Cybermen Squadron | Illustration by Craig J Spearing
A new batch of Universes Beyond Commander decks? Doctor Who could’ve seen that coming? The Doctor Who (codename WHO) decks come a year after the Warhammer 40k Commander decks, which set a precedent for high-power, complex precons under the Universes Beyond umbrella.
The WHO decks pushed the envelope even further, including an astounding and frankly overwhelming 50 new cards per precon. And the average complexity of a new card from this set of products is high. There’s a learning curve here, but which deck handled that best? There’s some fierce competition this time around, but which WHO deck stands above the rest?
Let’s find out!
Which Doctor Who Precon Is the Best?
The Thirteenth Doctor | Illustration by Pauline Voss
I’m declaring Masters of Evil the best precon in the Doctor Who line-up. To be completely fair, most of the decks got me excited this time around, with the exception of Blast from the Past. But to give credit where it’s due, both Timey-Wimey and Paradox Power have a lot to offer, and Masters of Evil just barely beats them on a few axes.
Why Masters of Evil Is the Best
Precon Experience
Masters of Evil is comparable to most of the other WHO precons in terms of enjoyment and competitive potential, but it manages to hit that fun factor without going off the complexity deep-end like the other deck. It has enough strategic flexibility to excite enfranchised players without being overtly hostile towards new players. If you’ve read any of my Commander content before, you probably know I prefer a precon experience that works as an onboarding tool for new players.
This matters a lot for Universes Beyond products in particular since people from those fandoms might be trying out Magic for the first time. Masters of Evil handles this complexity well, making it a great pick-up for newcomers. I can’t say the same for the other decks, though they still have plenty of appeal for long-time Commander players.
Masters of Evil also avoids one of the typical precon problems we see time and time again: Commander precons often toe the line between two themes, mashing together multiple strategies with legends dedicated to each one but without obvious overlap between the two. We see this in most of the other decks, which have weird artifact payoffs despite the main themes having nothing to do with artifacts. To be fair, Blast from the Past ties everything together with a historic-matters theme, but it’s just a dreadfully boring deck.
Masters of Evil is tight, combining all the subthemes (artifacts, myriad, Daleks, etc.) together in a way that makes sense and feels fluid. You can sub out Davros, Dalek Creator for one of the many other Grixis Commanders in the deck and play the same strategy without fault.
Note that this precon doesn’t include any of the doctors/companions, so you miss out on that aspect of the other precons, but it makes up for it with a handful of alternative legends. Not to mention, it fits in enough copies of The Master to quench fans of the show. Sometimes it just feels good to be bad.
Value
The decks are fairly fresh at the time of writing, so prices on new cards are still fluctuating, which makes it hard to pin down exactly which deck has the best value. However, it’s clear that they’re all in the same ballpark in terms of reprint value. Masters of Evil may not be the #1 most valuable deck, but it’s at least close, and it offers enough long-term staples to the format that it should maintain its value moving forward.
Snuff Out, Wound Reflection, Haunted Ridge, Stormcarved Coast, and Fiery Islet are some of the standout reprints from the deck.
New Staples
Each deck in the line-up has something to offer in this category, but Masters of Evil has some heavy-hitters.
Missy has potential as a new morph-centric commander, and it creates easy infinite combos with sac outlets and morph creatures like Ruthless Ripper.
The Master, Multiplied has an entirely new effect that should make it a popular commander from this series. It single-handedly brings up the stock on cards with myriad or other copy effects that sacrifice the copies later on.
Cybermen Squadron will absolutely find its way into artifact decks as an Overrun-type finisher. It’s basically a colorless Legion Loyalty for artifact creatures, but at a cheaper cost.
Cyber Conversion is probably the single most important new card from the deck, maybe even the entire set of decks. It’s a new blue staple removal spell in the same vein as Reality Shift, one of the most played blue cards in all of Commander.
Don't Blink is a very effective anti-blink tool, counteracting flicker effects and even the occasional weirdly-worded recursion effect like Living Death.
- BIGGER ON THE INSIDE—Bring your favorite Doctor Who characters, villains, and adventures to life at your table with this Magic: The Gathering Commander Deck; each deck introduces 50 never-before-seen Magic cards with art and game mechanics inspired by the beloved BBC series
- TRAVEL THE STARS WITH A GAME THAT FUSES ART, STORIES & STRATEGY—Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game that weaves deep strategy with art and mechanics that explore the themes of a particular world and story—whether you want to play a casual game with friends, collect cool cards, or get competitive, Magic welcomes you to The Gathering
- EXTERMINATE YOUR OPPONENTS—This ready-to-play deck allows you to jump right into Magic’s most popular format. Commander is a multiplayer way to play Magic, an epic, free-for-all battle full of strategic plays and social intrigue
- BATTLE AS THE BADDIES—The Masters of Evil MTG Commander Deck allows you to team up with the Doctor’s greatest foes with a 100-card deck featuring fan-favorite Doctor Who villains
- TRAVEL THROUGH TIME & SPACE WITH PLANECHASE—Every deck also comes with 10 Planechase cards, each featuring a different place (and time) in the Doctor Who universe; roll the included planar die and you may travel to a different place or trigger a chaotic effect!
Masters of Evil vs the Other Decks
Each of the WHO decks has something to offer, and Masters of Evil may not be the absolute best precon in every category, so let’s do a quick side-by-side comparison with the others.
Paradox Power
Paradox Power has a really cool theme of casting spells from zones other than your hand, but it dilutes the paradox mechanic with an entire artifact subtheme that feels unsupported and out of place. The individual cards are quite good, and it feels like a gallery of some of Magic’s best mechanics, but the two-themes-in-one approach detracts from the precon experience.
This is probably the best deck to stock up on staples, both new and old, but as I mentioned all the decks are pretty good at this so it’s not really a tie-breaker. I absolutely love the paradox mechanic and all the ways there are to enable it, but Masters of Evil has this deck beat in terms of pure consistency and strategy.
- BIGGER ON THE INSIDE—Bring Doctor Who characters, villains, and memorable episodes to life at your table with this Magic: The Gathering Commander Deck; each deck introduces 50 never-before-seen Magic cards with art and game mechanics inspired by the beloved BBC series
- TRAVEL THE STARS WITH A GAME THAT FUSES ART, STORIES and STRATEGY—Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game that weaves deep strategy with art and mechanics that explore the themes of a particular world and story—whether you want to play a casual game with friends, collect cool cards, or get competitive, Magic welcomes you to The Gathering
- COMPANIONS WELCOME—This ready-to-play deck allows you to jump right into Magic’s most popular format. Commander is a multiplayer way to play Magic, an epic, free-for-all battle full of strategic plays and social intrigue
- EMBRACE THE POWER OF PARADOX—The Paradox Power MTG Commander deck showcases the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors and their companions with a 100-card deck featuring 2 Traditional Foil Legendary cards and 98 nonfoil cards
- TRAVEL THROUGH TIME and SPACE WITH PLANECHASE—Every deck also comes with 10 Planechase cards, each featuring a different place (and time) in the Doctor Who universe; roll the included planar die and you may travel to a different place or trigger a chaotic effect.
Timey-Wimey
Timey-Wimey has the most unique themes of the bunch since we’ve never really seen a dedicated time counter precon. That also means it’s probably the hardest deck to upgrade since there’s only so much support that exists for the themes present in the deck. It also has some of the most ridiculously convoluted sagas, which I know are nods to various Doctor Who episodes, but they end up being actual chores to read and play.
Also, the inclusion of Farewell in a precon doesn’t sit well with me. Er, doesn’t fare well (please clap). It’s a great value card and a Commander staple, so on one hand you appreciate the accessibility, but it’s also a miserable card that does more harm in the format than good, so I’m not a fan of including it in head-to-head precon matches.
- BIGGER ON THE INSIDE—Bring Doctor Who characters, villains, and memorable episodes to life at your table with this Magic: The Gathering Commander Deck; each deck introduces 50 never-before-seen Magic cards with art and game mechanics inspired by the beloved BBC series
- TRAVEL THE STARS WITH A GAME THAT FUSES ART, STORIES & STRATEGY—Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game that weaves deep strategy with art and mechanics that explore the themes of a particular world and story—whether you want to play a casual game with friends, collect cool cards, or get competitive, Magic welcomes you to The Gathering
- COMPANIONS WELCOME—This ready-to-play deck allows you to jump right into Magic’s most popular format. Commander is a multiplayer way to play Magic, an epic, free-for-all battle full of strategic plays and social intrigue
- WIBBLY-WOBBLY TIMEY-WIMEY— The Timey-Wimey MTG Commander Deck lets you team up with the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors and their fearless companions with a 100-card deck featuring 2 Traditional Foil Legendary cards and 98 nonfoil cards
- TRAVEL THROUGH TIME & SPACE WITH PLANECHASE—Every deck also comes with 10 Planechase cards, each featuring a different place (and time) in the Doctor Who universe; roll the included planar die and you may travel to a different place or trigger a chaotic effect!
Blast from the Past
Blast from the Past is a clear last place candidate in this line-up. It holds up on value and individual card quality, but the historic theme is unexciting by comparison and the deck is Doctor overload (“which Doctor is that again?”).
It also seems to subtly suggest that players should be buying all the Commander decks instead of just one, with cards like Gallifrey Stands seemingly winking at the players’ wallets. WotC’s a smart company, but I see what you’re doing there.
- BIGGER ON THE INSIDE—Bring your favorite Doctor Who characters, villains, and adventures to life at your table with this Magic: The Gathering Commander Deck; each deck introduces 50 never-before-seen Magic cards with art and game mechanics inspired by the beloved BBC series
- TRAVEL THE STARS WITH A GAME THAT FUSES ART, STORIES and STRATEGY—Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game that weaves deep strategy with art and mechanics that explore the themes of a particular world and story—whether you want to play a casual game with friends, collect cool cards, or get competitive, Magic welcomes you to The Gathering
- COMPANIONS WELCOME—This ready-to-play deck allows you to jump right into Magic’s most popular format. Commander is a multiplayer way to play Magic, an epic, free-for-all battle full of strategic plays and social intrigue
- TIME LORD NOSTALGIA—The Blast from the Past MTG Commander deck showcase the first Eight Doctors and their companions with a 100-card deck featuring 2 Traditional Foil Legendary cards and 98 nonfoil cards
- TRAVEL THROUGH TIME and SPACE WITH PLANECHASE—Every deck also comes with 10 Planechase cards, each featuring a different place (and time) in the Doctor Who universe; roll the included planar die and you may travel to a different place or trigger a chaotic effect.
Discounts on Masters of Evil
Masters of Evil is currently selling for around $65 on Amazon, and remember that sealed Doctor Who Commander decks come with a Sample Collector Booster pack, adding to the value of the purchase.
A collection of all four Doctor Who Commander decks runs around $260 on Amazon at the moment, which is an average of $65 per deck, right in line with buying the deck separately.
Commanding Conclusion
The Fourth Doctor | Illustration by David Auden Nash
My villainous choice for best Doctor Who Commander deck goes to the Masters of Evil precon, featuring all the Docs’ most well-known foes. I want to reiterate that this deck wins on very tight margins, with Timey-Wimey and Paradox Power being respectable and exciting decks in their own rights. However, Masters of Evil does everything those decks do right while also committing to a central theme and scaling back the complexity factor for new players. In other words, it’s close to a perfect precon experience. If you bought the deck and you’re looking to take it to the next level, check out Draftsim’s upgrade guide; Pedro’s got some truly diabolical changes for the deck.
That’s just my opinion though, and I know players have a different range of opinions based on their own expectations and experiences. I’d love to hear which deck you think rises above the rest. Just don’t tell me it’s Blast from the Past, because, well… it ain’t. Let me know what you think in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.
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