Ral zarek
Economics forum
Posted on Jan. 20, 2014, 6:53 p.m. by Khanye
Ral Zarek really becomes efficient with all the "inspired" cards coming out. his +1 is extremely meaningful now...how much will he climb, if at all?
Epochalyptik says... #3
Make sure you post in the relevant forum. Moved to Economics.
The big question is whether the inspired effects are good enough to justify Ral Zarek 's inclusion in an existing or new shell. He's an alright UR/X control card, but he isn't the best. You'd have to justify including a CMC 4 utility engine in a deck that may not need it.
It's still pretty early in the spoiler season to call whether Ral Zarek is going to be critical with inspire. The "best" inspired card at this point is Pain Seer , and you'd need to go Grixis to get access to both it and Ral Zarek . None of the other inspired effects really generate enough advantage to justify their inclusion in a deck, especially because those effects all require mana payments of some kind.
January 20, 2014 7:12 p.m.
Springleaf Drum + Ral Zarek can definitely have great synergy. add in Pain Seer and Fellhide Spiritbinder and I can see it going places. the new sphinx can get dirty fast too Arbiter of the Ideal
January 20, 2014 7:17 p.m.
Grimgrinner says... #5
Ral Zarek seems to only be decent in straight U/R. Grixis can use him, but they care more about card advantage and such, and the only way Ral can provide card draw is with Pain Seer . It's just not a very efficient draw engine. If Ral Zarek is going to see serious play, then there needs to be some really, really good inspired cards.
Somewhat unrelated, If you like playing with Ral Zarek , He's pretty good for EDH, where he can untap Izzet Boilerworks , Sol Ring , Temple of the False God , Thran Dynamo , Gilded Lotus and other shenanigans.
January 20, 2014 7:18 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #6
You still have to account for the other characteristics of those cards. Fellhide Spiritbinder and Arbiter of the Ideal have the benefit of being in Ral Zarek 's colors, but now you're upping the mana curve considerably. You'd need to run Springleaf Drum as ramp and an inspired enabler, but you'd run into the problem of shorting yourself on control mana because you need the Springleaf Drum and a tap dork (probably Pain Seer ) very early on. At that point, you're making it difficult to cast counterspells or board wipes. Additionally, neither Fellhide Spiritbinder nor Arbiter of the Ideal win the game automatically. Their abilities are both dependent on you having other things going for you, and, because they're inspired abilities, they also rely on tapping and untapping.
It just seems too complicated as a deck concept. We have yet to see something that can unify all the effects and cards in a cohesive and efficient manner. Until we get that critical component, we don't really have much of a deck.
January 20, 2014 7:22 p.m.
Yes, I think Ral Zarek will rise slightly in price, but it wont last long. I do believe he can work well with the likes of Hidden Strings and the inspired engine I think most people are missing which is Prophet of Kruphix
January 20, 2014 7:24 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #8
There's still another problem we need to address, then: mana curve. At what point does all this well-meaning theorycrafting just fold to impracticality? Most of the critical engines for this deck come in around the CMC 4-6 range. Is that too high to be functional?
January 20, 2014 7:26 p.m.
I agree with Epochalyptik on the impracticality of most of the Inspired cards or decks centered around them, However, I do believe that many people will try and make it work, which will in turn raise the price of cards like Ral Zarek .
January 20, 2014 7:45 p.m.
Grimgrinner says... #10
I think speculating on Inspired is a little early, considering that we've seen only 59/165 cards.
I'm with Epoch though that the mana cost vs power level of insipred so far is very awkward. As for Arbiter of the Ideal though, I think It would be straight up bad in U/R. It would probably be the very top of your mana curve, and at 6cmc you're working REALLY hard to cheat things out. Aggro decks would blast you apart as you set up, and control decks would counter/remove your pieces, because you'd be tapped out of mana.
If Inspired becomes a thing in standard, then I don't think any of the currently spoiled cards will fuel it.
January 20, 2014 8 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #11
It's also worth noting that Ral Zarek is only $10 right now. There's no demand for him. Even if homebrewers grab a few copies to test with inspired abilities, the price won't spike. It might climb by a few dollars if the idea seems workable by the end of spoiler season, but our current efforts to find a viable application have been fruitless. I can only assume at this point that there will be no significant change in price.
January 20, 2014 8:03 p.m.
white actually has a good way of tapping creatures if any with undeniably good abilities surface. The new glimpse of the sun god (I believe is right) is an instant, and while you may not get to scry, you can tap a couple of inspired creatures with it at the end of your opponents turn and then immediately untap them because of your untap step. It has X in the cost, so you can hit as many or as few creatures as you need keeping it cost effective for the right abilitiy(s). Since Boros, Orzhov, mono-white, Azorious, and Esper all currently see some kind of play in most areas and since I think Bant and Selesnya are gonna see an immediate rise in play right after the release (don't know if they'll last), I don't think it would take a whole lot for at least a few decks to surface trying to take advantage of the mechanic. The first test will all depend on what actually surfaces with the inspired mechanic and if it fits into and of the decks that are currently seeing play. If that don't work, then it will have to be some really good abilities that show up in order to warrant a whole new deck be constructed around it.
January 20, 2014 8:32 p.m.
Enlightened_Jedi says... #13
All I know is I have 2x Ral Zarek in the binder, and if his price increases and people try and trade for him, awesome sauce.
if not, like others have stated he is a lot of fun in EDH. And Sometimes when playing Ill play him as a 1 of in my RWU control standard deck which helps with instant counters.
He is a decently good planeswalker all around, so who knows I think he will bump up a few dollars
Smith_and_Tonic says... #2
He will probably climb in price as hype for Born of the Gods gets bigger but I don't foresee inspired being an effective mechanic in standard. There may be a few fringe decks that use him for that purpose though.
January 20, 2014 7:11 p.m.