The MTG Spider Man set has now been revealed in its entirety. While it’s unclear exactly how powerful the new cards will prove to be in Standard and beyond, one thing’s for certain: Wizards of the Coast knocked the flavor of the set out of the park. This set features unique references to old designs (check out the similarities between Secret Identity and Unmask in the artwork) as well as amusing memes with the printing of Impostor Syndrome.
Interestingly, though, Impostor Syndrome as a card is more than just a meme. The powerful enchantment has a lot of Commander appeal. Plus, it even opens up the door for some neat infinite combos! Whether you’re a fan of dealing infinite damage or taking infinite turns, there’s a lot you can do with Impostor Syndrome on the board.
Two-Card Combo
The most intriguing combo likely available with Impostor Syndrome is when paired with Aurelia, the Warleader. Aurelia has a strong triggered ability that grants you an extra combat phase when you attack. Add on the fact that it has Haste, and you can set up a pretty gnarly turn out of nowhere.
The only downside is that this ability is capped at triggering only once per turn, since it only triggers when Aurelia attacks for the first time. This is where Impostor Syndrome comes into play. Assuming you’re able to connect with Aurelia, you’ll get to create a token copy of Aurelia that isn’t legendary.
This means that on your next combat, you get to attack with both copies of Aurelia. The non-legendary copy is attacking for the first time, enabling you to get another combat step. Meanwhile, when the original copy hits the opponent, you’ll get another token copy of Aurelia and can repeat this process over and over.
Technically, this combo will be legal in Standard. Aurelia was reprinted in MTG Foundations, so it will be Standard legal for the foreseeable future. However, playing a combo reliant on two six-drops probably isn’t going to cut it in a competitive environment.
Where this combo has the best chance to shine is in EDH. You unfortunately can’t play Impostor Syndrome in an Aurelia deck due to its blue color identity. Still, both cards are decent inclusions in a Jodah, the Unifier deck, so they’re worth keeping in mind.
Similar Multi-Card Combos
If this combo interests you, you can pull off a similar combo with Godo, Bandit Warlord. Just like Aurelia, Godo gifts you an extra attack step when you attack for the first time. The only thing Godo is lacking is Haste, so you’ll need a Haste enabler to allow your token copies of Godo to attack during your extra combats. Luckily, there are a ton of options for the third combo piece, including Fires of Yavimaya or Urabrask, the Hidden.
Breath of Fury is another combo card that pairs nicely with Impostor Syndrome, but it also requires some extra help to get going. You need to have a nontoken creature with Haste in play, as well as another creature to attach Breath of Fury to. Additionally, you’ll need both creatures to reliably connect in combat.
Once the nontoken Hasty creature and the enchanted creature deal combat damage to an opponent, both Impostor Syndrome and Breath of Fury will trigger. Make sure to stack your triggers so that Impostor Syndrome’s ability resolves first.
That way, you’ll create a token copy of the nontoken Hasty threat before sacrificing the original, and you’ll shift Breath of Fury over to that copy. All of your creatures get to untap and attack again, and you’ll be able to take infinite combat steps and deal infinite damage. Both of these combos are targeted for Commander play and should be fun to pull off.
In a Standard setting, if you have Fear of Missing Out and Enduring Courage in play and have Delirium turned on, there’s a good chance you can set up an easy lethal attack. When you attack with FOMO, use its final ability to untap itself and get an additional combat phase. When it deals combat damage to your opponent, make a token copy of FOMO. It will gain Haste thanks to Enduring Courage.
This isn’t a truly infinite combo, since you’re forced to discard and draw a card each time FOMO enters. However, so long as you have enough cards in your library to work with, setting up a win before you lose to decking should be trivial.
Infinite Turns Combo
Finally, we wanted to highlight a three-card combo that takes an entirely different approach. This time around, you need Impostor Syndrome, Myr Battlesphere, and Time Sieve on the battlefield, as well as an open lane for Myr Battlsephere.
Dealing combat damage with Myr Battlesphere earns you a token copy which makes four Myr tokens when it enters. Conveniently, between the Myr Battlesphere token and the four Myr tokens, you have just enough fodder to sacrifice to Time Sieve to take an extra turn. This way, you’ll have infinite turns to work with by repeating this process.
While these are some of the more prominent combos available utilizing Impostor Syndrome, there are a lot for players to take advantage of. It’ll be fun to see the card in action and all the ways EDH players find to maximize it.
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