Card/Deck Ral Zarek

[Jason Waddell]

The fact that his +1 is a bit perplexing is probably my favorite part about the card. You can't do falter + vigilance, obviously. There are other strange implications though. Tap down a mana to prevent their Doom Blade, then cast your creature second main phase? Tap it in first-main phase to limit the mana they have for playing counterspells?

I love that the ultimate is a binomial distribution simulation. Wizards is training an army of statisticians.

I don't play any Grim Monolith style cards, so the +1 probably won't ramp more than 1, so his +1 ramping capabilities are on par with Koth.

All in all Ral feels a bit like a fixed Ajani Vengeant. I also like that it is a splashy card that encourages people to play a really cool color combination that feels underplayed. Boros sees a ton of play, due to the natural overlaps and the huge draw of their gold cards. I want to keep my Planeswalker saturation down, so I very well may see Ajani leave to make way for Ral Zarek.

I agree completely Jason. This looks like a fixed ajani vengeant. First thoughts I had was this is the first (i think), blue walker that's not meant for control. I love the versatility of his first ability. You can play tempo and make an extra mana and the same time! and it interacts with a ton of other cards and effects. The second ability is fair, and the third ability is interesting, but doesn't necessarily win you the game immediately. I think he's a pretty nice incentive to play red/blue.
I'm looking forward to slotting him into my cube.

Zarek looks pretty fun and I'm definitely going to sleeve him up. Probably in place of Prophetic Bolt.

I'm not sure what I'll swap out.

Izzet Charm is often a kill spell, and double looting at instant speed is always a fun play. It's probably my favorite charm to play with.

On the whole I hold all the Izzet spells in pretty high regard. I'm leaning towards benching Fire // Ice, which is probably pretty blasphemous. In the big picture Fire // Ice vs Electrolyze doesn't really matter. Electrolyze is a Gigadrowse away from being a fused Fire // Ice anyways, and the choice between them doesn't really affect the balance of archetypes in any meaningful way. This feels pretty deep in the range of "personal preference". It's things like this that make me wish for an assistant that will rotate 4 cards through 3 slots each week, to give me the superficial variety without actually changing anything.

i dislike izzet charm in principle. it's hard to cast (even in my mono-fixing cube this is not a virtue) and all its modes are underpowered. but it sure helps you pitch something to reanimate! i think it's a narrow inclusion in smaller cubes with a lot of fixing and strong graveyard themes, simple exclusion otherwise.

I have a similar view as Jason. I love the options of izzet charm. I see it as an optimal card for the red/blue tempo deck, though i think it's value plummets for any other build because the modes aren't as powerful in the late game.
The number of charms in cube really goes down to the number of slots you're willing to give to them and which archetypes you're trying to support. Boros charm is fairly boring to me, but I like the options and potential of simic and ozhov charm.

Going back to the original reason we started derailing, I think the cut should be fire/ice. It's already very similar to electrolyze, and I don't like that it might get played in a red deck with no blue, since ice is not too impressive. I like gold cards that make players commit and consider risks.

 

[CML]

fire/ice getting cut may encounter more resistance than you'd foresee. electrolyze is an amazing card that's just better but damned if my playgroup doesn't love burn that divides damage. it's just a popular effect, i guess. fiery justice got taken out because it was so insane.

mono-red options for this kind of card: arc trail, arc lightning, violent eruption

 

[FlowerSunRain]

I currently have tagged electrolyze for removal once my DGM order comes in. I like the card and all, but as mentioned there are so many other similar cards that it is completely forgettable.

See also: forked bolt, fireball, flames of the firebrand, aurelia's fury

 

[CML]

electrolyze is far better than all those cards, i like it a fair amount.

 

[Jason Waddell]

I'll second the love for Electrolyze. So much value in one card. But as I said before, I'm pretty indifferent between the various Izzet spells. All I really care about is getting Ral into the Izzet section, one way or another.