What Magic Rings Would Be Worth in Real Life
Rings have played a significant role in many traditions over the years. They can signify love, commitment, dedication, and stylistic symbolism. The finger jewelry can also be used to show off wealth, or perhaps an affiliation. It seems there is a ring for every purpose—at least, that’s what a jeweler would want us all to believe.
Did you know, though, that rings also play an important role in Magic? By now, most people have probably heard of The One Ring, the Tales of Middle Earth card that gripped the community by force with its novelty, rarity, and extreme value.
This week, I’m going to eschew the values of the cards themselves and instead have a little bit of fun examining a perceived “value” of the rings depicted in their artwork, removing any magical characteristics from the jewelry. That is, if such a piece of jewelry were to sell at a local jeweler today based on its art, what do we think the piece would be worth? With this approach, we can try and estimate the “most expensive” ring from Magic’s history (with a bias towards older cards).
Let’s see how this goes!
Magic Rings in Real Life
Ring 1: Ring of Renewal ($1500 - $2000)
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this ring in play in a game of Magic. The effect is horrible, and the fact that it takes ten mana to activate the first time (five to cast, five to activate) has got to make this one of the worst ring cards in the game. What is Douglas Shuler’s depiction of the ring worth, however?
Well, if we assume the ring is made of gold (though it looks a little dark to be gold) and the gemstone is a real sapphire, then this ring looks like it could be quite pricy! The blue gem looks large and pristinely cut, and the gold band has a designer’s touch to it. A comparable, physical ring could sell for $1500 - $2000, based on some simple online searching. This is no inexpensive ring!
Ring 2: Jandor’s Ring ($1500 - $2000)
Like Ring of Renewal, Jandor’s Ring is another overcosted artifact that sees virtually no play. Six mana to cast, and then another two mana to replace the card you just drew with another one? Seems absolutely awful to me.
On the value front, once again we have an elaborately designed ring, but this one contains multiple red stones instead of blue. I assume they are rubies, making Dan Frazier’s Arabian Nights ring quite pricey. I especially like the rubies embedded in the band of the ring itself, adding color and decoration to this presumably large, men’s ring. A quick google search revealed a handful of golden, ruby rings in the $1500 to $2000 price range.
Ring 3: Aladdin’s Ring ($40 - $100)
If you thought six mana was a lot for an artifact that has a nonzero activation cost, then you’ll be blown away by Aladdin’s Ring. Originally appearing in Arabian Nights, this ring requires EIGHT mana to cast and then another EIGHT mana to activate. Sixteen mana to do four damage to any target. Yes, it’s true you can activate this artifact every turn at the low low cost of eight mana, but does this ever become a favorable rate of mana-to-damage? I suppose you could deal 20 damage directly to your opponent if you are given enough time…it’ll just require 48 mana to do so.
From a ring valuation standpoint, the brownish color of the jewel in Dan Frazier’s doesn’t quite look like a ruby (though I do like the reflection of a person’s visage in the reflection). It almost looks like this is a silver ring with amber, making this ring significantly cheaper than the previous two. I found instances of a comparable ring for pretty cheap—as low as $40. I suppose that makes sense since silver is cheaper than gold and amber isn’t quite as precious/rare as rubies or sapphires.
Ring 4: Ring of Ma’ruf ($500 - $1000)
At last, we have an older ring with a relevant ability (although the casting and activation costs are both high). For ten total mana, you can bring a card from outside the game into your hand instead of drawing a card. This is also the most valuable ring card so far, buoyed by the fact it’s an Arabian Nights card on the Reserved List, thus not candidate for a reprint.
The card may be expensive, but how about the jewelry itself? While I find the design of Dan Frazier’s Ring of Ma’Ruf provocative, it does appear to be a simple gold band. Thus, its value would come down to its weight in gold and the premium merited by the designer who created the ring. I’d estimate a designer men’s gold band of fair size would be worth $500 to $1000, possibly more if the designer’s name was prestigious enough. No rare gemstones caps the value of the ring, but gold is still gold.
Ring 5: Sisay’s Ring ($300 - $800)
I remember playing Sisay’s Ring back in the late 1990s—while four mana is a lot more than one to create an artifact that taps for two generic mana (it’s no Sol Ring), the ability to ramp is still relevant, especially in games of Commander where players often cast gigantic creatures and high-casting cost spells. It’s not a card to write home about, but it has its occasional place.
As for the artwork, I have trouble determining exactly which hand / ring in the picture is Sisay’s. There are three hands, presumably from three different people, and all three of them have rings on their middle finger. I couldn’t tell you which one was Sisay’s. I suppose it doesn’t matter a great deal, since the three rings depicted all look fairly similar—a simple gold wedding band-like ring. I don’t see as much detail in these rings; they don’t appear to be as designer-made as some of the previous rings discussed. Thus, I’d put this one in the ballpark of a standard men’s gold wedding band, worth somewhere in the $300 to $800 range.
Ring 6: Ring of Three Wishes ($1000 - $2500)
This is the newest ring on my list, originally printed in Magic 2014. I appreciate how it’s kind of a callback to Ring of Ma’ruf in that it costs five mana to cast and five mana to activate. In the case of Ring of Three Wishes, however, its activation doesn’t fetch you a card from outside the game, but rather from your deck. Also, you can only do this three times unless you find a way to proliferate the wish counters (everyone knows wishing for more wishes is taboo). I’m not sure if the card sees a great deal of play because believe it or not, ten mana is still a lot to pay in a game of Magic.
Never mind the card’s utility in games of Magic. What do we think the ring itself in Mark Winters’ art is worth? It appears silver in color, though I could also see this one being platinum given how precious three wishes can be. While the flaming jewels are not all that realistic, I’m going to assume they’re emeralds given their green color. The emeralds contribute something to the ring’s value, but being platinum, itself makes this quite the costly ring. I estimate $1000 on the low end and as much as $2500 on the high side. Out of all the rings so far, this one looks the most valuable and would be the most precious to own in real life.
Ring 7: Wedding Ring ($2000 - $$$)
Last but certainly not least, let’s have a look at the mother of all rings in Magic, Wedding Ring. That’s right. Wizards of the Coast printed a card that is straight up a wedding ring, originally in Crimson Vow Commander and also reprinted in Doctor Who and Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander. This is the first and only ring I’m looking at this week that has a colored casting cost. The card itself has some pretty awkward templating, and I think it’s meant to act like a teammate-forming commitment. You choose an opponent and they receive a copy of Wedding Ring. Then if someone with Wedding Ring gains life or draws a card, then everyone with a Wedding Ring may gain life and draw cards. It’s a way of forming an allyship with a single card.
The ring itself by Olena Richards is an ornate, elaborately detailed gold ring with numerous red and black gems (ruby and black diamonds?) along the outside and a lone, gigantic diamond in the center. Pricing out something like this would be extremely difficult as the value will depend greatly on the quality and size of the diamond, the stones that make up the outside, and the designer’s name associated with such a beautiful ring. I think baseline for such a ring is going to be $2000 but you can probably spend upwards of $100,000 if you wanted to on a ring like this. Fittingly, the Wedding Ring is the ring to obtain in real life.
Wrapping It Up
Over Magic’s 30 years, Wizards of the Coast has printed numerous rings of varying shapes and sizes. While many earlier rings (besides Sol Ring) cost too much mana to be useful in games of Magic, the artists who depicted the rings did a fantastic job creating beautifully crafted, valuable pieces of jewelry.
How valuable, you ask? That’s precisely what I set out to study this week thanks to Google and some creative interpretation of the rings’ physical components. It looks like if you are interested in purchasing a ring that mirrored one from a Magic card, you could basically pay any amount you’d like. On the low end, you could purchase a silver ring with amber or lab-grown gems for under $100. On the high end, a designer gold or platinum ring with numerous precious and rare gems, up to and including a large diamond, will cost you as much as you’re willing to spend.
Like Magic, there’s something for everybody when it comes to rings. There are also many others I didn’t have a chance to mention. There’s Ring of Immortals, Ring of Gix, Ring of Evos Isle, Ring of Kalonia, Ring of Thune, Ring of Valkas, Ring of Xathrid, and numerous others. A ring for every person and every occasion.
What’s your favorite ring? Is there one I didn’t mention that you think would be more valuable? Please reach out and share and we can celebrate a classic symbol that, in this case, represents our eternal commitment to the game of Magic.