Initially, as much as Universes Beyond sets were hated, some sets, like Doctor Who, had fantastically flavorful mechanics. This quartet of Commander precons aptly leaned into Time Counters, which made for some especially unique and surprisingly powerful Commanders. The Kate Stewart MTG card definitely fits into this category, as it’s not only a unique token generator but also has some nasty combo potential.
MTG Kate Stewart
To maximize Kate Stewart, your first step is to incorporate lots of ways to trigger your Commander’s first ability. Thankfully, Vanishing permanents like Four Knocks, as well as Impending cards like Overlord of the Floodpits, make doing this incredibly easy. Beyond these, cards that sit and accumulate Time Counters, including As Foretold and Wilfred Mott, can provide a steady stream of tokens.
To push things even further, Proliferate staples like Inexorable Tide and Flux Channeler kick the token production up a notch. Similarly, Time Travel cards, like All of History, All at Once, can let you stack up Time Counters for even more Soldier Tokens. If that’s not enough, you can leverage token and trigger doublers, like Anointed Procession and Roaming Throne, to quickly take over the game.
With so many Soldiers hitting the board, you can even lean into some typal synergies, like with Commander Mustard. You can even use these Soldiers to push for a more controlling game plan, using Catapult Master and Knight-Captain of Eos. Since Skullclamp can provide all the draw you’d need, too, this deck has a surprisingly consistent engine.
Thanks to the abundance of bodies, continuous sources of damage like Impact Tremors and All Will be One can prove rather deadly. Should these not be enough, however, Kate Stewart’s final ability can enable absolutely massive swings. Admittedly, this ability is very expensive, but with cards like Rotating Fireplace, activating it isn’t impossible.
Infinite Token Combo
Beyond just creating a token army fairly, Kate Stewart can make infinite Soldiers alongside Soultether Golem. Since this Golem gains a Time Counter whenever a creature enters, and gaining a counter creates a token, these two go infinite effortlessly. Notably, this combo won’t stop on its own, but running Impact Tremors alongside it will win you the game.
If that weren’t enough, Intruder Alarm and Jhoira’s Timebug can also make infinite Soldier Tokens alongside Kate Stewart. So long as you have a permanent with a Time Counter already, you can tap Jhoira’s Timebug to give it another. Since this creates a Soldier Token, Intruder Alarm will untap your board, letting you use Timebug again.
Cheap and Underappreciated
Curiously, despite having a seriously powerful and multifaceted game plan, Kate Stewart is remarkably underplayed. According to EDHREC, just over 300 decks use Kate in the command zone, and she’s not massively popular in the 99, either. Given this Commander’s potential to take over games with the right support, this feels like a crying shame.
The good news about this low play rate, however, is that Kate Stewart is a very affordable MTG card. If you’re in the market, you can pick up a near-mint copy of this card for just $0.27 on average. This makes the legend a nearly risk-free purchase, and one that could easily end up surprising you with its power.
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