Prerelease events for Spider Man may be at our doorstep, but excitement for this set seems to be a lot lower than expected. Considering this is a Universes Beyond crossover with a massive franchise, there should be a lot of anticipation for this set. Instead, players seem to be rather indifferent to this set, compared to other crossovers.
If anything, the lack of financial movements is a big indicator of this. Avatar: The Last Airbender, despite being months away from release, is making more cards rise in price than the entire Spider Man set. Despite the lack of flashy designs, however, there are still some interesting cards here.
+1/+1 counter decks, in particular, are getting a lot of powerful tools in MTG Spider Man. A few new cards can add to the massive plethora of infinite combos the archetype has. Strength of Will has some very obvious applications and was highlighted right from its reveal. Spider-Man, Peter Parker is yet another powerful +1/+1 counter combo enabler, but it’s almost a strictly worse Heliod, Sun-Crowned.
Lyla, Holographic Assistant, however, offers some new ground. We’ve seen her effect before in MTG, but it’s usually held back by a lot of conditions. This is the most accessible her effect has ever been.
More Infinite Combo Support
Lyla, Holographic Assistant’s exact ability is only otherwise offered by Wizard Class. In order to utilize that card’s ability, however, you need to sink nine mana into it to fully level up Wizard Class. Lyla, Holographic Assistant, in comparison, is much more accessible.
Not only can this uncommon become your Commander, but Lyla should be a powerful addition to many +1/+1 counter theme decks. She’s a great upgrade for Counter Blitz, for instance, but her utility doesn’t end there. Lyla can easily enable a lot of powerful infinite combos. Perhaps the most powerful of these is a two-card combo between Lyla, Holographic Assistant and Benthic Biomancer.
Printed back in Ravnica Allegiance, Benthic Biomancer loots whenever a +1/+1 counter is placed on it. The loot would trigger Lyla, allowing you infinite loots. You’ll grow Benthic Biomancer in the process as well, allowing you to knock out a player so long as they have less life than you have cards in your library. Considering that Benthic Biomancer is a one-drop, this is a very accessible combo as far as Commander goes.
From there, the combos get a bit more complex, but they’re also far more powerful. Arming a Walking Ballista with Curiosity will allow you to kill the whole table with Lyla, Holographic Assistant on board. Whenever Ballista pings an opponent, you’ll draw a card. Lyla puts another counter on the Ballista, starting the loop all over again. While this isn’t a world-shattering combo, it is playable in a Lyla, Holographic Assistant Commander deck, similar to the Benthic Biomancer combo. You can replace Walking Ballista with Triskelion for the same result.
Mindless Automaton is also capable of going infinite with Lyla, Holographic Assistant, but you do need a third piece. Any replacement effect that doubles your extra draws, like Alhammarret’s Archive, will allow Lyla to put two +1/+1 counters on Mindless Automaton. It can then remove those counters to draw two more cards. If you’re in Simic, you can also use counter-doubling effects like Hardened Scales or Doubling Season to replace the draw-doubling effect.
Those are the only mono-blue combos available to this card, but if you’re willing to add a few more colors, Lyla, Holographic Assistant, can brew up a few more combos to try.
Adding Different Colors
Moving to Dimir, Lyla, Holographic Assistant has an infinite combo with another Spider Man card. This card is so powerful that it will likely merit an inclusion in many draw-focused Commander decks anyway.
Doctor Octopus, Master Planner doesn’t quite measure up to Atraxa, Grand Unifier, but it’s still an impressive creature that refills your hand every turn. His color identity is also far more approachable, making him an interesting addition to multiple different Commander decks.
Drawing up to eight cards works quite well with Lyla. She can place up to eight counters on another creature, allowing Sage of Hours to easily take infinite turns. The only obstacle with this combo is that Doctor Octopus doesn’t draw eight cards per turn, but instead just refills your hand to eight. Putrid Imp easily solves this problem for just one mana, while Skirge Familiar can turn the discarded cards into mana. Skirge Familiar also seems like a powerful Mayhem enabler for any Commander players who want to build the deck.
Adding Green
Looking towards green, Lyla, Holographic Assistant creates some infinite combos with cards that commonly show up in these discussions. Scurry Oak and Lyla can create infinite bodies and infinite card draw when combined with Kindred Discovery. As strong as this is, Scurry Oak goes infinite with a peanut, so playing this card is begging for the table to deal with it as soon as possible. You can pull off a similar combo by replacing Scurry Oak with Herd Baloth.
Basking Broodscale, a card with a similar reputation, can also go infinite with Lyla, Holographic Assistant. Combine the two cards with Fecundity, and you can generate a ton of colorless mana, draw tons of cards, and have a ton of creature enters and death triggers. It should be rather easy to play a win condition from the cards you’ve drawn to close the game.
The most accessible combo with Lyla, Holographic Assistant in Simic, however, is with Fathom Mage. This two-card combo can draw infinite cards and put as many +1/+1 counters on Fathom Mage. This should be enough to close most games out on its own.
While this includes many of the infinite combos you can pull off with Lyla, Holographic Assistant, there are dozens of combos that we haven’t covered. That said, these are, for the most part, the most accessible combos you can use with Lyla. Lyla’s potential as a Commander should not only garner some interest from the MTG community but also allow players to revisit some older combos that were otherwise much more difficult to access.
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