Today, we have a guest post from Rysaer of Rysaer Inc. This is in response to a previous post in which I consider the possiblity of banning Sol Ring…
We’ve all been there, you sit down, choose a deck, shuffle up and as you pass your first turn after a hopefully successful land-drop and you hear the words some dread to hear. ‘Play a land, Tap for 1 and Cast Sol Ring…’ which in the even rarer and more horrible cases leads into Signets ramp or the beginning of an engine.
Is it frustrating? Sure. Am I ever the one who draws a sol ring in the opening hand or top decks one first turn? Nope.
Does the sky fall in and the sea boil resulting in the death of humanity as a species? Also nope. So why does it trigger so many people? Lets discuss, firstly lets look at the card:
Sol Ring
From my searching, and with the internet being what it is nowadays I could be wrong, but it was printed in Alpha in 1993, meaning it’s an old card but a well established staple at this point, Sol Ring sits in roughly 83.5% of Commander decks according to EDHREC, making it the single most-played card in the entire format and notably even pre-dates commander as a format.
To me, as a fairly casual player (largely running precons), I’ve always found Sol Ring to be one of those steady staple cards and a bit of a mascot to a commander deck if anything. It’s that card that everyone knows, everyone sees, and ultimately uses, usually in a nice or sometimes even custom format to bling out a deck like a fun partner to your commander.
So looking at the card, it’s pretty straightforward, a fairly normal artifact card, costing 1 colourless mana, which in turn can be tapped to generate 2 colourless mana, an instant gain in mana and skipping a player to turn 3 mana on turn 1. Ultimately, any speed you can get on your opponent is useful, and thanks to it’s colorless nature, it fits in literally any deck.
However, many have questioned if Sol Ring is good for the format, if it should really be reprinted in every pre-con commander deck and if we should consider banning it? As the usual contrarian, I don’t think we should, so let’s talk about it.
Why ban it?
The flood and speed of mana (fast-mana) is what, more often than not, is considered to be the main problem. Having turn 3 mana on turn 1 is a clear advantage, and with the potential to bounce this into Arcane Signet and similar cards, you can actually achieve turn 4 mana on turn 1, setting you up for a strong early start. Now, admittedly, that’s powerful and in some decks it is a problem.
There is also the argument that it restricts deck-building. Because of its utility and speed it is in nearly every commander deck. The odd rare commander or deck may not need or run it but at this point they are outliers, meaning that in reality, the game has changed from a 100-card singleton format to a ’99-card singleton format’. This auto-include has limited the creativity and intrigue of your deck as you buy into a ‘meta’.
Then there is the consideration of legality. From what I understand, Commander is the current hold-out and safe home of Sol Ring, with it being banned in virtually every other format (Vintage, Legacy, Oathbreaker etc.), making it curious that Commander lacks this restriction and puts it in a bad spot.
Why Defend it?
I absolutely defend Sol Ring and for several reasons. The first of these I’ve already touched on; the mascot-style element. Then, as part of the deckbuilding element, as we’ve discussed and I’ll highlight again, it is 1 in 100 cards. 1 in 100. If a single card, that can act as an informal mascot to your deck, can throw off its entire theme, then this 1 card is not the issue. There are plenty of ‘off-theme’ cards I’ve seen snuck into heavily themed decks with no other justification than ‘It’s too good not to take, even if it doesn’t fit’.
Also lets be honest, if you were to ban ‘Sol Ring’, then within a few days, an alternative would be found, another staple created and used to fill its gap. The idea that it limits or obstructs creativity is, in my opinion, one of the sillier arguments against it. It’s as much of an auto-include as ‘Counterspell’ is in blue decks, ‘Rampant Growth’ in green, ‘Lightning Bolt’ in red or many other staples you could point to. Find me a blue deck that doesn’t run counters, find me a green that doesn’t run ramp. You won’t, and you wouldn’t argue that those decks aren’t being creative or themed, so why is Sol Ring any different? If you want to talk about banning auto-includes, then the whole format needs to change, not just one card.
Now as an initial counter to it in game terms, if we are all running it, our odds of gaining it and using it are the same, which brings me on to the next point, we aren’t sitting at the table alone are we?
This fast mana concern is mitigated by the card being 1 in 100, or considered from another angle; 4 cards in 400. We all have fairly low odds of drawing it when needed and while it’s even rarer we’ll all get one, I’d argue that’s a fun part of magic anyway, every card is 1 in 100, sometimes you will hit the piece that makes your deck explode and overwhelm opponents and plenty of times you won’t. Ultimately, the odds are very limited in pulling them, and when they are pulled, one of the main components of Commander as a format kicks in: the social aspect.
Multiple players at the table is a preventative answer to the problem, as it is to any other problematic card or play during a game of Commander. Is someone about to trigger a game-winning combo? You’d work together to stop it. So, if someone is ramping ahead in terms of mana and play? You’d work together to stop it. It’s not really any different, and for the minimal effect I’d argue it has, it’s often not the real issue as to why a player is ramping ahead; plenty of decks do this without ever touching a Sol Ring. Three people are there to keep each other in check and hampering the mana advantaged player is hardly unusual.
This also taps into another problem I often see at our club tables, and I can hear the echoing voice of a club regular as I type this: ‘People don’t run enough removal’. Sol Ring is a relatively minor problem, but there are plenty of ways to deal with it without outside influence or tricks. It’s a fairly basic artifact that can be removed a myriad of ways, like Nature’s Claim, Generous Gift and Vandalblast (all fairly staple cards in the format), in fact, a well-timed Vandalblast can take it out on turn 1. (Are we going to ban Vandalblast next?)
I’ll not deny that Sol Ring is powerful and versatile, however it is a standard mana rock and in reality, especially during early turns with no engines/tricks in play, it does not have the fast mana problem presented by many other cards and ultimately only ever nets 2 colourless mana, meaning while you may be able to do something fun or interesting in the early turns you may not have been able to before, it’s never going to break or end a game.
Also, just consider the impact of it, if someone has turn 1 Sol Ring and done nothing else, then proceeds to do very little in the following turns, which can often be the case as the greedy allure of Sol Ring possibly led them into the trap of keeping a bad hand or mana-mix, does it really matter? Do you even need to remove it?
If you are staring down the barrel of a nasty commander, then sure, but more often than not, it’s not as big an issue as you think it is. Also, realistically, how many games of commander have you won or lost purely on the strength of Sol Ring alone? While cumulative mana etc., has its place in winning you a game, I can’t think of many or almost any games where someone playing a sol ring in the early turns had a notable effect. I’ve never walked away ‘If it weren’t for that blasted Sol Ring, I’d have gotten away with it’ in my usual Scooby-Doo villain voice.
Conclusion
In conclusion, with the possible exception of Spore Frog, it’s one of the best cards in the format. Fight me.
Also, let’s be honest, the ban won’t happen and quite rightly shouldn’t in my books.
Wizards can and will print Sol Ring constantly, usually as a themed mascot to precons and sets and will continue to do so for many creative and financial reasons that are well above my pay grade, let alone factoring in what that would mean for gameplay, so it’s not going anywhere anytime soon (and nor should it)!
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