Win Using Doctor Typal With This Gallifrey Stands Commander Guide!

I have a hankering for winning via alternative methods when playing Commander. Some alternate win conditions, like the new Gallifrey Stands, seems rather novel and difficult to pull off. Others, like 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.) , may have your table yawning.

While 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. seemed almost impossible as a realistic win condition, a new Doctor Who Secret Lair was spoiled last week. Two new Doctors Commander options were revealed – one of those Doctors pairs perfectly with Gallifrey Stands.

The Fourteenth Doctor looks like players’ best shot at assembling the board needed to win with Gallifrey Stands. This is not an easy task, making this Commander build far from a competitive one. Regardless, if you’re looking for some ideas on how to build a Doctor-themed Commander deck, this is the best place to start!

The Commander

Shown above is our Commander of choice. The Fourteenth Doctor really is our best shot at getting Gallifrey Stands to work, as it needs to have thirteen Doctors in play on your upkeep to win the game, and is a six mana enchantment itself. I feel the need to stress that, even with what’s in this article, this is a very difficult win condition to pull off.

Fortunately, the Fourteenth Doctor can turn Gallifrey Stands’ ETB effect into a reliable card advantage engine. This Doctor can mill your other ones rather quickly before entering as a copy of one of them. Gallifrey Stands can then put those cards into your hand. This is a great way to assemble all the cards you need to win at a, uh, reasonable pace.

Before we go any further, however, our Doctor can bring a Companion along with him. Here is, in our opinion, the most reasonable Companion options as well as the Companion we will ultimately build around.

Doctor’s Companion

Rose Noble Rose Noble Ward {2}
Whenever you cast a Doctor spell or creature spell with doctor's companion, draw a card.
Doctor's companion (You can have two commanders if the other is the Doctor.) is a seemingly strong choice for a deck full of Doctors. I will repeat what I said when initially reviewing Rose: The mana value for what you get is simply not worth it. Rose’s draw ability is already lackluster for four mana since you need to cast the spell for Rose to trigger – meaning flickering will not work. There’s better things to consider.

If you’re looking for a Doctor’s Companion that is purely a value generator, 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.) is likely the better choice. Not only does Sarah trigger off of more spells, but many of the other Doctors that you may include to use with Gallifrey Stands synergize with Clue Tokens, making the ability more valuable than it may appear at first glance.

Vislor Turlough Vislor Turlough Deal with the Black Guardian — When Vislor Turlough enters, you may have an opponent gain control of it. If you do, it's goaded for as long as they control it.
At the beginning of your end step, draw a card, then you lose life equal to the number of cards in your hand.
Doctor's companion (You can have two commanders if the other is the Doctor.) is an obvious choice for some. While this Doctor’s Companion doesn’t do much functionally for you, at allows you play within the full five-colored identity. You don’t need black to play the other Doctors, though, so we won’t be using Vislor because we don’t need him.

If you do want to play black, Clara Oswald Clara Oswald Impossible Girl — If Clara Oswald is your commander, choose a color before the game begins. Clara Oswald is the chosen color.
If a triggered ability of a Doctor you control triggers, that ability triggers an additional time.
Doctor's companion (You can have two commanders if the other is the Doctor.) is likely the stronger choice. You’ll be able to occasionally copy the cast ability of the Fourteenth Doctor with Clara, and will also be able to copy any abilities of other Doctor cards in play, or the Doctor that your Fourteenth Doctor becomes.

Our choice may not strictly be the best one, but it does provide a rather interesting angle to build the deck around- Jo Grant. Jo gives all of your Historic permanents Cycling, allowing you to dump Doctors into the grave for your Commander to copy on cast. Three mana for a Cycle effect is expensive, however, so we will be interested in finding way to reduce the cost of this ability.

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Making Cycling Better

Jo Grant offers a rather novel way to find all the pieces you need while getting a bunch of Doctors into your grave for Gallifrey Stands to put back into your hand – or for you to otherwise reanimate. It’s probably not the most powerful way to build the deck, but does offer an interesting twist on the strategy.

New Perspectives New Perspectives When this enchantment enters, draw three cards.
As long as you have seven or more cards in hand, you may pay {0} rather than pay cycling costs. and Jo Grant can lead to some wacky interactions. As long as you have seven cards in your hand, you’ll be able to dump all of your Historic cards into your grave for free! Add Tectonic Reformation Tectonic Reformation Each land card in your hand has cycling {R}.
Cycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Draw a card.) into the mix, and you can almost sculpt your hand to your liking.

Gavi, Nest Warden Gavi, Nest Warden You may pay {0} rather than pay the cycling cost of the first card you cycle each turn.
Whenever you draw your second card each turn, create a 2/2 red and white Dinosaur Cat creature token. can do a similar thing, allowing you to get your Doctors into the grave with speed. Fluctuator Fluctuator Cycling abilities you activate cost {2} less to activate. is quite powerful alongside Jo Grant, allowing you to Cycle your Historic permanents for one white instead of three mana. Zirda, the Dawnwaker Zirda, the Dawnwaker Companion — Each permanent card in your starting deck has an activated ability. (If this card is your chosen companion, you may put it into your hand from outside the game for {3} as a sorcery.)
Abilities you activate that aren't mana abilities cost {2} less to activate. This effect can't reduce the mana in that cost to less than one mana.
{1}, {T}: Target creature can't block this turn. , while unusable as a Companion because of the Doctors, can also reduce the cost of Cycling effects.

Fluctuator is so powerful that this deck functions at a completely different level with it in play. As a result, we’ve included an arsenal of tutors to find this key card like Muddle the Mixture Muddle the Mixture Counter target instant or sorcery spell.
Transmute {1}{U}{U} ({1}{U}{U}, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same mana value as this card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. Transmute only as a sorcery.) , Whir of Invention Whir of Invention Improvise (Your artifacts can help cast this spell. Each artifact you tap after you're done activating mana abilities pays for {1}.)
Search your library for an artifact card with mana value X or less, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle. and Tribute Mage Tribute Mage When this creature enters, you may search your library for an artifact card with mana value 2, reveal that card, put it into your hand, then shuffle. to help ensure you see it during the game.

Unpredictable Cyclone Unpredictable Cyclone If a cycling ability of another nonland card would cause you to draw a card, instead exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a card that shares a card type with the cycled card. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Then put the exiled cards that weren't cast this way on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Cycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Draw a card.) functions as a win condition, turning your Cycles into free casts. This is a great way to assemble a ton of Doctors onto the battlefield for cheap.

Effects like Gavi can otherwise create a unique opportunity to include cards with massive Cycling costs like Decree of Silence Decree of Silence Whenever an opponent casts a spell, counter that spell and put a depletion counter on this enchantment. If there are three or more depletion counters on this enchantment, sacrifice it.
Cycling {4}{U}{U} ({4}{U}{U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle this card, you may counter target spell. . We will not be leaning into Cycling quite that heavily, but it is a direction to take the deck.

The Doctors

Sadly, all of the Doctors want to do slightly different things, making them some of the clunkiest cards in your deck. This makes Cycling the weaker ones, like The Thirteenth Doctor The Thirteenth Doctor Paradox — Whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Team TARDIS — At the beginning of your end step, untap each creature you control with a counter on it. and The Fifth Doctor The Fifth Doctor Peaceful Coexistence — At the beginning of your end step, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control that didn't attack or enter this turn. Untap those creatures. , much more interesting.

That said, some Doctors can provide some value as individual pieces. Since Jo Grant cares about Historic permanents, The Sixth Doctor The Sixth Doctor Time Lord's Prerogative — Whenever you cast a historic spell, copy it, except the copy isn't legendary. This ability triggers only once each turn. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic. A copy of a permanent spell becomes a token.) can synergize with a majority of the rest of the deck. The Fourth Doctor The Fourth Doctor You may look at the top card of your library any time.
Would You Like A...? — Once each turn, you may play a historic land or cast a historic spell from the top of your library. When you do, create a Food token. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic.) is another great card to deploy as a value engine.

Since Gallifrey Stands is specifically interested in assembling thirteen creatures to win the game, this opens the door to this role being filled by Changelings. We decided not to do this, since we really want a lot of Historic permanents to keep our Cycling count up, but it is an option worth exploring for players who don’t care for the Cycling strategy.

An alternate Commander

Another Commander option If ran into while trying to build this deck was Jodah, the Unifier. This Commander can power out all of your Legendary creatures with its psuedo, Legend Cascade mechanic. I wanted to stay a bit more on-theme, but this could be a powerful option for those interested. Add in a few reanimator spells like [toooltips]Haunting Voyage[/tooltips], and this may be a more realistic way to get Gallifrey Stands to work. It is not, in our opinion, as flavorful.

Card Advantage

Because we’re digging for certain cards, and otherwise Cycling a lot of Doctors, having a few discard payoffs aren’t a bad idea. Rielle, the Everwise Rielle, the Everwise Rielle gets +1/+0 for each instant and sorcery card in your graveyard.
Whenever you discard one or more cards for the first time each turn, draw that many cards. can be a surprising source of card advantage, especially if you choose to include some Wheel effects. Windfall Windfall Each player discards their hand, then draws cards equal to the greatest number of cards a player discarded this way. , Wheel of Fortune Wheel of Fortune Each player discards their hand, then draws seven cards. and more are great choices for this deck, dumping Doctors into your grave, and Rielle draws a ton of cards alongside them. Rielle can otherwise turn your Doctor cycles into drawing two cards instead of one.

If you’re tuning your deck to a more powerful table, you can use effects like Narset, Parter of Veils Narset, Parter of Veils Each opponent can't draw more than one card each turn.
−2: Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a noncreature, nonland card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. to hose your opponents while wheeling yourself. While our recommended pool of cards will be tuned for a less powerful table, this is an option.

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Mana accelerants

Jo Grant can specifically Cycle Historic permanents. Because of this, we’re interested in using Mana Rocks for a majority of our ramp. They can ramp you in the early game, and be cycled away for something else in the late game.

As such, we’re packing a full suite of Signets in the WURG colors. We’re also including the Commander mainstays Sol Ring Sol Ring {T}: Add {C}{C}. and Arcane Signet Arcane Signet {T}: Add one mana of any color in your commander's color identity. . Otherwise, adding some more expensive mana rocks like Mana Crypt Mana Crypt At the beginning of your upkeep, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, this artifact deals 3 damage to you.
{T}: Add {C}{C}. and Mana Vault Mana Vault This artifact doesn't untap during your untap step.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay {4}. If you do, untap this artifact.
At the beginning of your draw step, if this artifact is tapped, it deals 1 damage to you.
{T}: Add {C}{C}{C}. is an option depending on how powerful you want your deck to be.

One unusual Mana Rock we’ve included is The Enigma Jewel The Enigma Jewel The Enigma Jewel enters tapped.
{T}: Add {C}{C}. Spend this mana only to activate abilities.
Craft with four or more nonlands with activated abilities {8}{U} ({8}{U}, Exile this artifact, Exile the four or more from among other permanents you control and/or cards in your graveyard: Return this card transformed under its owner's control. Craft only as a sorcery.) . This can be used to help reduce the cost of Cycling effects.

Because of Jo Grant’s interaction with Mana Rocks, we’re also packing Rebuild Rebuild Return all artifacts to their owners' hands.
Cycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Draw a card.) . We can Cycle the card away if we don’t need it, but this can uniquely screw some Commander strategies, while allowing your unneeded mana rocks to cycle into different cards. Of course, once you have your activated abilities costing zero mana, you can bounce all of your mana rocks and turn them into different cards.

Boardwipe and Commander Protection

Unfortunately, this Commander deck get appears to get blown out by being wiped, at least on paper. As a result, we have a lot of ways to protect your cards for cheap! We have recommended a few free spells like Fierce Guardianship Fierce Guardianship If you control a commander, you may cast this spell without paying its mana cost.
Counter target noncreature spell. that do not need to be included if you do not have the capital. This can be replaced for some cheaper removal since pool of recommended cards is low on those.

That said, we do have Everybody Lives! Everybody Lives! All creatures gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. Players gain hexproof until end of turn. Players can't lose life this turn and players can't lose the game or win the game this turn. , Teferi’s Protection Teferi’s Protection Until your next turn, your life total can't change and you gain protection from everything. All permanents you control phase out. (While they're phased out, they're treated as though they don't exist. They phase in before you untap during your untap step.)
Exile Teferi's Protection. , Heroic Intervention Heroic Intervention Permanents you control gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. and more as ways to protect your Commander and board from wipes.

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Current Problems

Unfortunately, Gallifrey Stands is a very unrealistic win condition. Between assembling a gigantic board that you need to untap with, and the card being removable itself, you’ll likely win more games by stumbling around than you actually will with the enchantment.

If you want to make this deck a bit more competitive, you may want to include some stronger win conditions. Whether you want to win with creatures with Craterhoof Behemoth Craterhoof Behemoth Haste
When this creature enters, creatures you control gain trample and get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creatures you control. , or find another way to win, the current state of the deck likely needs a better plan B.

We have Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant Trample
When Ghalta enters, put any number of creature cards from your hand onto the battlefield. as a way to get all the Doctors in your hand into play, and Ascend From Avernus Ascend From Avernus Return all creature and planeswalker cards with mana value X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. Exile Ascend from Avernus. as a way to get all your Doctors in your grave onto the battlefield. Ultimately, having Black as an option in the color pie may be the best way to make this deck more consistent since you’ll gain access to cards like Haunting Voyage Haunting Voyage Choose a creature type. Return up to two creature cards of that type from your graveyard to the battlefield. If this spell was foretold, return all creature cards of that type from your graveyard to the battlefield instead.
Foretell {5}{B}{B} (During your turn, you may pay {2} and exile this card from your hand face down. Cast it on a later turn for its foretell cost.) .

The Pool of Cards

Listed above is not a streamlined 100-card deck, but instead a series of different cards for you consider. Do not take the manabase seriously. This is just some possibilities you could include, and is mostly from a different list by Moxfield user Foz_01 that uses The Fourteenth Doctor and Rose Noble, which can be found here. 33 to 34 lands seems like the sweet spot for this deck, but we just dumped in a bunch of different lands as potential ideas for you to consider.

Notably, we did not include some of the cheap Cycle lands like Forgotten Cave here, but if you really like the Cycle theme, do consider them.

Otherwise, I want to give a quick nod to the Channel Lands specifically. These Legendary lands are Historic, so Jo Grant can Cycle them in a pinch. A lot of your creatures are also Legendary, meaning these lands will generally have a reduced Channel cost. Finally, Channel also synergizes with Zirda, the Dawnwaker, Rielle, the Everwise and more.

As I play with this myself in the coming months, I’ll be sure to check back and present a more streamlined recommendation. As it feels right now, don’t expect to be taking down your friends’ streamlined strategies with this one.

Either way, if you do decide to build Jo Grant and The Fourteenth Doctor, let us know what you think!

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