Almost a week ago, three cards from a new Doctor Who Secret Lair were revealed. We knew for a while that a card portraying The Fourteenth Doctor was in the works. That card, along with another Doctor’s Companion and a cool legend that plays well with
Fact or Fiction
Fact or Fiction
Reveal the top five cards of your library. An opponent separates those cards into two piles. Put one pile into your hand and the other into your graveyard.
effects were officially revealed.
The upcoming Doctor Who Secret Lair, however, has five cards in it, meaning two were yet to be revealed. The product is set to go on sale on December 11, which is just around the corner. As such, we knew the final two cards would be revealed soon. Now, we have our first look at these two new Doctor Who Secret Lair cards.
Given that all five of these Doctor Who Secret Lair cards are mechanically unique, there’s a good chance they will go for a decent chunk financially, at least until reprinted. If you’re a Doctor Who fanatic or are simply looking to build a new EDH deck around a unique Commander, now may be a good chance.
The Fifteenth Doctor
The Fifteenth Doctor is the first of our two spoilers from the upcoming Doctor Who Secret Lair. This card is quite intriguing mechanically. First, it provides you with a decent chance at card advantage. Of course, this is dependent on your ability to consistently hit Artifacts that cost two or three mana. The obvious hits here are typically mana rocks. Cards like
Arcane Signet
Arcane Signet
{T}: Add one mana of any color in your commander's color identity.
and
Commander’s Sphere
Commander’s Sphere
{T}: Add one mana of any color in your commander's color identity.
Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.
are always solid cards to add to your arsenal.
The Fifteenth Doctor has a bit more going on, though. This legend does a great
Inspiring Statuary
Inspiring Statuary
Nonartifact spells you cast have improvise. (Your artifacts can help cast those spells. Each artifact you tap after you're done activating mana abilities pays for {1}.)
impression by giving your first non-Artifact spell Improvise. This incentivizes you to play a lot of cards that make Artifact tokens to abuse the Improvise mechanic and cast your big spells for cheap.
What’s nice is that there some cards from the Doctor Who set that can help you out. For instance, The Fifteenth Doctor pairs exceptionally well with
Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane Smith
Whenever you cast a historic spell, investigate. This ability triggers only once each turn. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic. To investigate, create a Clue token. It's an artifact with "{2}, Sacrifice this token: Draw a card.")
Doctor's companion (You can have two commanders if the other is the Doctor.)
as a duo in the Command Zone. The Fifteenth Doctor helps you find Artifacts to play, and Sarah Jane Smith rewards you for playing those Artifacts by making Clue tokens.
Academy Manufactor
Academy Manufactor
If you would create a Clue, Food, or Treasure token, instead create one of each.
all of a sudden becomes in incredible find. From there, you just need big spells and ways to take advantage of having lots of tokens around. Cards like
Shimmer Dragon
Shimmer Dragon
Flying
As long as you control four or more artifacts, this creature has hexproof. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.)
Tap two untapped artifacts you control: Draw a card.
help a lot in this department.
You could also choose to utilize
Peri Brown
Peri Brown
The first historic spell you cast each turn has convoke. (Your creatures can help cast it. Each creature you tap while casting it pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color.)
Doctor's companion (You can have two commanders if the other is the Doctor.)
instead as a way to play both your Artifacts and your Creatures for cheap. In this scenario, cards that make Artifact Creature tokens work great here, as Artifact Creature tokens work double duty by helping with Improvise and Convoke.
Additionally, this is a great addition to a deck focused around
Gallifrey Stands
Gallifrey Stands
When Gallifrey Stands enters, return all Doctor cards from your graveyard to your hand.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a Doctor creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. Then if you control thirteen or more Doctors, you win the game.
. Gallifrey Stands allows you to return Doctor cards from your graveyard to your hand. Meanwhile, The Fifteenth Doctor repeatedly mills you, helping put Doctor cards in your graveyard at little cost. There’s a lot you can do with The Fifteenth Doctor and a lot of roads you can take building around it.
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The Meep in Pop Culture
Last but not least, we have The Meep. The Meep made a well-received appearance in “The Star Beast.” The Star Beast is the first of three special episodes designed for the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who. This little character may look cute and harmless, but this is quite misleading. The Meep first appeared back in a 1980 comic strip, with this year’s appearance being the character’s first time on screen.
The idea behind The Meep’s harmless-looking exterior is that it hides the fact that he is villainous in nature. In “The Star Beast” episode, The Meep’s spaceship crashes, and Donna’s daughter, Rose, hides in their shed. Donna discovers The Meep later, and people soon find out that his ship will ultimately result in the destruction of London if it would take off. The Meep is portrayed as a soon-to-be dictator with the intention of conquering as much as possible.
This card’s aesthetics seem to be very well-received. The flavor text on the card is simple but nonetheless gets the job done. The Meep’s abilities also closely resemble the alien’s characteristics. After all, The Meep is quite manipulative and uses this as an advantage. As a card, The Meep has the ability to sacrifice another Creature to potentially pump your whole squad. As a small Creature itself, the goal is to sacrifice bigger Creatures to benefit your army of small minions, which is quite flavorful.
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Utilizing The Meep in Commander
As mentioned, there are two keys to maximizing the abilities of The Meep. The first is to have ways to make use of ways to flood the battlefield with Creatures. Assuming The Meep is your Commander, you are restricted to being mono-black, which is a limiting factor. Still, cards like
Myr Battlesphere
Myr Battlesphere
When this creature enters, create four 1/1 colorless Myr artifact creature tokens.
Whenever this creature attacks, you may tap X untapped Myr you control. If you do, this creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn and deals X damage to the player or planeswalker it's attacking.
, for instance, can create a bunch of small Creature tokens, all while leaving behind a Creature with high mana value.
This is important, as it leads us to the second essential factor in maximizing The Meep. The Meep specifically pumps your squad based on the mana value of the card you sacrifice. The best way to make use of both abilities is to try to cheat big Creatures into play. Using cards like
Reanimate
Reanimate
Put target creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. You lose life equal to that card's mana value.
to bring back big token makers such as Myr Battlesphere or
Pentavus
Pentavus
This creature enters with five +1/+1 counters on it.
{1}, Remove a +1/+1 counter from this creature: Create a 1/1 colorless Pentavite artifact creature token with flying.
{1}, Sacrifice a Pentavite: Put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
is a nice strategy.
There are also cards like
Ancient Stone Idol
Ancient Stone Idol
Flash
This spell costs {1} less to cast for each attacking creature.
Trample
When this creature dies, create a 6/12 colorless Construct artifact creature token with trample.
that have high mana value but can naturally cost a lot less mana to cast. The Meep can provide a pretty big buff to your team in the right circumstance, so definitely don’t take the cuddly Creature lightly.
Both The Fifteenth Doctor and The Meep are cool additions to Commander and round out the upcoming Doctor Who Secret Lair. This product is available for purchase starting tomorrow, so don’t miss out!
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