All Doctor Who decklists have finally been revealed, and there’s a lot to unpack. Much like Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, these Doctor Who cards are extremely flavorful and look like a blast to play with. Where cards from these sets tend to differ in general are on power level. The Lord of the Rings MTG set had a plethora of extremely powerful cards from the get-go. Cards like Orcish Bowmasters and The One Ring began shaking up multiple competitive formats almost immediately.
While the Doctor Who Commander decks don’t seem to feature many cards of similar power level, there are still some strong options for Commander play. We recently went over the most expensive reprints featured in the Doctor Who Commander decks. Today, we are going to focus on the strongest new cards printed in the Doctor Who Commander decks. Notably, given that these Doctor Who cards were designed specifically with Commander in mind, we will be focusing on the Commander format with our rankings. Without further ado, here are the best new cards in the Doctor Who MTG Commander decks!
#5 Alistair, the Brigadier
Alistair, the Brigadier is one of the more powerful Commander options printed within the Doctor Who Commander decks. This is in large part because of how abundant Historic spells are. It’s quite easy to play cheap Artifacts and powerful legendaries to help churn out an army with this card. If that weren’t enough, the Commander can act as a win condition in the late game after building out a big board by buffing your whole squad.
Alistair also opens the door for some cool combos. For example, if you control Cloudstone Curio and have two zero-mana Artifact Creatures in hand, such as Memnite[tooltips] and [tooltips]Ornithopter, you can generate infinite Creatures. This is because, when you play the second zero-mana Artifact Creature, Alistair will trigger and give you a Soldier token.
When that enters the battlefield, it triggers Cloudstone Curio, letting you return the other zero-mana Artifact Creature to your hand. From there, you can simply keep casting and bouncing the two Artifact Creatures back and forth and generate an enormous board of Creatures. There are likely plenty of other combos worth considering, and Alistair looks like a fun and powerful build-around Commander.
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#4 Cyber Conversion
Cyber Conversion is a very simple card, yet it is quite effective. For two mana, you get to turn a Creature face down and treat it as a 2/2 Cyberman Artifact Creature. This card is strong for two main reasons. First, the removal options in blue are very limited, so having another way to deal with opposing Commanders or other problematic Creatures is very important.
Second, unlike traditional removal spells such as Terminate, Cyber Conversion does not actually send the opposing Commander to the Command zone. As a result, the Commander’s controller won’t have the option to simply recast their Commander for two additional mana. This sets Cyberman Conversion apart from something like Reality Shift.
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#3 Adric, Mathematical Genius
Adric is one of the strongest Commander options from the whole set. At two mana, Adric is extremely efficient. Not only does it act like Strionic Resonator, allowing you to copy enters-the-battlefield effects, but it can also copy activated abilities too. If that weren’t enough, you can sacrifice it to counter problematic activated or triggered abilities from your opponent’s which can help potentially help save you from losing to Thassa’s Oracle.
Some players are even considering this for cEDH play. After all, cheap and interactive Creatures can be extremely useful in the format. Even though Adric requires you to sacrifice it to counter a problematic ability, you can always replay Adric by paying an extra two mana.
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#2 Everybody Lives
Everybody Lives! is a funky card that functions exactly how it sounds. Players can’t lose the game. In general, Creatures can’t die. Additionally, players can’t take damage, and they can’t win the game either. Well, if the card saves everyone, what makes it so strong? The thing is, you get to determine when and how to use the card for only two mana. You can use it in response to a board wipe to protect your board of Creatures, assuming your board is bigger. You can use it as a Fog variant to make sure you don’t die in combat. From there, your opponent may have overextended their attack and led to their own demise off of the assumption that you would already have lost.
One of the strongest things the card does, though, is help make sure that an opponent can’t win the game via an alternate win condition, such as Thassa’s Oracle. What’s nice is that your opponent may exhaust a lot of their resources assuming that they can win the game, e=only to have their plans go awry thanks to your two-mana white Instant. Everybody Lives! is an extremely versatile card, earning a spot high up on this list. For more detailed analysis on what makes the card strong, you can take a look here.
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#1 Flesh Duplicate
Flesh Duplicate is an excellent card, and the reason why is fairly straightforward. Clone effects are generally quite strong in Commander, and this card only costs two mana. There’s a reason Phantasmal Image is such a good card. Getting to get yourself elite enters-the-battlefield triggers by copying huge haymakers from the opponents can help swing the game in your favor. Of course, just like Phantasmal Image, Flesh Duplicate has a drawback. In this case, your Creature copy also has Vanishing 3, so it won’t stick around for too long.
Still, imagine copying something like Avenger of Zendikar or Terastodon. You still get the triggered ability regardless, which is where most of the value lies. This is yet another card that could end up seeing cEDH play. Efficiency rules, and even copying some cheap Creatures like Dockside Extortionist can be game breaking.
This card is also a great fit for decks that can increase the number of Vanishing counters it will have. Using cards that let you Time Travel, for example, can keep the card around longer. Outside of that mechanic, though, you can even use cards that Proliferate to help keep Flesh Duplicate in play. No matter how you use Flesh Duplicate, it’s hard to go wrong with such a cheap card, hence why it’s at the top of this list.
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