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Magic: The Gathering’s Universe Beyond: Doctor Who product brings both longtime fans a newcomers to a great crossover. This special product takes other franchises and turns them into Magic cards, and Masters Of Evil is one of the four available Commander decks created for it.
Masters Of Evil is a Grixis (blue/red/black) deck based on the villains of Doctor Who, containing cards that are solid on their own and as a set. This makes it easy to play straight out of the box, and there are different strategies within the deck, each allowing for a different playstyle.
Island x2
Mountain x2
Swamp x2
Thriving Moor
Commanders And Playstyles
Within the Masters Of Evil deck,there are six possible commander choicesthat can lead the deck. DespiteDavros, Dalek Creatorbeing the face of the deck,all six of the other creatures can lead it just as well, and often in an entirely different way from each other.
For all commanders,the kind of starting hand you want generally includes at least three lands(two if you have adecent selection of mana rocksin your hand). A lot of commanders available can start making an impact on their own - so even if you don’t have creatures in your opening handyou can still make use of what is there and draw into your creatures later.
The strongest cards in the deck do require a hefty bit of mana investment, sohaving a mana rock is ideal in your opening hand- but if you have enough lands it isn’t worth the mulligan.
Davros, Dalek Creator (Go-Wide Tokens)
Davros, Dalek Creatorcan create 3/3 Dalek tokens during each of your end steps so long as you’re dealing damage. The sweet spot isdealing three damage points to each of your opponentsas that’s what is needed to trigger its effect.
This will let you make the Dalek token while forcing your opponents into a villainous choice thateither gives you a card advantage via drawing or forcing that player to discard a card.If you opt to use Davros, Dalek Creator as your commander, it’ll most likelysit back on the battlefield and amass an army of Dalek tokens.
However, while Davros can make tokens, there are plenty other of cards to support the strategy.Cybermen Squadrongives all your artifact creatures (which is what Daleks are) a myriad thatwill create a copy of itself for each opponent tapped and attack those opponents when they attack(though those are exiled during the end step).
However, if you controlThe Master, Multiplied, you won’t have to exile these tokens at all to flood the battlefield with Daleks and other artifact creatures.Cybermen Patrolgives you artifact creatures afflict three, whichwill make the defending player lose three life points if they become blocked, which ensures Davros' effect triggers during the end step.
Winning under Davros often is done by out-numbering the amount of creatures on all your opponents' battlefieldsand winning through combat damage by having more creatures than your opponents can block.
Missy (Mass Removal)
Missyis a commander thatencourages you to kill as many creatures as possible,as it turns any creature that dies into a 2/2 Cyberman on your side of the battlefield. This includes your opponents', soa removal spell turns into a body on your side of the battlefield,making it easy to not care about one of your weaker creatures dying, as they will come back to your side of the battlefield.
Missy comes with an added bonus during the end phase that can either let you draw cards and make chaos ensue (though the latter is only relevant if you’re playing with Planechase) or your artifact creatures deal one damage to an opponent.This makes all your opponents go through the villainous choice regardless of in-game actions, and it triggers for each opponent, so you’re able to be drawing three cards or dealing a lot of burn damage with your Cybermen.
Since Missy’s effect isn’t once per turn, it triggers on every death it sees while it’s on the battlefield. This makesBlasphemous Actand other board wipesinto a generator for a ton of Cybermen when it resolves - aseven if Missy dies it’ll still see the creatures die for its effect.
Deleteis also a solid way to deal with a ton of creatures and make sure Missy sticks around since you can control how much damage is dealt to all creatures.Snuff Outmakes you pay four life points to cast but it’s a free removal spell for any nonblack creature and in Commander that life cost hardly matters.
If you choose to lead your deck with Missy, themain way to win is by shutting down your opponents' strongest creatures and turning them to your side. It’s a bit more of a controlling strategy, utilizing powerful removal options to keep the battlefield clear to make it easier for you to get in for damage to take players out of the game.
Ashad, The Lone Cybermanis a solid commander built around artifacts and sacrifice. Although the only card that can traditionally be sacrificed isSolemn Simulacrum, Ashad gives your nonlegendary artifact spells casualty two, which means they can be copied by sacrificing a creature(s) with two or more power.
Notably,this works especially well with tokens created with myriad, as you may sacrifice them to copy an artifact before the tokens are sacrificed during the end step.
There are no shortages of strong artifacts to copy such asCyberman Patrolto stack afflict effects or double up on your mana rocks to have no trouble ever casting your spells. The best target for copying isAuton Soldier, which can double up on any powerful creatures on the battlefield while giving them myriad as well.
Ashad, The Lone Cyberman can grow into a threat simply by using its effect, andwhile you wouldn’t usually sacrifice creatures that are actual permanents,you can utilize your creatures if you’re in a pinch and this means you’d be doubling up on a powerful artifact.
Cult Of Skaro (Aggro Commander)
Cult Of Skarois a commander that wants you to attack with it, but thedownside is that the effect it procs when it does is randomly chosen. Luckily, all the effects are solid. It’ll either give you more creatures, burn all your opponents, draw you cards, or put +1/+1 counters on all of your artifact creatures (which most of the creatures in the deck are).
This is the best use forLightning Greavesin the deck, as it’ll ensure it is safe from removal and be able to attack as soon as you cast it by giving it haste. Thanks to the plethora of removal spells Masters Of Evil has, it’s easy toensure Cult Of Skaro stays safe while attacking, casting the removal spells on any creatures threatening to destroy it or getting rid of an opponent’s prime defenses.
Unlike other commanders, Cult Of Skaro’s playstyle is morefocused on itself rather than synergizing directly with other cardsin the deck.Cult Of Skaro can struggle on its own, but when mixed with the support in Masters Of Evil it can quickly get out of hand and take your opponents out either with burn damage, commander damage, or an army of artifact tokens.
The Rani (Goad)
Masters Of Evil has afair bit ofgoadsupport, which is an ability that forces a creature to attack if it can, and it must attack someone other than you.
The Ranicreates a token onto another creature that’ll give them a stat boost and goad them. Then, all goaded creatures will let you investigate, which gives you aClue tokenthat can be sacrificed to draw a card to keep your hand refreshed.
The Rani is unique in that sheis more often going to sit back and let others do the fighting for her. It can goad creatures when it attacks, so attacking an opponent with no threats to it is wise, and you can goad a creature that is a threat to you.
There are plenty of cards in the deck that can safely goad, andRenegade Silentgoads any creature and then gives itself a stat boost while phasing out to keep it protected.The Sound Of Drumsis an Aura that goads a creature and makes it deal double damage, so even if that creature dies, The Sound Of Drums can be returned to the hand for just three mana.
Winning with The Rani is often achievedby playing defensively.Rather than continuously attacking your opponents or burning them with damage,youare goading everyone else’s creatures to do the damage for you.
You keep yourself safe by goading the most dangerous creatures on the battlefield while establishing your own board presenceto swing in for lethal damage once everyone’s strongest creatures are taken care of.
The Valeyard (Villainous Choices)
The Masters Of Evil deck has a mechanic namedvillainous choice, which makes an opponent(s) choose between two bad outcomes that benefit you.The Valeyard is the primary choice of commander for this mechanicas it makes them face a villainous choice twice instead of just once.
There are plenty of cards that make your opponent make a villainous choice, which can quickly spiral out of control.The Valeyard doesn’t need to do anything special for its effect, letting you keep it back as a simple blocker so it’s not at risk of dying.
Hunted By The Familyis one of the best, as with the Valeyard on the battlefield you get to target eight creatures and either turn them into 1/1 creatures with no abilities or create a copy of them.This Is How It Endsis a great removal spell with villainous choice as you shuffle a creature into the library - getting around indestructible and making them lose five life points or shuffle another creature into the library.
With the Valeyard, potentially dealing ten burn damage is nothing to scoff at, asthat’s a quarter of an opponent’s life. The win condition for the Valeyard istaking advantage of all the cards that make your opponents face a villainous choice.
Many of them do burn damage or act as ways to remove creatures to clear out the battlefield for all your other creatures. While The Valeyard doesn’t do much on its own, it’s a means to an end to leave your opponents weak for the rest of your deck to close out the game with burn and combat damage.
Upgrade Choices
As with all pre-constructed Commander decks,there are plenty of options to upgrade the decklistto make the deck more powerful. For replacement cards, these are the weakest cards in the deck that can be substituted out if you’re trying to make cuts for stronger cards.
Clockwork Droid
While these cards all have merits, they are the ones thatcan be cut without hurting the overall power of the deck- and in general, only improve it if replaced with stronger cards. While you do not have to replace all of these, these are the best options for cuts for some of the following cards.
Unwinding Clock
Most of the creatures in the Masters Of Evil deck are artifact creatures - andsince they count as artifactsUnwinding Clockwill untap themduring each player’s untap step. Thisallows you to be aggressive with your attacksand untap them to make sure you have blockers and mana up for interaction since your mana rocks will untap as well.
Strionic Resonator
The Masters Of Evil deck has a ton of triggered abilities, soStrionic Resonatoris a fantastic addition to make sure they trigger multiple times. In some cases such as withAshad, The Lone Cybermen, you may create multiple copies of Strionic Resonator tohave more sources of ways to double up on abilities.
Thoughtcast
Since Masters Of Evil has so many artifacts,cards with affinity are an easy thing to include as upgrades for it.Thoughtcastis an easy way to draw cards for more often than not just one blue mana.
Baleful Strix
Baleful Strixis another solid card to give you athreatening blocker while also drawing you cards. If you have ways to copy it, you can draw even more cards and have more deathtouchers on your side of the battlefield to make opponents feel uneasy at the idea of attacking you.
Fabricate
Fabricateis an easy way to search your library for any artifact card for just three mana. Since there are so many strong options in the Masters Of Evil deck - both traditional artifacts and artifact creatures - havinga way to get whichever artifact you need at any given time is excellent.
Idol Of Oblivion
Masters Of Evil makes a ton of tokens each turn, soIdol Of Oblivionis almost always active, and drawing cards is always going to be strong so that you never run out of cards in your hand to play. Late-game, it can evenbe used to create a 10/10 tokenif drawing cards is an effect you don’t need anymore.
Time Sieve
Since you are making so many artifact tokens,Time Sieveis a phenomenal include as a way to easily generate extra turns. Since you have ways to give artifact creatures myriad, this gives you three token copies of them which can spiral into taking multiple extra turns.
With the right combination of cards, it’s not impossible to chain enough extra turns to defeat the entire table of opponents once the extra turns start going off.
Next:Magic: The Gathering - The Best New Uncommons From Universes Beyond: Doctor Who
