I think that I shall never sing A song lovely as Sol Ring An artifact whose mana cost is small. As the opponent's lone Steel Wall; A mana boon that taps all day, In my opening hand I pray; Sol Ring that may in game provide Acceleration to turn the tide; Upon whose presence I've come to rely; From present to days gone by. Wizards may reprint this thing, But only Richard could make Sol Ring

Honestly, there is nothing more simple than Sol Ring. You add it to everything. Do you hear me?  EVERYTHING. To quote another Classic player responding to someone saying he wasn't going to run Sol Ring in his draft cube "I told him I'd run a Sol Ring in a deck of 23 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers". While I suppose it might be possible for a deck not to need a Sol Ring, the actual examples are few and far in-between... such as dredge - and probably those non-dredge decks will lose to a deck that can actually use a Sol Ring.
 
It has long been the joke of eternal enthusiasts on those who, shall we say, have more optimism than good sense in deck building, that the main way new-to-the format people try to make a deck Vintage viable is by taking a casual, standard or extended deck and adding Sol Ring. It's one of the few readily available cards in paper that is ubiquitous in Vintage decks and don't cost more than $100. The joke being that your casual deck + Sol Ring will get crushed by any tournament viable Vintage deck. Now that Sol Ring is just days away from it's MTGO debut via From the Vault: Relics on Aug 30, I have the sneaking suspicion that the casual Classic queue will indeed be full of Zombie.dec + Sol Ring and many other contraptions where Sol Ring is simply a card that lets you take turn 1 off to skip two turns ahead for the rest of the game (should you be lucky enough to get it in your opening hand).

On Aug 20 we got the official announcement that Sol Ring was restricted in Classic and two days later confirmed it was banned everywhere else. This is pretty much spot on (my apologies to 100CS fans that would have liked to see it available). If it wasn't for the fact that it appeared in Revised and it was uncommon, we'd be talking about the Power 10, not the Power 9. Sol Ring is that good. With the banning in every format but Classic, it's safe to say other than shoehorning it into every current deck (except dredge), Sol Ring's main appearances will be in casual classic decks. But even one Sol Ring is more than enough to talk about possibilities. For example, let's say you are lucky enough to get a Sol Ring and a Mana Crypt in your opening hand. That's enough chutzpa to be able to play a 4 mana card (with one color coming from the land you put into play) on turn one. Sounds awesome right? It is. And Mana Crypts are CHEAP online. If you are playing Classic, why the heck aren't you playing with those two cards?  Heck it's enough mana to put the Masticore you also just got from your FTV: Relics into play on turn 1. It's also enough mana to put 4 Black Vises into play! Come on, tell me you haven't dreamed about a turn 2 win via Black Vise only? I dare you. For those of you daring enough to actually say so in the comments section below, I'll be happy to mark you down on my list of bald-face liars. Feel like doing that now? Here's a deck list to play out that I would say is very affordable.

Owling Mine - Casually

Creatures 2 Thada Adel, Acquisitor 4 Trinket Mage 6 cards Other Spells 4 Black Vise 4 Crystal Shard 4 Ebony Owl Netsuke 4 Echoing Truth 4 Howling Mine 3 Land Equilibrium 1 Mana Crypt 3 Mana Vortex 4 Remand 1 Sensei's Divining Top 1 Sol Ring 33 cards

Lands 1 Academy Ruins 19 Island 1 Tolarian Academy 21 cards Sideboard It's a Casual Deck!

Could it be better?  Sure It could have Mana Drain and Crucible of Worlds or Counterbalance, but I left those out because they are a little expensive or going to earn you an immediate concession in the casual room. I left in Tolarian Academy because getting just one isn't that steep and if you don't own Tolarian Academy but like to play Classic, you are doing it wrong.

For those of you looking for something a little less all-in, Sol Ring is of course the breakfast of champions in an Affinity deck. There have to be at least a couple people out there who want to break out 4x Skullclamp, add in Sol Ring and stomp face with Arcbound Ravager all over again... what?  You mean even people who win with that deck don't enjoy it?  Well, still...

Affinty

OK, this one you can just add Sol Ring too

Creatures 4 Arcbound Ravager 4 Arcbound Worker 4 Disciple of the Vault 3 Ethersworn Canonist 4 Frogmite 4 Myr Enforcer 4 Ornithopter 27 cards Other Spells 4 Chromatic Star 4 Cranial Plating 1 Mana Crypt 1 Sol Ring 3 Springleaf Drum 4 Thoughtcast 17 cards

Lands 4 Ancient Den 3 Darksteel Citadel 4 Seat of the Synod 1 Tolarian Academy 4 Vault of Whispers 16 cards Sideboard 4 Chalice of the Void 4 Disenchant 1 Ethersworn Canonist 4 Relic of Progenitus 2 Skullclamp 15 cards

Maybe you are thinking you'd like to do something more old school to commemorate the arrival of Sol Ring. How about White Weenie?  Everyone loves White Weenie, right?  And what better way to win then by old-schooling out a couple of creatures and then just Armageddoning your way to victory via the power of Sol Ring? You'll feel like it's 1995 all over again!

White Weenie - Circa 1995

Old School

Creatures 4 Order of Leitbur 4 White Knight 4 Savannah Lions 3 Thunder Spirit 2 Preacher 2 Serra Angel 19 cards Other Spells 4 Crusade 4 Swords to Plowshares 2 Disenchant 1 Sol Ring 3 Armageddon 1 Balance 4 Land Tax 19 cards

Lands 21 Plains 1 Karakas 22 cards

Of course, I don't think any of these decks are viable tournament decks. Please don't ask me to tell you which Classic tourney decks Sol Ring goes into. The answer is all of them. Even Merfolk (though it's less useful there). The above decks were simply examples of decks where Sol Ring really helps out.

While jank.dec + Sol Ring might be a joke in some ways, in another, much more important way, it's not. It seems that for at least some people, Sol Ring's utter simplicity and complete ubiquitousness (<-- new word alert, aspiring lexicographers) are a link that casual players have to eternal Magic. While Black Lotus and Time Walk and perhaps others are more powerful links to eternal play, since Sol Ring is so universal it is often the first card that comes to mind when most people think about the "Good 'ol days" of Magic, and it is often the bridge with which people make their foray into more competitive eternal play.

I think it goes without saying that a great many people who are currently playing Legacy or Classic got their start playing those formats some time ago, and probably in paper. Most people simply don't jump into the deep end of the pool online, not only because Legacy and Classic are expensive but also because those formats differ in play style from even other competitive formats - especially Classic. As such, the pool of online eternal players generally have played MTGO so long that they own enough of the cards or they came from the world of paper eternal play and simply know how to play Eternal formats by way of experience. However, if you just started playing Magic (think back to when you were a newbie if that was a while ago) and you started playing Magic in MTGO alone, never having played much the paper game (if at all), there is very little to connect you if you wish to start to make the jump from casual Classic to more competitive classic. This is especially poignant now, since Duels of the Planeswalkers introduced a number of people to Magic play who simply never got all that interested in Magic until it was available in digital form. Judging by the good sales of DoTP and the notable influx of players in MTGO slightly after it's release, I think it is a reasonable assumption to make that this demographic (newer players never having played Magic with older cards) is a growing one, and will only get larger once standard rotates this fall and all the Alara Block cards are no longer standard legal. (Aside - yes I know they can play extended, but then DoTP was released after Lorwyn so I expect the migration to not be as smooth).

Sol Ring is a piece of that bridge. A large one. It doesn't take long to beat up the casual room with Affinity only to find out when you get to the Tournament practice room that it's not going to compete with Storm or Oath decks or that people are more likely to have Hurkyl's Recall or Null Rod in their sideboard. Or that even if you pack in every disruptive weenie in existence, that it's simply not enough to win through the power the other decks have. Maybe then you'll start to wonder why you aren't also playing Tinker when you have the Sol Ring to make it really pop. Or maybe you'll find that instead of destroying lands with Armageddon, you should be trying to simply make sure you've got a Trinisphere and/or Sphere of Resistance to make sure they can't play their spells.

Now, perhaps I've been a bit blasé about telling you all about the wonders of Sol Ring when in order to get one, you'll have to spend $34.99. That's a lot of money just to get a Sol Ring. But then, look at that snazzy new picture:

Honestly, given that there might have had to be a new picture (we still don't know the details about all those old art contracts), if it had to be redone, I definitely think the re-environing done here is masterful. Not at all like the old version, which I think if you are going to redo a card as well-known and iconic as Sol Ring, is definitely the way to go.

Hell, I'd almost pay $34.99 for just that. Thankfully, FTV: Relics comes with a host of other goodies, including a very nicely re-worked art version of Mox Diamond, a card that was, up until it was revealed to be in this set, worth almost the whole price of the FTV: Set. For the regular version. Here is the whole set, all of which are foiled and some of which are new arts (you can view the art on WoTC's Gatherer)

Æther Vial
Black Vise
Isochron Scepter
Ivory Tower
Jester's Cap
Karn, Silver Golem
Masticore
Memory Jar
Mirari
Mox Diamond
Nevinyrral's Disk
Sol Ring
Sundering Titan
Sword of Body and Mind
Zuran Orb

As you can see, it's unlikely anyone will be paying $34.99 for just Sol Ring. Some people will want the Mox Diamond for their Legacy Decks. Some people will want the new Sword for Standard decks (when it becomes legal in standard) . Some people will enjoy the early release of Masticore (it's in Urza's Destiny, which should be out April 2011). There is lots for everyone. I expect there to be a good market for singles of these cards, so while I expect Sol Ring's value will definitely be a fair portion of the set's price tag, if it's really all you want from the set you'll probably be able to either buy the set and sell the singles or simply try and pick it up as a single from someone else who's purchased the set but will never play Classic.

Whether it's against powerful Tier 1 Classic decks or some of the types of decks I've listed above, I expect to see a little more classic in the Classic decks online soon!