Curse of echoes on the green ramp player early enough erases their advantage. Anyone who has been in a game with New Frontiers or Collective Voyage how quickly a massively ramped game degenerates, and it's almost never the ramp player that is at an advantage.
One card that I have nicknamed "The Funsucker" is Avacyn. While I do understand that there are answers, the idea is that she is a gateway escalator. Once someone brings her into a group and it is not discussed, then an arms race inevitably ensues, resulting in a format that is less social.
So, I have not, nor will I ever put Avacyn in a deck that I own, and will forever call her "The Funsucker".
This gentleman has chosen for his fellows to practice fisticuffs at every opportunity. Mr. Borborgymos the elder is a fine man to provide the leadership desired. These fisticuffs are generally one on one type affairs. It behooves you to provide training for these little soirees. Mind you, the vexing of your peers commences forthwith when they are unable to provide enough training for their little fellows with enough constitution.
Translation:
I use a "fight" themed deck for old Borborgymos. I use beasts and toughness pumping. Generally, I can keep the board pretty clear using some of the better fight spells and it is a lot of fun to play.
This combo is truly infinite, as in it is unbounded. If someone doesn't have direct creature kill, bounce, or damage prevention, then the game would end in a draw.
I currently have a deck built around this and it is a blast to play. The general for it is Skeleton Ship. If you want a decklist to provide you with some ideas, feel free to PM me.
I love the use of the card Hallow. The rulings on the card say that if the spell becomes a permanent, then the damage from that permanent is still prevented and you gain the life.
A buddy of mine has one of these as his general, because it is a non-standard general he put some restrictions on himself and it makes the deck very interesting to play against.
1. The land is doing the damage so it is not general damage.
2. He is not allowed to play any basic lands in his deck.
3. He is not allowed to play any spells in the deck.
What this means is that the deck itself is 99 non-basic lands.
As I said, it makes the deck VERY interesting to play against.
My view on this whole discussion is pretty much summed up by Sheldon's statement in this Commander format philosophy article on Starcity.
"Play games that you want to remember, not games that your friends want to forget."
Now, I'm not saying that this is gospel, but this philosophy of the format is why I got into it to begin with, and I try to enforce it within my own playgroup. That is why the RC allows people to self police their own group. It is a social format that lets each group define what is "fun" for that particular group. A lot of the difficulty has come because WoTC put their stamp of approval on the format and expanded the playgroup for many people beyond what can be self policed. This means that these discussions will come up again and again between people that have different definitions of fun and do not play together.
Now, the online community (MODO et. al.) have no way to self police, since many of the games are anonymous. This will continue to be a source of difficulty for the format. The format itself, however, will continue as long as there are small groups that play together and have discussions regarding what they consider fun.
Full Disclosure
In my particular play group, we have not banned any particular cards that are not on the banned list and have not allowed any cards that are currently on the banned list.
We encourage creative deckbuilding and discourage spiteful plays, ragequits, and degenerate deckbuilding. In fact, when we find that a particular card is degenerate within our own decks, we typically take it out in order to create a more interactive game. That isn't to say that we take out every strong card in our deck, but 2 card combos are discouraged if they create an insurmountable advantage to us. In other words, we try to make sure that our decks are "reasonable answerable."
6 + 7 + 8 = 21
So, I have not, nor will I ever put Avacyn in a deck that I own, and will forever call her "The Funsucker".
Translation:
I use a "fight" themed deck for old Borborgymos. I use beasts and toughness pumping. Generally, I can keep the board pretty clear using some of the better fight spells and it is a lot of fun to play.
This combo is truly infinite, as in it is unbounded. If someone doesn't have direct creature kill, bounce, or damage prevention, then the game would end in a draw.
Exile everyone's libraries with multiple activations of Supreme Inquisitor and then force them to draw with Magus of the Jar.
They are perfect on Aphetto Alchemist and Seeker of Skybreak.
Every card in the deck relates to "two" in some way, without being a full on clone deck.
So, cards with flashback (play it twice), persist and undying (comes into play twice), and spell copies go into the deck, as well as cards with CMC 2.
I even included cards with two of something in the artwork (Morphling and Torchling).
The deck is not super powerful, but is fun to play because you have to figure out the best way to get value out of some subpar card choices.
I try to carry a theme through any deck that i make, because it makes the games more fun for me, win or lose.
Btw, Magistrate's Scepter and Coretapper are definitely must includes for this type of deck.
(My list has won with general damage, token swarm, infinite turns, and proliferated poison.)
T1: land/go
T2: land, Energy Chamber, Everflowing Chalice (unkicked)
T3: land, transmute Clutch of the Undercity, to get Unwinding Clock.
T4: no land, Contagion Engine. (no critters on the board yet)
T5: Seat of Synod, Ichor Rats, Unwinding Clock.
Killed the other two players on my next turn with proliferate poison.
1. The land is doing the damage so it is not general damage.
2. He is not allowed to play any basic lands in his deck.
3. He is not allowed to play any spells in the deck.
What this means is that the deck itself is 99 non-basic lands.
As I said, it makes the deck VERY interesting to play against.
"Play games that you want to remember, not games that your friends want to forget."
Now, I'm not saying that this is gospel, but this philosophy of the format is why I got into it to begin with, and I try to enforce it within my own playgroup. That is why the RC allows people to self police their own group. It is a social format that lets each group define what is "fun" for that particular group. A lot of the difficulty has come because WoTC put their stamp of approval on the format and expanded the playgroup for many people beyond what can be self policed. This means that these discussions will come up again and again between people that have different definitions of fun and do not play together.
Now, the online community (MODO et. al.) have no way to self police, since many of the games are anonymous. This will continue to be a source of difficulty for the format. The format itself, however, will continue as long as there are small groups that play together and have discussions regarding what they consider fun.
Full Disclosure
In my particular play group, we have not banned any particular cards that are not on the banned list and have not allowed any cards that are currently on the banned list.
We encourage creative deckbuilding and discourage spiteful plays, ragequits, and degenerate deckbuilding. In fact, when we find that a particular card is degenerate within our own decks, we typically take it out in order to create a more interactive game. That isn't to say that we take out every strong card in our deck, but 2 card combos are discouraged if they create an insurmountable advantage to us. In other words, we try to make sure that our decks are "reasonable answerable."