Odds of being struck by lightning - 1 in 600,000
Odds of winning the lotto - 1 in 3,838,380
Odds of cracking a foil Mythic and another Mythic - 1 in 33,658.
Roughly speaking, i think you'll have a good chance of getting a foil mythic and a normal mythic
I don't believe that elf clamp has had much success in type 1. In type 2 it only won one tournament I know of before clamp was banned. Jitte is not used in any type one deck I know of.
A 40 dollar mythic rare would constitute a must have 4 of that goes in many decks.
Stats About Mythics
-Mythics are on average 40% rarer than pre-mythic rares
(old blocks about 200 rares, Mythic blocks 35+ mythics)
-They are printing more new cards a year not less
(about 665 now vs. 630 in most pre-mythic block)
-To drop the value of a rare by $1 a mythic must go up $2
-In a 3 year time span deck prices doubled. I am petitioning for the removal of mythic rarity. Sig this to join the cause.
Wow 600 post just figured since I started the thread I should get the 600th post on it.
But to the topic at hand.
I completly agree with wizards on this one I love getting rare lands for my deck and this should bring the cost of them down. If mythic rares are only legends and planeswalkers (or big timmy cards) then there should not be such a big problem with them it allows those of us to build competitive mana bases and get our utilitie cards on the cheap.
As for the land in the pack me and a bunch of friends tried that the other night we pulled a random uncommon out of our draft packs and put them face down. It didnt hurt our draft one bit
Its not a good trade off it you are end up with $100 chase rares.
of course its a good trade off.
have you ever seen a set where there was just a 100usd rare and the rest were priced at 1usd each? if that were the case, people should just stop buying that 100usd rare.
plus, remember that its as easy to get a 10th ed rare and an MR
btw, skullclamp is also one of the things affinity decks use. some people in my region still use affinity as rogue entries to tourneys just to catch those without kataki and energy flux in the sb off guard
Doubtless similar on the Mothership - hell, I'm viewing both.
Why would anyone need Mythic Rares as a gimmick? Show us the ****ing planeswalkers and we'll buy the damn things. Don't use rarity as a crutch - rare doesn't mean good, it can be cool and NOT rare.
(Can I say ****ing on mtgsal? It's really obscene. Oh, you censor it for me. Saves me doing it. It was the F-bomb, in case you can't tell. Needed, here.)
Oh.. I thought you were dropping the S-bomb. I would surely buy Jace or Garruk taking a dump. There's always the next UN-set.
Seriously though, I'm a little disappointed that they are discontinuing Precons. These "Intro packs" look like they will be the size of the 10th starter packs with a window showing the premium card like the Elves vs. Goblins deck did. Oh well, more money saved with each new set I guess... then again, I was probably the only one buying precons.
have you ever seen a set where there was just a 100usd rare and the rest were priced at 1usd each? if that were the case, people should just stop buying that 100usd rare.
Due to the open market nature of magic, this will never happen. Even if there is a legion of players who refuse to buy the $100 rare, there will be some who do buy them. Those who buy them will beat the ones who don't in tournaments (think Gofy vs no Gofy), those who get beaten will be annoyed and will eventually give in and buy the rare themselves. It's a vicious cycle. Otherwise, this game will be like YGO, where the person who can afford the best cards win.
I think that if they are going to have "rare rares" they need to make the cards very good but very specific with regards to usefullness to deck archetypes. Instead of having a very good card that's wonderful in 75% of a formats archetypes, make it so you'd have to be an idiot to not use it in a particular deck but also an idiot to try and cram it into another deck.
Due to the open market nature of magic, this will never happen. Even if there is a legion of players who refuse to buy the $100 rare, there will be some who do buy them. Those who buy them will beat the ones who don't in tournaments (think Gofy vs no Gofy), those who get beaten will be annoyed and will eventually give in and buy the rare themselves. It's a vicious cycle. Otherwise, this game will be like YGO, where the person who can afford the best cards win.
i'm a vintage player so i wouldn't know much about standard.
although i do gotta say that it feels mighty fine when i beat a deck with the power 9 when mine's total is less than 100 usd
have you ever seen a set where there was just a 100usd rare and the rest were priced at 1usd each? if that were the case, people should just stop buying that 100usd rare.
plus, remember that its as easy to get a 10th ed rare and an MR
btw, skullclamp is also one of the things affinity decks use. some people in my region still use affinity as rogue entries to tourneys just to catch those without kataki and energy flux in the sb off guard
No we have no seen that yet but thats cause we never has a chase rare that is twice as rare as a normal rare. If we have $100 everyone is not going to just not buy them, it will just be mostly tournament players that buy them.
btw I don't know of any successful type one affinity decks either.
A 40 dollar mythic rare would constitute a must have 4 of that goes in many decks.
Stats About Mythics
-Mythics are on average 40% rarer than pre-mythic rares
(old blocks about 200 rares, Mythic blocks 35+ mythics)
-They are printing more new cards a year not less
(about 665 now vs. 630 in most pre-mythic block)
-To drop the value of a rare by $1 a mythic must go up $2
-In a 3 year time span deck prices doubled. I am petitioning for the removal of mythic rarity. Sig this to join the cause.
What we're doing here is akin to taking the text of Moby Dick, locating specific words therein, rearranging them to create a passage from Fight Club, and concluding from this evidence that Tyler Durden is based on Ahab.
I've seen people around here try to insist that some rares get printed in smaller numbers than others anyway... now these people can stop whining because WOTC are TELLING them that the cards they keep cracking packs to get (as you do *cough*) are rarer than normal, they might actually move to the secondary market and do the smart thing
(ie, the guy at my store who just kept cracking pack after pack of PC to try to get damnations... or the guy who forked out a pretty decent amount of cash for a box just to get a single Force of Will... Or the many many boxes that have been sold in the neverending quest for a Goyf...)
...They wouldn't be mythic.
Lands (aside from things like Dark Depths) won't be mythic.
I realize you have an "aside" here, but I'm wondering how much you are willing to bet that there won't be "Mythic" Rare lands someday. I mean, I would say it's almost a certainty (not immediately, but eventually).
If you just mean lands like Dual Lands, I'm not even certain that they wouldn't do a whole cycle of "Mythic" dual lands sometime in the future, whatever they are saying now.
The market will decide, I suppose. If this Mythic thing goes over well, and they increase sales, I'd expect them to push it farther.
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
If this Mythic thing goes over well, and they increase sales, I'd expect them to push it farther.
Why would they push it farther, when that specific "push" (making staple cards mythic instead of rare) is the one that's obviously more likely to drive people away?
EDIT: Basically, my point here is, the ultra-cynical "well, they'll do everything they can to squeeze more money out of people, even if it hurts the game!" perspective isn't useful because it isn't very well backed up by history. If they're going to step forward and make mythics 100% necessary staple tournament cards, why didn't they just introduce the new rarity as including staple cards now and avoid any backlash from "lying" to people?
I realize you have an "aside" here, but I'm wondering how much you are willing to bet that there won't be "Mythic" Rare lands someday. I mean, I would say it's almost a certainty (not immediately, but eventually).
If you just mean lands like Dual Lands, I'm not even certain that they wouldn't do a whole cycle of "Mythic" dual lands sometime in the future, whatever they are saying now.
The market will decide, I suppose. If this Mythic thing goes over well, and they increase sales, I'd expect them to push it farther.
They said in the announcement that staples are not going to be made mythic.
Legends, Planeswalkers, and ultra-bomby cards will be mythic.
Making Lands mythic would be the final straw for many players, and WoTC knows people are cranky enough as it is that mana-fixing is set at rare.
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Why would they push it farther, when that specific "push" (making staple cards mythic instead of rare) is the one that's obviously more likely to drive people away?
EDIT: Basically, my point here is, the ultra-cynical "well, they'll do everything they can to squeeze more money out of people, even if it hurts the game!" perspective isn't useful because it isn't very well backed up by history. If they're going to step forward and make mythics 100% necessary staple tournament cards, why didn't they just introduce the new rarity as including staple cards now and avoid any backlash from "lying" to people?
I think you are hung up on the idea that "staple" cards (whatever those are) just won't ever be "Mythic." Why? Well, because Wizards said so, and clearly they've never changed their minds on anything before....
I dare say this is an experiment right now. They are concerned about backlash, so they've tried to make as many reassurances as they can. And my "ultra-cynical" perspective sees this as them testing the waters a bit. Basically getting people used to the idea of these new "more rare" rares. Once people are used to them (and assuming they feel it helps sales) then they'll expand. It will be easy. After all, they'll just be giving us more of what we want! (as demonstrated by the sales figures). And as Maro constantly says - his job is to make us happy.
I'm just not holding my breath that (a) none of these Mythic cards are going to turn out to be any good - which is what many people unbelievably seem to think or (b) that Wizards won't eventually expand the scope of them - to lands, enchantments, anything really.
I didn't say it was going to kill the game either. I imagine the game will go on just fine. Those who love it (myself included) will adapt to the new environment, as always. We'll just grumble about it in threads like this.
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
I think you are hung up on the idea that "staple" cards (whatever those are) just won't ever be "Mythic." Why? Well, because Wizards said so, and clearly they've never changed their minds on anything before....
Almost universally, the "well, they've changed their minds before" argument comes up when someone doesn't have any other support for their position but wants to show that their non-directed cynicism has a basis. The cases brought up as evidence generally have very specific explanations, but the argument tries to generalize from those to show that every statement from a WotC employee can be presumed a lie. It's just bad argumentation.
I dare say this is an experiment right now. They are concerned about backlash, so they've tried to make as many reassurances as they can. And my "ultra-cynical" perspective sees this as them testing the waters a bit. Basically getting people used to the idea of these new "more rare" rares. Once people are used to them (and assuming they feel it helps sales) then they'll expand.
This position doesn't make any sense, and looking at either the history of Magic or any basic marketing strategy will show why. A company's public actions and PR create a set of expectations; meeting these expectations creates a sense of satisfaction, while reversing those expectations creates anger and unhappiness. When implementing a change (mythics) with the possibility of being unpopular, Wizards has had the opportunity to shape those expectations to a large degree, based on how they present it. By reassuring people that the system works a certain way, they'll get people to tentatively support that change: because players know how it'll work, they can give it a benefit of the doubt that would be impossible otherwise.
All that good will more than goes out the window if those expectations that PR has created aren't met; it reverses itself into displeasure, even from people who might have been okay with the "real" situation if the original expectations hadn't been based on inaccurate info. That's what produces backlash and really hurts companies' reputation (and sales). There's no PR benefit whatsoever to promising staple cards won't be printed as mythics unless you actually attempt to keep that promise.
(And in addition, it would be pretty stupid to consider this change an "experiment" about putting cards like dual lands in the mythic slot, given how many people's acceptance or interest in this change is specifically pegged to the fact that those cards won't appear as mythics.)
When you apply analysis to the situation instead of pure cynicism, you can come to a more believable conclusion, like, say, that the current approach is a compromise way to get the marketing benefits of rarer-than-rare (which revolve around the ability to pull an impressive and "cool" card out of a pack, ultimately, not the ability to force players to buy an extra 1 1/3 boxes to pull singles from at set release) without pushing players who are wary about card pricing to quit in anger.
You are so passionate defending Wizards, Charlequin. It's cute.
For reference, this was Maro's statement. Maybe you can tell me if there has been more said than this through any "official" channels:
Quote from Maro »
Generally speaking we expect that to mean cards like Planeswalkers, most legends, and epic-feeling creatures and spells. They will not just be a list of each set's most powerful tournament-level cards.
We've also decided that there are certain things we specifically do not want to be mythic rares. The largest category is utility cards, what I'll define as cards that fill a universal function. Some examples of this category would be cycles of dual lands and cards like Mutavault or Char.
That's pretty vague and pretty broad if you ask me: "GENERALLY speaking," "we EXPECT," "they will not JUST be a list..."
I'll also note the absence of the word "staple" in this description. Are you using it interchangably with the term "utility" card? Even so, I rather think the definition given - a card that fills a "universal" function - is sufficiently vague so as not to put any huge restraints on what kind of card qualifies.
He does specifically say here that it would not include cycles of Dual lands, however, so I would agree they probably won't be doing that kind of card as a Mythic anytime in the near future.
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Quote from Bateleur »
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
I'll also note the absence of the word "staple" in this description. Are you using it interchangably with the term "utility" card?
Staple is not the best word to use, I'll agree. However, that said, a large number of tournament staple rares would fall into the category of "utility" rare cards: cards that do something relatively simple, but because of cost or power level were made rare as opposed to common or uncommon. Char is no more difficult to understand than Shock, but its power level pushes it to rare.
Even so, I rather think the definition given - a card that fills a "universal" function - is sufficiently vague so as not to put any huge restraints on what kind of card qualifies.
Now, I would agree that "utility cards" and "universal function" cards could lead to some hurt feelings, but using Char has a basis should reveal a large number of cards that wouldn't be Mythic (like Thoughtseize), Mutavault provides a whole other category of cards that wouldn't be Mythic either, these would be rares that are designed to work with a set's theme and could go in several decks (like Thrumming Stone, if Ripple was a major set mechanic).
He does specifically say here that it would not include cycles of Dual lands, however, so I would agree they probably won't be doing that kind of card as a Mythic anytime in the near future.
(Emphasis added)
I don't understand how you can go from Maro saying "it won't be cycles of dual lands" to you saying "they probably won't be". I would say that Maro's statement is pretty solid with not a whole lot of wiggle room when it comes to rare dual lands.
You are so passionate defending Wizards, Charlequin. It's cute.
Why do you feel the need to be patronizing? I get particularly worked up about the "oh, well, I'm sure it's all just lies but I won't defend my position" attitude because it harms discussions and isn't very respectful to others in the conversation. (But ask me how I feel about the recent treatment of white, or cards like Augury Adept, if you think I'm lockstep with Wizards on everything.)
That's pretty vague and pretty broad if you ask me: "GENERALLY speaking," "we EXPECT," "they will not JUST be a list..."
Yes, it's pretty vague, because they've only just locked in the first set with mythics and presumably they want some wiggle room to experiment. My objection isn't with the idea that this won't work out exactly or that definitions of what cards qualify might vary (I haven't even responded to anyone who said "Look how Tarmogoyf slipped through," since that is a reasonable concern); my objection is with the idea that this announcement got made as a purposeful lie to cover an already decided policy by which utility lands and other must-have tournament rares are already being prepared to move into the mythic slot, which was your contention.
I'll also note the absence of the word "staple" in this description. Are you using it interchangably with the term "utility" card?
I was, yes, since I didn't remember the precise word choice he used.
Even so, I rather think the definition given - a card that fills a "universal" function - is sufficiently vague so as not to put any huge restraints on what kind of card qualifies.
I don't think it's really that vague when you take into account the examples he gives for both utility cards and mythic rares. A card like Mutavault is a utility card because it provides something that's broadly useful (a creature) in an efficient way, with few restrictions; you'd consider it in almost any deck. There's a lot of wiggle room in the middle (would anyone have pegged Psychatog as a "utility" rare?) but in general it's quite straightforward to pick out the rares that are popular because of how broadly applicable they are and those that are popular because of a specific, niche application. The fact that they've defined mythics as being composed of unique, "epic" cards should help maintain the division as well.
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does any store owner open 33,000 packs of a set?
i'm happy for the info on the stat though
Its not a good trade off it you are end up with $100 chase rares.
I don't believe that elf clamp has had much success in type 1. In type 2 it only won one tournament I know of before clamp was banned. Jitte is not used in any type one deck I know of.
Stats About Mythics
-Mythics are on average 40% rarer than pre-mythic rares
(old blocks about 200 rares, Mythic blocks 35+ mythics)
-They are printing more new cards a year not less
(about 665 now vs. 630 in most pre-mythic block)
-To drop the value of a rare by $1 a mythic must go up $2
-In a 3 year time span deck prices doubled.
I am petitioning for the removal of mythic rarity. Sig this to join the cause.
But to the topic at hand.
I completly agree with wizards on this one I love getting rare lands for my deck and this should bring the cost of them down. If mythic rares are only legends and planeswalkers (or big timmy cards) then there should not be such a big problem with them it allows those of us to build competitive mana bases and get our utilitie cards on the cheap.
As for the land in the pack me and a bunch of friends tried that the other night we pulled a random uncommon out of our draft packs and put them face down. It didnt hurt our draft one bit
of course its a good trade off.
have you ever seen a set where there was just a 100usd rare and the rest were priced at 1usd each? if that were the case, people should just stop buying that 100usd rare.
plus, remember that its as easy to get a 10th ed rare and an MR
btw, skullclamp is also one of the things affinity decks use. some people in my region still use affinity as rogue entries to tourneys just to catch those without kataki and energy flux in the sb off guard
Oh.. I thought you were dropping the S-bomb. I would surely buy Jace or Garruk taking a dump. There's always the next UN-set.
Seriously though, I'm a little disappointed that they are discontinuing Precons. These "Intro packs" look like they will be the size of the 10th starter packs with a window showing the premium card like the Elves vs. Goblins deck did. Oh well, more money saved with each new set I guess... then again, I was probably the only one buying precons.
Due to the open market nature of magic, this will never happen. Even if there is a legion of players who refuse to buy the $100 rare, there will be some who do buy them. Those who buy them will beat the ones who don't in tournaments (think Gofy vs no Gofy), those who get beaten will be annoyed and will eventually give in and buy the rare themselves. It's a vicious cycle. Otherwise, this game will be like YGO, where the person who can afford the best cards win.
i'm a vintage player so i wouldn't know much about standard.
although i do gotta say that it feels mighty fine when i beat a deck with the power 9 when mine's total is less than 100 usd
No we have no seen that yet but thats cause we never has a chase rare that is twice as rare as a normal rare. If we have $100 everyone is not going to just not buy them, it will just be mostly tournament players that buy them.
btw I don't know of any successful type one affinity decks either.
Stats About Mythics
-Mythics are on average 40% rarer than pre-mythic rares
(old blocks about 200 rares, Mythic blocks 35+ mythics)
-They are printing more new cards a year not less
(about 665 now vs. 630 in most pre-mythic block)
-To drop the value of a rare by $1 a mythic must go up $2
-In a 3 year time span deck prices doubled.
I am petitioning for the removal of mythic rarity. Sig this to join the cause.
Everyone was warned earlier in the thread that "waah yugioh" posts would be moderated. Warning. -charlequin
Guildmaster Jarad
:symw::symu: Merfolk
Definitely not an aggro player.
but they didn't. in fact they DECREASED all the rares
I've seen people around here try to insist that some rares get printed in smaller numbers than others anyway... now these people can stop whining because WOTC are TELLING them that the cards they keep cracking packs to get (as you do *cough*) are rarer than normal, they might actually move to the secondary market and do the smart thing
(ie, the guy at my store who just kept cracking pack after pack of PC to try to get damnations... or the guy who forked out a pretty decent amount of cash for a box just to get a single Force of Will... Or the many many boxes that have been sold in the neverending quest for a Goyf...)
1. Baneslayer Angel 2. Birds of Paradise 3. Lightning Bolt 4. Honor of the Pure 5. Goblin Chieftain
My top 5 Zendikar cards:
1. Eternity Vessel 2. Chandra Ablaze 3. Beastmaster Ascension 4. Ob Nixilis, the Fallen 5. Rampaging Baloths
...They wouldn't be mythic.
Lands (aside from things like Dark Depths) won't be mythic.
Twitter
I realize you have an "aside" here, but I'm wondering how much you are willing to bet that there won't be "Mythic" Rare lands someday. I mean, I would say it's almost a certainty (not immediately, but eventually).
If you just mean lands like Dual Lands, I'm not even certain that they wouldn't do a whole cycle of "Mythic" dual lands sometime in the future, whatever they are saying now.
The market will decide, I suppose. If this Mythic thing goes over well, and they increase sales, I'd expect them to push it farther.
Why would they push it farther, when that specific "push" (making staple cards mythic instead of rare) is the one that's obviously more likely to drive people away?
EDIT: Basically, my point here is, the ultra-cynical "well, they'll do everything they can to squeeze more money out of people, even if it hurts the game!" perspective isn't useful because it isn't very well backed up by history. If they're going to step forward and make mythics 100% necessary staple tournament cards, why didn't they just introduce the new rarity as including staple cards now and avoid any backlash from "lying" to people?
They said in the announcement that staples are not going to be made mythic.
Legends, Planeswalkers, and ultra-bomby cards will be mythic.
Making Lands mythic would be the final straw for many players, and WoTC knows people are cranky enough as it is that mana-fixing is set at rare.
Twitter
I think you are hung up on the idea that "staple" cards (whatever those are) just won't ever be "Mythic." Why? Well, because Wizards said so, and clearly they've never changed their minds on anything before....
I dare say this is an experiment right now. They are concerned about backlash, so they've tried to make as many reassurances as they can. And my "ultra-cynical" perspective sees this as them testing the waters a bit. Basically getting people used to the idea of these new "more rare" rares. Once people are used to them (and assuming they feel it helps sales) then they'll expand. It will be easy. After all, they'll just be giving us more of what we want! (as demonstrated by the sales figures). And as Maro constantly says - his job is to make us happy.
I'm just not holding my breath that (a) none of these Mythic cards are going to turn out to be any good - which is what many people unbelievably seem to think or (b) that Wizards won't eventually expand the scope of them - to lands, enchantments, anything really.
I didn't say it was going to kill the game either. I imagine the game will go on just fine. Those who love it (myself included) will adapt to the new environment, as always. We'll just grumble about it in threads like this.
Almost universally, the "well, they've changed their minds before" argument comes up when someone doesn't have any other support for their position but wants to show that their non-directed cynicism has a basis. The cases brought up as evidence generally have very specific explanations, but the argument tries to generalize from those to show that every statement from a WotC employee can be presumed a lie. It's just bad argumentation.
This position doesn't make any sense, and looking at either the history of Magic or any basic marketing strategy will show why. A company's public actions and PR create a set of expectations; meeting these expectations creates a sense of satisfaction, while reversing those expectations creates anger and unhappiness. When implementing a change (mythics) with the possibility of being unpopular, Wizards has had the opportunity to shape those expectations to a large degree, based on how they present it. By reassuring people that the system works a certain way, they'll get people to tentatively support that change: because players know how it'll work, they can give it a benefit of the doubt that would be impossible otherwise.
All that good will more than goes out the window if those expectations that PR has created aren't met; it reverses itself into displeasure, even from people who might have been okay with the "real" situation if the original expectations hadn't been based on inaccurate info. That's what produces backlash and really hurts companies' reputation (and sales). There's no PR benefit whatsoever to promising staple cards won't be printed as mythics unless you actually attempt to keep that promise.
(And in addition, it would be pretty stupid to consider this change an "experiment" about putting cards like dual lands in the mythic slot, given how many people's acceptance or interest in this change is specifically pegged to the fact that those cards won't appear as mythics.)
When you apply analysis to the situation instead of pure cynicism, you can come to a more believable conclusion, like, say, that the current approach is a compromise way to get the marketing benefits of rarer-than-rare (which revolve around the ability to pull an impressive and "cool" card out of a pack, ultimately, not the ability to force players to buy an extra 1 1/3 boxes to pull singles from at set release) without pushing players who are wary about card pricing to quit in anger.
For reference, this was Maro's statement. Maybe you can tell me if there has been more said than this through any "official" channels:
That's pretty vague and pretty broad if you ask me: "GENERALLY speaking," "we EXPECT," "they will not JUST be a list..."
I'll also note the absence of the word "staple" in this description. Are you using it interchangably with the term "utility" card? Even so, I rather think the definition given - a card that fills a "universal" function - is sufficiently vague so as not to put any huge restraints on what kind of card qualifies.
He does specifically say here that it would not include cycles of Dual lands, however, so I would agree they probably won't be doing that kind of card as a Mythic anytime in the near future.
Staple is not the best word to use, I'll agree. However, that said, a large number of tournament staple rares would fall into the category of "utility" rare cards: cards that do something relatively simple, but because of cost or power level were made rare as opposed to common or uncommon. Char is no more difficult to understand than Shock, but its power level pushes it to rare.
Now, I would agree that "utility cards" and "universal function" cards could lead to some hurt feelings, but using Char has a basis should reveal a large number of cards that wouldn't be Mythic (like Thoughtseize), Mutavault provides a whole other category of cards that wouldn't be Mythic either, these would be rares that are designed to work with a set's theme and could go in several decks (like Thrumming Stone, if Ripple was a major set mechanic).
(Emphasis added)
I don't understand how you can go from Maro saying "it won't be cycles of dual lands" to you saying "they probably won't be". I would say that Maro's statement is pretty solid with not a whole lot of wiggle room when it comes to rare dual lands.
Why do you feel the need to be patronizing? I get particularly worked up about the "oh, well, I'm sure it's all just lies but I won't defend my position" attitude because it harms discussions and isn't very respectful to others in the conversation. (But ask me how I feel about the recent treatment of white, or cards like Augury Adept, if you think I'm lockstep with Wizards on everything.)
Yes, it's pretty vague, because they've only just locked in the first set with mythics and presumably they want some wiggle room to experiment. My objection isn't with the idea that this won't work out exactly or that definitions of what cards qualify might vary (I haven't even responded to anyone who said "Look how Tarmogoyf slipped through," since that is a reasonable concern); my objection is with the idea that this announcement got made as a purposeful lie to cover an already decided policy by which utility lands and other must-have tournament rares are already being prepared to move into the mythic slot, which was your contention.
I was, yes, since I didn't remember the precise word choice he used.
I don't think it's really that vague when you take into account the examples he gives for both utility cards and mythic rares. A card like Mutavault is a utility card because it provides something that's broadly useful (a creature) in an efficient way, with few restrictions; you'd consider it in almost any deck. There's a lot of wiggle room in the middle (would anyone have pegged Psychatog as a "utility" rare?) but in general it's quite straightforward to pick out the rares that are popular because of how broadly applicable they are and those that are popular because of a specific, niche application. The fact that they've defined mythics as being composed of unique, "epic" cards should help maintain the division as well.