Hello and welcome to my Commander review of the Doctor Who Commander Masters of Evil precon deck available out now! Despite being completely disinterested in the Doctor Who franchise, I am WAY into these decks. There are so many really cool cards and, of particular relevance to
Commander, so so so many legends for that commander slot.
This series will be divided into two parts per Commander precon deck: Legends and new cards. I will nod at important reprints, but that’s about it.
Here are my top five nonlegends from the Masters of Evil followed by the rest in the deck with alittle review. Remember, the top five are just the ones I really like and that tickle my brain.
1. Auton Soldier
A six mana creature clone that removes legendary subtype is still find on rate – Spark Double and Sakashima of a Thousand Faces do that for four mana, which is much better, but that ability still feels worth six mana. Giving that creature myriad is just insane. Gray Merchant of Asphodel anyone?
If you’ve got a commander you love in the command zone and they’ve got a great ETB or leaves the battlefield trigger, I bet you’d love to see this card anytime you play that deck. Make sure you keep this safe but then go crazy.
2. Hunted by The Family
For seven mana, you give four creatures’ controllers a real “if I can’t have one, no one can” ultimatum with my favourite villainous choice card. A seven mana sorcery that doesn’t win the game outright isn’t exactly where you want a card like this to land, but putting the choice on
your opponents to essentially possibly hand you the game makes the table dynamics very interesting.
3. Death in Heaven
Graveyard hate, as much as it pains me to say this, is very good to put in your decks. If one of your opponents has a stack of creatures in their ‘yard, you can look forward to the final chapter giving you all those guys as flipped over Cyberman creatures. Pick up your Ixidor, Reality Sculptor’s, Deadeye Navigator’s, Thassa, Deep-Dwelling’s, and Conjurer’s Closet’s to be able to flip them and get that sweet, sweet value.
Islandwalk on a creature that can turn lands into Islands on attack is one of the wildest things I’ve seen. Especially when you can then turn other creatures into more copies of this weird Alien Zombie Horror. If your opponent has difficult creatures, you can make them a copy of The Flood of Mars instead. But then you have to worry about your lands or your other creatures getting sniped, so be aware of that. However, if you’ve got a bunch of 1/1 or 2/2 tokens, giving them a buff and that attack trigger makes them way better on each of your combats.
Your opponents won’t know what card they’ll be giving you before they make the villainous
choice so there’s a good chance you’ll get to cast a few spells from exile. This is a Prosper,
Tome-Bound all-star in the making. If your opponents are scared of what you’ll rip from their
deck, then they’ll have to take possibly a hefty amount of damage. They can also exile four
lands they really needed. Either way, this is a brutal card to have played against you. I really like
it!
Here are the rest
Clockwork Droid – If you really need to get in for unblockable three damage, you have the option here. It’s fine.
Cyberman Patrol – This is excellent for any artifact creature decks, of course, but afflict three is pretty nuts. Swing in with a 1/1 and it’s either your opponents let that creature live or they lose three life. I like it, but this definitely needs a deck that’s already overwhelming to go with it.
Cybermat – A lot of artifact creatures in this deck really want to be with artifact creature decks.
Cybermen Squadron – Yes, this gives token artifact creatures myriad, too. Myr Battlesphere is a damn tank. Vehicles might be a solid spot to pop in with this.
Dalek Drone – Reminds me of Noxious Gearhulk for a more aggressive deck to put the pressure on. Time for a blink deck, a reanimation deck, or Araumi of the Dead Tide Encore deck to pop this sucker in.
Dalek Squadron – Myriad and menace? This will make games go by like nothing.
Renegade Silent – A growing threat that goads every turn seems fun, but at four mana, it’s not
super impressive. So far a lot of these cards are very clearly meant to enable Davros, Dalek Creator.
Sontaran General – This card is excellent for aggressive decks. Swing with three creatures and make sure a creature per opponent not only can’t block but they get goaded! That’s fantastic.
Sycorax Commander – Not thrilled about giving your opponents a new hand so this will only go in dedicated discard decks or wheel decks.
Time Reaper – This feels hyper-situational. Part of me wants this to be a Spectre but otherwise, this is tech against the Prosper decks.
Vashta Nerada – Shadow is basically unblockable. So an unblockable, indestructible creature that probably grows bigger and bigger every turn? Let’s start the countdown for your opponents.
Weeping Angel – First strike and vigilance means you hope you can block nicely, but it’s not a creature if they cast one that turn. But at least you get to ambush an opponent with flash! Shuffling their creature into their deck is incredible.
Zygon Infiltrator – A clone that is better than it looks at first blush. If you’ve got creatures with stackable static abilities. Nyxbloom Ancient? Have another. If your opponent has one, you get one too!
Delete – An Earthquake variant that saves artifact creatures. Some people are heavy into this, but I don’t see it.
Doomsday Confluence – I love modal spells and I love when they let you pick the same mode as many times as you need. An X spell that’s double X means every two mana gives you another effect. So three mana means one mode, five mana means two, seven means three.
Exterminate! – This card really slaps. You have to be in a Dalek deck to really take full advantage and copy this over and over. Tacking on the three life loss for the creatures’ controller keeps the clock ticking.
Great Intelligence’s Plan – If you can copy this spell enough, you’ll end up emptying your opponents’ hands or you’ll free cast a few things after drawing a full grip. Even getting this once seems pretty great. I really like this card. Six mana is a little steep but I can dig this in the
right deck.
Cyber Conversion – Instant speed to turn down a creature to basically make it useless is pretty solid for two mana. This is picking up traction in cEDH, which is notable, but it’s not my taste, really.
Don’t Blink – Time to hose the Prosper, Tome-Bound and Brago, King Eternal decks. Also,
cycling is great on this for when none of those decks are at the table.
This Is How It Ends – Shuffling a creature into a deck instead of just bouncing or killing it is so annoying because you just know it’s in the deck and you juuuust had it. If you get hit with this during an important attack, I’m sure you’d be so upset. The thing is, this probably won’t be
seeing a lot of play especially when Deadly Rollick is the choice of decks out there. This makes me hope we see more villainous choices and The Valeyard will have a real deck to prop up with.
Cybership – This thing hits like a damn tank and takes their top two cards and makes them crew ready for crack back if you can give it vigilance. This is honestly such a strong card I came close to include it in my top five, but don’t have more to say than this rules!
Laser Screwdriver – Another three mana rock with upside and I have to say that goading a creature is really cool be able to repeat when you need it. And when you don’t, you’ve got options like tapping for any colour.
Midnight Crusader Shuttle – This villainous choice is one of my favourites in the whole deck. This works particularly well with The Beast, Deathless Prince.
Blink – Nobody is going to read this card the right way the first time. This is going to be a star in Aminatou, the Fate Shifter decks looking for a new way to remove annoying creatures.
Day of the Moon – I’m not sold on this one. Goading is great, goading for multiple turns is great. But because you name a creature card, you can’t name tokens like Zombie or something. Maybe you have two opponents with a creature they share and now they have to send them at each other.
Genesis of the Daleks – You get six 3/3 tokens with menace out of this and then either deal 18 damage to one opponent or board wipe everything but your Daleks.
The Sound of Drums – This aura rips so hard. Being able to bounce it back to your hand after
an attack and get to use it again. It’s mana intensive, but it gets my gears going. I like it!
The Toymaker’s Trap – You will never get five cards out of this. Honestly, what an annoying card to be in this product. It is not good and I’m upset it exists.
That does it for Masters of Evil! Stay tuned for Paradox Power soon!
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Hello and welcome to my Commander review of the Doctor Who Commander precon deck available October 13th. Despite being completely disinterested in the Doctor Who franchise, I am WAY into these decks. There are so many really cool cards and, of particular relevance to
Commander, so so so many legends for that commander slot. This series will be divided into two parts per Commander precon deck: Legends and New Cards. I will nod at important reprints, but that’s about it. Here are my top five legends from the Masters of Evil followed by the rest of the legends in the deck with a little review. Remember, the top five are just the ones I really like and that tickle my
brain.
1. Davros, Dalek Creator
I like when the face commander of these decks is interesting enough to land in the top five. I have to admit that when I first saw this I wasn’t sure it would be great. Having seen some of the precons in action, this one over performed in my opinion. This is a bit of a slow burn commander but does so much. Every time you deal three damage to an opponent, you at the very least create a 3/3 menace creature to get in the next turn for the villainous choice to hit all of your opponents. It kind of spreads that way. The card draw is pretty sweet but that discard is also pretty great. Of course, if you make your opponents discard all their cards, the villainous choice becomes pretty easy, but let’s get there with Davros and Pain Magnification.
2. The Beast, Deathless Prince
This card is very cool. Four mana, but enters with a grip of stun counters so it’s not busted. It’s also just a solid Threaten effect that adds a little extra evasion. The juice in this card is the last ability “whenever a creature deals combat damage to its owner, untap The Beast and draw a card.” This really drives home what you want to do with this deck which is Act of Treason your opponents’ creatures, hit them with their own guys, and draw into the rest of your Threaten effects. It feels pretty straightforward and like it will only affect opponents who’ve got creature worth taking! They can’t be mad, they brought the creatures to the table!
3. The Master, Formed Anew
There’s something about this card and I don’t know what it is, but I love it. I keep coming back to this legend, trying to figure it out. It feels like a more constricted Mairsil, the Pretender – you get one less colour, you can’t copy artifacts, and the creatures you exile with a counter have to be in play. Not to mention you need to cast The Master, Formed Anew to get the exile. How do we make this work? Bounce and Blink effects!
Sanctum of Eternity and the like will make sure you keep bringing back The Master, but blinking him with something like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling will allow you to cycle through the creatures you’ve “taken over”. Need that Ravenous Chupacabra again? Blink the commander,
buddy! I don’t know how to make this work, but I am determined to make it happen.
4. The Rani
The last Grixis commander to focus on enchantments in anyway was Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor aka the Curse commander. The Rani offers a bit more of a combat focused twist to turn your opponents’ creatures into minions to do your bidding. Then, when the game is
getting down to one on one, you can pile the Auras onto a creature of your own to pump it. I love Constellation and cards like Wicked Visitor that care about enchantments hitting the graveyard. Pop Firkraag, Cunning Instigator into the 99 and enjoy running the table!
5. The Master, Multiplied
This is the breakout star of this deck by a mile. To explain how this textbox works, when The Master, Multiplied attacks, you’ll get copies for each other opponent not already being attacked. Because they’re tokens, they don’t get sacrificed to the legend rule and the delayed
trigger on Myriad won’t exile your tokens. Now you’ve got three copies of The Master as long as you have three opponents. Next combat, each of the three The Masters, Multipled has Myriad, so each one is making two more copies.
And that’s just on its own. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Jaxis, the Troublemaker, and Rionya, Fire Dancer no longer exile or sacrifice the copies they make at end of turn. There’s a lot of brewing to be done with The Master, Multipled. I’m excited and I’m a little scared!
Here are the rest
Ashad, the Lone Cyberman – Ashad oddly seems like a Voltron aristocrat which I don’t know that we’ve really fully seen. Giving nonlegendary artifact spells Casualty 2 once a turn means that Vedalken Orrery and Leyline of Anticipation will be all-stars in a deck that might wouldn’t
mind getting two instant speed Spine of Ish Sahs.
Cult of Skaro – This feels like all upside. Grixis extra combats seems like the best way to build this commander. Swing in, get something great, keep the party going. Could be a fun Assault Suit commander to just really group slug.
Missy – Missy is already shoring up some infinite combos with Goblin Bombardment and Ruthless Ripper/Horde Ambusher/Dragon’s Eye Savants. The Ripper with Missy and any sackoutlet will end the game. Don’t forget to pack Conjurer’s Closet and Thassa, Deep-Dwelling.
That end step villainous choice is incredible. Either draw three cards or deal hopefully a ton of damage to everyone.
Rassilon, the War President – This is another Dimir commander from the deck that has me inspired to build it. Pack a Paradox Haze and build yourself a second hand. Make sure to add a ton of life gain then add a Bitterblossom so you can conspire your other noncreature spells
from exile. Hell, make a copy of that too. Oh, god, I’m building this deck aren’t I…
The Cyber-Controller – This is a great mill commander! Ixidor, Reality Sculptor can help you flip over the cards that you get that might be worth the time, but ultimately, this isn’t going to be super popular. Cybermen cannot be flipped face up without outside help. Conjurer’s Closet, Deadeye Navigator, and Thassa, Deep-Dwelling are the other ones that come to mind.
The Dalek Emperor – Niche creature type, villainous choice, affinity for something that doesn’t have a ton of support. I don’t really like it much.
The Master, Gallifrey’s End – This is a tough one to evaluate because the it requires non-token artifacts dying and being exiled and an opponent decides to give you a token copy of it or… lose 4 life? Four life piles up but you need the artifact creatures to die and you must exile them. Maybe with Biotransference? The worst Master by a mile.
The Master, Mesmerist – There are 14 creatures in Dimir with natural Skulk. The Master, Mesmerist can give creatures Skulk but you’ll likely be activating this to target opponents’ creatures. Myriad, clones, token copies – all good ways to expand the Skulk gang to keep your grip full.
The Valeyard – A voting commander in Grixis? Fine? Villainous choice isn’t well supported enough for this to helm the deck, to be honest.
Vislor Turlough – The only black Doctor’s companion (aside from Clara Oswald, who is technically colourless). I don’t know if this guy is worth it unless you keep your opponent’s hand stacked. Or if you keep him for extra value and have a hand that keeps going away. Either way, I really really want to like this card, but I don’t think I can get there.\
Here are reprints that are worth your time:
Solemn Simulacrum (new art is great), Blasphemous Act, Snuff Out, Lightning Greaves, Arcane Signet, Sol Ring, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Indulgence, Thought Vessel, Propaganda, Wound Reflection, Dragonskull Summit, Drowned Catacomb, Fiery Islet,
Haunted Ridge, Reliquary Tower, River of Tears, Shipwreck Marsh, and Stormcarved Coast.
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