Since being officially ratified in February of 2021, Wizards of the Coast has steadily been expanding the Universes Beyond sub-brand. While initially somewhat poorly received, recently, this product line has gone from strength to strength. So much so, that there’s now a lot of hype for the next Universes Beyond MTG product: the Doctor Who Commander decks.
Following in the footsteps of the Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks, these new preconstructed decks have it all. Featuring new cards and reprints, each with highly flavorful art, this set is a dream for Doctor Who fans and MTG players alike! Regardless of which category you fall into, this Doctor Who-themed MTG set is certainly worth looking forward to.
Thankfully, the wait is almost over for the Doctor Who Commander decks, as they release this month. As is to be expected, this means MTG players have been inundated with new details and spoilers to get excited about. With four decks and 400 cards to cover, it’s safe to say there’s a lot going on, however, we’re here to help. Throughout this article, we’ll be covering all the important dates and details!
So, without any further ado, here’s everything you need to know about the Doctor Who MTG Commander decks!
MTG Doctor Who Commander Decks Release Dates
Like the past Commander deck releases, the Doctor Who Commander decks have a rather unorthodox release schedule. Compressed into just a matter of weeks, there’s an awful lot going on in a very short space of time. Thankfully, considering the incredibly dense release calendar for MTG each year, this is a very good thing as it lets sets breathe.
Beyond being unique, the release date for the Doctor Who Commander decks is drawing nearer. Subsequently, you might be wondering when exactly everything is happening. If you’re thinking this exact thought, then we’ve got you covered! Here are all the dates for the Doctor Who Commander decks that you need to know!
- First Look: July 28th
- Debut Video: October 3rd
- Doctor Who Commander Release Date: October 13th
MTG Doctor Who Commander Decks Mechanics
As usual for an MTG set, the Doctor Who Commander decks feature a number of new and returning MTG mechanics. For better or worse, this could make playing the new Doctor Who decks rather hard to understand. Thankfully, if you’re worried about this happening, we’re here to help.
Now that spoiler season has finished, we’ve keenly aware of all the set’s mechanics. Thanks to this, we know exactly what we’re all in for when the four decks are released later this month. While we’ve written dedicated articles about each of them, here’s a quick rundown of the four new Doctor Who-themed MTG mechanics!
Doctor’s Companion
Similar to the Partner mechanic, Doctor’s Companion allows you to have two Commanders if one of them is the Doctor. As you might expect from the name, the cards featuring this mechanic are all companions from the TV show. This means that Jo Grant, Amy Pond, and Clara Oswald, all have Doctor’s Companion.
Just like Partner, this mechanic will be incredibly useful to expand a deck’s utility, as well as its color identity. Beyond having interesting gameplay implications, it’s obviously a lot of fun to play with the flavor of these cards, reliving moments from the show.
Villainous Choice
Villainous Choice is a new mechanic that appears in the Masters of Evil Commander deck. This insidious mechanic forces opponents (the number varies on the instance) to choose between two detrimental options. Regardless of what they choose, you will be the one to benefit.
An example of this mechanic in action is the Missy card that appears as an alternate Commander for the Masters of Evil deck. At the end of each of your turns, Missy’s Villainous Choice forces each of your opponents to either take one damage from each of your artifacts or draw a card and cause Chaos to ensue.
Paradox
Paradox is a new mechanic from the Paradox Power Commander deck. The payoffs for Paradox vary per instance. The condition is instead what is uniformly represented by the keyword.
Cards with Paradox trigger whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand. Whether it’s Cascade, Flashback, Suspend, or any other sort of keyword or card that allows you to cast cards from outside of your hand, Paradox triggers on every instance. Thankfully, this makes Paradox much easier to trigger than you might initially think.
Time Travel
Of the four new Commander decks being introduced with MTG’s Doctor Who Crossover, the Timey-Wimey deck cares a lot about Time Counters. There will be a lot of mechanics following this one that interacts with those, but Time Travel is a new mechanic being introduced in the Timey Wimey Commander deck.
To summarize, whenever you Time Travel, it affects every single card you own with a Time Counter, regardless of where they are. You can add or take away one Time Counter from the card, which impacts different keywords in different ways. Generally, for example, you may want to take Time Counters away from Suspended spells (unless you want to delay them longer), but you may want to add Time Counters to a card with Vanishing to make it stick around longer.
Returning Mechanics
As usual, alongside the quartet of new mechanics, and new creature types, there are also a lot of returning mechanics and effects. Thankfully, to keep things as simple as possible, many of these are explained by the rules text on the card. On the off chance that doesn’t happen, however, we’ve linked recourses below to explain exactly what each mechanic does.
MTG Doctor Who Commander Decks Leaks and Spoilers
Just as quickly as it arrived, the spoiler season for the Doctor Who Commander decks finished in a flash. Thanks to this, MTG players now know all the new and old cards contained within the quarter of decks. As expected, there’s a whole lot to look forward to for both Commander and competitive formats!
With so much to cover, unfortunately, we can’t really go over every notable card and powerful preview right here. Thankfully, however, we have written plenty of other articles to cover all the best bits! So, if you want the low down on all the best and most interesting Doctor Who MTG cards, have a read of the articles below.
- Best New Cards in the Doctor Who Commander Decks
- The Best Reprints in the Doctor Who Commander Decks!
- Doctor Who’s Biggest Villain Has Multiple Incredible Cards!
- Doctor Who Copy Spell May be the Best Card in the Set!
- Amazing Doctor Who Card Showcases Incredible Game Design
- Doctor Who Spoilers Showcase Token and Group Hug Enablers!
- All 13 New MTG Doctor Cards Revealed!
- New MTG Partner Commander Cards Incentivize Deckbuilding Strategies!
- Iconic Doctor Who Episodes Make for Amazing MTG Sagas
- New MTG Doctor Who Card Introduces Crazy Alternate Win Condition!
- New Doctor Who Promo Leaves Players Perplexed
- Accidental Reveal Debuts Surprise MTG Doctor Who Spoilers!
- MTG Barcelona Reveals Absurdly Expensive Doctor Who Cards!
- Overpowered MTG Mechanic Returns in Doctor Who With a Twist!
- New Doctor Who MTG Cards Debut Insane Removal Spell!
MTG Doctor Who Commander Decks Products
As the name implies, the Doctor Who Commander decks are, well, Commander decks. Four of them, in fact. Similarly to past preconstructed decks, each one of these will be ready to play right out of the box, with the cards being legal in all Eternal formats.
In a twist from the expected norm, as determined by the Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks, however, the Doctor Who decks do not have Collector’s Editions. Instead, for this Commander set, Wizards is also releasing Collector Booster packs. Just like normal Collector Boosters, these will be the home to foil and alternate art treatments for the set. Whether or not this is a good thing, however, remains to be seen. For the time being, it’s safe to say that opinions are mixed.
Revealed recently were a few new spoilers tweeted out by the official Doctor Who Twitter account, including the card for the Weeping Angel. You can find all the details here.
In case you’re not put off by the controversy, here are all the details about each of the decks, and Collector Boosters, we know so far.
Timey-Wimey
Commander: The Tenth Doctor & Rose Tyler Colors: White/Blue/Red
The Timey-Wimey Commander deck primarily interacts with Time Counters, debuting the new Time Travel mechanic and interacting with other mechanics like Suspend and Vanishing.
“Enjoy some fish fingers with custard with the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors and their companions in thrilling multiplayer games.”
Wizards of the Coast
Masters of Evil
Commander: Davros, Dalek Creator Colors: White/Blue/Red
The Masters of Evil Commander deck will force your opponent to make a series of decisions via Villainous Choice. No matter what they choose, you’ll end up ahead.
“Battle as the baddies with this ready-to-play 100-card Commander Deck featuring Doctor Who’s greatest villains.”
Wizards of the Coast
Blast From The Past
Commander: The Fourth Doctor & Sarah Jane Smith Colors: White/Blue/Red
Blast from the Past cares about tokens and Historic spells.
“Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow! Take a trip to the past, joining the first eight Doctors and their companions in thrilling multiplayer games.”
Wizards of the Coast
Paradox Power
Commander: The Thirteenth Doctor & Yasmin Khan Colors: White/Blue/Red
Paradox Power introduces the Paradox payoff – which cares about casting spells from outside of your hand.
“Embrace the power of paradox with the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors.”
Wizards of the Coast
Commander decklists can be found here.
Collector Booster
The Doctor Who Collector Booster packs debut the new TARDIS showcase frames, serialized Doctor cards and more! You can read more about that here.
“Collect cards featuring your favorite Doctor Who characters with 12 boosters full of Rares (7–14 in every pack!), TARDIS Showcase frames, and more shiny foils than you can shake a sonic screwdriver at!”
Wizards of the Coast
Read More: Wilds of Eldraine Release Date, Leaks, Spoilers & More
Doctor Who Secret Lairs
Back on October 2, along with the rest of the Spookydrop 2023 release, two Doctor Who Secret Lairs became available for purchase. The first of these Secret Lairs showcased all five enemy-colored Fast Lands from Kaladesh. Spirebluff Canal, Botanical Sanctum, Concealed Courtyard, Inspiring Vantage, and Blooming Marsh were the featured reprints. These Lands were designed to showcase an iconic set of villains known as Daleks. This Secret Lair in particular was a decent purchase from a financial perspective. For a more detailed overview, take a look here.
Next up, we have a Secret Lair devoted to five intriguing, reprinted Angels. Designed to depict the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, this Secret Lair features Sublime Archangel, Angel of Serenity, Angel of the Ruins, Blinding Angel, and Restoration Angel. You can see a bigger financial breakdown here.
Finally, we have a new Doctor Who Secret Lair spoiled by IGN! This Secret Lair is set to release on December 11 and is headlined by none other than The Fourteenth Doctor. The Fourteenth Doctor provides players with an awesome opportunity to play a Kindred-style doctor deck.
The Celestial Toymaker, on the other hand, is a unique Commander option that does a solid Fact or Fiction impression. The Celestial Toymaker also punishes the opponent for having to make decisions regarding guessing or putting cards into piles. Throw in cards like Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths and you’ve got a gameplan.
Last but not least, we have Rose Noble, the new Doctor’s Companion to go along with The Fourteenth Doctor. Importantly, only three of the five cards from the new Doctor Who Secret Lair have been revealed, so definitely keep an eye out for the remaining spoilers.
