MTG Doctor Who Commander Decks: Releases, Strategy and Collectibles

From Stranger Things and Street Fighter, Wizards continues to expand its Universes Beyond product into iconic and fan-favourite worlds. The next release takes on cult-classic Dr. Who which, while not quite as sprawling as The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, features four new Commander decks, together with Collector Boosters and Secret Lairs. In the year that Magic turns 30 and Doctor Who celebrates its 60th anniversary, we’ve already seen a lot to get excited about, whether you’re a ‘Whovian’ or just want to spend some time with the new cards on offer, with each deck offering a unique MTG Doctor Who strategy and gameplay.

Overview of Commander decks and strategies

This set comprises four new Commander decks, perfect for creating a MTG Doctor Who experience where the decks are pitted against each other. Each of the preconstructed decks are playable right out of the box, with the cards also being legal in eternal formats. The four Doctor Who Commander decks are:

• Timey-Wimey – Commander: The Tenth Doctor & Rose Tyler, Colours: White/Blue/Red. Timey-Wimey is all about Time counters. Time travel is a brand-new mechanic, letting you play with suspend, vanishing and other mechanics to bend time to your will. Focusing on the journeys of the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, you’ll find characters, alien worlds, and amazing stories from those doctors’ countless adventures, with the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler leading the way. If you’re looking for upgrades, the game’s previous cards that use time counters are worth a look, as well as monstrous spells to cheat into play
• Masters of Evil – Commander: Davros, Dalek Creator Colours: Blue/Black/Red. The Grixis coloured deck is all about the terrifying villains the Doctor has faced over their many adventures, especially the Daleks, Cybermen, and many incarnations of the Master. The key mechanic is ‘villainous choice’, forcing your opponent to make decisions that will benefit you. There are a few ways to go with upgrades; token synergies could be added, or you can fully embrace the theme and look to other ‘vote’ cards
• Blast From The Past – Commander: The Fourth Doctor & Sarah Jane Smith Colours: White/Blue/Green. This deck is a celebration of the past, focusing on the show’s run from 1963 to 1989, led by the Fourth Doctor. Historic is the central theme, encouraging players to deploy countless legendary creatures. Sagas are here too, telling the stories of iconic episodes. Adding even more historic cards is a simple way to upgrade
• Paradox Power – Commander: The Thirteenth Doctor & Yasmin Khan Colours: Blue/Red/Green. Paradox Power celebrates the wild nature of time. The deck focuses on the Twelfth and Thirteenth Dcotors and features the paradox mechanic, which provides benefits for casting spells not from your hand, working with mechanics like flashback, suspend, and rebound. Players can upgrade simply by finding even more powerful cards that allow you to play spells from other places

Release date and availability

The official debut is October 3rd with full previews October 3rd to 6th and the global launch on October 13th.

The Doctor Who Commander decks and Collector boosters will be available from retailers, while the Secret Lairs will be sold by Wizards directly. It’s also worth bearing in mind the rumours that the availability of the Doctor Who product will be much less that previous Universes Beyond Commander decks, so if you want the product it's worth getting those orders in early.

Deck mechanics

As well as the core mechanics outlined about, there are some other key mechanics to keep your eye on – both new and old:

• Planechase – Planechase cards are returning once more for Doctor Who, 40 of them in total. In nutshell, Planechase adds an extra dimension to Commander games, with players moving between worlds (as shown on the Planechase cards) that directly impact the game, in ways like buffing creatures to making spells cheaper. It’s great fun, and a brilliant way to show off the Whovian universe  
• Shadow – Dating all the way back to Tempest, released in 1997, Shadow grants creatures a form of evasion where only creatures with Shadow can block other Shadow creatures. Unlike flying, a Shadow creature can’t block a non-shadow creature, flavourfully designed to reflect the ‘void’ the shadow creatures were trapped in. Appearing later in Time Spiral block but still only 34 cards to date, Shadow fans will welcome the chance to add more ghastly creatures to their deck
• Doctor’s Companion – a new variation on what’s become a classic, the Doctor’s Companion mechanic is just like partner, allowing you a second commander in the Command Zone, so long as one of them is a Doctor. Providing both versatility and and expanded colour identity, the Doctor’s Companions are sure to be very useful for anyone building a Doctor deck
• Notable Doctor Who themed cards
• We’re still in the ‘first look’ stage of previews, but already some exciting and flavourful cards have been revealed for whatever MTG Doctor Who strategy is for you:
• Lux Foundation Library – this Planechase card is a card-advantage lover’s dream, enabling you to draw cards as creatures deal combat damage and making sure you don’t have to discard any to hand size. Plus, the Chaos Ensues ability enables you to make sure you can connect by giving a creature shadow
• Tardis – Tardis looks like it is just waiting to be broken. A cheap vehicle that has flying (and huge toughness which makes it hard to take down), grants cascade and allows the player to Planeswalk away has huge game-swinging potential. Quite neatly, this card features in each deck fronted by a doctor
• The Tenth Doctor – as a big, unapologetic fan of Jhoira of the Ghitu and Izzet suspend shenanigans, I love the lock of the Tenth Doctor. It certainly asks more of you (which may not be a bad thing considering Jhoira is busted), but you can build you deck to ensure you can always attack and use cards like brainstorm to manipulate the top card of your deck and make sure you hit a banger – an Eldrazi titan, perhaps?!
• Exterminate! – As one of the most famous lines in TV history, it’s no surprise that Exterminate! gets its own card, and it’s powerful too. A removal spell that allows you to kill the same number of creatures as Daleks you have while also taking down their control is oozing with evil flavour

Limited edition collectables

Along with the Commander decks release, there are plenty of limited edition and variant cards to collect or customise your decks. These MTG Doctor Who collectibles will be of huge interest to fans of both franchises.

Unlike the Warhammer 40K Commander decks, there aren't Collector’s Editions available, however there are Collector Booster packs which feature traditional foils, foil etched and surge foils, and variants in the beautiful TARDIS frame. It’s worth noting that Planechase planes are not found in Collector Boosters and are not available in traditional foil, foil-etched, or surge foil treatments. There are also serialised Doctor cards in the Collector Boosters, both super stylish and super rare. Each is marked with a serialised number, with only about 500 printings of each in total. There are limited edition Secret Lairs to come too.

Community reception and feedback

As with every Commander decks release (and in fact every Magic product), there are a few dissenting voices. Some are unsure of the introduction of Collector Boosters with the product, however considering these only feature cosmetic differences and the fact you can just buy singles of the cards you want, I don’t see this as too much of an issue. Others were keen to jump in and criticise what characters they perceived to be missing, however this is premature considering we’ve only seen a handful of cards and previews don’t begin in earnest until October. Broadly though, the community, especially the Dr Who fans, are very excited by what they’ve seen so far.

Conclusion and future possibilities

The MTG Doctor Who decks are a must for any Doctor Who fan, while being a great way for Whovian new players to learn the game, and even non-Doctor Magic players will find new toys for their decks. Being eternal legal, there’s always the chance that some card could make an impact on some of the oldest formats such as Legacy and Vintage. It’s also clear that these Doctor Who MTG collectibles will be in huge demand, especially if the rumours of the lack of supply are to be believed.

In true Time Lord style, the release is very timely with a new series of Doctor Who to air in November 2023, meaning there’s a good chance something from the yet-to-air episodes could feature in these decks, or in a follow up product. Beyond the Whoniverse, it’s clear to see that Universe Beyond will continue to grow and explore more and more fan favourites, including Fallout revealed at Gen Con, and I can’t wait to experience them.