It’s easy to mock the guy on Magic Online who creates the game named “Casual – no combo, no land destruction, no Slivers, no Elves, no counterspells.” Unskilled players will whine about any number of things being “unfair.”

But this shouldn’t be extended to all stated preferences—we play Magic to have fun, and it can be perfectly reasonable to avoid styles of play that you find particularly unfun. It’s mature and reasonable to say, “There’s nothing wrong with running Jokulhaups, but that type of card substantially reduces my enjoyment of the game, and I’d rather not play against it.”

Everyone has their own preferences and limits. But Commander has certain boogeymen that are widely feared and likely to earn you angry looks down at your local game store. Even if you like them, it’s worth understanding why other people don’t.

Infinite Combos

Sheldon has stated that the Rules Committee as a whole is okay with combos, but not with combo decks. You’re welcome to go off with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion every few games, but it becomes an issue when your deck is built around assembling that combo. Even that can be problematic, though: I’d rather not see my games end with an “oops, I win” even if it’s a different player with a different combo each time.

The main “problem” with combos is the suddenness with which they end the game. Everyone is building their mana, drawing cards, trading damage, and killing each other’s threats, when suddenly, you get the right two cards out, and the game is over. It can be frustrating and feel as though all the strategy, gameplay, and politics up to that point were a waste of time.

I prefer to avoid playing with or against combo decks in Commander. I respect that they’re “fair” in the sense of being vulnerable to the right answers, but it’s overly centralizing and just not a game I enjoy playing. I want to tap out for my commander without worrying that one-turn window will mean Game Over.

Mass Land Destruction

It didn’t take me too long to realize that this made people miserable. When I won, it was an unsatisfying victory that left me feeling guilty about ruining a fun game with my friends. Even when I lost, it dragged the game out by a frustrating extra hour as everyone struggled to rebuild.

That experience basically summed up my feelings on mass land destruction in Commander. I like my games to have a strong progression to bigger and more awesome things. Mass land destruction does one of two things: It either wins the game immediately, which puts it in roughly the same place as infinite combos, or it fails to win and just resets the game back to square one, leading to a dragged-out and tedious game.

I’ve heard it argued that mass land destruction is necessary to keep ramp decks in check, but I don’t buy this argument. Yes, any change to the metagame will make certain decks more or less powerful, but I don’t think ramp decks are unbeatable or that land destruction is the best way to fight them. Even if this is the case, I’d rather play in a format in which ramp decks are powerful than one in which I can’t play an eighth land to replay my commander for fear of Armageddon.

Extra Turns

Long story short, consider cutting your extra-turn effects unless your group is okay with “comboing off” or you’re willing to cut all the recursion from your deck. And if you’re playing Riku of Two Reflections, don’t give me that innocent look. I know what you’re planning.

Counterspells

In fact, counterspells are good for keeping the aforementioned ramp decks in check. You can’t counter everything, but if someone wants to spend half his hand building up mana, you can counter his two game-winning spells.

Infect

Poison already has a ton of handicaps in Commander, though. You’re limited to a very small number of cards, most of which aren’t very good. Your damage doesn’t stack with normal damage, meaning if you’re going to kill someone, you have to do the entire job on your own.

That said, there are enough people who dislike poison that I wouldn’t bring an infect-focused deck into an unknown group.

Wrapping Up

Next week will be my first edition of Cardboard Spotlight, where I focus on obscure or controversial cards. I’ll see you then!