10 best Doctor Who MTG cards in the latest Universes Beyond crossover
Allons-y!
The best Universes Beyond: Doctor Who cards in Magic: The Gathering are the ones that can work not just in the decks they’re being printed in, but in a more universal way too. It’s easy for a niche card to be strong within its niche - and sometimes a card like that is simply so strong that it takes a deck from being a fun idea into a crushing way to play Commander - but it’s far rarer for a card to work in decks that it’s not intended for.
The Universes Beyond: Doctor Who decks all look like a good time. It’s a very entertaining collection of characters to see within Magic: The Gathering, especially with the cards all being based on real actors, which gives everything an almost uncanny valley feeling. The Doctor Who MTG cards feel powerful, and a few of them could definitely find their way into other decks.
Best Doctor Who MTG cards
- Davros, Dalek Creator
- Exterminate!
- The Thirteenth Doctor
- The Tenth Doctor
- Everybody Lives!
- River Song
- Wilfred Mott
- Martha Jones
- Weeping Angel
- Reverse the Polarity
It feels really weird seeing so many Doctors in Magic: The Gathering, and also seeing card artwork representing such a long-lived and famous series. The cards for each character and moment often feel true to what they’re showing off, but don’t always feel as game-changing as they maybe deserve.
As such, we’ve not let our love of characters dictate which are the best Universes Beyond: Doctor Who cards in MTG. These are our picks for the top ten cards in the set that will also do well outside of their respective decks.
1. Davros, Dalek Creator
Pain for everyone
First up, we have Davros, Dalek Creator. It’s probably no surprise that the lord of the daleks is to be feared, so here we are. This four-mana blue, black and red 3/4 has Menace, so it’s hard to block, and it has a big old chunk of text. In short, you get to create a 3/3 Dalek artifact creature token during your end step if an opponent has lost three or more life during your turn.
Then, every opponent that has lost three or more life that turn either has to let you draw a card or discard one themselves. Being able to not only create more problems for your opponents to deal with, but then also either rob them of their cards or draw more yourself is an amazing suite of abilities.
2. Exterminate!
True to its name
Exterminate! is a good card even without being paired with Davros - but with Davros, and his ability to spit out Dalek tokens, it’s utterly absurd. This three-mana black sorcery lets you destroy a target creature, before its controller loses three life.
This spell also has Replicate, which effectively means you can copy it if you do something specific. What you need to do to replicate Exterminate is tap an untapped Dalek you control.
As long as you’ve got ways to copy tokens - of which there are plenty in MTG - then you’ve got a pretty efficient way to not only wipe out a lot of creatures, but also make people lose a lot of life.
3. The Thirteenth Doctor
Unlucky, but not for you
The Thirteenth Doctor is a green and blue three-mana 2/2 with some really intriguing abilities. The first of these is called Paradox, and lets you put a +1/+1 counter on a target creature whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand. This could be your graveyard, from exile due to something like Cascade, or anywhere else. It needs support to work, but it’s not even the best ability this card has.
The other ability, Team Tardis, lets you untap each creature you control with a counter on it at the beginning of your end step. Untapping creatures at weird times is something that always leads to big plays in MTG; it means you can get lots of extra mana if the creature generates mana, attack with abandon because you’ll be able to defend and, if your creatures have activated abilities, you’ll get to use them more.
4. The Tenth Doctor
A master of time
Our only other Doctor on this list of the best Doctor Who MTG cards is The Tenth Doctor, a five-mana blue and red 3/5 who, thanks to Allons-y!, allows you to exile cards from the top of your library until you hit a nonland card whenever you attack, before giving that card Suspend and putting three time counters on it. Suspend is an odd ability that lets you remove one time counter every upkeep; when there are none left, you get to cast the card.
The other part of good old David Tennant’s Doctor is Timey-Wimey. This is a seven-mana ability that lets you time travel three times. Time travelling is a new mechanic in Universes Beyond: Doctor Who that lets you either add or remove a time counter on your suspended cards, allowing you to cast a whole host of cards at the same time for just seven mana.
Suspend isn’t a new mechanic, but it can be finicky in normal Magic: The Gathering. The Tenth Doctor could well be the card that changes all of that.
5. Everybody Lives!
That’s a lot of protection
A spell that can stop you dying without fail is an incredible thing to have in your hand. In Commander especially, threats can appear out of nowhere, so having an answer to sudden game-ending problems is really important. Everybody Lives! is exactly that.
Everybody Lives! reads: “All creatures gain hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. Players gain hexproof until end of turn. Players can’t lose life this turn and players can’t lose the game or win the game this turn.”
In essence, it stops anyone losing that turn, and also every creature on the board. Because it also stops other people losing, it can be a great political card if you’re looking for a temporary alliance against a more menacing opponent.
6. River Song
Nonlinear time
This three-mana blue and red 2/2 is River Song, who is a human time-lord rogue - quite the mix of creature types.
River’s first ability is Meet in Reverse, which lets you draw cards from the bottom of your library instead of the top - which is funny, if nothing else.
Her other ability is Spoilers, which reads: “Whenever an opponent scries, surveils, or searches their library, put a +1/+1 counter on River Song. Then River Song deals damage to that player equal to its power.”
Being able to make River Song stronger when players mess with their deck is one thing, but being able to also hurt players for doing so is excellent.
7. Wilfred Mott
Free stuff
It’s no secret that free stuff in Magic: The Gathering is always good stuff. Seriously, nearly every card that’s ever broken the game has been related to cheating mana or something similar. Well, Wilfred Mott is a four-mana white 2/4 who could do the same.
His Look to the Stars ability reads: “At the beginning of your upkeep, put a time counter on Wilfred Mott. Then look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of time counters on Wilfred Mott. You may put a nonland permanent card with mana value 3 or less from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.”
While three or less might not sound like much, MTG is full to bursting with cards which only cost three mana or less that can win a game. Build your deck right, and you’ll be laughing all the way to victory.
8. Martha Jones
Get a clue
Martha Jones is a three-mana blue 3/2 who creates a clue token when she enters the battlefield. Clue tokens are a little niche, but they can be very effective as you can pay two mana to sacrifice them to draw a card. You can potentially turn them into creatures too, depending on the kind of deck you’re playing.
Along with that, Martha Jones also makes it so that you can make her unblockable when you sacrifice a clue, but also makes another target creature unblockable. Being able to make your largest creature unblockable while also drawing a card is obviously strong, and she even has the Doctor’s Companion ability as well.
9. Weeping Angel
Don’t blink
Weeping Angels are one of the most horrifying monsters in Doctor Who. Magic: The Gathering’s card designers have made them equally scary in the game, too. This three-mana blue and black creature not only has Flash, so you can cast it at instant speed, but also both First Strike and Vigilance.
It does have a downside in that it stops being a creature if an opponent casts a creature spell. However, when it’s a creature, if it would deal combat damage to a creature, it instead makes it so that the owner has to shuffle that creature back into their library. It can potentially get rid of a lot of threats.
10. Reverse the Polarity
Science nonsense
Finally we have Reverse the Polarity, a three-mana blue instant spell with three different abilities. You can only choose one of them, but each is potentially pretty powerful and useful in different situations. This card can counter all other spells, switch each creature’s power and toughness until the end of the turn, or make all creatures unblockable until the end of the turn.
In short, you can completely counter a group of spells in one cast, make combat way more confusing or straight-up win a game with just this card. We’re very excited to try this out in a bunch of different decks, and you should be too.