Opinions: Infinite Combos in Commander

     Hello and welcome to the Daily MTG, your one stop shop for all you Magic content needs. Today we will be touching on a very delicate subject for some. That is the idea of having infinite combos in Commander. In more competitive formats, combos are completely legal and are only restricted by the ban list of their appropriate formats. Commander is different though, it is not a format where you sit across the table from some guy you've never met before and duke it out until one of you drops. Commander is defined by it's more relaxed mood and setting. Rarely are there times where you'll be headed off to a tournament to play competitive Commander, but rather you gather up your Commander deck to go and kill a few hours with your playgroup. We will go over the pros and cons of having combos in your meta, and whether or not they should be allowed.

 
  Combos are when certain cards interact with each other in a way that creates an endless loop, which, depending on what said cards do, can allow you to generate infinite mana, draw infinite cards, or even deal infinite damage. A combos' power is determined by two things, especially in Commander: How many cards are in the combo, and how easy is it to put the combo together. Our example will be the 2-card combo of  Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond. This is a very powerful combo, because it only requires 2 cards, both of the cards are enchantments, which are difficult to remove from play, and finally, it can be assembled by turn 6 with no ramp. As you can see, combos are very powerful and efficient ways to win a game, so the question is simple. Are combos too powerful to be allowed in Commander?


    Having combos in your meta can be a bad thing. A lot of people don't like to lose a 2 hour game of Magic because somebody was able to find two or three cards from their deck and play them. Decks can be made to consistently grab combos with no issue using card draw and tutor effects. This can mean that, without a proper control deck, or if your meta just isn't equipped with the proper responses, then a combo deck can become very hard to play against. This would mean that you would have to change your deck to have answers to a particular combo, which can be difficult for a lot of decks, especially theme decks. It's hard to find enchantment removal with a cool hat or a chair in the art. So it is understandable why certain play groups would prefer to house-rule ban combos, or play on after someone has combo'd out, which can feel bad for the combo player.

    There are some pros to having combos in your meta though. Commander is a powerhouse format designed to reward clever deck builders, and these combos, and finding a way to consistently put them together, is one of these rewards. This is why it is bad to punish someone for taking the time to put a cool combo deck together by house-ruling them out of the game, or making them wait until you've finished your game after they've combo'd out. In fact, combos are a good thing for any meta. A combo deck can help shake up the meta, forcing people back to the drawing board to figure out how to beat the combo, or make whole new decks to compete with the combo. Combos provide a challenge to your playgroup, not only to the person who has to put the deck together in the first place, but also to the rest of the group who now have to create better decks to fight the combo deck.

    So, obviously I am on the side of the combo kills. I am a big fan of carefully crafting a deck to make an interaction between cards a way to kill everybody else, or at least make the game unwinnable for everyone else. This may be because I am a bit of a spike, but there are other pros to having combos in a meta, even if you aren't the one playing the combo deck. It forces growth, expansion in everyone's deck, revitalizing play groups and making Commander the ultimate deck-building, game-play, and political challenge that it truly is. That's all from me today, if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to comment! I'll see you all tomorrow!