5 Cards Everyone Hates to See After A Turn One Sol Ring

A turn one Sol Ring is enough to turn the table against you, so much so that some folks like to hold their Sol Ring until turn two just to keep the heat off of them. It’s often what follows that T1 Sol Ring that turns dislike into mutiny, though – and here are five cards everyone hates to see after a turn one Sol Ring. 

5. BRAIDS, CABAL MINION

Braids, Cabal Minion is the kind of hard control card that is absolutely going to wreck you. If you’re next in turn order after a Braids comes down, you’re suffering, unless someone is kind enough to have a one mana removal spell to help you out. Braids leads to non-games, and stilted starts, and games where not a lot happens before Braids’ owner is forced to sacrifice it.

Thankfully, because of the oppressive playstyle, you’re highly unlikely to encounter her outside of B4 and B5, where games are a lot more cutthroat as is. Still, seeing a T2 Braids through Sol Ring or Dark Ritual is kinda awful.

4. SHEOLDRED, THE APOCALYPSE

One you’re more likely to see in lower brackets, though, is Sheoldred. Facing down a T2 Sheoldred is excruciating, to be honest, as it means that you’re effectively starting the game on a massive life deficit by the time you get going, while the player controlling Sheoldred receives a nice life buffer. If anyone has wheels as a source of draw, they’re suddenly costing upwards of 14 life to resolve, which turns them off for opponents and turns them into killing weapons for the Sheoldred player.

Serra Ascendant is often lauded as a problem in more casual games because of an early life swing, but Sheoldred is far more oppressive.

3. ARCANE SIGNET

In many ways, the worst thing to see after a T1 Sol Ring is a T1 Arcane Signet. The mixed groans of seeing a Sol Ring quickly morph into existential angst and fervor if a T1 Arcane Signet follows. This is perhaps the most-maligned play in Commander. It feels amazing for the one doing it, and feels god awful for those on the other end.

The reason is simple: the Sol Ring into Signet player is untapping with five mana on T2. That disparity is enough to completely imbalance a game from the get go, and also, incidentally, the reason I love to run Brotherhood’s End, Culling Ritual and Farewell in my decks. Those cards are very, very good at stopping fast starts.

2. RHYSTIC STUDY

Ah, Rhystic Study. We all love to hate it, and hate to love it. It’s the most cracked draw engine in Commander, and it leads to a lot of tense situations as players one by one stop paying the tax, letting the enchantment’s controller gain huge amounts of card advantage for a very small investment. Rhystic Study is annoying whenever it comes down, but it’s particularly grating to see one on T2 following a T1 Sol Ring. In all likelihood, it means that the Rhystic Study player will draw multiple cards a turn cycle from T2 onwards, netting on average 6-7 cards from a three mana play before people deal with it or start paying the tax.

1. SMOTHERING TITHE

Despite the previous cards all being super annoying to see after a T1 Sol Ring, I’d argue the most frustrating one to come across has to be Smothering Tithe. A T2 Smothering Tithe suffocates a game in an insidious way that is less obvious than a Sheoldred (which moves the game onwards) or a Rhystic Study (which draws into answers and win cons). The advantage Smothering Tithe gives is akin to letting one player cast twice as many spells as everyone else, and if they don’t want to in any given turn, they can save that mana for an even more explosive turn.

And that’s not to mention how it gives mana to spend on interaction after playing your hand to the board. It makes the game significantly easier.

Smothering Tithe is also more expensive to pay for than Rhystic Study, meaning seeing it on T2 might mean the Tithe player gets way more triggers before it’s dealt with or paid for than the Rhystic Study player. 

It’s such an unbalancing effect that in my decks that play Smothering Tithe, I’ll sometimes mulligan a hand with it and Sol Ring if I feel like my deck might utterly destroy the table with minimal pushback. We all want to play a game, after all.

END STEP

Sol Ring remains as something of an unofficial Game Changer when it comes to the Commander format. While not every follow up play is teeth-grindingly annoying, there are some cards that everyone hates to see after a turn one Sol Ring. Which ones do you despair at seeing? Let us know on Socials.