Magic: The Gathering’s Universes Beyond: Doctor Who Commander decks are a triumph of cohesive, flavourful design. The cards in each pre-constructed deck serve as a sparkling showcase of their respective eras, taking players on a whistle-stop tour of magic moments while also managing to play well together too.
However, even if you don’t want to go all-in and grab a whole deck from this selection, there are plenty of excellent standalone cards here that can make for fine additions to your collection. Here are the ten cards we’d recommend choosing as companions for all of your future Commander adventures.
10Cyber Conversion
Premium Removal At A Bargain Price.
Blue isn’t exactly known for its extensivesuite of powerful removal tools, generally preferring to deal with threats before they hit the board rather than after, but Cyber Conversion is a happy exception to this trend. Not only is it an excellent removal spell by blue standards, it’s also just a great removal spell period, perhaps to the point where it may see eternal play.
Similar to the likes of Beast Within and Generous Gift, Cyber Conversion essentially turns any opposing creature into a generic 2/2 Cyberman. Unlike those cards, however, Cyber Conversion turns its target face-down rather than destroying it, thus preventing death triggers and the like. It’s a great answer to any creature-based problem that can also fit snugly under an Isochron Scepter.
9Return The Past
Past In Flames In Absolute Shambles.
Past in Flames is a card with a tonne of weight and history in Magic, seeing play in Commander, Modern, Legacy, and beyond. It’s an incredible combo enabler that effectively turns your graveyard into a secondhand for a turn, and now, with Return the Past, you can enjoy the same effect on a more permanent basis.
Return the Past does cost two more mana, but the trade-off is that you’ll be able to pop off in any way you see fit once your next turn rolls around. Given the impact its inspiration had on the game, it’s worth getting your copies of this card now before prices inevitably catch fire in the months to come.
8Everything Comes To Dust
Who Needs Friends When You Have Board Wipes?
If there’s one thing Commander players love and hate in equal measure, it’s board wipes. These cards are simultaneously necessary for the format to remain healthy and infuriating every time they catch you unaware in a game. Board wipes are a core part of the format. In other words, and Everything Comes to Dust is one of the best ever printed.
It exiles, it hits nearly every relevant permanent type, and it can even spare your own creatures if you make use of its convoke ability. The only real downside to this card is that your friendships, like everything else on the board, may well come to dust after you resolve it.
7Danny Pink
A Role Model For Counters Decks Everywhere.
Beneath Danny Pink’s unassuming school teacher exterior lies one of the most powerful draw engines the Commander format has seen in some time. While his second ability is limited to triggering once per creature per turn, it’s still comically easy to refill your hand every single turn with it, particularly given Danny himself comes with mentor.
Every +1/+1 counter card becomes a cantrip with Pink in play, allowing you to play aggressively without worrying about removal or board wipes depleting your resources. His easy color requirement and legendary status makes Danny excellent as both a commander and in the 99, so picking him up now before he becomes a certified staple is a smart move.
6Ecstatic Beauty
An Extremely Well-Drawn Draw Spell.
It’s easy to skim-read Ecstatic Beauty and come out shrugging it off as just another Impulse-style red draw spell, but dig a little deeper, and you’ll find it’s actually a different beast entirely. It does work like its peers at a base level, ‘drawing’ you three cards for three mana, but its interaction with suspend puts it over the top.
Hitting a suspend card with Ecstatic Beauty essentially suspends it for free, often with fewer time counters than they’d normally get, too. This makes it immensely powerful in the right deck, possibly to the point where eternal play may be on the cards. And let’s not forget the incredible artwork, which may just ratchet its long-term value up even further.
5The Master, Multiplied
Gets Out Of Hand Faster Than The Tenth Doctor.
Of all thepowerful new Commander optionsin Universes Beyond: Doctor Who, The Master, Multiplied is the most outrageous. A seemingly innocuous myriad creature quickly spirals into a game-breaking nightmare as you work your way through its text box, revealing abilities that can easily overrun any table if not killed on sight.
It’s a card with so many powerful applications in different deck types that it’s sure to become a costly staple going forward, with a many-times-multiplied price tag as a result. If you like black/red decks, token strategies, or just winning games of Magic, pick up this rogue Time Lord while you can.
4Trenzalore Clocktower
It’s Timetwister O’ Clock!
The influence of Magic’s infamous Power Nine has been felt throughout the game’s history, with countless attempts to release more balanced versions of their effects appearing regularly in new sets. Trenzalore Clocktower is the latest in this lineup, giving players access to the ever-useful Timetwister on a drawback-free legendary land.
In fact, the version of Timetwister this card casts is actually better than the original, costing less mana and only affecting you rather than the whole table. Since there’s very little reason not to play this over a regular Island, it’s almost guaranteed to become a Commander staple going forward, making it a strong pick while it’s still affordable.
3River Song’s Diary
Dear Diary: Today I Cast My Opponent’s Spell…
Good colorless cardsare worth their weight in gold in Commander since you can include them in a wide range of different decks, and River Song’s Diary is no exception. For just three mana, it sits around soaking up every instant and sorcery played, before letting you cast one on your turn once it’s stacked up four or more.
The randomness of this effect balances out the potential power of having access to every recent spell played, but you can still have some beautifully chaotic swing turns with this. The fact that it exiles the spells cast also messes with graveyard strategies, which is a nice incidental benefit.
2City Of Death
Imitation Is The Sincerest Form Of Flattery.
The amount of supportcreature token strategieshave received in recent years boggles the mind, and City of Death slots neatly into all of them with very little effort. For three mana, you get a Treasure token; then you get to copy a token you control on each of your next five turns.
Without any other cards, getting six Treasures for three mana, however slowly, is a great deal. Of course, the real power of this card lies in copying powerful creature tokens you generate via other cards. While you may not always hit a Smaug or a 6/6 Wurm with this, even just grabbing an extra 2/2 Bear every turn can be enough to spur you on to victory.
1Vashta Nerada
An Unstoppable Threat That’ll Turn Out Your Opponent’s Lights.
Silence in the Library introduced one of the most terrifying Doctor Who monsters of all time: the carnivorous shadows known as the Vashta Nerada. It was an episode that made viewers wary of every shadow they saw for a good while after, and that terror translates beautifully into its Magic incarnation.
The Vashta Nerada is hard to kill, evasive, and never stops growing, making it an ideal choicein Voltron decksif you have a way to Tutor it up. Its mana cost is also low enough that eternal formats might consider it, making it a great early pickup if you’re counting costs as well as shadows.
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