Doctor Who Commander Deck review – Timey-Wimey Non-Legends

Hello and welcome to my Commander review of the Doctor Who Commander precon decks available October 13th. Despite being completely disinterested in the Doctor Who franchise, I am WAY into these decks. There are so many really cool cards and, of particular relevance to
Commander, so so so many legends for that commander slot.

This series will be divided into two parts per Commander precon deck: Legends and new cards. I will nod at important reprints, but that’s about it.

Also, given that Doctor’s Companion and all the new Doctor cards means that they have this parasitic partner mechanic and can lead to so many combinations. There are 26 Doctor’s Companions and 15 eligible Doctors to combine meaning there are 390 possible commander
pairings for this set.

Here are my top five nonlegendary from the Timey-Wimey Doctor Who Commander followed by the rest of the legends in the deck with a little review. Remember, the top five are just the ones I really like and that tickle my brain.

1. The Parting of the Ways
If you need to be convinced of this card’s strength, I recommend checking out the Decked Out Early Doctor Who Access episode on YouTube. VeggieWagon plays this and hits five nonland cards off the top of his deck and ends up pulling off casting them the next turn! This is magical Christmasland and all, but we can witness it happening. The likelihood of hitting multiple worthwhile nonland cards is pretty high. Time Travel, then time travel again is like ramping two per nonland card you’ve suspended. Then by the time the final chapter hits, your opponents will likely each have an artifact to destroy. This Saga would be amazing to copy or flicker. Also, for the Prosper, Tome-Bound decks that want to slow roll into big turns, this is a good one to consider.

2. Nanogene Conversion
I have no real plan for this but there’s just so much to like about this card – at least to me, specifically. I have an Esper clones deck that this can slot right into. The art is unsettling and creepy, it’s perfect! Turning all creatures into Ayara, First of Locthwain and then playing a black
creature can claw you back into the game or outright end it. I don’t know what the coolest or most efficient card to target would be, but Nanogene Conversion is a card I’ll keep thinking about from now on whenever a new cool creature is released or I’m just click-clacking along on Scryfall.com. Nanogene Conversion is one of those cards that makes me feel smart when it
clicks. It’s a piece of a puzzle and you’re not sure what you’re putting together.

3. Flesh Duplicate
I clearly love a clone. How about Phantasmal Image with Vanishing 3? Sometimes all you need is three turns with a creature to wrap things up. The rate on this is just too good to pass up. You can blink it or proliferate its counters, you can bring it back with a Sun Titan or other three mana value reanimation effects. It’s flexible and great on rate. What’s not to like?

4. The Pandorica
The Pandorica might seem expensive since the first time you remove something, you’ll have sunken five mana into it, but with so many decks dependent on their commander, this feels like the right way to really cut someone below the knees. Maybe you’re not up against that kind of
deck, there’s always a Smothering Tithe or Rhystic Study out there ready to be set aside. You can also save something of yours before a board wipe, but remember, it can only be activated at sorcery speed and you can’t really save something in response to another thing on the stack.

5. Everybody Lives!
This is objectively the card that people are talking about the most for cEDH or higher powered Commander. You prevent a win or a loss, you prevent board wipes or removal. For two mana. Two mana! This might not be Teferi’s Protection, but Everybody Lives! is mentioned in the same tier right now. This belongs in any deck that can run it, but really will most likely be best applied to the cEDH tables. It is, most likely, the strongest card in the whole set. Here are the rest of them!

Here are the rest of them!

Adipose Offspring – These adorable looking little aliens are 2/2s in a can. With the Emerge alt casting cost and a creature with a big enough butt, you can get effect reminiscent of Ghoulcaller Gisa. It’s cute, it’s fun, it belongs in Doran, the Siege Tower and Arcades, the
Strategist decks.

Atraxi Warden – As will be with a lot of these cards, this is a suspend card for a commander precon based on suspend and using the Time Travel ability to speed things up.So naturally, the “uncommon” cards made to this end are going to be extremely well balanced. This should
have been able to exile any creature, tapped or untapped.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship – With Caverns of Ixalan coming next month, keep an eye on these Dinosaurs. Dinos on a Ship is a solid body with a solid anthem and if you get it off a suspension, you should have 19 power/toughness on board and 12 of that is in the air.

Judoon Enforcers – Getting this down from Suspend means you want to be able to have this exiled by turn three-to-five latest. When your opponents have armies, they’ll only be able to send one creature your way and it better be able to get by an 8/8 or they’ll lose it.

Sibylline Soothsayer – This is pretty solid for a three drop! You flip until you hit mana value three or greater and you get a bit of a deal on casting whatever you hit. Three time counters is all that stands between you and a – fingers crossed – bomb. This isn’t a bad target for copying,
blinking, reanimating, etc. Prosper, Tome-Bound and Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald decks get little boost from this and a few other cards in this deck.

Star Whale – Another in the Judoon Enforcers and Atraxi Warden camp where they are clearly designed for the precon environment but will only really matter for certain decks.

Time Beetle – A great way to fudge the number of time counters on suspended cards and permanents that use them. Skulk means as long as nobody has a one power creature, Time Travel will go your way.

All of History, All at Once – The text box on the extended border version of this is so satisfying and clean. “Time Travel. Storm” is elegant and efficient. Bringing this to a storm count of three likely means that you’re going to get all you suspended cards hitting at the same time.

Coward // Killer – Excellent against creature typal decks and fine in time counter decks. Bit of a dud to me.

Ecstatic Beauty – This seems amazing in a suspend deck, but Prosper, Tome-Bound decks know this is likely going to be an early turn play every time. Let this come off suspend when you control Prosper and you’ll get a bonus Treasure while going through the three cards you
just drew on impulse.

Everything Comes to Dust – This is pretty great in decks based on a creature type or happens to have a lot of creatures of the same type. Of course, it’s tough to play this and convoke using Human creatures because so many of Magic’s creatures are Humans. That said, destroying all
artifact and enchantments is still worth a slot.

The Wedding of River Song – This is pretty sweet if  you want to make a friend at the table. You and an opponent draw two cards and suspend something. You get a Time Travel, but they don’t. This card is probably meant just for the precon, but this is a very nice card. The art is beautiful. The card feels like it can turn the tide for two players.

Wibbly-wobbly, Timey-wimey – This is the “Cantrip with set mechanic” of the deck. Time Travel and draw a card. Excellent. No notes. Except “wobbly-wobbly timey-wimey” makes me want to dibbity-dobbitty, die in a ditchity.

Gallifrey Falls // No More – An important detail from the release notes of the set for this card: “If you cast both halves of this spell fused, the targeted creatures will be dealt 4 damage first and then be phased out, even if they had less than 4 toughness. Any abilities that trigger based on those creatures being dealt damage will trigger.” This is perfect for my Brash Taunters deck. Deal four damage to every creature and save yours from death and exile. No More can be cast on its own like a tiny Teferi’s Protection.

Run For Your Life – This is kind of a pseudo-unblockable for two creatures and being able to escape it means you can get in at opponents pretty easily. This is very likely a top-down, flavour-first design that plays great in the precon, but there are other ways to get what you
want from this out of other cards.

Psychic Paper – I have no idea how, but this card, much like Spy Kit, is a card hoping to be broken someday. I have no idea what purpose can be served by choosing a new creature card name for a creature, but at least it grants creature type bonuses to a creature that doesn’t have the ones you want. The Scarab God can now be a Zombie with Psychic Paper and it can’y be blocked! Time to hit like a truck.

RMS Titanic – Double Strike won’t let you double dip on the Treasures here so be sue to use damage doublers to get bang for your buck, but really, seven Treasures for smacking an option is pretty much what I’ve been hoping for. It’s like The Reaver Cleaver for this one Vehicle and
you need to sacrifice it. It’s time for Dictate of the Twin Gods and Fiery Emancipation to pay off even more.

Rotating Fireplace – This card is excellent in proliferate decks like Atraxa, Praetor’s Voice and in this Time Travel deck. Having Time Travel on the four mana ability can be huge in the late game but mainly will be for this precon deck.

The Moment – This is a great little artifact that can save your creatures from whatever hits them. Then when you need it, it’s like a Ratchet Bomb or Filigree Sylex. Nice piece of protection. What kind of creatures do you need to save for this to be worth it?

Crack in Time – Getting three creatures out of the way for a few turns is pretty useful. If you can keep adding time counters, your opponents won’t want to commit creatures to the board since you keep taking them away.

Four Knocks – I can’t believe I get to say this, but White has a better card draw nowadays. Tocasia’s Welcome and Welcoming Vampire are solid ways to trigger a draw per turn without it needing to be on your turn or worrying about them going away. This is a flavour included for some decks.

Regenerations Restored – This is a super projected extra turn spell that essentially will let you scry 1 and gain a life a few turns before an opponent nugs this with removal. If you can protect it and maybe speed up the countdown, you’ll have another turn in no time. Try it in enchantress decks where you can copy enchantments and protect them well. Imagine having a few of these go off at the same time!

The Day of the Doctor – A Saga that “draws” you three legends and can be a board wipe in a Doctor-centric deck is pretty sweet, but unless you’ve got a secret commander thing going, there are other card draw spells. I don’t see this one being super relevant outside of Doctor
decks.

The Eleventh Hour – I like the final chapter most because it can copy another legendary creature and not have to be sacrificed due to the legend rule since they don’t share a name. I think it’s tough to properly evaluate a Saga when all you like is the last chapter.

The Girl in the Fireplace – For a Saga with a defensive first chapter, it sure wants you to be attacking in chapters two and three. The third one can be devastating in a time counter deck.

Ominous Cemetery – It’s colourless removal on a land. That’s worth a look-see just based on that. Six mana is a little high, but coming from a graveyard player, the shuffle into the deck is a nice touch. I’d be upset but can’t be too upset, it’s not like you exiled it!

Sonic Screwdriver, TARDIS, Trenzalore Clocktower – I reviewed these in my Blast From the Past article.
Alright, next time, we’ll have another Doctor who deck for you to sink your teeth into!

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