The Relation of Prices and Effectiveness in Cards

[t3xx3r]

I noticed that the cards are priced at the level of effectiveness the cards deliver.

I have Ral, Caller of Storms from a Planeswalker deck.  Currently, I like him a lot because of his boost in drawing +1 cards then using [ur=https://cards.deckstats.net/magiccard.php?utf8=1&lng=en&card=Ral%27s+Staticasterl]Ral's Staticasters[/url] to boost the power of damage to combat my opponent.

I noticed the prices of Ral, Caller of Storms costs $2.29 as compared to Ral, Viceroy of Izzet, at $5.99 on CardKingdom.com.

Ral, Viceroy of Izzet is a more powerful card IMHO because of the value that the planeswalker has in its stats and in relation to prices, becomes more expensive.

My question to you is, are the effectiveness of certain cards more expensive because it's that powerful fielding it in the battlefield?  Or was it something else, like being a rare, Mythic Rare, etc.?  What other factors play into the large part of a card becoming very expensive?

While I do like Ral, Caller of Storms a lot, after those questions I asked, are these planeswalker decks designed to "suck" and compel players to "seek out" better cards to round out their decks to qualify at competitive play?

[Soren841]

How many were printed, demand, quality, etc. All go into pricing

[WWolfe]

I agree with what Soren said but to expand a little farther on it...

Caller of Storms was the planeswalker deck planeswalker. It was a guaranteed get if you purchased that product and was printed in a higher quantity than Izzet Viceroy. The price difference in this instance has very little to do with power level and more to do with print quantity. I'm not saying Izzet Viceroy isn't a better card (IMO it is), but the power level really isn't a factor in this instance.

As far as your question about the deck quality itself, there's no profit for them in printing the 'better' of the two planeswalker cards in the deck product as it lessens the number of people popping packs trying to get the better one.

ETA- power level does have a lot to do with value of a card normally, however being a rare or mythic doesn't automatically translate into the card being worth more. I have a box full of "bulk rares" that none of which are more than $1 whereas I have a binder with some uncommons in it that are worth $5.

[burn your face]

Plainswalker deck plainswalkers are designed to be bad.

[burn your face]

It seems pretty stupid to me that they would design cards to be unplayable in competitive magic. I guess the product is meant as a first deck or something. I still don't understand why the card has to be made bad on purpose.

The card is great if you want to just play casual.

Compare ral, caller of storms to teferi, hero of dominaria. Teferi casts one less mana, has a strictly better +1, and a better what I think is a better - ability.

Sorry I got a little of topic, but I just wanted to express my feelings on this product line.