Last week, I talked about the implications of the Circle of Predation for format design. I wanted to follow it up this week with a look at the archetype that really messes things up—combo. So, what—from a format-wide standpoint—is the effect of combo?

Combo places a single, large constraint on formats—time. This is largely due to the design of most combo decks. There are two factors that go into this. The first is angle of attack, and the second is the fact that most combo decks only need a low number of cards to win. This naturally leads to one major property of combo decks—it is very difficult to atrophy their tempo.

This is very different from what you usually see with most other archetypes. Against most decks, it is often possible to gain or lose ground within the course of a game without the game being over (or effectively over). In fact, most games of Magic are based on this ebb and flow. The fact that many games of Magic swing back and forth is appealing to players.

Combo takes this paradigm and turns it on its head. Games against true combo decks don’t really feature much ebb and flow; either the combo player has it, or he doesn’t. It really is, in many ways, a binary condition. By forcing you to interact with a small subset of cards instead of an entire strategy, combo forces a different type of interaction. The most apt comparison is between combo and aggro.

Consider that your typical Red-based aggressive deck will need to sequence somewhere between two and four creatures alongside a few burn spells to be able to win the game. This means that you, as the opposing player, have the opportunity to interact at each of these points. Removal spells for creatures, counterspells for burn, or even cards like Rest for the Weary provide an opportunity for the defensive player to atrophy the aggressive player’s tempo.

An example: If your opponent, who is on the play, opens with turn-one Goblin Guide, but plays a tapped land and nothing else on turn two, you can answer with a turn-two Wall of Omens. This game is, of course, by no means over, but the Wall of Omens will go a long way toward blunting the assault of the Red deck. Back this up with things like Condemn, Day of Judgment, and Mana Leak, and the game might be won. The thing here to note is that there is often no “blowout” play, defensively or offensively, across a game like this.

Now, consider that you are facing the Exarch/Twin combo. Your opponent only needs to sequence two spells—Deceiver Exarch and Splinter Twin—to win the game. One of those is even instant-speed. This forcibly limits your ability to interact with the deck. Basically, only your ability to interact with those two cards matters at all. Thus, whereas in the aggro example you are interacting with a strategy, against Exarch/Twin, you are interacting with individual cards.

When this fact is combined with the “clock” that both decks present, the true time constraint of combo comes up. Against combo, you have a limited amount of time to find a small subset of relevant cards. The part of this that severely affects your deck’s operations in many cases is the “limited time” part, in many instances forcing you to run extra copies of hate.

Let’s return to Legacy for an example: Dredge. Dredge is a fairly consistent linear combo deck. Now, if you are running a deck that has a very small chance to beat Dredge main-deck, you need to sideboard heavily for this matchup. In fact, barring tutors, you probably need around six pieces of Dredge hate. This is because Dredge will give you anywhere between two and four turns to find it. Now, most Legacy decks run cards like Brainstorm and Sensei's Divining Top, which increases your ability to see cards heavily. Even with these cards, you are still under a fairly strong time constraint, which forces you to increase the quantity of hate you run.

Dredge is sort of a unique example in that it attacks formats from a completely different direction instead of just a mostly different direction. However, it does demonstrate the basic principle of combo’s impact on formats. By placing harder constraints on card space within decks, combo can open up doors for improved performance by other decks. If you choose to run the requisite graveyard hate for Dredge, you have less space for every other matchup in Legacy, a significant cost indeed.

For a more “normal” combo, you can look at High Tide and ANT. Like I talked about a few weeks ago, even a lowly Brainstorm from High Tide might mean that you are just dead, because your opponent can cast it at end of turn, keep either High Tide or Time Spiral, and arrange it so he draws the other one. Tendrils has Ad Nauseam, which can turn into a combo very quickly. The fact that both decks can do all this by turn three or four forces your deck to be able to interact with them very quickly.

Now, take a look at a lot of the more effective hate against these decks—Arcane Laboratory/Rule of Law, Gaddock Teeg, Ethersworn Canonist, and Mindbreak Trap are four examples of cards that are good against combo and not really that useful elsewhere. Putting these cards in your seventy-five represents a certain space dedication, a concession to the speed and power of these decks.

From a design standpoint, this “speed” is absolutely crucial to looking at the impact of combo on formats. This property, like the property of many other decks, can be used beneficially by design, especially to spice up formats. Consider that the Circle of Predation only works because the decks that appear in Standard and Extended are so similar strategically. Zoo vs. mono-Red, Ghazi-Glare vs. Counter Sliver vs. Faeries, CMU Blue vs. Dralnu du Louvre—the list goes on and on, detailing strategic similarities across eras.

Combo allows for “spice” in these formats, since typically the methodology for interacting with each combo deck is slightly different. This arises from the fact that against combo, you are interacting with individual cards and not strategies. Because each individual card in Magic is unique, attacking it is also unique. There may be similarities, but as a whole, combo sprinkles a little bit of uniqueness into formats.

Consider the last time combo was actually good in Type 2—U/R Dragonstorm. Now, if you compare this to the various Exarch/Twin decks, you’ll see that they require extremely different approaches. Neither combo is definitely overpowered, but they affect the format by forcing it to adapt to include cards that are good against both combo decks.

Conclusion

Standard is a format bent by both cards and strategies. I showed how strategies, and the cards that power them, can bend formats last week. Bitterblossom and Bloodbraid Elf are examples of format-warping cards that exert their influence through strategy. Sometimes, these cards cross the line (for example, Jace, the Mind Sculptor) but those examples are few in history. Combo provides a viable way for Wizards to warp formats via individual cards, which provides some level of “newness.”

You may think that format-warping cards are bad, but I would say that while you might be right in an ideal sense, you are disillusioned. Standard will always be warped by powerful cards. This is a fact due to the limited card pool. In fact, all formats are warped by powerful cards. Legacy and Vintage are completely constrained by the powerful cards that exist there. The only real difference is that the base power bar for eternal formats is much higher, so all the cards warping eternal formats seem ridiculously overpowered because, for the most part, they are.

If format-warping cards are a part of Magic, that power should be used actively. It is something that designers have some degree of control over. It is possible in most circumstances to predict (to a degree) what effect powerful cards will have on formats, and also to see how various influences interact. This allows the appropriate warping to take place. If you bother bending a format, you should bend it in reverse as well.

Consider a physical card. Magic cards bend and warp, but they can be bent back and rendered useful again. Magic formats are much the same way. They are warped by the powerful cards they contain, but that doesn’t mean you have to have a degenerate format; you just have to “warp back.” Understanding the Circle of Predation and combo provides two powerful tools for re-warping formats. After all, who wants to play a format full of Grizzly Bears?

Chingsung Chang

Conelead most everywhere and on MTGO

Khan32k5 at gmail dot com