It’s okay. I think it could have been named better.
I understand their reasoning for not having a downside as part of the main mechanic, but at the least I would have expected more cards to add a downside. Like some powerful mythic with a really strong effect whenever the Ring tempts you, but when it temps you for the Xth time you lose the game, something like that.
Not a fan of it being all upside. At a glance it doesn’t seem as annoying as Initiative, but that’s a low bar.
I plan on making the Lord of the Nazgul with a side of the Ring tempting my Wraiths. I think it will be a fun deck to play.
I think the way it works is fine I just wish that when you were tempted you didn’t have to pick a different creature every time to become a ringbearer, moving the ring around is kind of a pain. You should be able to pay mana or pay 1-2 life to keep that creature as your ring bearer.
You don’t have to move it around, you just have to “choose a creature you control”. It can be the same creature every time.
Oh, I just re-read it. That kinda sucks…even more of a flavor fail than I thought. I saw it as the ring tempting other creatures and them fighting over it. Dang that’s just, here’s a good aura essentially.
Yeah, pretty much. Was hoping for more from such an important mechanic to the setting.
Good news: you don’t have to! Changing the creature is optional. It says so on the ring card, “choose a creature to become or remain the ring-bearer”
The mechanic is very nice flavor-wise and fine as a mechanic but it doesn’t scratch any of my MTG itches. I’m a fan of combos and engines, and the mechanic does not lend itself well to that play style.
Feels convoluted in a mildly negative way.
While I somewhat get the idea that the bearer being a removal magnet is the “downside”, I don’t think they really got there with the flavor of the mechanic much at all. Creatures die in the game - that’s just what happens. It’s not really anything special for a mechanic that’s supposed to be themed around something like this. It really would’ve been better served (again, flavor-wise) having more swingy highs and lows.
It doesn’t feel like the books or movies, and it’s hard to remember all the things that it does (and unlike dungeons, where you got one thing at a time, here you need to juggle everything). It’s weird that it’s an all-upside mechanic.
“We made a new mechanic” - “New mechanic or venture into the dungeon?” -“Venture into the dungeon”
I don’t like it. I find it hard to remember which abilities are granted to the ringbearer. It didn’t have much on an impact on the games I played at the prerelease.