Conclusion 

So, here's the thing. Everyone sees time as this very linear path, but realistically it's more of a ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, stuff. Basically, by the time this article is written, it will be out of date.

Start the TARDIS 

Welcome, time lords, travellers from the past, present and future to this Universes Beyond guide to Doctor Who. My name is Joshua, also known as PrinceofBielTan on the internet. As the resident British person over at EDHREC, I find myself qualified to discuss the marvellous world of Doctor Who here on Commander's Herald.

The Name of the Doctor 

So where to begin, let's start with who The Doctor is and why there are so many of them!

The Doctor is a time traveller, voyaging across all of space, time and the universe in a machine called the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space).

The TARDIS is Bigger on the Inside, containing an entirely larger dimension within the walls of its exterior, stuck as an old-fashioned British police box. This is a vessel that phases in and out of the time vortex and transports the Doctor and their companions throughout the universe, making no small amount of friends and foes along the way.

The Doctor belongs to a race called the Time Lords, who come from the lost planet of Gallifrey. One unique thing about Gallifreyan biology is that the Time Lords possess the ability to regenerate. Not in the Magic: The Gathering way, of course. Time Lord Regeneration occurs when an individual time lord is at the end of their natural life, be that from old age or from being mortally wounded. As part of the regeneration process, the individual changes physiologically becoming physically different, changing in what humans would perceive as age, ethnicity or gender and their new life begins. Find out more about regeneration in Jubilee's article all about the precons "Blast from the Past" and "Masters of Evil."

Regeneration means that The Doctor has lived for millennia and has taken many forms over the years. Their exact origin is subject to being written and rewritten in the fabric of time so instead of risking making this article too much of a time paradox, that's all we can tell you for now about The Doctor! When you look at the cards in Universes Beyond: Doctor Who you'll notice that The Doctor has multiple cards, The Ninth Doctor, The Tenth Doctor, The Eleventh Doctor and so on. These are not different individuals bearing the title of the Doctor; they are the same person. Their personalities, however, differ. This is why we get flavourful and thematic renditions of The Doctor to lead Commander decks.

Travelling through space and time for all eternity gets lonely. The Doctor has been known to travel with one or many companions, themselves originating from their own timelines and travelling with The Doctor. This is mechanically presented on the cards in the Universes Beyond: Doctor Who set through the mechanic 'Doctor's Companion' (Legally distinct from Companion, because the last thing we all want is to ban Lurrus of the Dream-Den in another format). This mechanic enables you to run two Commanders so long as one of them is a version of The Doctor and one is a Doctor's Companion.

The Five Doctors 

Universes Beyond: Doctor Who comes to us in the form of four commander decks. For now, this article is going to focus on some fun moments from "Timey Wimey" and "Paradox Power." You can enjoy Jubilee's article on the lore behind the remaining two commander decks. "Timey Wimey" is all about, well, time! Using the mechanic Time Travel, you'll find that you're able to add or remove counters from classic Magic: The Gathering mechanics like Suspend and Vanishing. Using this mechanic, you're able to travel forwards or backwards in time ensuring your spells resolve exactly when you need them to. You'll be able to command this deck with the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, alongside their companions.

In "Paradox Power" we're joined by the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors and this time it's all about the chaotic nature of time travel. You can imagine that moving throughout time, changing things incrementally here and there can add up to a lot of madness and a lot of flux. The Thirteenth Doctor acts as the face commander of this deck and immediately tells us what this deck is about. Casting spells from anywhere but your hand results in your creatures gaining +1/+1 counters. Bolstering your forces by casting spells from exile, suspend, and foretell will ensure you have a powerful board presence before long. The reign of The Thirteenth Doctor was one of teamwork, often travelling with multiple companions. Team TARDIS, also known as Yasmin Khan, Graham O'Brien and Ryan Sinclair, would accompany The Thirteenth Doctor on their first adventures. The Team TARDIS ability lets The Thirteenth Doctor ready up their companions so they can defend their board as well as defeat their opponents. The Paradox mechanic rewards the player by causing as much mayhem as possible, and builds upon the recent support for casting from exile we've seen in Magic: The Gathering.

The Day of the Doctor 

This makes for some truly amazing combinations and allows deck builders to create decks themed around their favourite times in the TV show, or create what-if scenarios and pair different renditions of The Doctor with past or future companions for some truly creative deck building.

One of the great strengths of Universes Beyond: Doctor Who is the way the set designers have let the story shape the cards. The Eleventh Hour is a Saga costing three generic and one blue mana which perfectly echoes the first outing of The Eleventh Doctor. Adding the first lore counter to the saga lets you search your library for a Doctor card, reveal it, put it into your hand and then shuffle. This mirrors the arrival of the Eleventh Doctor in the backyard of their one-day companion Amelia Pond. On the second lore counter, we create a food token, and a 1/1 token creature that reduces the cost of Doctor spells. Not long after arriving and getting used to their new body, the doctor is hungry and what else do they ask for? A dish of fish fingers and custard. This was prepared by Amelia to get the Doctor up to fighting strength. Finally, we create a token of the target creature except it's a legendary alien named Prisoner Zero. Later The Doctor returns to Amelia Pond, this time with her as an adult. That's not all though. At this moment, a renegade alien has infiltrated the village where Amelia lives. Prisoner Zero can disguise itself and remain undetected using a perception filter and other nefarious means, making our token copy a perfect flavour win. The remainder of the episode follows the actions of The Doctor and Amelia Pond as they attempt to find Prisoner Zero before a spacefaring police race known as the Atraxi destroy the planet in their search to find Prisoner Zero. As you might have guessed, that's a lot to discern from one single saga but that's the strength of these cards. They follow the episodes as if they were religious texts, allowing for some truly creative card design and leaving us with gems like The Eleventh Hour.

The flavour continues with the saga Blink. Widely considered a cult favourite episode of modern Doctor Who, the love for this episode comes through in the visual design of the card even before we read what the card actually does. The chapters of Blink are out of order, going from one to three to two to four, with creatures being shuffled into libraries and tokens being created that are creatures unless you cast a spell. I won't spoil this episode because if you are curious to try watching Doctor Who, this isn't a bad episode to watch as one of your first. I will go into brief detail about the villains of this episode. The Weeping Angels are creatures that are imperceptibly fast being essentially invisible while they aren't being perceived. When they are looked upon, however, they turn to stone as the perfect defence mechanism. This is reflected wonderfully with the token ability. Your opponent casts a Wrath of God but upon perceiving the angels, they cease being creatures and as such cannot be destroyed. A master stroke.

The Flux 

The Flux might be one of the most impactful cards in "Paradox Power". After all, there's no bigger threat than one which could destroy the entire universe. The Flux is brimming with power, with its first chapter representing that through damage. This raw force of antimatter is able to rip apart your opponent's creatures, reminding them of the power that comes their way. The Flux was the subtitle of Doctor Who season thirteen, which coincidentally had six episodes! As we move through the six chapters of the Saga, we witness time and the universe becoming more unstable, as we are able to continue to cast from outside of our hand. Placing the sixth and final lore counter on the saga unleashes the raw power of The Flux, threatening to destroy the universe itself... Or, you know, adding six red mana to our mana pool. Tying the number of episodes in the season to the chapters of a saga is another example of the attention to detail in these cards, and it's a pleasure to see!

The Power of the Doctor 

Doctor Who brings with it not only flavour but power too. Cards like Nanogene Conversion make you as many copies of your favourite creature as you have creatures! Much like the Empty Child for which it is named. Cards like Everybody Lives! Will be favourites for a long time to come providing unique effects that every commander that can run white might want to get their hands on. The typal decks will be able to run Everything Comes to Dust for another one-sided board wipe, though I think it's BAD you can't use this in a wereWOLF deck.

Then there are cards that almost hurt to talk about, like Four Knocks, which might be my favourite card from this entire set. There are cards that implore you to check out the show and see if you can discover the same love that the card designers unmistakably have for this show, these characters and the universe they fight for.

Fantastic! 

If I have one thing to say about the Universes Beyond: Doctor Who cards, it's this. The amount of adoration, care and creativity the team at Wizards of the Coast has for the franchise comes through in leaps and bounds here. I write this having one year ago written a similar article about the Universes Beyond: Warhammer 40k cards. While still in its infancy, Universes Beyond is an avenue for care and compassion to be key in the creation process. From the clever intertwining between old Magic: The Gathering mechanics like Vanishing, Suspend and Emerge to the scene-led reprints like Farewell, Universes Beyond: Doctor Who is a triumphant showcase of fun and fandom.

I'm keen and eager to see what else play design is cooking up for us in the future. I'll be looking forward to Final Fantasy in the coming year. Let us know what you think of Universes Beyond in the comments below. Thanks for having me Commander's Herald! If you're interested in reading more of my writing focused on card analysis and evaluation as well as some game theory, check out my articles on EDHREC. You can always chat with me on Twitter about the latest Magic Spice too!

That's all from me. Geronimo!