Last updated on December 29, 2023
The Tenth Doctor | Illustration by Luisa J. Preissler
This is the deck you’re buying if you’re a Doctor Who fan who got hooked by the 2005 reboot and David Tennant and Matt Smith are still your faves. Maybe you look at the decklist and have some memories of Jenny, Generated Anomaly or some feels for Donna Noble.
If that’s you, you’re gonna hate which cards I’m going to suggest you cull from this Commander precon to power it up. But you’ve got to ask yourself what’s the better fan move, playing with RMS Titanic in your deck or actually winning the game with The Tenth Doctor and The Eleventh Doctor on the battlefield at the same time as the last of the time counters comes off?
You already know my answer to this question, so let’s see if we can figure out how to make this TARDIS fly!
Deck Overview
The Timey Wimey deck, helmed by The Tenth Doctor and companion Rose Tyler, is all over the place. Kind of like the tone of the Doctor Who show? The Doctor messes with time counters, of course. That means you’ve got vanishing and suspend cards, and The Doctor can add or subtract counters, depending on the mix of cards you’ve got on the table.
And there’s tokens.
And food!
And clues!
And storm, cascade, planeswalk, explore. Why not?
- 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!
Strengths and Weaknesses
There are some really powerful cards in this deck and some really nice synergies with the time counters. Cards with suspend and vanishing are slightly off rate in terms of mana cost, so being able to manipulate those counters really creates some efficiencies.
The trouble is that the deck relies on just a few cards to manipulate those time counters, including the commander. You've got to increase your access to those kinds of effects and protect The Tenth Doctor from removal. And there aren’t that many impactful vanishing cards outside of this deck, so I’ll focus on suspend.
The other issues are the tokens. There are some great cards in here that make and benefit from tokens, from Soldiers to Clues. But those don’t generally synergize with the rest of the deck.
There are two ways to manage this typical precon problem of two decks being smashed into one. The first is to elevate a token-heavy companion like Martha Jones to the fore and lean into token making. The second is to strip away the token stuff and focus on time travel.
As a player and a fan, I think the timey-wimey stuff matters more, and I think that’s a more powerful thing to be doing.
What will all that get you? A lot of chaos. Which hopefully buys time to eke out a victory with a few big creatures, or, the real dream of the deck, extra turns and a swole Rose Tyler lethal strike.
Neurok Stealthsuit
Suggested Cut: Psychic Paper
I really wanted my first added card to be Shivan Meteor because that art is the most Doctor Who looking thing in Magic! In all seriousness, you need another card in addition to Lightning Greaves that can help you win with Rose Tyler. Of all the cards that fit the bill, this one wins because it also looks bonkers Whovian, and I like that you can attach it as a fast effect to thwart removal.
Aeon Chronicler
Suggested Cut: Wedding Ring
The time travel effect on The Tenth Doctor and a few other cards really makes Aeon Chronicler shine, as you can just keep it suspended forever and draw cards if all goes well.
Ancestral Vision
Suggested Cut: Grasp of Fate
Other iconic suspended versions of the Power Nine don’t quite have the right punch in this deck, so no Sol Talisman, Lotus Bloom, or Mox Tantalite, although if you wanna replace normal mana rocks with those for flavor purposes, it’s your deck! Ancestral Vision is powerful and fun in this deck.
Dust of Moments
Suggested Cut: Atraxi Warden
I’m reasonably shocked the deck didn’t pack this card. Being able to affect so many counters at instant speed is big game in a deck like this.
Glimpse of Tomorrow
Suggested Cut: Adipose Offspring
I’ve removed some of the token generation that could make Glimpse of Tomorrow really pop off like it does in the Modern combo deck, but I’ve got enough mana rocky stuff to be interesting and fun, at least. I can see this as a particularly odd way to save something valuable (at the cost of your other stuff), and keeping it plump with time counters makes it hard for someone who doesn’t like math to apply their removal to you.
If nothing else, this card art's use of the suspend ring thing in the middle from the Modern Horizons 2 cycle reminds me a lot of Dalek vision, so I’m going to exterminate your objections right there.
Inevitable Betrayal
Suggested Cut: Astrid Peth
Inevitable Betrayal is kind of nuts in this deck. You can keep it hovering until you figure out a target and drive everyone nuts in the meantime. It’s a vibe.
Rousing Refrain
Suggested Cut: Jenny, Generated Anomaly
A little dopey, I think Rousing Refrain does work in a long game and helps support the Rose plan’s endgame by always being there, just like Inspiring Refrain which is already in the precon.
Jhoira of the Ghitu
Suggested Cut: Donna Noble
I know, this is like a violation of flavortown. Just be glad Gandalf of the Secret Fire doesn’t really synergize! Jhoira of the Ghitu does a lot. It can suspend your expensive cards and/or sagas. It can throw a Farewell into suspension and really make people’s brains hurt. It can also just suspend things like mana rocks in the late game just to get the counters up.
Restore Balance
Suggested Cut: RMS Titanic
A nasty card, having a Restore Balance that you could theoretically unsupsend at instant speed is like that feeling the villain of the week gets like 3/4 of the way through an episode right before the Doctor or companion figures out how to get out of the mess. So, yeah, I’m sure this plan will be fine and no one can stop you now, bwah ha ha ha.
If you wanna play this kind of game, Detritivore is another possible include for you, you, you villain!
Resurgent Belief
Suggested Cut: Sally Sparrow
There’s some great sagas in this deck, and Resurgent Belief is a decent card for that purpose. You could try something else that can manipulate time, but some of it feels too flimsy and fiddly for me.
Rift Elemental
Suggested Cut: Martha Jones
A pretty cheap, repeatable way to manipulate time counters, Rift Elemental isn’t exactly efficient, but it’s a fine card for this deck. I’d also think about Jhoira's Timebug, although having the time manipulation as a tap ability is a definite drawback.
Shivan Sand-Mage
Suggested Cut: Everything Comes to Dust
I know that removing a sweet board wipe for this card seems wild, but the sweeper belongs in a typal deck in white. Shivan Sand-Mage is another glue piece that keeps your mega-Rose dreams afloat.
Timecrafting
Suggested Cut: Fractured Identity
Instant speed shenanigans for lots of cards here. I particularly like the idea of Timecrafting plus Dinosaurs on a Spaceship!
Wheel of Fate
Suggested Cut: The Pandorica
Wheels are good! We don’t have a lot of synergy with Wheel of Fate, so we’re playing it as Garfield intended (??) and doing some chaos and hoping for the best!
Raugrin Triome
Suggested Cut: Temple of the False God
All these precons need better lands. I’ve certainly seen worse than this decklist, but this would be the biggest bang for your buck in upgrades, swapping out 20 or so underwhelming lands for the decent ones you might already have in these Jeskai colors. Raugrin Triome subbing in for the most egregious land in the list is symbolic of all those changes.
Commanding Conclusion
Restore Balance | Illustration by Mark Poole
Another way to shift the deck even further is to pull out some of the powerful cards that don’t fully synergize with the Rose plan, like Nanogene Conversion and The Day of the Doctor and add more protection and/or countermagic to get your plan to go off a bit more reliably. I think there’s another dozen cards that can be shifted for that plan if that’s your goal. I’m not sure that’s what I’d want to do with the deck, and I also lose patience with too much Commander protection in EDH. It gets a bit boring to play that way, even if it’s more reliable. So that’s why I didn't do that here, but I’d love to see your decklist if you go in that direction!
The good news is that everything I removed likely is an upgrade for some of your other decks, especially soldiers or other tokens decks, so you still benefit in power level.
The bad news is that I pulled out some iconic stuff from the deck, which is hard, as a fan. But to me it feels like making time counters matter is a great nerdy thing I want to do as an MTG fan, and that fact that I can do that in a Doctor Who deck also seems like a win for Whovians.
Whaddya think? Should I have gone with the counters version by adding things like Benalish Commander? Anyone made that work? Let me know in the comments or on Discord.
Thanks for reading and take care!
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