The 50 Best Doctor Who Cards Ranked

Last updated on February 27, 2024

Cyber Conversion | Illustration by Eddie Schillo

Doctor Who is a British sci-fi show that’s been going on for more than 60 years, and to the joy of Whovians all over the world, MTG now has Doctor Who-themed cards. It’s even weirder because MTG doesn’t do sci-fi that much, barring the release of Warhammer 40K cards. These, like other Universes Beyond cards, are legal in Legacy, Vintage, and EDH only.

All the new Doctor Who cards come in four Commander precons, and there’s an abundance of legendary creatures that can be commanders as well as the doctor’s companions, which are a different take on partner. Today we’re bringing you the top 50 new cards from these precons, and you can expect most of the featured cards to be potential commanders, with a few of them being interesting or playable in cEDH, Legacy, or high-powered cubes. We’re going to rank only the new cards available in these precons.

So, without further ado, let’s get started!

#50. Vashta Nerada

A creature with indestructible and shadow is a good fit for aggressive decks since you’ll almost always get in for damage. People hardly ever play shadow creatures in their decks. What’s more, Vashta Nerada can get a +1/+1 counter every turn, including when the opponent’s creatures die. It’s an awesome threat in decks that require players to sacrifice creatures each turn because this card can grow fast when people are sacrificing creatures left and right.

#49. The Dalek Emperor

The Dalek Emperor is the beef you’ll want to play in the Grixis Dalek decks this set enables. It’s giant, it’s got affinity for Daleks, it can give them haste, and it provides a nice villainous choice… for your opponents, that is. 

#48. Cybermen Squadron

Seven mana is a lot, but Cybermen Squadron can give your artifact creatures myriad. This works very well with the Gearhulk cycle, with Solemn Simulacrum, modular creatures, good old cards like Wurmcoil Engine and Myr Battlesphere… the list goes on and on. Also, if you already have a strong board filled with artifact creatures, the Squadron affects the battlefield immediately in the next attack.

#47. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Hey, another dinosaur lord. And everybody loves lords, especially those that make creatures to buff. Dinosaurs on a Spaceship lets you cast it immediately for 6 mana or suspend it and slowly but surely get a dino army along the way. It’s like a dino Benalish Commander that’s giving you some tokens while it’s suspended.

#46. Delete

Delete is a very interesting and fitting sweeper for an artifact-based aggressive deck. When you have some artifact creatures on the battlefield, casting Delete only destroys your opponents’ creatures. If you’re ahead on life points, this card can be a nice finisher. It’s a must-play with Davros, Dalek Creator around, since your Daleks will be unharmed and your opponents will be left with villainous choices on their hands.

#45. Cult of Skaro

Cult of Skaro is a nice beater, and each time it attacks you’ll get some benefit. It’s like a Demonic Pact that doesn't make you lose the game. It’s awesome with clone effects and myriad effects, and it can also be your commander. Although, I’d prefer playing it as a creature in a Davros, Dalek Creator deck.

#44. Four Knocks

Hey, it’s a personal Howling Mine. In white. Four Knocks is like a white Phyrexian Arena for a couple turns, and you can blink it to make it last longer or retrieve it with Sun Titan effects. This card looks like a very impactful card for white EDH decks moving on.

#43. Davros, Dalek Creator

Daleks are the main antagonists of Doctor Who, so the creator of daleks is a perfect fit for a dalek Commander deck. Davros, Dalek Creator reminds me of Sygg, River Cutthroat, in that you want to deal 3 or more damage to obtain card advantage. Just attacking with a 3/3 menacing Dalek often triggers Davros, and there’s plenty of effects in red and black that also do the trick. With this card by your side, I expect your opponents to face many villainous choices.

#42. Vrestin, Menoptra Leader

I never knew I wanted an insect commander until I saw Vrestin, Menoptra Leader. Seriously, the card is a mix of Hornet Queen and Avenger of Zendikar, and like almost all green decks, it goes well with Doubling Season. What’s not to like? On a more serious note, the card may not be for you, but making a lot of flying bodies and growing them on each attack is powerful. An attack with just a single creature is enough to spread counters around.

#41. RMS Titanic

Remember Ball Lightning, that staple from Magic’s past? RMS Titanic is slightly better card, as a 7/1 with trample that crashes into an opponent and gives you loads of Treasure. Besides being very fitting for a sci-fi Titanic, you don’t need to use the card to attack straight away. EDH treasure deck players, rejoice!

#40. Weeping Angel

“But how come Dimir gets vigilance and first strike? And an angel that doesn’t fly?” Weeping Angel is one of the cards from the set that generated a lot of discussion. It’s a flash creature with first strike, and when it deals combat damage to a creature, the creature gets shuffled back. That’s somewhat easy to do when under attack, and probably the best application of the Weeping Angel as pseudo removal on defense. During your turn, it’s a beater that probably deals 2 damage a turn because no one wants to block it.

#39. Clara Oswald

Clara Oswald has a few things going for it. It can be any doctor’s companion, which is this set’s partner, and since you can choose its color, it’s a free color to a given doctor’s EDH deck. Its second-best feature is to double the triggers from the doctor’s abilities, so The Tenth Doctor can get plenty of Allons-y triggers, while The Ninth Doctor can get an extra upkeep, and so on. I’d say it’s one of the better companions for a doctor EDH deck.

#38. Nanogene Conversion

Mark Rosewater always praises open-ended designs because they have the potential to do crazy things. With Nanogene Conversion, Lord of the Nazgûl can benefit from all your creatures being wraiths. If you have an interesting creature with a good attack trigger, all your creatures benefit from the same attack trigger. You can make a weird Izzet extra turns deck by making your creatures copies of Godo, Bandit Warlord. Possibilities are fun and endless, and that’s what I like about this card the most.

#37. Gallifrey Stands

Let’s talk about a new way to win the game. Cards like Approach of the Second Sun or Maze's End usually see some play in decks aiming to break them. Gallifrey Stands shines in doctor decks, and you’ll need thirteen of these to win. You’ll also get some doctors back from the graveyard when you cast this 6-mana enchantment. But what if I don’t want to play a crazy doctor tribal deck? It’s a good thing that changelings are a thing, or cards like Arcane Adaptation or Maskwood Nexus exist, because Gallifrey Stands works in these situations, too.

#36. Dan Lewis

Dan Lewis looks like a sure card to put in any Boros equipment-matters decks, from Akiri, Fearless Voyager to Nahiri, Forged in Fury. At 2 mana, it’s easy to cast and impact the board early. There are lots of crazy stuff that you can do with this card like casting a Reckless Crew and making tons of tokens or equipping creatures with mana rocks and artifact lands.

#35. Day of Destiny

With the number of legendary creatures being printed nowadays and EDH legends matter, it’s fitting that we have this super Glorious Anthem effect for legends. You can stack with Arvad the Cursed for a hyper legend buff, and Voltron white EDH decks have a powerful incentive to keep attacking.

#34. Sally Sparrow

Sally Sparrow allows you to cast creature spells with flash, which is a good trait for a commander. It’ll also be an investigate machine, allowing you to create Clues whenever creatures die, are blinked, or exiled, and that makes it a very strong fit in Azorius creature decks including Brago, King Eternal, Yorion, Sky Nomad, and the like.

#33. The Tenth Doctor

The Tenth Doctor works like Jhoira of the Ghitu, giving suspend to spells that don’t have it. A nice thing about this commander is that its ability works whenever you attack with any creature, so it’s ready to go as early as turn 4-5. Later in the game, you can use its timey-wimey ability to put all those suspended cards into play. This card works very well with vanish too, making the permanents last more turns on the battlefield.

#32. The Master, Multiplied

The Master, Multiplied basically overrides all the downside with mechanics like myriad because you won’t need to sacrifice the tokens you get until the end of turn. Mechanics like myriad and encore get better with it. What’s more, the tokens produced by The Master, Multiplied survive and make more copies on the turn after. Like Scute Swarm, once it gets going, it’s hard to stop without sweepers.

#31. Ace’s Baseball Bat

Ace's Baseball Bat is a nice piece of equipment that’s cheaper to equip to legendary creatures, and that fits a lot of Voltron EDH decks or decks with a legend matters theme.

#30. All of History, All at Once

With All of History, All at Once, storm is back, although in a safer way for MTG than Grapeshot. The most broken thing you can do with this card is to remove all the counters from your suspended spells, getting them quickly onto the battlefield or making your vanishing cards last longer. It can be cool in suspend-based decks like Jhoira of the Ghitu or The Tenth Doctor.

#29. Rose Tyler

It doesn’t take much effort to make Rose Tyler a 4/4 or bigger for just 2 mana, and each time it attacks, it’ll get bigger. It makes a very strong companion for doctors interested in suspending stuff like The Ninth Doctor and The Tenth Doctor, while adding the possibility to play white suspend spells in these decks.

#28. The War Doctor

The War Doctor looks like a great defensive commander to me. It rewards you for exiling cards, so you can fill your deck with Swords to Plowshares and people’s favorite white spell, Farewell. When you attack, you have a guaranteed damage trigger that also exiles. In white, blinking permanents does the trick, while red gets impulse draw and exiles cards this way. All in all, a solid Boros midrange/control creature and an interesting commander to build a deck around.

#27. Fugitive of the Judoon

You’re getting a lot with this saga. Fugitive of the Judoon gives you two creatures and a Clue token and cheats any doctor from your library into play. That’s a strong fit in decks that care about tokens and populate effects and that have a nice changeling or doctor in the 99.

#26. The Moment

The Moment is a weird but effective take on cards like Oblivion Stone in which you have a sweeper but can choose to save some cards from it. You can protect key synergy creatures you have, protect your commander, sweep the board, and have them all return to the battlefield safely, while your opponents return to ground zero.

#25. The Ninth Doctor

Doctor designs from this set aren’t pushed in the creature aspect, so it’s nice to see a 3-mana commander that’s also a 2/4 with haste. What’s more, The Ninth Doctor gives you an extra upkeep each turn. That’s some Paradox Haze you’ve got there, making suspend spells twice as fast. Shrines work too, so Honden of Seeing Winds can give you more cards each turn, and so on. Just be careful with things like Howling Mine or sagas because their triggers happen after the upkeep phase, so it won’t work.

#24. The Eleventh Doctor

The Eleventh Doctor has a very clear play pattern. The doctor gives itself unblockable, attacks, and suspends a card from your hand. By waiting a few turns or playing around with the suspend counters, you’ll get card advantage later. Meanwhile you can hold some counterspells or protection. You can suspend a pretty big draw spell like Opportunity without having to tap out, and that’s really interesting, The unblockable ability can be activated several times, and it pairs well with double strike creatures or creatures that deal damage and draw cards.

#23. The Beast, Deathless Prince

Here’s an interesting creature. The Beast, Deathless Prince is a 6/6 for 4 mana, and each time you steal a creature from an opponent and damage them, you get to draw a card. It turns out The Beast is adept at turning creatures against their creators, so to speak. Act of Treason tribal, I hear you. You can slot this card into steal and sac decks, Rakdos demon decks as a Threaten effect with upside, or design a deck to get the most out of this demon itself.

#22. Hunted by The Family

Hunted by The Family is a busted spell at 7 mana, offering you removal and/or clone effects. You’ll either get to shrink four threats into 1/1s, copy the best threats around, or a combination of both. Unfortunately, it’s decided by your enemies’ votes, but either way you’ll get a massive advantage.

#21. Flatline

Flatline has a nice potential of being a fog for 3 mana, a huge combat blowout, or even a two-card sweeper in decks that have the potential to deal 1-2 damage to every creature. It’s only bad against +1/+1 counters since those are still on the creatures. The best part of this card is that it’s a Humility effect that only gets your opponents, and it costs 3 mana at instant speed at that.

#20. Sisterhood of Karn

Sisterhood of Karn is a 1/1 that grows quickly into a 2/2, 4/4, or 8/8 with minimal effort, provided that it lives. You can cast commanders, foretell cards, or suspended cards and it will work, as will proliferate effects or +1/+1 counter synergies. It’s very strong with The Foretold Soldier and the green themes from this set in general, making this card a very scary 2-drop.

#19. Tegan Jovanka

Just having Tegan Jovanka in play gives indestructible to your commander when it’s attacking. Legends are historic, after all. Tegan is a human for typal purposes, too. White aggressive decks like Adeline, Resplendent Cathar and Boros Voltron should want one of these in play at all times. The bonus also extends to artifact creatures, so there are even more options.

#18. Displaced Dinosaurs

This card is ridiculous. Displaced Dinosaurs makes every artifact token you make (Treasure, Clues, and Food come to mind) into 7/7 creatures, and it’s not hard to make a ton of artifact tokens these days, whether Treasure in Golgari or Clues in Simic . Your commander is also a 7/7, and that’s awesome with small commanders like Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh.

#17. Cyberman Patrol

I don’t know if this card can become broken or not, but giving afflict 3 to a lot of attacking artifact creatures is huge. Your opponents can let the creatures go unblocked and not take the afflict damage, but either way they’ll get hurt. I’m rating Cyberman Patrol highly because it does a lot for its mana value, and it looks like a strong inclusion in artifact aggressive/tokens decks.

#16. The Fourth Doctor

The Fourth Doctor provides card advantage by letting you see and play cards from the top of your library. In these kinds of decks, you should almost always play cards from there, have ways to manipulate the top of your library, or shuffle it. The restriction on historic land hurts, but there are some legendary lands and artifact lands to make up for it.

#15. Flesh Duplicate

Flesh Duplicate is awesome in decks that want to Clone their own creatures for cheap, either because they have strong ETB effects or because you’re copying legendary creatures like Keiga, the Tide Star that you actively want to die. Vanishing 3 gives you some time to use the copied creature if you want, and it gets only better with all the time travel cards provided by this set.

#14. The Foretold Soldier

The Foretold Soldier is repeatable removal in green, so to speak. You attack with this card, it has the “must be blocked” ability, and a lot of times it will eat a smaller creature and trade. Next turn, you’ll have to cast it for 2 mana and repeat the process later. It has a downside, but it’s a massive 6/6 for 4 mana and has all the synergies from casting a card from exile which are present in this set.

#13. Trenzalore Clocktower

Trenzalore Clocktower is very similar to a Midnight Clock, but that effect is now on a land. The opportunity cost to run this in blue decks is very low, since it’s a blue land with no downside. You’ll just need a changeling to activate its second ability, or well, a doctor.

#12. Gallifrey Council Chamber

Gallifrey Council Chamber is an easy land to include in most decks. A land that ETBs and surveils 1 is already good in decks that care about this effect. The extra part of generating mana of any color gets better if you have changelings, aliens, or doctors.

#11. The Face of Boe

The Face of Boe is a very interesting Jeskai commander that lets you cheat on suspend spells. You’ll actually cast the suspend card for its mana cost, so you’ll cast Greater Gargadon for a red mana, or cast Ancestral Vision for a blue mana. Giving it haste and protection goes a long way, because otherwise you’ll play a 0/4 and you’ll have to wait a turn to use it the first time.

#10. River Song

River Song is crazy good and I’m not even referencing the “draw from the bottom of your library” part. Its spoilers ability breaks your opponents’ normal gameplay by damaging them each time they scry, surveil, or search. If they’re actively doing these normal actions, you’re growing River Song and damaging them. And if they don’t, that’s also good for you because they’ll be slowed down. You can force them to search basic lands with Field of Ruin or play similar cards that let every player scry. And then there’s the ability to draw cards from the bottom, which works well with lots of library manipulation spells. Just remember that when you scry with River Song around, you actually want the good cards on the bottom.

#9. The Flux

The Flux is a saga with six chapters, and that’s a massive advantage you’ll get during your next turns. First chapter is a solid removal spell, while the others give you an extra card from the top of your library, and it ends with 6 free mana. This card reminds me of Chandra, Torch of Defiance, except that you’ll open with the -3 ability and use the +1 ability every turn.

#8. The Master, Formed Anew

The Master, Formed Anew is a 2-mana Clone that can be your commander or fit the 99 of a Dimir EDH deck. The interesting thing about this card is that once the card is exiled with the takeover counter, The Master can be a copy of it whenever it ETBs. Later in the game, you can have a greater toolbox, with different exiled creatures that can provide card draw, bounce, removal, or just size.

#7. Return the Past

Return the Past is an enchantment that literally gives you the Past in Flames effect at all times. Six mana is a hefty price to pay for an enchantment that doesn’t affect the board though. Either way, this effect has proven to be good, and you don’t even need to combo off. Just getting value every turn from your graveyard is already nice. It also fits the set’s playing cards from outside your hand perfectly.

#6. Doomsday Confluence

After Torment of Hailfire this is one of the coolest stuff to do in black with a lot of mana. You can’t win the game through it, like in the case of a very big Torment, but you’ll get lots of card advantage this way. Doomsday Confluence lets you choose between more daleks, making everybody discard, and/or sacrificing stuff. I’d say Tergrid, God of Fright is at least interested in some of these modes for sure.

#5. Ominous Cemetery

Ominous Cemetery is that kind of land design that can go into many 1- and 2-color decks. Shuffling a creature into their owner’s deck is as good as colorless removal on a land get, even if it’sa  one-time use and you lose the land.

#4. Reverse the Polarity

Lots of blue decks play 3-mana counterspells with upside, like Dissolve or Dissipate. Reverse the Polarity is closer to an Archmage's Charm, offering three distinct modes, two that can affect the board. Counterspells with extra modes are very nice, and here we can play offense, defense, and even counter storm spells and its copies.

#3. Don’t Blink

Don't Blink gives you a cycling card that offers a possibility to counteract blink decks (pun intended), deny cascade effects, suspend effects, polymorph effects, and much more. It’s easy to cast creatures from exile these days, with mechanics like foretell or red impulse draw. It’s similar to a Hallowed Moonlight effect in blue, and the cycling effect lets you get rid of the card if it’s not needed.

#2. Cyber Conversion

Cyber Conversion is an interesting take on Reality Shift, a card that’s played as blue removal. In this case you’ll get the threat and turn it face down as a 2/2. This can deal with commanders in a way that other spells can’t because it stays on the table instead of going back to the command zone. It’s instant blue removal for creatures, like Beast Within, and it deals with indestructible creatures or creatures with good leaves-the-battlefield effects.

#1. Everybody Lives!

Probably the card that’s getting the most hype from the set. It’s not every day that we see a 2-mana spell that not only protects your creatures, but also the players. When you cast Everybody Lives!, no creatures can die and no player can lose or win. It gets fancier imprinted onto Isochron Scepter in stax decks that don’t want to lose to combo. This card is poised to become a staple of competitive MTG.

Wrap Up

The Tenth Doctor | Illustration by Luisa J. Preissler

And there you have it, the best Doctor Who MTG cards. Most of these will impact EDH in some form or another, and there are plenty of new commanders to try, new ideas to build decks around, and countless combinations between different doctors and their companions. A few of these will impact other Eternal Constructed formats as well. Despite not being very powerful like the Warhammer 40K precons, there's still plenty of juice in these four Doctor Who precons.

Each of them has around 50 new cards as well as nice reprints, so you can’t be wrong about picking one of these. If you’re already a fan of the show and EDH, this product is surely for you. This tier list is going to wildly differ between people and deck preferences, and if you agree or disagree with me, let me know in the comments section below, or in our Draftsim Discord. 

Thanks for reading!