All Doctor Who decklists have finally been revealed, and there’s a lot to unpack. Much like Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, these Doctor Who cards are extremely flavorful and look like a blast to play with. Where cards from these sets tend to differ in general are on power level. The Lord of the Rings MTG set had a plethora of extremely powerful cards from the get-go. Cards like
Orcish Bowmasters
Orcish Bowmasters
Flash
When this creature enters and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, this creature deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1.
and
The One Ring
The One Ring
Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring.
began shaking up multiple competitive formats almost immediately.
While the Doctor Who Commander decks don’t seem to feature many cards of similar power level, there are still some strong options for Commander play. We recently went over the most expensive reprints featured in the Doctor Who Commander decks. Today, we are going to focus on the strongest new cards printed in the Doctor Who Commander decks. Notably, given that these Doctor Who cards were designed specifically with Commander in mind, we will be focusing on the Commander format with our rankings. Without further ado, here are the best new cards in the Doctor Who MTG Commander decks!
#5 Alistair, the Brigadier
Alistair, the Brigadier is one of the more powerful Commander options printed within the Doctor Who Commander decks. This is in large part because of how abundant Historic spells are. It’s quite easy to play cheap Artifacts and powerful legendaries to help churn out an army with this card. If that weren’t enough, the Commander can act as a win condition in the late game after building out a big board by buffing your whole squad.
Alistair also opens the door for some cool combos. For example, if you control
Cloudstone Curio
Cloudstone Curio
Whenever a nonartifact permanent you control enters, you may return another permanent you control that shares a permanent type with it to its owner's hand.
and have two zero-mana Artifact Creatures in hand, such as Memnite[tooltips] and [tooltips]Ornithopter, you can generate infinite Creatures. This is because, when you play the second zero-mana Artifact Creature, Alistair will trigger and give you a Soldier token.
When that enters the battlefield, it triggers Cloudstone Curio, letting you return the other zero-mana Artifact Creature to your hand. From there, you can simply keep casting and bouncing the two Artifact Creatures back and forth and generate an enormous board of Creatures. There are likely plenty of other combos worth considering, and Alistair looks like a fun and powerful build-around Commander.
Read More: Doctor Who’s Biggest Villain Has Multiple Incredible Cards!
#4 Cyber Conversion
Cyber Conversion is a very simple card, yet it is quite effective. For two mana, you get to turn a Creature face down and treat it as a 2/2 Cyberman Artifact Creature. This card is strong for two main reasons. First, the removal options in blue are very limited, so having another way to deal with opposing Commanders or other problematic Creatures is very important.
Second, unlike traditional removal spells such as
Terminate
Terminate
Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated.
, Cyber Conversion does not actually send the opposing Commander to the Command zone. As a result, the Commander’s controller won’t have the option to simply recast their Commander for two additional mana. This sets Cyberman Conversion apart from something like
Reality Shift
Reality Shift
Exile target creature. Its controller manifests the top card of their library. (That player puts the top card of their library onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. If it's a creature card, it can be turned face up any time for its mana cost.)
.
Read More: MTG Doctor Who Commander Decks Reveal Massive Planechase Upgrades!
#3 Adric, Mathematical Genius
Adric is one of the strongest Commander options from the whole set. At two mana, Adric is extremely efficient. Not only does it act like
Strionic Resonator
Strionic Resonator
{2}, {T}: Copy target triggered ability you control. You may choose new targets for the copy. (A triggered ability uses the words "when," "whenever," or "at.")
, allowing you to copy enters-the-battlefield effects, but it can also copy activated abilities too. If that weren’t enough, you can sacrifice it to counter problematic activated or triggered abilities from your opponent’s which can help potentially help save you from losing to
Thassa’s Oracle
Thassa’s Oracle
When this creature enters, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is your devotion to blue. Put up to one of them on top of your library and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. If X is greater than or equal to the number of cards in your library, you win the game. (Each {U} in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to blue.)
.
Some players are even considering this for cEDH play. After all, cheap and interactive Creatures can be extremely useful in the format. Even though Adric requires you to sacrifice it to counter a problematic ability, you can always replay Adric by paying an extra two mana.
Read More: MTG Doctor Who What is Villainous Choice?
#2 Everybody Lives
Everybody Lives! is a funky card that functions exactly how it sounds. Players can’t lose the game. In general, Creatures can’t die. Additionally, players can’t take damage, and they can’t win the game either. Well, if the card saves everyone, what makes it so strong? The thing is, you get to determine when and how to use the card for only two mana. You can use it in response to a board wipe to protect your board of Creatures, assuming your board is bigger. You can use it as a
Fog
Fog
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn.
variant to make sure you don’t die in combat. From there, your opponent may have overextended their attack and led to their own demise off of the assumption that you would already have lost.
One of the strongest things the card does, though, is help make sure that an opponent can’t win the game via an alternate win condition, such as Thassa’s Oracle. What’s nice is that your opponent may exhaust a lot of their resources assuming that they can win the game, e=only to have their plans go awry thanks to your two-mana white Instant. Everybody Lives! is an extremely versatile card, earning a spot high up on this list. For more detailed analysis on what makes the card strong, you can take a look here.
Read More: MTG Doctor Who What is Doctor’s Companion?
#1 Flesh Duplicate
Flesh Duplicate is an excellent card, and the reason why is fairly straightforward.
Clone
Clone
You may have this creature enter as a copy of any creature on the battlefield.
effects are generally quite strong in Commander, and this card only costs two mana. There’s a reason
Phantasmal Image
Phantasmal Image
You may have this creature enter as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except it's an Illusion in addition to its other types and it has "When this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it."
is such a good card. Getting to get yourself elite enters-the-battlefield triggers by copying huge haymakers from the opponents can help swing the game in your favor. Of course, just like Phantasmal Image, Flesh Duplicate has a drawback. In this case, your Creature copy also has Vanishing 3, so it won’t stick around for too long.
Still, imagine copying something like
Avenger of Zendikar
Avenger of Zendikar
When this creature enters, create a 0/1 green Plant creature token for each land you control.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you may put a +1/+1 counter on each Plant creature you control.
or
Terastodon
Terastodon
When this creature enters, you may destroy up to three target noncreature permanents. For each permanent put into a graveyard this way, its controller creates a 3/3 green Elephant creature token.
. You still get the triggered ability regardless, which is where most of the value lies. This is yet another card that could end up seeing cEDH play. Efficiency rules, and even copying some cheap Creatures like
Dockside Extortionist
Dockside Extortionist
When this creature enters, create X Treasure tokens, where X is the number of artifacts and enchantments your opponents control. (Treasure tokens are artifacts with "{T}, Sacrifice this token: Add one mana of any color.")
can be game breaking.
This card is also a great fit for decks that can increase the number of Vanishing counters it will have. Using cards that let you Time Travel, for example, can keep the card around longer. Outside of that mechanic, though, you can even use cards that Proliferate to help keep Flesh Duplicate in play. No matter how you use Flesh Duplicate, it’s hard to go wrong with such a cheap card, hence why it’s at the top of this list.
Read More: New Doctor Who Previews Abuse Time Counters!