CUT #26 Finals - The Fugitive Doctor + Sarah Jane Smith vs. The Fourth Doctor + Graham O'Brien

Hello, everyone! Welcome back to CUT, the article series where I get deckbuilders to face all sorts of challenges to test their skills.

Last time, we had three awesome deckbuilders offering their creations themed around Doctor Who! Let's see who made it to the finals:

Congratulations, Jubilee and Sinclair! Great job on making it to today's article. As always, I want to give a huge thank you to Martin! After you're done reading this, go and give some of his work some love over on EDHREC.

Now onto the challenges for the finals of CUT #26!

• Must use a different Doctor than you used in the first round, this time with a companion from a different precon than the one your chosen Doctor is from

• Must play Sonic Screwdriver, TARDIS, and five characters/scenes from your Commander'(s) season(s)

• Max 16 Rares/Mythics

• Must play 10 cards that reference different planes or worlds

First up, we have Jubilee!

The Fugitive and the Detective

Sometimes you're looking at all the cards in a new set, trying to figure out what deck to build, and you just can't decide. I personally try to limit myself to one commander per plane/universe, but when a set as exciting as Doctor Who comes around, that rule becomes harder to follow. However, just like how time can get messy and double over itself, so can my decks with things like Doctor's companion. It was time to build a deck that combined two distinct themes: Enchantress and Big Spells!

The Fugitive Doctor's mysterious origins fit this nicely, as her unknown history means she could have met anyone at any time. I love the character in the show (and am praying Jo Martin gets to return in some capacity), so I was excited to build a deck for her. While some players have been pairing her with Martha Jones or K-9, Mark I for blue and evasion, I decided to steal the Blast from the Past face companion and use Sarah Jane Smith. Smith comes down on turn two so we can immediately start generating clues for when the Doctor arrives.

The gameplan for this deck is to set the stage for The Fugitive Doctor's arrival in the early game with a swarm of Clue tokens and enchantments, along with finding one of our big spells to flashback with her ability. Most enchantresses are rares or mythics, so those ate up a handful of our slots. However, Satyr Enchanter and Sage's Reverie do a solid job at being uncommons that keep our hand full.

While we're casting these spells, we're going to be using red's rummage effects to try and find large spells to pitch into our graveyard. Faithless Looting, Bitter Reunion, and Thrilling Discovery all help us hunt for these big sorceries. Rather than pack the deck with these cards, I wanted to keep them sparse. In all likelihood, we're only going to get to cast one before The Fugitive Doctor is removed or the game ends, so I'm prioritizing the enchantress strategy. Even if we can only cast one, cards like Triumphant Reckoning do enough to end the game on the spot, and Treacherous Terrain even discards itself to fix your mana! Talk about double duty.

But if you wind up not being able to cast something huge, don't worry. Getting a second Swords to Plowshares or Volcanic Torrent is perfectly fine value. The real money is in the enchantress effects. See, when you have a Sythis, Harvest's Hand or Setessan Champion out, these decks can play similar to storm strategies where you're just churning through your deck. Rummage effects let you pitch dead cards in pursuit of more cantrips, and the pitched cards will sometimes come back into play with flashback or reanimation effects. Once we've amassed a lethal board of enchantments, we can start swinging for the win with a variety of effects. All That Glitters and Ancestral Mask make our puny Sarah Jane Smith a real danger for opponents. If you like the idea of killing someone with the anthropomorphized version of Doctor Who Series 13, then Starfield of Nyx can turn those previously unassuming enchantments into real powerhouses.

But the real secret of this deck takes us back to The Fugitive Doctor's backstory. Her past has been hidden from the Doctor, an unknown amount of lives that could have universe-shaking consequences. If you want a more detailed breakdown, check out Joshua's article explaining Doctor Who. But the short version is this: we're recreating this power of the past with Ignite Memories.

Remember that reference to storm decks? Yeah, it's because this is a secret storm deck. We play a ton of enchantresses to rack up a high storm count, then unleash that on our opponents with Ignite Memories. Once we've lowered their life totals to a threatening amount, we can flashback Ignite Memories with The Fugitive Doctor to do it all over again. Sure, it's a very risky strategy that relies on a five-mana storm card. But the Doctor has pulled off greater shenanigans than that. Plus, our attrition strategy can usually finish off any opponents that survive the mind-blowing power of the Doctor.

Huh... where have I seen that before?

Thanks for that awesome build, Jubilee! Every little knowledge nugget of Doctor Who that appears in these articles does make me want to watch the show. Make sure you go and check out Jubilee on all of the things: Instagram, Twitter/X, or their content on Commander's Herald!

Next up is Sinclair!

This deck mainly does 2 things: 1. Makes Jelly Babies, 2. Makes those Jelly Babies into creatures with power and toughness of four. Using The Fourth Doctor, you cast a card off the top of your library every turn, and hopefully every one of your opponents' turns. With Leyline of Anticipation and Shimmer Myr, in theory you should be making at least eight Food tokens per rotation. With Sensei's Divining Top, Lantern of Insight, and Codex Shredder, you should be able to control the top card of your library, and if you have the power of instants, Top will be able to loop itself to the top of your library and casting it to trigger Graham O'Brien and the Doctor.

Best case scenario, you're overloading Rise and Shine to animate your army of little candies to swarm over your opponents. Night of the Sweets' Revenge lets you ramp to such a place where you don't need to worry about how much mana you are spending on casting off the top of your library, and can be an overrun effect in a pinch. Grinding Station is, in addition to being a way to manipulate the top card of your library, a secondary win condition. With the addition of Academy Manufactor, you're laughing all the way to the bank. Darksteel Juggernaut, Filigree Attendant, and Shambling Suit should only be cast if you're too far behind or way far ahead, as they attract a lot of attention, which is something that this deck doesn't want. This deck relies heavily on accrued artifact value, so you'll need to keep an eye on ensuring that when you are casting your spells there won't be an artifact wrath coming making you start back at essentially zero. This doesn't mean sit on your hands the whole time, just be a little more conscious about what your opponents' play patterns are, and not eat all of your Jelly Babies all at once.

Thanks, Sinclair, now you've made me hungry! You know what, that's it, I am going to watch the Doctor Who special coming up, then I'm gonna go and check out the rest. Both of you have made Doctor Who sound a lot cooler and more interesting than I gave it credit for, good job.

Alright folks, that's it for CUT #26; hopefully these decks inspired you to go out there and build something new. If a particular deck inspired you, make sure you vote for it down below. Thank you for reading and voting, and I'll see you in the next one where we step out of the TARDIS and into Ixalan! Until next time and remember, if you don't love it, CUT it!

If you or a friend would like to participate in a future CUT article feel free to email me at the.only.travis.stanley@gmail.com or reach out to me on social media @chipman007!