Why was Kiora more expensive than the recent dual PWs?

Title sums it up. I don’t recall her getting anything extra as a bundle.

Maybe they were testing prices. Maybe they think she’s stronger than Ajani and Sarkhan. I certainly do.

Definitely a large part of it.

Ajani is nearly on par but Sarkhan is kinda bleh.

IIRC, she came with a couple hundred mana crystals along with her B/G fat pack when she was first released. That may have been what drove up the price, since Ajani and Sarkhan both just came with runes and a fat pack.

Because she’s more powerful. Sad, but true.

I have played some kiora and some Ajani.

The short answer is what you wrote but not as much as one could think.

Ajani has huge strength in both his 2 skills(not counting the third here) and insane mana gains.
This mana gain coupled with the insane efficiency(power/mana ratio) of white AND red creatures give him a big boost.
When you couple it with efficient removal, there is little the opponent can do.

To really shine kiora needs specific cards from both colors that pull off sinergy/combo decks.
When you have it the net power skyrockets but if we talk about quick battle leaderboard she also has a big downside: effect animations.
Those cards slow down your games while animation play for buffs/card draw/card fetch.
Ajani is not as much affected.

TLDR: kiora is stronger with proper cards but not that much faster in winning matches.

Agree to that so much. The keys cards needed for kiora are rares and mythics. While white has great uncommons.

You may win a match with kiora in less than 10 turns but there is a good chance the battle would last 8 or 9 minutes anyway

I bought Ajani instead of Kiora, and I completely agree with this assessment of Ajani. Dude has power. His mana production is crazy good.

Mind you, he does NEED to be this good to give you a shot at beating Kiora and/or Undergrowth Champion decks in QuickBattle…