“Don't even blink. Blink and you're dead. They are fast, faster than you could believe. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink!” That line from the iconic Doctor Who episode, “Blink” will go down as one of the most memorable quotes in the history of the show. It introduced us to the Weeping Angels, who are now some of the most popular villains in Doctor Who. So it’s no surprise that when Wizards of the Coast announced their Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond collaboration with the BBC, that the Weeping Angels would make an appearance. In fact, there is an entire Commander deck being dedicated to the villains of Doctor Who. Recently, I had the chance to see a huge preview of the upcoming Universes Beyond Commander decks that will be releasing on October 13th.
There are actually four Commander decks that will be released on October 13th. Each of them will have a theme that connects Whovian players to the show. Depending on a lot of factors like age, level of fandom, and availability of specific content, Whovians tend to fall into a specific category of how they connect to Doctor Who. Older fans perhaps remember classic Doctors like the 4th Doctor portrayed by Tom Baker. Newer fans may have only picked up on Doctor Who when the show relaunched in 2005 with Chris Eccleston as the 9th Doctor. Even newer fans may have only started watching when Jodie Whittaker took the reins as the 13th Doctor as the first female to lead the series in 2017.
Therefore, each of the four Commander decks are put together based on how a fan may have been introduced to the series or how they may connect with it. Personally, I was introduced to the classic Doctors first and have seen every iteration there is. I have a favorite classic Doctor and a favorite modern Doctor. As a result, I’m very much looking forward to each deck and what it offers me as both a fan of the Commander format in Magic and as a diehard Whovian.
Blast From The Past
The first Commander deck is called Blast From The Past. It is geared towards fans of classic Doctor Who. Whether you enjoyed John Pertwee, Tom Baker, or Paul McGann, they’re all here! In fact, across the four Commander decks available is every single Doctor from 1-13 plus the War Doctor and the Fugitive Doctor. Blast From The Past is very central to classic Doctor Who and will include the first eight Doctors and their companions.
The companions in Doctor Who will be a very important element to these Commander Decks. In most cases, a Commander deck can only have one commander and it must be a legendary creature. In a few rare instances, a planeswalker may be able to act as a commander. In even rarer cases there can be multiple commanders but this is one of those times. If a player chooses to use one of the Doctor’s companions as their commander, they can have two commanders so long as The Doctor is the other commander.
The Doctor and their companions work well in tandem with each other. While players are encouraged to play around with different combinations across the four decks, there is an intended companion to be played with each Doctor. For example, the First Doctor and his companion, Susan Foreman play off each other with planeswalk and cascade mechanics. That’s not to say that the First Doctor couldn’t complement another companion, but because these two were on the show together, they were designed to work well together in the cards.
Each Doctor also has an accompanying story card. This card could be an instant or a sorcery. It could be a saga or any other kind of enchantment. The card is trying to capture the spirit of an iconic episode featuring that Doctor. For the First Doctor, the episode and its correlating card is called An Unearthly Child. The episode is the first in Doctor Who history and features the Doctor and his granddaughter and companion, Susan Foreman going back to the Stone Age with Susan’s teachers. The episode does a lot of exposition to teach us about the Doctor and Susan but ultimately ends with the Doctor and his companions making a hasty escape from their Stone Age captors who were demanding that they make fire. In that way, the card An Unearthly Child captures the spirit of the episode both in art and the fact that its mechanics allow for players desperate to escape a sticky situation to go searching for a Doctor, companion, or vehicle card such as TARDIS.
Blast From The Past features the first eight Doctors, their companions, and each Doctor’s own special episode card. It will be interesting to see how they all work together and what interesting combinations could be made depending on who the commander or commanders are in a game. Although, the Fourth Doctor and his companion, Sarah Jane are the intended commanders. It will also be interesting to see how the game changes based on whether or not opponents are also using Doctor Who decks, decks from other Universe Beyond IPs, or normal Magic: The Gathering cards.
Timey-Wimey
In what I believe will be the most compelling part of the new Doctor Who Commander decks, the 9th-11th Doctors are featured in a deck called Timey Wimey. Timey Wimey is for all of the fans that were introduced to Doctor Who back in 2005 when Chris Eccleston became the 9th Doctor. While it doesn’t feature as many of the Doctors as Blast From The Past, Timey Wimey introduces a new mechanic called Time Travel. Time Travel brings back time counters and allows players to manipulate time by adding and removing time counters and playing with mechanics such as Suspend and Vanishing.
Timey Wimey is intended to be commanded by the duo of the Tenth Doctor and his companion, Rose Tyler, but as he had many companions, there will be opportunities to mix and match with fan favorites like Donna Noble. The flexibility of these Doctor Who Commander decks is truly inspiring as it caters to each player’s individual play style. You can even open a whole can of chaos and mix doctors with other companions. Imagine the possibilities! You could have a Ninth Doctor with Amy Pond as the commanders!
Speaking of the Ninth Doctor, his episode card is a fun one. In the episode titled, The Empty Child, the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler find themselves in London during World War 2. As The Blitz rages on all around them, they find a child wearing a gas mask who keeps asking “Are you my Mummy?” Anyone who gets close to this child inevitably becomes just like him; their faces becoming a gas mask and asking the question “Are you my Mummy?”
The Doctor eventually figures out that nano-genes have been released and are assuming that this is the correct healed version of humanity and are working to “fix” everyone. Anyone who comes in contact with the nano-genes becomes just like this child and the Doctor realizes that everyone is doomed…that is until in a flash of brilliance, the Doctor realizes that he can reprogram the nano-genes and exclaims “Just this once, everybody lives!” When Gavin Verhey, the lead designer for the Doctor Who Universes Beyond decks explained to us this card, he imagined players jumping from their seats making the same proclamation to players around the table, “Just this once, everybody lives!”
Paradox Power
The 12th and 13th Doctor and their companions play around with the Paradox mechanic in Paradox Power. The 13th Doctor and her companion, Yasmin are the intended commanders for this deck but honestly, I think I’ll have to start with the Twelfth Doctor. There’s this iconic moment in the season 9 opener when the Twelfth Doctor makes an entrance atop a tank with sonic sunglasses on, playing an electric guitar, and channeling his inner Bill and Ted as he teaches the medieval locals the word “dude.” That was the moment that I knew without any hesitation that he was not only my favorite modern Doctor, but also had stolen the top spot of any Doctor from Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor. I was downright giddy when I saw that the Twelfth Doctor’s card featured the image of Peter Capaldi on that tank.
Clara Oswald, the Twelfth Doctor’s companion has the distinction of being the only colorless commander in the Doctor Who Universes Beyond set. She is very flexible because before the game begins, if you plan to use her as a commander, you can select a color loyalty for her. I also want to point out that Wizards of the Coast worked on the small details by making her creature type “Human Advisor.” Oftentimes, the jaded Twelfth Doctor introduced Clara by telling people that she did his caring for him. It was a small nod to Whovians who remember their unique relationship.
Masters of Evil
If you’re more interested in the plethora of iconic Doctor Who villains than the Doctor himself, Masters of Evil may be the deck for you. Its intended commander is the Dalek creator, Davros. Unfortunately, we didn’t see as much of this deck as I would have liked but we do know that Missy, an incarnation of The Master during the Twelfth Doctor’s tenure, will be included as well as other iterations of The Master. I have to believe that Daleks, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, and the Sontarans will be prominent factors of the Masters of Evil deck. I also hope lesser known villains like The Slitheen and Adipose will make an appearance.
Some Fun Extras
In addition to the four Commander decks being released, Magic: The Gathering will also have booster packs available. These booster packs will add no new cards to the set but will feature alternate artwork for the Doctors and their companions with TARDIS borders. There will also be lands featuring the TARDIS in the artwork for all of the basic lands in MTG. I especially like the swamp as it reminds me of the image of the dying TARDIS sitting in Trenzalore.
Secret Lair, as I talked about in my experience from MagicCon Vegas, dropped some Doctor Who cards on October 2nd. The drop includes Doctor Who themed artwork for a few Magic cards such as Angel of Serenity. It also has full art lands featuring the Daleks. The full art lands look incredible and show off reimagined versions of different MTG cards like Botanical Sanctum.
Conclusion
Maybe you find yourself excited for decks based on the Doctor like Blast From The Past. Perhaps you want to reach in and touch your inner baddie with Masters of Evil. Maybe you’re like me and you want it all. No matter which one describes you, I predict one thing to be certain; Doctor Who coming to Magic: The Gathering will prove to be a mind blowing, time bending experience the likes of which we have never seen before.
Maybe you’re a Whovian, but you’ve never gotten into Magic. Perhaps now is your time! There is a whole big world of Magic: The Gathering just waiting for you to explore. So come along - there's a seat inside the TARDIS waiting just for you… and don’t worry, it's bigger on the inside.
