Ali, Who?

[Underdogdeckchamp]

Hey, thought I'd post here to keep from upsetting the drain veterans about....

Anyway, what's the big deal about Ali from Cairo?  Why is it so expensive and is it even playable?  I've always wondered and think this might be the place for an answer....thanks in advance for any replies!
-UDC

[bloodpuppy11]

Going WAY back, Ali From Cairo was once seen as being incredibly powerful; some much that it was restricted at one point.  Apparently there was concern that a 1 toughness creature would be way too much for some decks to deal with.

I think that the reason Ali is so expensive is primarily due to a certain nostalgia, and the fact that once the price on something spikes, it tends to stay up there until it gets reprinted.  At one point, the 2 most expensive cards from Arabian Nights were Ali and Guardian Beast.

To answer your other question, no this card is not playable.  If you own one, sell it or put it in your trade binder as a "hey, look at that" sort of card =).

->patrick
Team VT

[Ric_Flair]

Ali from Cairo was originally restricted because in the early days of Magic there were a few colors that had no way to deal with the Ali from Cairo/Jade Monolith.  Without artifact removal this could be the end of the game for certain strategies.  Or at least this is what Wizard's claimed, ignoring the fact that Nevinyrral's Disk and Chaos Orb were widely used, colorless responses to the problem.  So in the end I have no idea what Wizards was thinking.

[Razvan]

Most decks "need" to deal with the card before killing the opponent, so the card isn't entirely unplayable. Although there are better cards to use (Platinum Angel), I did use Ali in my RecSur deck, and he was really a difficult hurdle for most decks.

Heck, until Long.dec put Balance in their sideboard, plopping down an Ali was game .

It's about $40, mostly because they are rare like hell.