The upcoming MTG Doctor Who decks promise to provide us with every single iteration of The Doctor since the character was first introduced in 1963, plus a load of his trusty companions. Spoiler season has officially begun, and Wizards of the Coast has shared every single one of these Doctors, in one huge Whovian helping.
These MTG Doctor Who cards are split across three different precon Commander decks, and therefore in terms of their strategies, these MTG commanders fall into three broad camps. It’s worth noting that while they’re bundled together, you can put any Doctor in your command zone with any companion, allowing for all kinds of unique combinations and strategies.
Blast From The Past covers the first eight Doctors, in a deck themed around Historic permanents (Artifacts, Sagas, and Legendary permanents). Timey Wimey covers Doctors nine to eleven, and their deck is all about Time counters. Then, Paradox Power stars Doctors twelve and thirteen, and this time the strategy is ‘playing cards from anywhere other than your hand’. Now, there’s a lot to cover, so let’s get cracking.
Kicking things off we have The First Doctor, who tutors up The Tardis (since William Hartnell’s Doctor ran off with it) and synergises with the MTG Cascade keyword (which the Tardis grants to other permanents. His companion, Susan Foreman is a mana dork who also works great with planechase.
The Second Doctor is a group hug creature, who removes everyone’s max hand size and lets everyone draw cards, if they agree not to attack you. His companion, Jamie McCrimmon, is a stompy green creature who gets a buff to his power whenever you cast a Historic spell.
The Third Doctor is all about non-creature tokens, giving you a Treasure, Clue, or Food when he ETBs, and growing bigger for each of them you have. His companion Jo Grant rides a motorcycle, and to reflect this she gives every Historic card Cycling, and gets bigger when you Cycle them off.
We’ve seen The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith before, but for completion’s sake let’s cover this iconic pair. Amusingly, this Doctor’s card is literally just a reference to his love of jelly babies. He can play Historic cards from the top of your library, and rewards you with Food for doing so. Sarah Jane, meanwhile, is an investigator, making Clues whenever you cast a historic spell.
The Fifth Doctor says give peace a chance: seems like he’ll be good in a long game, since he buffs up every creature you control that didn’t attack on your turn (provided it didn’t also enter that turn). His companion, Tegan Jovanka, can give herself, or another attacking Historic creature indestructibility for a turn.
Then we have the Sixth Doctor, one of the more expensive creatures we’re looking at today. He earns that six-mana casting cost though, since he lets you make non-legendary copies of each historic spell you cast. Peri Brown might help him out, or work well in a go-wide strategy, as she gives one Historic spell a turn Convoke.
The Seventh Doctor seemed to get his fashion tips from the Riddler: just question marks everywhere. His MTG card, meanwhile has you play a mini game each time he attacks, letting you play cards for free or create Clue tokens depending how your foe’s guess. Ace, Fearless rebel can put those Clues to very good use, sacrificing them or any other artifacts lying around to make +1/+1 tokens and force Fights.
The Eighth Doctor only got a TV film and a later minisode, but he still gets his own MTG card, and it’s another powerful one, letting you play a Historic card from your graveyard every turn. He wasn’t around long enough to have his own companion.
Moving on to the Timey Wimey deck, we’ve got The Ninth Doctor, who gives you an extra upkeep step. This might not seem like it’s all that useful, but there are all sorts of triggered abilities that go off on upkeep, like Suspend cards losing counters, and coming in more quickly. He also has Haste, because Christopher Eccleston sure ran around a lot.
Rose Tyler’s card, meanwhile, references the moment she stares into the Heart of the Tardis and becomes Bad Wolf. She gains Time counters for all the other suspended or vanishing cards you have lying around, becoming more powerful as she does so.
The Tenth Doctor has a great ability named after his catchphrase ‘Allons-y’, and he lets you Suspend a card from the top of your library whenever you attack (it doesn’t have to be with him, either). For an outrageous seven mana, you also get to ‘Time Travel’ three times, a new mechanic, that’s a little like proliferate, letting you add or remove time counters to all permanents that already have one.
His companion is Donna Noble, who’s ability reflects her ferocity. She deals damage to opponents whenever she or her Soulbonded creature is dealt damage.
The Eleventh Doctor needs to get in for damage to use his time-related ability, but to help with that, he can make a small creature (like himself) unblockable for a little mana. When he deals damage, you get to exile a card from your hand with time counters equal to its mana cost, and it gains Suspend.
He also works brilliantly with his Companion Amy Pond, who has to get in for damage and can then remove that many time counters from a suspended card. She also fetches her husband Rory out of your deck, but his card’s not been previewed yet.
Last deck now, are you still with us? The Twelfth Doctor was a teacher, and to demonstrate that, he works with the Demonstrate ability, letting you copy a spell you cast from anywhere except your hand. You have to let an opponent create a copy too though, encouraging you to get political.
His Companion, Clara Oswald is a bit of a unique one. Her ability specifically dictates that Doctor abilities trigger twice (and surprise, surprise, all the Doctors have triggered abilities). You can also let her be any color, allowing for all kinds of different Doctor Who decks – even letting you play black cards in Doctor decks. That’s to reflect the episode where Clara becomes the Impossible Girl, entering The Doctor’s life at every point in the timestream to help him out. Therefore, she works equally well paired with any of the Doctor cards.
Finally, the Thirteenth Doctor hands counters around whenever you cast cards not from your hand, and she untaps creatures with counters. We’re not surprised then, that her Companion, Yasmin Khan, has a tap ability, exiling a card from your library, which you can then play. They support each other perfectly.
And that’s the lot, so far – though we’re also expecting to see The Fugitive Doctor and War Doctor represented on cards. Check out our MTG Doctor Who release date guide for more details, and our MTG release schedule guide for everything else coming up this year.