10 More Budget Hidden Gems You Should Be Playing in Commander – 10 Call of the Ring

Commander continues to be one of the most popular and accessible Magic formats around with hundreds of different ways to express yourself within the singleton format. Given the breadth of cards and releases these days, it’s impossible to keep up with all the new cards that see print, and in some cases, you may easily miss out on some sweet cards that could factor into your next Commander build or help bolster an existing one.

Once again, let’s look at some of the cheaper Magic: The Gathering yet powerful cards you may have forgotten about or didn’t know even existed!

Call of the Ring
Call of the Ring from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is another riff on the excellent Phyrexian Arena, which is a staple for any Commander strategy that utilizes the color Black. At the beginning of your upkeep with Call of the Ring in play, the Ring tempts you. This means you immediately place a The Ring Emblem card into play, and the Emblem card comes with four abilities.

Your Ring-bearer is Legendary and can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power.
Whenever your Ring-bearer attacks, draw a card, then discard a card.
Whenever your Ring-bearer becomes blocked by a creature, that creature’s controller sacrifices it at the end of combat.
Whenever your Ring-bearer deals combat damage to a player, each opponent loses 3 life.
When the Ring Emblem comes into play and if the player controlling the Emblem also controls one or more creatures, they have to select one to become the Ring-bearer. Then, the Ring Emblem is placed underneath the chosen creature card. However, Call of the Ring triggers each time you choose a creature as your Ring-bearer, and this trigger results in you drawing a card at the cost of two life. While there does need to be a creature in play under your control for Call of the Ring’s trigger to work, it’s ideal for any Black Commander strategy that has a good density of creatures. Loading up on these effects is reasonable, especially if you’re already running Phyrexian Arena and want more affordable copies of a similar card.