Doctor Who

Doctor Who

 

Commander decks

 

Doctor Who
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Doctor Who logo.png}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	The TARDIS
Design	Gavin Verhey (lead), Chris Mooney
Release date	October 13, 2023
Themes and mechanics	Planechase cards
Keywords/​ability words	Cascade, Doctor's Companion, Paradox, Suspend, Time travel, Villainous choice
Set size	4 decks of 100 cards (200 new cards)
Expansion code	WHO
Universes Beyond
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth Doctor Who Jurassic World
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Alchemy: Wilds of Eldraine Doctor Who The Lost Caverns of Ixalan

The TARDIS expansion symbol

Doctor Who (initially referred to as the "Doctor Who Commander Product") is a product in the Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond series released by Wizards of the Coast. Doctor Who will be released on October 13, 2023.

Set details

This is a cross-over product based on the British BBC science-fiction television series Doctor Who.

Storyline

"The Doctor" is a traveler of space and time who journeys in the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), a time-travel machine that travels by materializing in and out of the Time Vortex and is bigger on the inside. Due to a malfunction, the outer appearance of the Doctor's TARDIS remains fixed as a blue British police box. Although the Doctor has occasional stints of solo travels, they much prefer the company of at least one companion, if not more, on these adventures; these companions are most often humans contemporary to the period in which the series is currently airing, owing to the Doctor's fascination with the planet Earth. However, a few have been aliens or native to past and future eras.

The Doctor's exact origins are subject to timelines being overwritten, so while their origins are often consistent in that they are a renegade Time Lord who stole the TARDIS from Gallifrey, this is certainly not their only origin. In the timelines in which the Doctor is of Gallifreyan biology, they are millennia old given their ability to regenerate into a new incarnation when mortally injured, a process that variably changes their appearance, gender, and even personality traits. The Doctor's various incarnations have gained numerous recurring enemies during their travels, including the Daleks and their generally-accepted creator Davros; the Cybermen, a form of cybernetically "upgraded" humans who have been stripped of their humanity; and their fellow renegade Time Lord "The Master", the Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes. The Doctor's real name is generally accepted to be unknown to the audience; there have been a select few times where it has potentially been revealed, however oft disregarded even by the Doctor themselves.

Marketing

Teaser art featuring the initial set logo design.

Magic meets the TARDIS with four Commander decks, special card treatments, Collector Boosters, and Secret Lairs. This collaboration has flavor and fun for fans of every Doctor from across 60 years of Doctor Who stories. The four 100-card decks contain 200 new cards in total. All reprints feature new Doctor Who themed art.

Doctor Who was the first Commander deck release to include Collector Boosters. The boosters feature all alternate art showcase versions of the cards in the decks (no new cards). Thirty cards have a TARDIS-inspired card frame and comic book art style, and are numbered #531-564. The Collector Boosters also feature surge foils. They were not printed in French and German language versions.

To represent the space- and time-traveling nature of the Doctor, each Commander deck also features 10 new Planechase cards.

Two Doctor Who themed Secret Lairs were released on October 2, 2023. A third drop will be released later.

Serialized Doctors

Serialized versions of the Doctors may appear in Collector Boosters. The serialized total ranges from 501 to 513 matching each specific Doctor.

Events

• Launch Party: October 13 – 15, 2023

Promotional cards

• Release card: foil Past in Flames

Tokens and markers

Doctor Who has 31 tokens and one overlay card.

1. Copy, for City of Death; Human-Time Lord Meta-Crisis; Quantum Misalignment; The Sixth Doctor and Wedding Ring.
2. 2/2 Alien creature for Adipose Offering; New New York and North Pole Research Base.
3. 4/4 Alien Rhino creature for Fugitive of the Judoon.
4. 2/2 Horse creature with "Doctors you control have horsemanship" for The Girl in the Fireplace.
5. 1/1 Human creature with "Doctor spells you cast cost less to cast." for The Eleventh Hour.
6. 1/1 Human creature with ward for Fugitive of the Judoon.
7. 1/1 Human Noble creature with vanishing 3 and "Prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature." for The Girl in the Fireplace.
8. 1/1 Soldier creature for Kate Stewart and UNIT Headquarters.
9. 1/1 Warrior creature for The War Games.
10. 1/1 Fish creature for Frost Fair Lure Fish.
11. 2/2 Alien Angel artifact creature with first strike, vigilance and "Whenever an opponent cast a creature spell, this permanent isn't a creature until end of turn." for Aplan Mortarium and Blink.
12. 3/3 Dalek artifact creature with menace for Davros, Dalek Creator; Genesis of the Daleks and The Dalek Emperor.
13. 2/2 Alien Warrior creature for Iraxxa, Empress of Mars.
14. Mark of the Rani, an Aura enchantment with "Enchant creature" and "Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and is goaded." for The Rani.
15. 3/3 Beast creature for Beast Within.
16. 3/3 Mutant creature with deathtouch for The Curse of Fenric.
17. 1/1 Alien Insect creature with flying for .
18. 2/2 Dinosaur creature with flying and haste for Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.
19. Clue artifact for Blink; Fugitive of the Judoon; Heaven Sent; Madame Vastra; Martha Jones; Rory Williams; Sarah Jane Smith; Sally Sparrow; The Fugitive Doctor; The Seventh Doctor and The Third Doctor.
20. Clue artifact (Hypercube).
21. Clue artifact (Biodata module).
22. 2/2 Cyberman artifact creature overlay card for Death in Heaven and Missy.
23. Food artifact (Jelly Babies) for Astrid Peth; Graham O’Brien; Madame Vastra; The Eleventh Hour; The Fourth Doctor and The Third Doctor.
24. Food artifact (Fish fingers and custard).
25. Food artifact (Cheese and pickle sandwich).
26. Treasure artifact (Romana) for City of Death; Frost Fair Lure Fish; New New York; North Pole Research Base; RMS Titanic and The Third Doctor.
27. Treasure artifact (Firestone).
28. Treasure artifact (TARDIS key).
29. Osgood, Operation Double, a 2/2 Human Alien Shapeshifter creature with ": Add . Spend this mana only to cast an artifact spell or activate an ability of an artifact."; "Paradox - Whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand, investigate." and "(This token's mana cost is .)", for Osgood, Operation Double.

Themes and mechanics

Cyberman overlay card

Doctor's Companion is a Partner variant which allows you to have two Commanders if one of them is the Doctor.

The Timey-Wimey deck is built around time counters. To this end, it features three core mechanics: Suspend and Vanishing, two returning mechanics that utilize time counters, and Time travel, a new mechanic that allows one to manipulate the time counters on their cards.

The Paradox Power deck focuses on the new Paradox ability word, which provides an effect whenever you cast a spell from anywhere but your hand.

The Masters of Evil deck introduces Villainous choice, a new mechanic which offers a modal effect targeted at the player's opponents. Both options offer unfortunate outcomes, but they get to choose which one befalls them. This deck also features an artifact creature subtheme.

The Blast from the Past deck is structured around artifact tokens (particularly Food, Clue, and Treasure tokens) and the returning Historic mechanic.

Sagas play a significant role, as each of the 15 Doctors (the first 13 main Doctors followed by the TV series plus the War Doctor and the Fugitive Doctor) and 4 villain cards have an associated saga representing an iconic episode of their run.

Since all four of these preconstructed decks include additional Planechase decks, the Planechase-exclusive mechanics Planeswalk and Chaos ensues also make a return. They also appear as an added bonus on regular cards.

The set also sees the return of Afflict, Affinity (for Daleks), Battalion, Battle cry, Basic landcycling, Boast, Cascade, Casualty, Conspire, Convoke, Emerge, Escape, Exert, Explore, Flashback, Foretell, Goad, Horsemanship, Imprint, Investigate, Islandwalk, Jump-start, Mentor, Morbid, Myriad, Partner with, Read ahead, Rebound, Retrace, Secret council, Shadow, Skulk, Soulbond, Storm, and Vote. Replicate is featured with the specific cost of tapping a Dalek.

The set makes extensive use of Flavor words.

Card types

This set introduces the Doctor creature type, used for cards that depict the many versions of "The Doctor". Every Doctor is two-color, while every Doctor's Companion is mono-color. Companions usually have the Human type. The Doctor always additionally has the creature type Time Lord (which uniquely consists of two words without a hyphen).

The set also introduces the Dalek and Cyberman creature types for the Doctor's main antagonists. Creatures in the graveyard may be returned as face down 2/2 Cyberman artifact creature (i.e. similar to a morphed creature) . To indicate this, a Cyberman overlay card is provided. Furthermore, the set adds the Detective creature type.

After formally being introduced in Unfinity, the Alien type is also featured in this set, and the formerly acorn Scientist creature type becomes eternal.

Counter types

Doctor Who introduces Shadow counters, which grant creatures Shadow, Eruption counters, and Takeover counters. The Time travel mechanic makes use of Time counters.

Plane types

Doctor Who introduces the following non-canon Plane types:

• Alfava Metraxis
• Apalapucia
• Darillium
• Earth
• Gallifrey
• Horsehead Nebula
• Kandoka
• Mars
• Moon
• New Earth
• Skaro
• Spacecraft
• The Dalek Asylum
• The Library
• Time
• Trenzalore
• Unknown Planet

Preconstructed decks

These immersive Commander decks feature Doctors, companions, villains, and locations from the series. These decks are so full of references, you'd think they are bigger on the inside.

Theme deck name	Color Identity					Commander
Blast from the Past	W	U			G	The Fourth Doctor & Sarah Jane Smith
Timey-Wimey	W	U		R		The Tenth Doctor & Rose Tyler
Masters of Evil		U	B	R		Davros, Dalek Creator
Paradox Power		U		R	G	The Thirteenth Doctor & Yasmin Khan

External links

• Doctor Who wiki
• The BIG Doctor Who Commander Reveal! New Cards, Art, Deck Themes, & More! (Video). Good Morning Magic. YouTube (July 21, 2023).
• Jubilee Finnegan (July 21, 2023). "Catch Up with the Magic: The Gathering - Doctor Who San Diego Comic-Con Reveals". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Jubilee Finnegan (July 28, 2023). "A First Look at Magic: The Gathering - Doctor Who". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Tom Marks (October 2, 2023). "Exclusive: See Doctor Who's Iconic Blink Episode and More as Magic: The Gathering Cards". IGN.com.
• Official product page.
• WPN product page.