Tons of Doctor Who spoilers have emerged today, many of which fit well with specific themes of the Commander decks themselves. All 13 of the main Doctors have been revealed, and alongside them, a lot of the Doctor’s Companions as well. There’s a heavy historic theme, especially within the Blast from the Past Precon, so unsurprisingly we’ve also seen a ton of Sagas get previewed. So far, the Doctor Who spoilers are both very flavorful and also quite thematic.
Today, we’re going to focus on two specific themes that a large group of cards are centered around. These themes are none other than token production and playing a group hug-style game. Notably, while some mechanics such as the Doctor’s Companion mechanic heavily rely on other Doctor Who cards to utilize, both of these themes can work exceptionally well beyond just the contents of these Precons. In fact, some of these cards are quite powerful and incentivize building further around them.
Crisis of Conscience
First, we’re going to go over some strong cards that get even stronger the more tokens you can create. Crisis of Conscience is a good example of a card that, on the surface, looks a little bit inefficient for its effect. For six mana, you can either destroy all tokens, or destroy all non-Land, non-token permanents. In a go-wide tokens shell, you will primarily use the second mode, and it can be backbreaking for the opponents if you have a big board. Assuming most of your Creatures are also tokens, much like Hour of Reckoning, Crisis of Conscience can act closer to Plague Wind than anything.
However, this card doesn’t just destroy your opponent’s Creatures. It also can blow up their Planeswalkers, mana rocks, and Enchantments that might be tough to deal with otherwise. Any tokens you’ve created, including Clue tokens generated by Sarah Jane Smith or Food tokens made by The Fourth Doctor will stick around. This card has a very high ceiling in Commander as long as it’s built around.
Read More: What is Doctor Who MTG Paradox?
Everything Comes to Dust
If you are building around tokens of a specific Creature type, Everything Comes to Dust can also be quite effective in a similar way. Everything Comes to Dust is a unique 10-mana card with Convoke, which naturally works well with a board full of Creature tokens. When you cast it, you get to exile all Artifacts, Enchantments, and Creatures, with a catch. Creatures that share a Creature type with any Creatures that helped Convoke this spell get to stick around.
In any deck looking to flood the board with Creatures of a particular type, this card can be devastating for your opponents. This card seems perfect alongside Peri Brown, incentivizing you to create a wide board full of Creatures. Despite costing ten mana, the Convoke mechanic may let you play the spell even for free, helping you cast multiple spells on the same turn. So long as your opponent’s Creatures don’t share a Creature type with yours, this can be an effective blowout.
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Nanogene Conversion
Nanogene Conversion is an interesting card that also works quite well with small Creature tokens. The goal with this card is to choose a large and impactful Creature you control to have each other Creature you control become a copy of it until the end of the turn. Importantly, because the copies of that Creature aren’t legendary, this large Creature could also be your Commander, making Nanogene Conversion a bit more reliable as a payoff. Also, remember that this affects your opponent’s Creatures as well, further incentivizing you to have a wide board before casting this.
Copying something with a powerful ability can also be a good strategy. For example, having your Creatures becomes a copy of Bennie Bracks, Zoologist can let you draw a bunch of cards on your end step, so long as you were able to put a token into play as well.
Read More: New MTG Doctor Who Card Introduces Crazy Alternate Win Condition!
Everybody Lives!
Of course, there are some downsides to playing a deck with such a Creature-heavy focus. Traditional board wipes can be frustrating to play against, forcing you to keep rebuilding your board. Still, there are some solid ways to fight against these types of cards. If you’re in green, cards like Heroic Intervention can help a lot. In a similar sense, the card Everybody Lives! can help protect your board by giving your Creatures Hexproof and Indestructible.
Everybody Lives! has a bit more going on, though, making it a very cool card. See, it gives all Creatures Indestructible and all Creatures and players Hexproof until the end of the turn. Additionally, players can’t lose life, lose the game or win the game during the turn this is cast. This is a really interesting card, helping to protect you from all-out attacks as well as potentially preventing other players from comboing off. You can even use this card to save other players in a group hug-style strategy, giving this card a lot of cool uses.
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Wedding Ring
Speaking of group hug, there are a couple funky Doctor Who cards that fit this bill too. Wedding Ring, a reprint from Innistrad: Crimson Vow Commander, is a four-mana Artifact that lets you draw cards or gain life any time an opponent who also controls an Artifact named Wedding Ring would draw cards or gain life. Importantly, Wedding Ring also makes you choose an opponent to create a token copy of it, so long as you cast Wedding Ring. In a multiplayer game, this essentially lets you and an opponent of your choice reap rewards, helping you “team up” with one of your opponents.
Read More: MTG Doctor Who What is Doctor’s Companion?
The Wedding of River Song
The Wedding of River Song is another card that affects you and an opponent of your choice. For three mana, you and an opponent get to draw two cards. Then, you and that same opponent each exile a non-Land card from your hands with a number of time counters equal to their mana values, and those cards gain Suspend. Then, you Time Travel, which lets you add or remove time counters from cards you own or permanents you control with time counters on them.
Obviously, this card works well with other cards with either Suspend or Vanishing, which are both featured in the Timey-Wimey Doctor Who Commander deck. This card also works well in a group hug deck where games can go pretty long, letting you and an opponent of your choice each cast a spell for free after waiting the requisite number of turns. These Doctor Who spoilers are surely intriguing and if you are looking to upgrade your Commander decks or build new ones with awesome themes, this set has you covered.
