My friend runs an infinite combo (Deadeye Navigator + Great Whale + Squirrels Nest) to get infinite mana and infinite tokens. My playgroup has been discussing whether to ban infinite combos or not. My question is, what is/are your opinion(s) on infinite combos in commander?
Before I begin, I should probably say that whatever your playgroup wants to do is probably fine. Commander is a social format, and if all of you hate losing to infinite combos, then go ahead and ban whatever.
That being said, I think combos serve an important role in the format, and that’s to end games before they go on too long. If everyone is playing without combos and the only way to end games is to beat in with dudes, then your metagame is going to shift towards lots of board wipes. Eventually games are going to become total slogs because nobody can keep a threat on the field for more than a turn. If that tug-of-war style of play is fun for you, then I can understand your desire to ban cards that are capable of cutting that fun short by winning the game instantly. Personally, I prefer 30-minute games to two-hour ones, and so I don’t mind if somebody goes off with Kiki-Conscripts or whatever to end the game before it starts to get boring.
Also, it’s worth pointing out that you can just alter your deck to include more instant-speed answers to combos, rather than prohibiting the combos outright. If a combo piece proves to be too resilient to disruption, then it’s probably time to consider banning it, but I would definitely try to deal with combos myself before relying on the power of the banhammer.