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Doctor Who’s crossover withMagic: The Gatheringbrought a lot to the table and proved yet again that theUniverses Beyondbranding isn’t just a flash in the pan. The collective set of Doctor Who Commander precons showcased the best its universe has to offer in Magic form, and it did so with extremely complex card designs.
It can be quite daunting to commit the more than 50 new cards per Doctor Who deck to memory, but black cards might be the least troublesome, since only one of the precons included black. There are only 11 new black cards centered in a single deck, but most of them translate well to the Commander format as a whole.
10Vashta Nerada
Vashta Nerada is Magic’s take on the ‘air piranha’ monsters from the Doctor Who universe. Shadow was basically a mandatory inclusion on this card, given that Vashta Nerada swarms thrive in literal darkness, and morbid seems appropriate since they can consume living beings in an instant.
Shadow’s also the only thing making this card playable in Commander. Except under rare circumstances, shadow might as well be unblockable with a drawback, which is a great ability to slap on a creature that grows over time. That’s assuming you may get consistent morbid triggers.
9Doomsday Confluence
The mono-colored Confluences debuted in Commander 2015, then made a reappearance as 3-color cards in New Capenna Commander. Doomsday Confluence takes inspiration from these cycles while adding a twist to the typical Confluence formula.
Doomsday Confluence forgoes the ‘choose three’ template of the originals in favor of a ‘choose X’ design, meaning you may scale it forwards or backwards depending on the amount of mana you have. All the modes naturally scale well with extra mana, making this a flexible new tool for ‘big black decks’ withcards like Cabal Coffers or Crypt Ghast.
8Dalek Drone
Magic’s firmly in the era of five-mana creatures that destroy another creature on entering the battlefield. After Dalek Drone and the printing of Necron Deathmark in the Warhammer 40K precons, it seems Noxious Gearhulk’s days are numbered.
The body on Dalek Drone isn’t anything impressive at five mana, but when you’re pressing an advantage against a player the last thing they want to see tacked on to your removal is extra burn damage. It’s almost like the Drone has functional haste, getting in that three damage the turn it hits the board.
7This Is How It Ends
This Is How It Ends is a fine little removal spell, eliminating a creature in the best kind of way, while also tacking on extra damage or taking out a second creature, dealer’s choice. However, it’s flexingblack’s color pie identityin a way we’ve not seen before.
Shuffling a creature away is usually in white’s or blue’s wheelhouse, with red being able to replace it with a different card. Even green has The Great Aurora. This is new territory for black, and possibly a sign of future design expansion for the color.
6Time Reaper
Time Reaper is an obvious nod to the precon Vs. precon experience, directly counteracting the suspend themes that define the Timey-Wimey deck. Being able to remove your opponents' cards from exile is actually a fairly rare ability with more use than it might seem at first glance.
This hasty Alien can mess with quite a few things, like a creature sitting underneath a Banishing Light, or a permanent that’s been temporarily blinked out with Flickerwisp. It can also eat rebound spells, imprint cards,adventures, and other more niche card types, and the lifegain is a welcome addition as well.
5Genesis Of The Daleks
Expensive sagas have a high bar to meet; they hit the board late, and then you usually have to wait a few additional turns for the real payoff. A six-mana saga like Genesis of the Daleks might not come to fruition until as late as turn eight or nine, if the game even lasts that long.
An unimpeded Genesis creates six 3/3s with menace and either chunks each opponents' life total for 18, or clears the board of all non-Daleks. Quite the dilemma… er, villainous choice, though you should expect your opponents to tamper with your plans.
4Vislor Turlough
Vislor Turlough works similarly to Xantcha, Sleeper Agent, in that it’s a legend you can ‘gift’ to someone else and ensure you’re safe from it in combat. The gracious recipient will draw some extra cards, though at a cost if they can’t keep their hand size under control.
Even more interesting is Vislor’s typeline. Its solitaryRogue typeis usually reserved as a ‘class’ that accompanies another type, typically a creature’s ‘species.’ Vislor is one of, if nottheonly nontoken creature that’s a Rogue and nothing else.
3The Toymaker’s Trap
The Toymaker’s Trap is reminiscent of Phyrexian Arena, but with more mind games involved. You can be outsmarted, or ‘unlucky’ if you’d prefer, and draw absolutely nothing, or you can draw up to four cards while doling out damage to opponents. Five against forgetful opponents.
It has a similar endgame to Four Knocks from a different Doctor Who precon, but the Trap has more of a gambler’s feel to it, and promises nothing upfront. Surely there are game theory buffs who’ll love the mental gymnastics of picking a number they don’t think the opponent will choose.
2Death In Heaven
Death in Heaven is a lesson in patience and delayed gratification, hiding a fairly strong payoff behind two other chapters on the same saga, Thankfully, those two chapters fuel the inevitable conclusion and offer someincidental graveyard hateto boot.
Note that chapter three somewhat counteracts the graveyard hoser aspect of this card. It pulls the creatures out of exile, and while they’re just 2/2 Cyberman creatures on board, if they die after that point, they’ll end up back in their owner’s graveyard again, ripe for recursion and reanimation.
1Dalek Squadron
Inconspicuous, but effective. That’s a combination that makes for some of the best underrated casual cards. If you’re power maxing and optimizing, Dalek Drone probably doesn’t come close to making the cut, but don’t count it out in aggressive artifact decks.
It’s easy to shrug off a 3/3, but you have to consider thatmyriadmakes this attack for nine difficult-to-block damage a turn, and gives you expendable bodies to sacrifice before the end of combat. It’s also an ideal synergy card with otherMasters of Evilcards like The Master, Multiplied, The Dalek Emperor, and Exterminate!
Next:Magic: The Gathering – The Best Colorless Cards In Doctor Who Commander
