Commander Highlights Featuring Doctor Who!
By Mana Pool Staff
On October 13th, Wizards newest universes beyond crossover Doctor Who (WHO) was released. It features 4 new Commander decks available as a bundle for $259.99, 12-pack Collector booster boxes for $240, and singles that you can shop for here, at Manapool.com!
One of the most exciting things the new Doctor Who set is bringing to Commander is the Doctor’s companion. This mechanic allows for decks to have two commanders, similar to the existing Partner mechanic. Commanders with Doctor’s companion can pair with another commander if that other commander is a Doctor.
In contrast to Partner, where any two cards with partner on them can pair with each other, Doctor’s companion is a mechanic that rewards synergy. This is due to the fact that doctor’s companions are designed to build around doctor’s with game breaking effects. One of my favorite pairings that I’m ecstatic about is The Sixth Doctor with Peri Brown.
Peri Brown enables the sixth doctor to be convoked out one turn ahead of schedule, meaning that you’ll always be able to curve out a turn 4 Peri into a turn 5 Sixth Doctor. In order to take advantage of these two together, you’re best off building around a base of cheap token enablers and more expensive historic permanents, which will quickly get your board out of hand. Things that produce two bodies such as Resolute reinforcements/Raise the alarm, and saga’s like Teachings of the Kirin and The War Games work perfectly to Convoke with Peri. On the other hand, two of my favorite payoffs from the set are Alistair, the Brigadier, and Vrestin, Menoptra Leader. Both of these creatures create a massive swarm of tokens and demand an answer from the opponent, lest they want to meet a cruel fate of death by a million Alien insects, or a giant overrun.
Beyond Aliens and Historic permanents of all varieties, would it really be a Dr Who highlight without a time lord villain?
Missy rewards you for playing lots of creatures with sacrifice effects, and board wraths, allowing you to amass an army of cybermen.
She gets out of control quite quickly given that her cyberman triggered ability isn’t limited to once per turn,
and her end of turn ability happens for each opponent.
Fleshbag Marauder is a perfect fit here, allowing you to potentially generate 4 Cybermen, kill 3 opposing creatures, and start making her villainous choice even more terrifying.
Warning-your table might hate you after this. If you really want to be a villain at the table, I’ve assembled the perfect infinite combo with Missy. It might not kill your opponents outright, but with Phyrexian Altar, Ire Shaman, and Missy in play, you can continuously Sacrifice Ire Shaman for one Red mana, return it the battlefield with Missy facedown, turn it face up with Ire Shaman to exile the top card, and access as much of your library as you desire. From here, the world’s your Oyster!
Doctor Who is shaping up to be an incredible set for the world of Commander, with limitless possibilities for doctor-companion pairings, and unique flavor that’s now accessible through the Universe’s Beyond crossovers that are here to stay in the MTGverse. If you’ve found any inspirations of your own, we’d love to see them here at Mana Pool!