I think that Standard needs more cards in it than they are giving it, and needs combo to return as a viable archetype on a more regular basis to try and "Police" some of the format - even if the combo is weak, certain decks (e.g. Company) ought to be weak to at least certain forms of combo - [[Spell Queller]] will only get you so far.

Is it possible that we have a lack of sufficient versatile answers? I'm just spitballing here but I'm reminded of this [http://www.sirlin.net/articles/designing-defensively-guilty-gear](design article) on Guilty Gear (a fighting game):
When each character (or faction / race / deck / etc.) is extremely different from the rest, there's more potential for some characters to do things that other characters just can't handle..so is there some way we can keep things balanced anyway? The fighting game series Guilty Gear shows us how:
*Universal Defense:** all characters have equal access to an unusually large number of safeguards and defensive abilities. This includes failsafes that solve problems the designers didn't have to specifically know about ahead of time.
Unique Offense: each character has unique mechanics that stray further from the standard template than they would in most other fighting games.
Because the designers can count on all characters having so many ways to get out of trouble, they can give each character radically different offensive tools. I think of features shared by all characters as the "design skeleton," and the different options each character has as the "meat on the bones." Even though all characters share many defensive options (and a few offensive options), they feel extremely different. That's because your offense options define your gameplan—what you're actually trying to do when you play.*