Here's an interesting question that kind of combines magic and economics. In every instance where command tower has been printed there is an equivalent Sol ring printing except the extremely limited commander's arsenal version. There are many additional printing of Sol ring. Each player essentially never needs more then one of either card except in order to keep multiple decks together. Sol ring is only legal in one additional format which is not heavily played and unlikely to contribute to its price. Why then, is Sol ring more expensive then command tower?
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1) Sol Ring is legal in TWO additional formats: Vintage, and Casual.
2) Casual probably makes up the majority of games played in the universe, many/most games of which are probably not commander. Or at least a lot aren't.
3) Command tower makes absolutely no sense in any non-commander game.
Thus, demand for sol ring is going to be vastly higher.
there is also price memory which allows Sol Ring to rise quicker because people were willing to pay "x" for a certain card "sol ring". A card can but not always rise to where its pre-reprinted price was its just a trend for desirable cards.
2) Casual probably makes up the majority of games played in the universe, many/most games of which are probably not commander. Or at least a lot aren't.
I know that this is what wizards of the coast believes, but depending on your version of "casual", this just doesn't seem quite right to me.
In my LGS, It seems to me like people active in the mtg community tend to buy more product than those who are not active.
and among the magic community, I see 60 card casual less than any one of the following formats:
I know that this is what wizards of the coast believes, but depending on your version of "casual", this just doesn't seem quite right to me.
In my LGS, It seems to me like people active in the mtg community tend to buy more product than those who are not active.
and among the magic community, I see 60 card casual less than any one of the following formats:
EDH
Cube
Standard
Legacy
Modern
Draft
There is a huge segment of the market that you don't see in your LGS. There are tons of players who buy cards at Walmart and play with the same group of people at their homes.
In my LGS, It seems to me like people active in the mtg community tend to buy more product than those who are not active.
People who aren't active in the community probably wouldn't buy cards at LGSs very often, nor would you see them while you are at LGSs. Sort of a biased sample, yes?
I have no data for any of the other formats, but for EDH in particular, I think the very fact that sol ring is 2.5x more expensive is evidence that casual is almost certainly played significantly more than EDH. Possibly not, but it certainly waggles its eyebrows in the direction of that conclusion.
We are talking about a card that is arguably at a higher power level than the Moxen, has never been off the Restricted List, and allows an incredible number of degenerate plays.
Even non-degenerate uses (like turn 2 Koth of the Hammer) reduce the interactivity of a game.
Command tower is only useful in multicoloured EDH decks, while Sol Ring is useful in any.
That plus what the others have mentioned about 60 card Casual.
This is what I was going to say. To add to that, Command Tower is only really special in 3+ color decks, otherwise it's just a dual which is fine but it's not like you need every single land coming into play untapped in EDH. So there are plenty of absolutely dirt cheap replacements, even if it's just a basic land or a cipt dual, even for the higher colored decks. Sol Ring is a ton of power, there aren't to many things that can imitate it as easily and those are all more expensive($) than it.
We are talking about a card that is arguably at a higher power level than the Moxen, has never been off the Restricted List, and allows an incredible number of degenerate plays.
Even non-degenerate uses (like turn 2 Koth of the Hammer) reduce the interactivity of a game.
Pray tell, what AM I playing, then? Not casual + not any other format = I guess as soon as you play a sol ring outside of vintage / commander, you just aren't playing magic anymore?
This is what I was going to say. To add to that, Command Tower is only really special in 3+ color decks, otherwise it's just a dual which is fine but it's not like you need every single land coming into play untapped in EDH. So there are plenty of absolutely dirt cheap replacements, even if it's just a basic land or a cipt dual, even for the higher colored decks. Sol Ring is a ton of power, there aren't to many things that can imitate it as easily and those are all more expensive($) than it.
This is probably the main thing. Command Tower has more competition!
We are talking about a card that is arguably at a higher power level than the Moxen, has never been off the Restricted List, and allows an incredible number of degenerate plays.
Even non-degenerate uses (like turn 2 Koth of the Hammer) reduce the interactivity of a game.
And we have a winner. Sol Ring is good, that's why its restricted and should only be allowed in a singleton format.
I once played this obnoxious guy who thought my fun Elf deck was broken, so he decided to get revenge by pulling out this illegal Affinity deck with four Sol Rings. Needless to say I was curbstomp, even playing a deck designed to generate fast mana, that's how incredibly busted that card is in a non-EDH environment.
If you're so insecure about losing that you need a play set of broken cards to win and justify it by claiming "it's casual" then you have no right playing MTG.
Because you're looking at the card the wrong way. Sol Ring is Sol Ring because of what it can do to the only competitive format that it can be played in. Magic is a game where there are cards who just makes or breaks the deck, and cards that, alongside a strategy and a plan, will be making the deck do things that are just ridiculous. Sol Ring is such a card.
Functionality wise, it's 2 mana for 1. Application-wise, it is game breaking.
Command Tower on the other hand is 1) Not only applicable to just 1 format, but 2) It's more of a utility, nota necessity, and certainly not an enabling card.
Sol Ring enables things (Storm is one) and it defines the format. Command Tower is not really something that will make you win just because of it's effect. It helps in the long run, but very marginal in that aspect.
This isn't true, you know there's some DnD/star trek all-star out there with his deck full of random old jank and 4 sol ring's, which would be absolutely casual. Casual doesn't solely equate to dollar bin rares, awful 3 or 4 card combo's, voltron, and mill decks.
There's also random old guy that complains about mythics being too expensive/overpowered but plays 4 sol ring and 4 mind twist and doesn't think twice, both are casual players.
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Yes less copies of command tower exist. No that doesn't equate to higher price. The demand for sol ring is that it is played in EVERY commander deck except one super fringe deck (sasaya, orochi ascendant doesn't want sol ring in it's 100 cards due to sasaya's ability but that's it.) Commander tower is only in multicolored decks. Price memory is also a thing (before the first round of commander decks sol ring from revised was almost 20 dollars if memory serves.) Sol ring is also playable in vintage and normal casual.
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"Yawgmoth," Freyalise whispered as she set the bomb, "now you will pay for your treachery."
an artifact (ding!) that you can play for 1 mana, and produce 2 mana (ding!)
a land that can produce any color of your general in EDH (ding! if I play EDH and have a 3+ color general)
An Artifact rock like Sol Ring is going to appeal to many more players than Command Tower. People love to ramp into big explosive cards, they love to play artifacts and they love to win. Sol Ring helps achieve all of those things. Command Tower is a land players like because its esentially anything from a dual land, to a quint (lol?) land. It also has no identity color restrictions.
Casual is any non tournament game. Practice for the PT? Casual. Playing mono green grizzly bears against a new player you're teaching? Also casual.
I play casual legacy. The decks are top power, the play is good, but its still casual.
Exactly. I have a friend that plays a deck with four Tinkers, which wouldn't be legal even on Vintage. It's a stupidly powerful deck, but it's still casual.
I certainly disagree that serious playtesting is casual. If anything, I'd add a third category for "serious play" that is neither casual nor tournament play.
And yes, I'll never ever require a Command Tower since I don't like Commander, but Sol Ring for my cube is a possibility. I recently banned it for power level reasons, though.
People who aren't active in the community probably wouldn't buy cards at LGSs very often, nor would you see them while you are at LGSs. Sort of a biased sample, yes?
I have no data for any of the other formats, but for EDH in particular, I think the very fact that sol ring is 2.5x more expensive is evidence that casual is almost certainly played significantly more than EDH. Possibly not, but it certainly waggles its eyebrows in the direction of that conclusion.
Well, if you want an alternate explanation, If you had to choose 1, which would you include in your EDH deck sol ring? or command tower?
Which card do you think is more well known? sol ring? or command tower?
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2) Casual probably makes up the majority of games played in the universe, many/most games of which are probably not commander. Or at least a lot aren't.
3) Command tower makes absolutely no sense in any non-commander game.
Thus, demand for sol ring is going to be vastly higher.
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I know that this is what wizards of the coast believes, but depending on your version of "casual", this just doesn't seem quite right to me.
In my LGS, It seems to me like people active in the mtg community tend to buy more product than those who are not active.
and among the magic community, I see 60 card casual less than any one of the following formats:
EDH
Cube
Standard
Legacy
Modern
Draft
There is a huge segment of the market that you don't see in your LGS. There are tons of players who buy cards at Walmart and play with the same group of people at their homes.
People who aren't active in the community probably wouldn't buy cards at LGSs very often, nor would you see them while you are at LGSs. Sort of a biased sample, yes?
I have no data for any of the other formats, but for EDH in particular, I think the very fact that sol ring is 2.5x more expensive is evidence that casual is almost certainly played significantly more than EDH. Possibly not, but it certainly waggles its eyebrows in the direction of that conclusion.
We are talking about a card that is arguably at a higher power level than the Moxen, has never been off the Restricted List, and allows an incredible number of degenerate plays.
Even non-degenerate uses (like turn 2 Koth of the Hammer) reduce the interactivity of a game.
This is what I was going to say. To add to that, Command Tower is only really special in 3+ color decks, otherwise it's just a dual which is fine but it's not like you need every single land coming into play untapped in EDH. So there are plenty of absolutely dirt cheap replacements, even if it's just a basic land or a cipt dual, even for the higher colored decks. Sol Ring is a ton of power, there aren't to many things that can imitate it as easily and those are all more expensive($) than it.
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Pray tell, what AM I playing, then? Not casual + not any other format = I guess as soon as you play a sol ring outside of vintage / commander, you just aren't playing magic anymore?
This is probably the main thing. Command Tower has more competition!
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And we have a winner. Sol Ring is good, that's why its restricted and should only be allowed in a singleton format.
I once played this obnoxious guy who thought my fun Elf deck was broken, so he decided to get revenge by pulling out this illegal Affinity deck with four Sol Rings. Needless to say I was curbstomp, even playing a deck designed to generate fast mana, that's how incredibly busted that card is in a non-EDH environment.
If you're so insecure about losing that you need a play set of broken cards to win and justify it by claiming "it's casual" then you have no right playing MTG.
Functionality wise, it's 2 mana for 1. Application-wise, it is game breaking.
Command Tower on the other hand is 1) Not only applicable to just 1 format, but 2) It's more of a utility, nota necessity, and certainly not an enabling card.
Sol Ring enables things (Storm is one) and it defines the format. Command Tower is not really something that will make you win just because of it's effect. It helps in the long run, but very marginal in that aspect.
This isn't true, you know there's some DnD/star trek all-star out there with his deck full of random old jank and 4 sol ring's, which would be absolutely casual. Casual doesn't solely equate to dollar bin rares, awful 3 or 4 card combo's, voltron, and mill decks.
There's also random old guy that complains about mythics being too expensive/overpowered but plays 4 sol ring and 4 mind twist and doesn't think twice, both are casual players.
Bident Layers
B Devotion
RG Devotion
UW Control
Modern:
Jund
UW Control
Combo Pod
Legacy:
DeathBlade
RUG Delver
BUG Control
Currently Playing:
Retired
an artifact (ding!) that you can play for 1 mana, and produce 2 mana (ding!)
a land that can produce any color of your general in EDH (ding! if I play EDH and have a 3+ color general)
An Artifact rock like Sol Ring is going to appeal to many more players than Command Tower. People love to ramp into big explosive cards, they love to play artifacts and they love to win. Sol Ring helps achieve all of those things. Command Tower is a land players like because its esentially anything from a dual land, to a quint (lol?) land. It also has no identity color restrictions.
WBG Karador GBW
R Daretti R
RG Omnath GR
WRG Modern Burn GRW
WB Modern Tokens BW
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Exactly. I have a friend that plays a deck with four Tinkers, which wouldn't be legal even on Vintage. It's a stupidly powerful deck, but it's still casual.
And yes, I'll never ever require a Command Tower since I don't like Commander, but Sol Ring for my cube is a possibility. I recently banned it for power level reasons, though.
Hyperbole? Or just uninformed? It is not useful in my lands deck.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Well, if you want an alternate explanation, If you had to choose 1, which would you include in your EDH deck sol ring? or command tower?
Which card do you think is more well known? sol ring? or command tower?
THe vast majority of magic players aren't playing in an LGS. They are playing at home, with their friends. And they are almost all playing casual.
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