Hello and welcome to my Commander review of the Doctor Who Commander precon decks 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.
Also, given that Doctor’s Companion and all the new Doctor cards means that they have this parasitic partner mechanic and can lead to so many combinations. There are 26 Doctor’s Companions and 15 eligible Doctors to combine meaning there are 390 possible commander
pairings for this set.
Here are my top five nonlegendary from the Timey-Wimey Doctor Who Commander 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. The Parting of the Ways
If you need to be convinced of this card’s strength, I recommend checking out the Decked Out Early Doctor Who Access episode on YouTube. VeggieWagon plays this and hits five nonland cards off the top of his deck and ends up pulling off casting them the next turn! This is magical Christmasland and all, but we can witness it happening. The likelihood of hitting multiple worthwhile nonland cards is pretty high. Time Travel, then time travel again is like ramping two per nonland card you’ve suspended. Then by the time the final chapter hits, your opponents will likely each have an artifact to destroy. This Saga would be amazing to copy or flicker. Also, for the Prosper, Tome-Bound decks that want to slow roll into big turns, this is a good one to consider.
2. Nanogene Conversion
I have no real plan for this but there’s just so much to like about this card – at least to me, specifically. I have an Esper clones deck that this can slot right into. The art is unsettling and creepy, it’s perfect! Turning all creatures into Ayara, First of Locthwain and then playing a black
creature can claw you back into the game or outright end it. I don’t know what the coolest or most efficient card to target would be, but Nanogene Conversion is a card I’ll keep thinking about from now on whenever a new cool creature is released or I’m just click-clacking along on Scryfall.com. Nanogene Conversion is one of those cards that makes me feel smart when it
clicks. It’s a piece of a puzzle and you’re not sure what you’re putting together.
3. Flesh Duplicate
I clearly love a clone. How about Phantasmal Image with Vanishing 3? Sometimes all you need is three turns with a creature to wrap things up. The rate on this is just too good to pass up. You can blink it or proliferate its counters, you can bring it back with a Sun Titan or other three mana value reanimation effects. It’s flexible and great on rate. What’s not to like?
4. The Pandorica
The Pandorica might seem expensive since the first time you remove something, you’ll have sunken five mana into it, but with so many decks dependent on their commander, this feels like the right way to really cut someone below the knees. Maybe you’re not up against that kind of
deck, there’s always a Smothering Tithe or Rhystic Study out there ready to be set aside. You can also save something of yours before a board wipe, but remember, it can only be activated at sorcery speed and you can’t really save something in response to another thing on the stack.
5. Everybody Lives!
This is objectively the card that people are talking about the most for cEDH or higher powered Commander. You prevent a win or a loss, you prevent board wipes or removal. For two mana. Two mana! This might not be Teferi’s Protection, but Everybody Lives! is mentioned in the same tier right now. This belongs in any deck that can run it, but really will most likely be best applied to the cEDH tables. It is, most likely, the strongest card in the whole set. Here are the rest of them!
Here are the rest of them!
Adipose Offspring – These adorable looking little aliens are 2/2s in a can. With the Emerge alt casting cost and a creature with a big enough butt, you can get effect reminiscent of Ghoulcaller Gisa. It’s cute, it’s fun, it belongs in Doran, the Siege Tower and Arcades, the
Strategist decks.
Atraxi Warden – As will be with a lot of these cards, this is a suspend card for a commander precon based on suspend and using the Time Travel ability to speed things up.So naturally, the “uncommon” cards made to this end are going to be extremely well balanced. This should
have been able to exile any creature, tapped or untapped.
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship – With Caverns of Ixalan coming next month, keep an eye on these Dinosaurs. Dinos on a Ship is a solid body with a solid anthem and if you get it off a suspension, you should have 19 power/toughness on board and 12 of that is in the air.
Judoon Enforcers – Getting this down from Suspend means you want to be able to have this exiled by turn three-to-five latest. When your opponents have armies, they’ll only be able to send one creature your way and it better be able to get by an 8/8 or they’ll lose it.
Sibylline Soothsayer – This is pretty solid for a three drop! You flip until you hit mana value three or greater and you get a bit of a deal on casting whatever you hit. Three time counters is all that stands between you and a – fingers crossed – bomb. This isn’t a bad target for copying,
blinking, reanimating, etc. Prosper, Tome-Bound and Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald decks get little boost from this and a few other cards in this deck.
Star Whale – Another in the Judoon Enforcers and Atraxi Warden camp where they are clearly designed for the precon environment but will only really matter for certain decks.
Time Beetle – A great way to fudge the number of time counters on suspended cards and permanents that use them. Skulk means as long as nobody has a one power creature, Time Travel will go your way.
All of History, All at Once – The text box on the extended border version of this is so satisfying and clean. “Time Travel. Storm” is elegant and efficient. Bringing this to a storm count of three likely means that you’re going to get all you suspended cards hitting at the same time.
Coward // Killer – Excellent against creature typal decks and fine in time counter decks. Bit of a dud to me.
Ecstatic Beauty – This seems amazing in a suspend deck, but Prosper, Tome-Bound decks know this is likely going to be an early turn play every time. Let this come off suspend when you control Prosper and you’ll get a bonus Treasure while going through the three cards you
just drew on impulse.
Everything Comes to Dust – This is pretty great in decks based on a creature type or happens to have a lot of creatures of the same type. Of course, it’s tough to play this and convoke using Human creatures because so many of Magic’s creatures are Humans. That said, destroying all
artifact and enchantments is still worth a slot.
The Wedding of River Song – This is pretty sweet if you want to make a friend at the table. You and an opponent draw two cards and suspend something. You get a Time Travel, but they don’t. This card is probably meant just for the precon, but this is a very nice card. The art is beautiful. The card feels like it can turn the tide for two players.
Wibbly-wobbly, Timey-wimey – This is the “Cantrip with set mechanic” of the deck. Time Travel and draw a card. Excellent. No notes. Except “wobbly-wobbly timey-wimey” makes me want to dibbity-dobbitty, die in a ditchity.
Gallifrey Falls // No More – An important detail from the release notes of the set for this card: “If you cast both halves of this spell fused, the targeted creatures will be dealt 4 damage first and then be phased out, even if they had less than 4 toughness. Any abilities that trigger based on those creatures being dealt damage will trigger.” This is perfect for my Brash Taunters deck. Deal four damage to every creature and save yours from death and exile. No More can be cast on its own like a tiny Teferi’s Protection.
Run For Your Life – This is kind of a pseudo-unblockable for two creatures and being able to escape it means you can get in at opponents pretty easily. This is very likely a top-down, flavour-first design that plays great in the precon, but there are other ways to get what you
want from this out of other cards.
Psychic Paper – I have no idea how, but this card, much like Spy Kit, is a card hoping to be broken someday. I have no idea what purpose can be served by choosing a new creature card name for a creature, but at least it grants creature type bonuses to a creature that doesn’t have the ones you want. The Scarab God can now be a Zombie with Psychic Paper and it can’y be blocked! Time to hit like a truck.
RMS Titanic – Double Strike won’t let you double dip on the Treasures here so be sue to use damage doublers to get bang for your buck, but really, seven Treasures for smacking an option is pretty much what I’ve been hoping for. It’s like The Reaver Cleaver for this one Vehicle and
you need to sacrifice it. It’s time for Dictate of the Twin Gods and Fiery Emancipation to pay off even more.
Rotating Fireplace – This card is excellent in proliferate decks like Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice and in this Time Travel deck. Having Time Travel on the four mana ability can be huge in the late game but mainly will be for this precon deck.
The Moment – This is a great little artifact that can save your creatures from whatever hits them. Then when you need it, it’s like a Ratchet Bomb or Filigree Sylex. Nice piece of protection. What kind of creatures do you need to save for this to be worth it?
Crack in Time – Getting three creatures out of the way for a few turns is pretty useful. If you can keep adding time counters, your opponents won’t want to commit creatures to the board since you keep taking them away.
Four Knocks – I can’t believe I get to say this, but White has a better card draw nowadays. Tocasia’s Welcome and Welcoming Vampire are solid ways to trigger a draw per turn without it needing to be on your turn or worrying about them going away. This is a flavour included for some decks.
Regenerations Restored – This is a super projected extra turn spell that essentially will let you scry 1 and gain a life a few turns before an opponent nugs this with removal. If you can protect it and maybe speed up the countdown, you’ll have another turn in no time. Try it in enchantress decks where you can copy enchantments and protect them well. Imagine having a few of these go off at the same time!
The Day of the Doctor – A Saga that “draws” you three legends and can be a board wipe in a Doctor-centric deck is pretty sweet, but unless you’ve got a secret commander thing going, there are other card draw spells. I don’t see this one being super relevant outside of Doctor
decks.
The Eleventh Hour – I like the final chapter most because it can copy another legendary creature and not have to be sacrificed due to the legend rule since they don’t share a name. I think it’s tough to properly evaluate a Saga when all you like is the last chapter.
The Girl in the Fireplace – For a Saga with a defensive first chapter, it sure wants you to be attacking in chapters two and three. The third one can be devastating in a time counter deck.
Ominous Cemetery – It’s colourless removal on a land. That’s worth a look-see just based on that. Six mana is a little high, but coming from a graveyard player, the shuffle into the deck is a nice touch. I’d be upset but can’t be too upset, it’s not like you exiled it!
Sonic Screwdriver, TARDIS, Trenzalore Clocktower – I reviewed these in my Blast From the Past article.
Alright, next time, we’ll have another Doctor who deck for you to sink your teeth into!
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Hello and welcome to my Commander review of the Doctor Who Commander precon decks 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. Also, given that Doctor’s Companion and all the new Doctor cards means that they have this parasitic partner mechanic and can lead to so many combinations. There are 26 Doctor’s Companions and 15 eligible Doctors to combine meaning there are 390 possible commander pairings for this set. Here are my top five legends from the Timey-Wimey 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. The War Doctor
This just has to be one of my fave aggro commanders we’ve gotten in a while. Slap the Lightning Greaves on The War Doctor and play a Swords to Plowshares on a blocker, ping a mana dork, and get another counter. Lots of Proliferate shenanigans since Phyrexia: All Will Be One to get time counters like that, but there are so many ways to pop cards into exile…such as impulse draw! Professional Face-Breaker turns your Treasures into card draw and extra
counters. Alms allows you to pay one mana to exile cards from your graveyard and trigger The War Doctor. Crumbling Sanctuary is a bonkers card that I really hope makes the cut in this deck. Even blinking triggers this Doctor.
All in all, this guy is really, really strong and I think we’re going to see a few of these decks
floating around.
2. The Eleventh Doctor
This is such a cool card to build around. The evasion won’t always be necessary but baking it
into an activated ability means that you’ll spend two mana to suspend a bigger card. Double
Strike and suspend two cards from your hand. “But Mike, cards are suspended with counters
equal to its cost so it’s like you’re paying…with time.”
Yeah but there are cards in this set that have “time travel” which allows you to remove counters
from suspended cards. There’s also stuff like Clockspinning that does the same.
Let’s not forget that when you give a creature with power 3 or less unblockable if you pump it
afterward, it still won’t be able to be blocked! You can also use it on your opponents’
creatures when you need to make a deal.
Also, note that if you suspend something without a mana cost, it’ll have no time counters
which means that it can’t trigger the part that says “When the last time counter is removed from
this card, you may cast this card without paying its mana cost.” You need time counters on the
card. When it comes to companions, I think Amy Pond might be the best Companion in
another colour since she can reduce the time counters on damage.
3. Donna Noble
Donna is a card I’ve loved since I’ve seen her.
I have a Sevinne, the Chronoclasm deck built around effects like Stuffy Doll and Brash Taunter
– effects that turn damage dealt to things I control into damage to my opponents.
Donna gives me a way to turn two creatures into Brash Taunters.
Is Donna Noble a great card? No, there are cards like Ill-Tempered Loner whose backside gives
all your permanents this ability. Donna Noble is however a version of this that can live in the
command zone and with a Doctor. For my purposes an Azorius Doctor would do but we’ll see
if that switch happens. Either way, I like this kind of effect where maybe your opponents are
weary of blocking an attacker with their beefy blocker. Or maybe you just play a Star of
Extinction and kill an opponent…or two.
4. The Ninth Doctor
This is an interesting card that comes way down the line from Paradox Haze and closer to
Sphinx of the Second Sun.
A way to grant multiple upkeeps is definitely a cool idea. Doubling this effect would be even
cooler, right Clara Oswald? I immediately think of upkeep triggers like the Court cycle from
Commander Legends and Wilds of Eldraine (ie. Court of Ambition and Court of Ardenvale).
There’s also a ton of cool stuff like Twilight Prophet or Keen Duelist. What about Skrelv’s Hive
or Bitterblossom?
I really like the idea of building this as a Grixis commander with Clara Oswald, but because
Clara lets you choose a colour, you can make this Grixis, Jeskai, Temur, or just straight up
Izzet. Having a reliable way to get additional upkeeps sitting in your command zone means that
the floodgates are opening for brewing season. Trust me, we’re going to see some cool stuff
and hopefully, this card will see a renaissance time and time again. I think it’s so cool! Just be
sure to protect him so he untaps during your untap step.
5. Sally Sparrow
Sally Sparrow is a solid creature granting you instant speed casting for your creature spells.
That alone is pretty great for something hanging out in your command zone. Add to her the fact
that if you exile a creature you control – whether by flickering or blinking or just dying – you will
get a Clue token out of the deal. It might not seem like much, but Clue tokens get you back
into a game or end up being quite helpful in other ways in the right deck. This isn’t a very
powerful card, but it can be a role player or a seemingly innocuous commander.
Here are the rest of them!
Rose Tyler – Rose is efficiently costed but definitely needs you to lean in hard with the time
counters. She’s great with a few of the Doctors but is probably best suited with her OG pairing
of The Tenth Doctor. Speaking of which…
The Tenth Doctor – This one is pretty impressive! You don’t need to attack with David Tennant
to get the attack trigger and when you suspend something it’s always three time counters as
opposed to The Eleventh Doctor’s ability making it equal to mana value. The activated ability
speeds things along extremely well to the point where some turns, spending the seven mana
post-combat might be the best move.
Amy Pond – I like Amy Pond for this deck and for her Partner Rory Williams, but ultimately, this
is a suspend only card. Jhoira of the Ghitu type of card that speeds things along. Definitely
good with The Tenth Doctor and The Eleventh Doctor.
Rory Williams – This feels like a flavour design which is a cool puzzle, don’t get me wrong, but
a two mana 3/3 with First Strike and Lifelink is only really impressive if you get it down for the
two mana when you pay for it. I bet this is going to be good when it hits, but when you cast it
not from exile, you’re paying WU for a Clue token and hoping you make it three turns or Amy Pond puts the smackdown on somebody.
Astrid Peth – This is a really cheap beater that cranks out the Food tokens. Worth a shot in
Othelm/Wernog or decks that love Academy Manufactor. Explore is also a wonderful mechanic
because it’s drawing lands or card selection. I like Astrid plenty!
Idris, Soul of the TARDIS – There’s something busted in this one I feel it. Either that or you’re
just playing huge artifacts and swinging hard. Triplicate Titan, Wurmcoil Engine, Cityscape Leveler, Su-Chi Cave Guard, Reaver Titan, or, my fave, Portal to Phyrexia.
Jenny, Generated Anomaly – Explore is a great keyword and to explore twice when this gets
through for combat damage means you won’t be hurting for lands or you’ll have a big double
striker. Not my thing, but solid!
Kate Stewart – This one feels like I need to do a lot more research on to get the most out of her,
but the way she reads is that she wants time counters on permanents you control meaning
suspend won’t do anything for her. It’s time counters on the battlefield. Great for when The War Doctor’s got a stack, but if you’ve just got a few Vanishing cards and no way to proliferate, the
eight mana investment to pump your team may not feel worth it. We’ll see! Not my speed.
Martha Jones – Three mana 3/2 ETB create a Clue which you can cash in to make something
unblockable is sick. It doesn’t have to be your creatures, it doesn’t limit to a single Clue being
cracked, it doesn’t require you to sacrifice the Clue a specific way. If you sacrifice a Clue,
Martha and another target creature can’t be blocked. Excellent card.
The Face of Boe – This card is interesting in the way that I feel like it’ll only get better as time
goes on. WotC won’t stop making Suspend cards so every time that comes up, the Jeskai
Suspend cards become something to take a peek at.
Wilfred Mott – In a deck with a low enough curve, you’ll find yourself getting selective value off
of this more than you know. Plus, this is an excellent reason to nudge toward Jeskai with The Ninth Doctor (even though Wilfred isn’t a Doctor’s Companion).
That does it for the legends of the set, but because this deck has more non legendary cards, I’ll
do reprints of note here!
Here are reprints that are worth your time:
Farewell, Fractured Identity, Inspiring Refrain, Clockspinning, Lightning Greaves – Foil, Arcane Signet – Surge Foil, Sol Ring, Wedding Ring, Thought Vessel, As Foretold, Grasp of Fate, Deserted Beach, Fiery Islet, Glacial Fortress, Stormcarved Coast, Sundown Pass, and Sunbaked Canyon.
Keep an eye out for the next part of this deck review – the nonlegendary new cards!!
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