Last updated on October 30, 2023
The Thirteenth Doctor | Illustration by Pauline Voss
This is the part in the intro where I’d make a fun Doctor Who pun and riff off one of the episodes or main characters, but my knowledge of the BBC phenomenon is basically limited to a blue phonebooth called the TARDIS and something about fish sticks. Say what you will about Universes Beyond; I love that it gives me a peek into other worlds that people love, unfamiliar as I may be with those IPs.
I do know Commander though, and the Doctor Who precons are some of the best I’ve ever seen. And that’s accounting for the fact that there are roughly 1,000 of these per year now. Let’s home in on giving the Paradox Power precon something of a budget facelift.
Deck Overview
Paradox Power is a Temur Commander precon in the Doctor Who lineup. It’s a Universes Beyond product, meaning all the cards are designed within the scope of the Doctor Who IP, with reprints being reskinned to match the flavor of that universe.
This precon revolves around the new “paradox” mechanic, an ability word that grants bonuses when you cast spells from zones other than your hand. The precon ties this together with several returning mechanics, including rebound, foretell, suspend, and other abilities that cast cards from exile, the graveyard, etc.
The intended commanders are The Thirteenth Doctor and Yasmin Khan, showcasing the new “doctor’s companion” dual-commander ability. You can customize your commander with other doctor/companion pairings or run Me, the Immortal as an alternative, though I think the intended pair makes a perfect tag-team for the deck.
The Doctor Who Commander decks all include Planechase cards, though I’ll be ignoring this aspect outright. The only cards in Paradox Power that reference Planechase are TARDIS and Start the TARDIS, which are fine cards on their own.
Finally, I prefer to take a budget-conscious approach to these upgrades. Add your Fierce Guardianship or Ancient Tomb if you have it, but the upgrades here are intended to be a level-up from the out-of-the-box experience, bolstering the deck’s strategy in fun and synergistic ways.
- 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.
Strengths and Weaknesses
This deck excels at two things: being strong, and being really friggin’ fun. It showcases many of Magic’s best mechanics and uses the new paradox mechanic to package them all together. There are tons of moving pieces between suspended cards, sagas, foretell, cascading, rebound, clone effects, and so on. It’s almost exhausting really.
Which transitions us towards weaknesses. The most glaring is how hostile the deck is towards new players. These are not beginner’s products, though that discussion’s not really the point of this upgrade guide. This “weakness” might even be a positive for enfranchised players who’ll love the fresh theme and complex interactions.
There’s also the usual split-theme approach that often takes away from the precon experience. The deck’s main focus is casting spells from different zones, but there’s also an artifact sacrifice subtheme. You have Clue or Food generators and some payoffs that put those tchotchkes to good use, but it doesn’t gel with the rest of the deck. I’ll be trimming on the artifact themes in favor of more focused support for the paradox strategy.
Passionate Archaeologist
Suggested Cut: Psychic Paper
The absolute #1 most important card to add is Passionate Archaeologist. If you’ve ever played against a Prosper, Tome-Bound deck you know how silly this can get. It works with cascade, rebound, foretell, et al, though it misses on flashback, jump-start, etc. Backgrounds also excel when you double up on commanders.
Psychic Paper is quirky and fun, but this isn’t really the right home for it. It ups your doctor count by one and makes creatures unblockable, but I’d still prefer a synergy card in this slot.
Tlincalli Hunter
Suggested Cut: Karvanista, Loyal Lupari
Is Karvanista, Loyal Lupari going for some sort of show reference? Because the random human typal payoff seems unnecessary. It’s a solid card, just signaling a theme that’s not fully there. I like Tlincalli Hunter in this spot. It swaps an adventure for an adventure, which work with paradox effects and usually spot you a free creature that you can cast from exile as well.
Sage of the Beyond
Suggested Cut: Strax, Sontaran Nurse
Kaldheim’s Phantom Premonition precon had a number of interesting foretell cards. Sage of the Beyond stands out, being both a creature you can cast from exile and a cost reduction enabler for other foretell creatures. It also discounts your commanders, which is nice when you have two of them kicking around.
Strax, Sontaran Nurse is a strong artifact payoff that’s just supporting a disparate theme from the rest of the deck.
Questing Druid
Suggested Cut: Thijarian Witness
Questing Druid is another double-duty adventure for the deck that can get large when your double-spelling off rebound, cascade, and the like. Seek the Beast also sets you up with two more cards to trigger paradox.
I don’t really get Thijarian Witness. Neat design, high upside, but I feel like it’s here to support that artifact theme, and poor at doing so.
Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald
Suggested Cut: Dan Lewis
I tried to keep my Lord of the Rings upgrades in line with the Middle-earth flavor, but Doctor’s Who’s so bombastic and all over the place (there’s a flaming T-rex in this deck) that I dropped that stipulation altogether. Enter Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald, a paradox payoff before paradox was cool. It’s another way to generate board presence and facilitates other payoffs with its activated ability.
Dan Lewis (isn’t that a country singer?) is yet another artifact payoff, and a lousy one at that. You could pair it with The Thirteenth Doctor and take the deck in a different direction, though that’s an inferior build for the precon.
The Lost and the Damned
Suggested Cut: Last Night Together
Cutting Universes Beyond cards for UB cards from another IP… what a world we live in. The Lost and the Damned from Warhammer 40K slots in perfectly here. It’s similar to Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald and Iraxxa, Empress of Mars, but the redundancy is welcome.
Last Night Together is awesome, and you could certainly keep it around on power level alone, but I’m a synergy freak, so I prefer putting this card in my back pocket for a more beatdown-oriented deck.
Delayed Blast Fireball
Suggested Cut: Become the Pilot
It’s no coincidence that many of these suggestions are being pulled directly from Battle for Baldur’s Gate Commander decks; that’s the set that gave us Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald, after all. The trick with Delayed Blast Fireball is cascading into it or hitting it off Yasmin Khan for the full effect. And it’s purely one-sided.
Become the Pilot is a glorified Control Magic with extra text that’s not exciting enough to make it worth holding onto. Fine, maybe even game-breaking in some instances, but cuttable.
Skyway Robber
Suggested Cut: Danny Pink
Confession Dial and Lunar Hatchling call out escape as yet another mechanic that fulfils paradox, which made Skyway Robber look appealing. Casting it from the graveyard is already useful, but its saboteur ability also casts spells from exile, so you should be getting triggers galore from this one card. Escape is at odds with flashback-type mechanics, so be diligent with this one.
Danny Pink is a simple and effective card draw engine that pairs well with The Thirteenth Doctor, but isn’t wholly necessary in a deck full of natural 2-for-1s. You’re not really a counters deck anyway.
Possibility Storm
Suggested Cut: River Song
Possibility Storm is more maniacal than mandatory, but this deck can really take advantage of the chaos. It’ll disrupt everyone’s plays, but you’ll get paradox triggers off every flip. It also combos with many of the other present mechanics: Foretell dodges it, flashback and retrace still work, cascades still happen, etc.
Faithless Looting + Virtue of Courage
Suggested Cut: Madame Vastra + Jenny Flint
“But Tim, you said 10 changes, isn’t this technically 11?” Sure is, sue me. Jenny Flint and Madame Vastra don’t make sense without one another, and neither are good on their own, so off with both their heads.
That frees up two slots for Faithless Looting, a generically good flashback spell, and Virtue of Courage. Embereth Blaze is better than it looks, and the actual virtue enchantment has a high ceiling. There aren’t many direct damage spells here, but Delayed Blast Fireball alongside Heaven Sent and Flaming Tyrannosaurus already sounds like a nice package of cards.
Paradox, or Pair-o’-Docs?
Sage of the Beyond | Illustration by Cristi Balanescu
And that’s it, 11 upgrades to the Paradox Power precon… er, 10, definitely just 10 upgrades. I wanted to lean in on the paradox mechanic, since it’s the coolest and most unique part of the deck, and in doing so nixed most of the artifact subtheme. There’s no shortage of artifact decks out there, so let’s focus on the new stuff here.
How do you think I did? Were there any cards I should’ve added, or cards I shouldn’t be cutting? Do you know what a Thijarian is? ‘Cuz I sure don’t. I want to hear what you’d do to take this precon to the next level! Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.
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