What do you think is the most annoying combo to play against?
General forum
Posted on Nov. 24, 2013, 4:29 p.m. by lttrevor
I want to make people mad...
Whilst technically not combos, I think there's nothing as annoying as Mass LD.
November 24, 2013 4:33 p.m.
RegisteredDecksOffender says... #5
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Pestermite is pretty annoying to play against. Look at Modern deck lists to find the whole deck.
November 24, 2013 4:36 p.m.
I have saw that combo. Thank God I've never played against it
November 24, 2013 4:38 p.m.
RegisteredDecksOffender says... #7
A well timed Rakdos Charm can usually do the trick. ;)
November 24, 2013 4:39 p.m.
I love combo decks, but I HATE infinite combos of any kind. Infinite combos aren't what the game is about. They're about winning instead of fun. So many times I've been in the middle of a really intense EDH game that could swing to anyone at any moment, then some guy drops Sanguine Bond & Exquisite Blood and ruins the whole thing.
tl;dr combos good, infinite combos bad.
November 24, 2013 4:42 p.m.
Agree with Jp3ngu1nb0y. Also, whilst slower and more obvious than Splinter Twin /Deceiver Exarch , Grand Architect and Pili-Pala is an annoying combo, as it tends to end with Pyromatics which is hard to counter, bar something like an overloaded Counterflux or Mindbreak Trap
November 24, 2013 4:45 p.m.
I say to anyone who has a problem with ANYTHING that happens in magic, Wizards printed the cards, I just play them.
November 24, 2013 4:53 p.m.
The best way to make people mad IMO, is to net deck a really good Delver deck. Losing turn 1 or turn 0 to Storm or Protean Hulk + Flash is annoying but it doesn't make you twist and turn, it's over so fast. I get the most frustrated when versing decks that can consistently counter every important spell you'll ever cast while slowly chipping away at you with something like Delver of Secrets Flip of Geist of Saint Traft . I respect the build but when playing against it, especially in a casual format, I do get a little mad. Some players will get more mad then others, depends on their experience with things like Delver as well as how competitive they are.
November 24, 2013 4:55 p.m.
RegisteredDecksOffender says... #14
Oh, I hate infinite combos as well, don't get me wrong. Just giving some input on what I think is an annoying infinite combo. I fucking hate infinite combos. Game=ruined.
November 24, 2013 4:55 p.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #15
A combo that may be hard to pull off and can be disrupted easily but evil is Ashen Rider (in graveyard) with Debtors' Knell out and a suspended Curse of the Cabal
November 24, 2013 5:10 p.m.
I pilot a Melira deck and it my friends are not happy when i gain unlimited life or does unlimited damage :)
November 24, 2013 5:14 p.m.
Melira Pod, Kiki Jiki Exarch combo is really annoying to play, and in EDH I hate playing Oloro with the Exquisite Blood combo ughhhh so annoying!
I feel a lot of combo players are just magic masturbating, just wanking off a combo, I want you to use some crazy synergy love making! Let us appreciate your deck building genius don't just splooge out an infinite turn 3 lol
November 24, 2013 5:20 p.m.
amishrambo that is such a dirty combo, I've never seen anyone play that combo :O talk about lock down!
November 24, 2013 5:27 p.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #20
@amishrambo I wouldn't consider that a combo so much as excellent interaction, and to be fair it's only good against a creature heavy deck.
Another annoying combo is to mix Eldrazi with Eternal Witness bonded to Deadeye Navigator . In response to trigger bounce Witness and return the Eldrazi to your hand, then shuffle grave
November 24, 2013 5:57 p.m.
amishrambo says... #21
yea my friend plays that combo in this annoying ass bant enchant/pillow fort deck
which plays other annoying combinations such as heliod and Sphere of Safety since heliod can puke out enchantment dude
also I beg to differ umbro
combination:a joining or merging of different parts or qualities in which the component elements are individually distinct. not every combo doesn't have to be some sort of 10 card interact-a-thon (hyperbole)
November 24, 2013 6:24 p.m.
amishrambo says... #22
ALSO never was effective enough for people to use but certainly annoying Vexing Devil and Undying Evil
November 24, 2013 6:26 p.m.
November 24, 2013 6:34 p.m.
I think maybe I forgot Island .
... And I am in a silly mood right now. ...
November 24, 2013 7:04 p.m.
Worst combo ever:
efficient creatures + burn
So annoying, yet everyone plays it.
November 24, 2013 7:07 p.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #28
@amishrambo: No, not every combo has to be 10 cards. I have a combo in my mana ramp deck that uses Devastation Tide , Emrakul, the Aeons Torn , and Omniscience to give me more turns should my opponent somehow survive the initial blow. Combo isn't effectively the same thing as combination. Epochalyptik would possibly agree that what you suggested is more of a good interaction than combo, considering he says the same thing about half the things I consider combos lol. Well, I guess I can see your point to a degree, as I myself, often times consider things combo when others don't.
November 24, 2013 7:44 p.m.
amishrambo says... #29
I think when people here the word combo in MtG they assume you talking about some dumb insta-win play like that thing you do with Protean Hulk Flash Phyrexian Marauder and Disciple of the Vault
which is perfectly fine thing to think when someone says that
November 24, 2013 7:57 p.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #30
I never said I think that way. All I was saying was your "combo" is a lot like saying Amulet of Vigor and Ranger's Path is a combo. It's not, just a neat interaction. Do I think combos can be done without instawin or requiring a ton of cards? Yes.
November 24, 2013 8:31 p.m.
amishrambo says... #31
I'm confused then what, by your definition is a "combo" for clarification
I'm assuming you mean of something involving more then 2 cards that doesn't win the game outright
like playing a bunch mana spells into Grapeshot
November 24, 2013 8:50 p.m.
@Dallie I actually had someone play the Splinter Twin /Deceiver Exarch combo on me the other day. I was planning on using a Palladium Myr /Myr Galvanizer /Myr Propagator combo on him though so I kinda had it coming. :P (I still won that match)
One of my favorite evil combos is Ensnaring Bridge /Bottled Cloister but my absolute favorite of the broken combos is Stuffy Doll /Pariah's Shield . I played that combo on someone in a game once who then made the foolish decision to play Lightning Bolt on me the following turn. Read those cards, kids!
Also Panoptic Mirror /Time Warp . Nuff said.
November 24, 2013 9:15 p.m.
I think that a combo to be played may slightly differ from the combo/control archetype for a deck.
A combo to play might be any combination of cards that have synergy. I use quite a few of these and people get angry and I think they find them annoying based on reactions to them in play. Although I was being a little facetious last night. Actually I posted those combinations to sort of accentuate how much they are not as bad as actual combos that would form the combo of a combo deck like Exquisite Blood +Sanguine Bond because while they combine in a high-synergy way, they will not win the game outright - not even close.
A combo deck archetype is one where out of the 60 or 100 cards, there are just 2-5 that form an interaction that is a win condition. The rest of the cards just stall / control / ramp etc. The kind of combo that belongs in this deck archetype is the kind that wins outright without any support outside of counterspells, card draw, tutoring, and ramping. I think this is the kind of combo UmbrotheUmbreon is talking about and I think the difference is that it has the power to win without any other support in the turn it comes out if you can get those pieces together on the board on time.
Again, I was being silly last night. I hope my point got through ... the things I listed aren't quite as bad as the things that win outright ... just some nice synergy, etc.
November 25, 2013 7:20 a.m.
UmbrotheUmbreon says... #34
Uhhh...well, yes and no r3v13w. I don't know Epochalyptik has confused me with what is combo and what isn't :/
November 25, 2013 7:50 a.m.
Can we discuss egg decks and how boring they are to play against :O
November 25, 2013 1:12 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #36
Just to offer my input: There are combos and there are interactions.
An interaction is merely a synergy between two or more cards.
A combo is a repeatable loop or a lock that results from interactions between two or more cards that leads to game-winning or crippling advantage.
For example, you would say that Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Bogardan Hellkite is an interaction, but Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite is a combo. The former is just a synergy that produces advantage, but the latter is an infinite token generator that wins the game.
To give another example, you wouldn't call an Elf deck a combo deck. Elves synergize very well, but producing a finite (although large) amount of mana is not a combo. Myr, however, take mana production infinite and can therefore be said to combo.
November 25, 2013 1:26 p.m.
i Dont like infinite combo's, so i stop sac'ing Murderous Redcap after lethal damage.
November 25, 2013 1:46 p.m.
it isn't infinite...but...I have pissed off a few people with it:
November 25, 2013 1:54 p.m.
I think that there is a technical sense of the word "combo" specific to MTG with a very specific meaning in terms of the combo deck archetype. It is just what Epochalyptik said in finer detail than what I stated - although I would include some other things like Ensnaring Bridge / Bottled Cloister (mentioned by ImThatGuy) as also being a combo. My understanding is that while it usually / often involves the infinite loop Epochalyptik mentioned, that would be an "infinite combo" where as sometimes combos aren't infinite. Sometimes they just lock out players instead like Knowledge Pool / Curse of Exhaustion . In general, what makes a "combo" a "combo" in the MTG archetype sense of the word is their ability to end the game immediately once the pieces fall into place (or to create a nearly overwhelming board state with extremely limited options for stopping it - like if they don't board wipe next turn you will win).
But I stand my ground! I think there is another more general-use usage of the word "combo" in MTG circles. This is the meaning of the word as defined by amishrambo. There can be combos of food items, music players ... and MTG cards ... the word applies in its general sense to things that have interactions or synergy but wouldn't be used as the core win condition in a "MTG combo archetype style deck".
It is always tricky when a specialty niche / discipline adopts a word for a specific meaning while that word remains in general use with a slightly different meaning.
November 25, 2013 4:19 p.m.
Oh wait - Epoch did say "loop or lock" - so then he just gave more detail ... no need to change what he said at all.
RegisteredDecksOffender says... #2
What format?
November 24, 2013 4:33 p.m.