While Mirran Crusader does get hit by Lightning Bolt, he's great in a lot of match-ups. Against Jund, for example, their only outs are Lightning Bolt and Liliana, and that's only if we have one dude in play. They can't block him and quite honestly Jund players just Bolt your mana dorks anyway.
Also, he's helpful against Melira Pod because again, they have one out (Path) and can't really block him elsewise.
As far as Tarmogoyf is concerned, you don't NEED to play him. Sure he's fine, he's great against a lot of decks, but he's not needed. He suffers the same early fate as KotR, where you don't want to drop him in Bolt range, but later in the game, KotR is almost strictly better imo.
You can argue all you want that Legacy is a "better" format. I used to play a lot of Legacy years ago, but the lack of support was rather annoying. Even now when we have third party tournaments, SCG Opens, and a few Legacy Grand Prix's, Modern is definitely still going to be more popular, just because Wizards has basically made it their "#2" Constructed format, as far as I'm concerned. Just the fact we get way more decklists of Modern decks from Modo and PTQ's and soon Grand Prix's and the Pro Tour, it will continue to grow. Not to mention the bannings (and hopefully a couple choice unbannings) will help the format become even more diverse.
Also, Modern is a pretty sweet format. The fact that it's an eternal format makes buying expensive cards for it a fine investment, barring some reprints. The only truly expensive decks have Tarmogoyfs in them, the rest of the decks are not much more than Standard decks.
What I really want is more Block Constructed support again... But that's an arguement for another thread
Do you really think so? I don't see that Modern is more popular in any way than Legacy. As has been pointed out by posters in the Modern forum, the Modern PTQ season - which is always going to attract a given number of aspiring Pro Tour participants - is seeing lower attendance than the last Extended PTQ season. I think this indicates a lot of hesitation among MTG players to commit to Modern. I also see no local tournament support in my area for Modern, despite limited support for Legacy (still a distant second to Standard as far as constructed formats, of course).
This might change once format volatility (from bannings) settles down and the cost barrier of entry might be lowered by reprints.
I could be wrong, but the cost of getting into Legacy plus the fact that Modern is already a PTQ format, will catapult modern into popularity. I'm assuming we'll get a modern Pro Tour for the third Tour this year, and that will be enough.
Also, he's helpful against Melira Pod because again, they have one out (Path) and can't really block him elsewise.
As far as Tarmogoyf is concerned, you don't NEED to play him. Sure he's fine, he's great against a lot of decks, but he's not needed. He suffers the same early fate as KotR, where you don't want to drop him in Bolt range, but later in the game, KotR is almost strictly better imo.
Also, Modern is a pretty sweet format. The fact that it's an eternal format makes buying expensive cards for it a fine investment, barring some reprints. The only truly expensive decks have Tarmogoyfs in them, the rest of the decks are not much more than Standard decks.
What I really want is more Block Constructed support again... But that's an arguement for another thread
I could be wrong, but the cost of getting into Legacy plus the fact that Modern is already a PTQ format, will catapult modern into popularity. I'm assuming we'll get a modern Pro Tour for the third Tour this year, and that will be enough.
I'm sure that they're considered it, and they most likely know that the majority would vote for Modern to replace Legacy in all of their tournaments.
That being said, I'd love to see Modern opens instead of Legacy, but that's only because I play Modern and not Legacy