismally tiny) chance of containing the cardboard holy grail, the price of a collector booster box for this Universes Beyond MTG set has dropped by roughly a quarter.
On June 30 – the day the PSA-graded One Ring card with the 001/001 serial number was revealed – the price of the box plummeted from $480 to $380. It’s since actually recovered somewhat, now priced at $412 on average according to TCGPlayer.
That’s still an extremely high price for a collector booster box (containing 12 packs, a total of 180 cards). For the sake of comparison, booster boxes for the last regular set, March of the Machine, never rose above $230. This could tell you something about how much fans are clamoring for cards featuring their favorite Lord of the Rings characters. But of course, there are still plenty of serialized Sol Ring cards waiting to be opened, and this could well be propping up desire for the boxes.
While each one of the remaining special Sol Rings, written in Elvish and featuring artwork of a ‘Ring of Power’, is likely to be worth a pretty penny, none will come close to the astronomical value of the unique One Ring. High flyers were throwing down bids even before the card emerged, with $2 million, a trip to Spain, and a paella, being the highest offer to date. It’s guaranteed to be one of the most expensive MTG cards ever, if its mysterious owner decides to sell.
On MTG Arena you can’t get serialized cards (yet), but you can still play with the Lord of the Rings set in Historic and Historic Brawl game modes. Wizards has switched over to its new inbox system, so you just need to log in to get free Lord of the Rings cards. But you can still claim packs from older sets with this list of free MTG Arena codes.