Remember this: Ajani’s deck was G/R/W, but he was only R/W… so there’s still a chance Sorin could have Olivia…

…even though red is the only mono color playable and dominant in standard right now. i dont understand why people say red sucks. what other color is haste a primary ability? none. look at some of the best cards in standard too, thundermaw, aristocrat, huntmaster, bonfire, olivia, aurelias fury, hellrider etc. people need to stop trying to change red and add depth to red. i feel that the beauty of red in the color pie is that its NOT deep and rather simple. 

If by “no one that’s anyone” you mean “no one that doesn’t follow SCGOpen tournaments to the exclusion of all else, including Wizard’s own first-party Grand Prix and Pro Tours,” then yes, you are correct; “no one” gives two shits about Standard.

*sigh*

This is part of the problem I have with the Spike crowd. They focus blindly on their own personal pet game or format and flatly refuse to acknowledge that any other game or format has any worth whatsoever. The existence of social networks and the blogoshpere, with their ability to close out all dissenting voices until all you hear back are voices that sound exactly like your own, are a contributing factor, but not the root cause. That’s beside the point, though; you are welcome to your opinion of Legacy, but the facts are these: if you go to a brick-and-mortar store on Friday night, barring extraordinary circumstances, you will be playing Standard, Limited, or – more recently – Modern. No Legacy in sight. The new Pro Tour format is, if I remember correctly, a mix of Modern, Standard, and Block Constructed. Hmm. No Legacy there, either – why might that be, do you suppose? As for why SCG appears in the example above? Star City Games may not have created Legacy, but they have been instrumental in ensuring its survival. Anecdotal evidence suggests that had SCG not stepped in, the original Eternal Formats may have joined Extended at the kitchen table, while everyone else continued to focus on the cool and shiny new stuff that Wizards continues to put out for us.

TL:DR, but my point is this: I do not dispute that red is one of the weaker colors in Magic, if not the weakest. I do not dispute that Legacy is a viable format, nor that the cards within it are extremely powerful. What I DO dispute is your assertion that Standard is not equally viable compared to Legacy. Please check your facts before opening your mouth; otherwise, you run the risk of promptly inserting your foot into it.

…Perhaps I overreacted. I’m sorry; I’m not always the best at divining people’s intentions and motivations when they’re standing right in front of me, and the Internet – while an amazing tool for sharing raw information – removes the nonverbal cues that compose a surprisingly large amount of human interaction. Aside from trolls (who will troll no matter what), this may be the largest reason flame wars exist: simple misunderstanding. Again, my apologies.

On a related note, I identify as a Johnny as well, and I can understand now why Standard would hold less appeal for you than Modern or Legacy; it’s hard to get psyched about anything when the rules of engagement preclude the use of your favorite option. Standard can be fun too, though, because for people like us, the constraints on which expansions we can use force us to look for powerful spell and effects in places we normally wouldn’t. For example, I think if implemented and supported correctly, the cipher mechanic has the potential to be absolutely busted; the problem is that as the game state stands now, most cipher spells are too expensive or provide too little effect to be competitive. The challenge is in finding which ones provide a strong enough effect to influence the rest of the game and which supporting cards can help optimize that effect.

Aaaanyway, back on topic: now that we’ve got (hopefully accurate) decklists for Sorin vs. Tibalt, I’m definitely planning on picking up a copy. Sorin and Tibalt both have some solid cards to work with. The difference is that Tibalt is not in fact the best card in his own deck – that honor goes to (duh) Hellrider. Still, I really like the use of Blazing Salvo here: either you get rid of an annoying creature or you Lava Axe the other guy for R at instant speed – it just seems more difficult for your opponent to get a more desirable outcome out of Salvo than say, Browbeat or Breaking Point. Cool stuff all around, though – much better than Venser vs. Koth!

I think the problem is not that it sucks in constructed, because it doesn’t, but that it sucks in limited, because it almost always does.