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Universes Beyond: Doctor Who is a set of Doctor Who themed Magic: The Gathering trading game cards that will be released by Wizards of the Coast on 13 October 2023.[1] The set was announced 18 August 2022.[2][3]
The Doctor Who set was part of Magic: The Gathering's Universes Beyond series, which utilises the worlds, characters, and stories of other intellectual properties while featuring the gameplay of Magic: The Gathering. The Doctor Who set was the third major Universes Beyond release (not including special Secret Lair releases and Universes Beyond cards available in regular sets).
The product release was comprised of four 100-card Commander decks, collector boosters, and tie-in Secret Lairs. The main set contains 200 new Doctor Who themed cards as well as Doctor Who themed reprints of regular Magic: The Gathering cards. Doctor Who was the first Commander deck release to include collector boosters, with no additional new cards, that only feature alternate art versions of the cards in the decks.
The Decks and New Cards
Each of the Commander decks is based around a specific theme featuring Doctor Who characters and Magic: The Gathering mechanics that fit into that theme. Every Doctor card is a two-colour Legendary Creature card, while every companion card is a mono-colour Legendary Creature card. Doctor's Companion is a partner variant keyword ability featured on these companion cards that allows you to designate that companion as part of a Commander pair so long as the other partner card is a Doctor (any version of the Doctor with the creature type exactly, and not anything in addition to, Time Lord Doctor). For the purposes of designing the decks, companions were defined as someone who stays with the Doctor and travels with them for a long time.
Each Commander deck package contains:
- One foil Commander (The Doctor card for decks with a Doctor-Companion Commander pair or Davros, Dalek Creator for the Masters of Evil deck)
- The remaining 99 cards of the deck
- 10 oversized Doctor Who themed Planechase cards featuring 9 planes and 1 phenomenon as well as one six-sided planar die
- 10 double-sided tokens featuring Doctor Who themes
- A deck box and a life wheel for tracking the player's life total
- A 2-card sample collector booster pack
There are 50 mechanically new Doctor Who cards per deck with the remaining 50 cards being Doctor Who themed reprints of regular Magic: The Gathering cards.
Blast from the Past
Blast from the Past is a green, white, and blue deck focused on historic spells and planeswalking. The deck highlights the classic era of the show from 1963 to 1996 including all eight classic Doctors with The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith being the face Commander pair of the deck.
| Card Name | Card Colour(s) | Cart Art & Function | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
The First Doctor Kieran Yanner |
Blue & White | The First Doctor in his TARDIS at his console with smoke emanating from it. | |
| The Second Doctor | |||
| The Third Doctor | |||
The Fourth Doctor David Auden Nash |
Blue & Green | The Fourth Doctor, smiling, presenting a paper bag of jelly babies to the viewer with his fedora in his other hand in a salute. The TARDIS console and roundels can be seen in the background.
Allows you to look at the top card of your library at any time and play historic lands or spells from the top of your library using the ability word "Would You Like A... ?". Creates a bag of jelly babies as a Food token. |
|
| The Fifth Doctor | |||
| The Sixth Doctor | |||
| The Seventh Doctor | |||
| The Eighth Doctor | The Night of the Doctor | ||
| Susan Foreman | Green | ||
Sarah Jane Smith Fajareka Setiawan |
White | Sarah manoeuvering around some barbed wire and rocks on Exxilon wearing her first outfit for The Time Warrior.
Whenever you cast a historic spell, Sarah - a Detective - investigates. |
Death to the Daleks |
Adric, Mathematical Genius Billy Christian |
Adric looking at the console of Briggs's freighter after it was damaged by a Cyberman. Prehistoric Earth can be seen on the monitor in the background. | Earthshock | |
K-9, Mark 1 Nerendra Bintara Adi |
K-9 levitating in a generic spaceship corridor. | ||
City of Death Miklós Ligeti |
Count Carlos Scarlioni as a human having a drink, Duggan, multiple paintings of Mona Lisa (the visible ones show Duggan, Scaroth in his Jagaroth form and The Fourth Doctor all posing as Mona Lisa), and The Fourth Doctor. Episode saga card.
Creates a Treasure token and then five more token copies mimicking the six Mona Lisa copies. |
City of Death | |
Reverse the Polarity Randy Gallegos |
The Third Doctor brandishing his sonic screwdriver with a circular "wave" effect emmanating from it. | ||
Time Lord Regeneration Elizabeth Peiró |
Montage of The Fifth Doctor's companions (Tegan, Turlough, Kamelion, Nyssa, and Adric) as they appeared to him in his hallucination during his regeneration sequence. | The Caves of Androzani | |
TARDIS Chris Ostrowski |
The TARDIS in flight above a ringed planet in the foreground with other planets in the background.
Vehicle that potentially grants you a free spell (cascade) and a way to travel to a new destination (planeswalk) if you control a Time Lord when it attacks. | ||
| Alien Insect | A Menoptera in flight. | The Web Planet | |
| Food | A paper bag of jelly babies. | ||
| Treasure File:DWUB Treasure.jpg Justyna Dura |
Romana II in a painting posing as Mona Lisa. | City of Death |
| Card Name | Plane | Card Art & Function | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
TARDIS Bay Erikas Perl |
Gallifrey | Grants you a free spell (just like the TARDIS's cascade), then you steal a TARDIS and run away (planeswalk) | The War Games |
Timey-Wimey
Timey-Wimey is a blue, red, and white deck focused on the new Time Travel mechanic which manipulates time counters on the player's cards and time related Magic: The Gathering mechanics including suspend and vanishing. The deck highlights the earliest Doctors of the new series from 2005 to 2013 with The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler being the face Commander pair of the deck.
| Card Name | Card Colour(s) | Card Art & Function | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Ninth Doctor | |||
The Tenth Doctor Luisa J. Preissler |
Blue & Red | The Doctor in The Library.
Features the ability words "Allons-y!" and "Timey-Wimey" and the keyword action "Time travel". Represents foreplanning and the manipulation of time. |
Forest of the Dead, Silence in the Library |
The Eleventh Doctor Justyna Dura |
The Doctor at Stonehenge amidst Roman soldiers lit by the alien fleet above him. | The Pandorica Opens, The Big Bang | |
The War Doctor Lixin Yin |
The War Doctor on Gallifrey as he contemplates using The Moment. | The Day of the Doctor | |
Rose Tyler Luisa J. Preissler |
White | Rose on Earth when it was taken to the Medusa Cascade. Rose is wearing the outfit worn during The Stolen Earth.
Rose gets stronger when she attacks based on any time related mechanics. |
The Stolen Earth |
The Face of Boe Greg Staples |
The Face of Boe in his tank in Ward 26 of the hospital run by the Sisters of Plenitude on New Earth with Novice Hame attending to him.
Allows you to cast a spell using its suspend cost. Loosely represents his long life span and being able to wait for events to happen. |
New Earth | |
Ecstatic Beauty Alice Xia Zhang |
Vincent van Gogh in the foreground with The Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Henry Black in the background. Painted in the brushstroke style of the real-world Vincent van Gogh. Card name references Vincent's work as described by Henry Black in the Musée d'Orsay. | Vincent and the Doctor | |
The Eleventh Hour Matt Stewart |
An Atraxi ship, Prisoner Zero, the crack in Amy's wall, older Amy holding an apple, The Eleventh Doctor brandishing his sonic screwdriver, young Amy, and the crashed TARDIS on its side with young Amy looking on. Episode saga card. | The Eleventh Hour | |
Four Knocks Darren Tan |
White | The Tenth Doctor in the radiation booth after Wilfred Mott fulfilled Carmen's prophecy by knocking four times to be let out.
This enchantment sticks around for four turns before vanishing (vanishing 4). |
The End of Time |
The Parting of the Ways Syd Mills |
Rose as the Bad Wolf, The Ninth Doctor, and Bad Wolf in letters superimposed over an exploding Dalek.
Card function loosely represents the Bad Wolf episode's hanging plot moments that will be resolved later on in The Parting of the Ways, the sending of Rose backwards in time to save her where she becomes the Bad Wolf and then time travelling forwards in time, and the destruction of the Dalek fleet. Episode saga card. |
The Parting of the Ways | |
| TARDIS Chris Ostrowski |
The TARDIS in flight above a ringed planet in the foreground with other planets in the background.
Vehicle that potentially grants you a free spell (cascade) and a way to travel to a new destination (planeswalk) if you control a Time Lord when it attacks. |
||
| Human | Young Amelia Pond frying some bacon and eggs. | The Eleventh Hour | |
| Food | The Eleventh Doctor shortly after his regeneration in Amy's house, still dressed in The Tenth Doctor's clothes, eating fish fingers and custard out of a glass bowl. | The Eleventh Hour |
| Card Name | Plane | Card Art & Function | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
Bad Wolf Bay Kamila Szutenberg |
Earth | Rose Tyler standing on a rock on the beach of Dårlig Ulv Stranden.
Represents Rose flickering in and out of existence before being stranded (exiled) forever on Pete's World and then travelling away (planeswalking) leaving her behind |
Doomsday |
Paradox Power
Paradox Power is a green, blue, and red deck focused on the new Paradox mechanic that provides an effect whenever you cast a spell from anywhere but your hand. This is combined with the Magic: The Gathering mechanics Escape, Cascade, Flashback and Retrace which cast spells from your deck or graveyard. The deck highlights the new series' more recent Doctors from 2014 to 2023 with The Thirteenth Doctor and Yasmin Khan being the face Commander pair of the deck.
| Card Name | Card Colour(s) | Cart Art & Function | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
The Twelfth Doctor Alexander Mokhov |
The Twelfth Doctor rocking out on a tank playing an electric guitar. | The Magician's Apprentice | |
The Thirteenth Doctor Pauline Voss  Lenka Šimečková |
Blue & Green | Features the Paradox mechanic making creatures stronger and the ability word "Team TARDIS" represented by all team members (your creatures with counters on them) being able to attack and defend. | |
The Fugitive Doctor Greg Staples |
The Fugitive Doctor at her console in her own TARDIS. | Fugitive of the Judoon | |
Yasmin Khan Andrey Kuzinskiy |
Red | Yaz - a Detective - allows you to look for more answers in your deck. | |
Me, the Immortal Yuliya Litvinova |
Ashildr sitting in an armchair in her home holding a chess piece that resembles a raven. | The Woman Who Lived | |
The Foretold Soldier Fajareka Setiawan |
The Foretold on the Orient Express unnoticed by the train's passengers.
The Foretold Soldier kills opponent's creatures one by one and utilises the Foretell mechanic to disappear (exile) until it reappears. |
Mummy on the Orient Express | |
Decaying Time Loop Alexander Gering |
The Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin Khan, and Daniel Lewis all running from the abstract clock representation of the decaying time loop. | Eve of the Daleks | |
The Flux Alexander Gering |
The Thirteenth Doctor, Swarm, and Azure. Represents the full "series-long" story as opposed to a single episode. Episode saga card. | Flux | |
| TARDIS Chris Ostrowski |
The TARDIS in flight above a ringed planet in the foreground with other planets in the background.
Vehicle that potentially grants you a free spell (cascade) and a way to travel to a new destination (planeswalk) if you control a Time Lord when it attacks. |
||
| Clue | The Thirteenth Doctor's reflection in the bell jar containing the suspended biodata module with their memories that were wiped by The Division. | The Timeless Children, Survivors of the Flux |
| Card Name | Plane | Card Art & Function | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
Fixed Point in Time Syd Mills |
Phenomenon | Represents the fixed point-in-time where Clara Oswald was extracted from the timeline. Clara is positioned centrally against an EKG line "between one heartbeat and the next" with the Raven in the background. | Face the Raven, Hell Bent |
Masters of Evil
Masters of Evil is a blue, black, and red deck focused on the new Villainous Choice ability word featured on modal instants and sorceries. These spells target the player's opponents who are presented with a choice of effects, all of which are detrimental. The deck has an artifact creature subtheme that includes myriad cards that duplicate attackers when attacking multiple opponents and artifact cards that have a mututally detrimental affect to all opponents or players. The deck highlights the villains of Doctor Who with Davros, Dalek Creator as the face Commander of the deck.
| Card Name | Card Colour(s) | Card Art & Function | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
Davros, Dalek Creator Simon Dominic |
Blue, Black & Red | Davros in his Laboratory on Necros with his right arm extended "shooting" out a lightning arc. He is accompanied by two of his Imperial Daleks.
Creates a Dalek token if an opponent lost life and makes them face a villainous choice. |
Revelation of the Daleks |
The Master, Multiplied Lie Setiawan |
The Saxon Master after using the Immortality Gate to create his "Master Race" duplicates. | The End of Time | |
Missy Ekaterina Burmak |
Blue, Black & Red | Missy in a graveyard as Cybermen rise from the graves.
Resurrects any non-artifact creatures into Cybermen under your control. Makes opponents face a villainous choice at the end of your turn to either take damage from your artifact creatures (representing being attacked by the Cybermen) or allowing chaos to ensue. |
Death in Heaven |
Vashta Nerada Fang Xinyu |
One of the archeologists casting two shadows while exploring The Library. | Silence in the Library, Forest of the Dead | |
The Valeyard Tyukina Tatiana |
The Valeyard in the courtroom on the Time Lord space station.
Makes opponents face additional villainous choices and allows you to vote an additional time in any votes. |
The Trial of a Time Lord | |
Weeping Angel Anato Finnstark |
A Weeping Angel covering its eyes outside of Wester Drumlins. | Blink | |
Death in Heaven Justyna Dura |
Missy with multiple Cybermen being resurrected by the Cyber-pollen rain. Episode saga card. | Death in Heaven | |
Exterminate! Ivan Debov |
Black | A Dalek utilising their death ray on a human. The effect reveals the skeleton of the human.
Destroys a creature but can be copied by using multiple Daleks. The flavour text on the card features an Imperial Dalek quote “You are the enemy of the Daleks! You will be exterminated! Exterminate!” |
Remembrance of the Daleks |
| Dalek | A Bronze Dalek |
| Card Name | Plane | Card Art & Function | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
The Doctor's Tomb Anato Finnstark |
Trenzalore | The Doctor's Tomb looming overhead in the same perspective as The Name of the Doctor
Loosely represents permanent erasure of characters from the timeline (exile) and rewriting history (for the negated alternate timeline) by the redistribution of life totals. |
The Name of the Doctor |
The Lux Foundation Library Wei Guan |
The Library | The wide panned out view of The Library in the same perspective as Forest of the Dead.
Loosely represents having infinite knowledge, continuous learning, and the Vashta Nerada by the use of shadow counters. |
Silence in the Library, Forest of the Dead |
References
General References
- There is at least one dinosaur card or reference to a dinosaur within the decks.
- A reference to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctors are expected to be present in one of the decks.
- Art depicting Daleks in London features in one of the Secret Lairs released in October.
Saga Episode References
Saga is a card type in Magic: The Gathering that is used to tell a story through multiple chapters that occur when you first play the card and then on each of your subsequent turns. The saga cards in this set represent an iconic episode of each of the 15 Doctor's runs (including the War Doctor and the Fugitive Doctor). In addition, four villains will also have episodes represented by associated saga cards.
The 19 episodes represented are:
- City of Death for The Fourth Doctor
- The Parting of the Ways for The Ninth Doctor
- The Eleventh Hour for The Eleventh Doctor
- Death in Heaven for The Twelfth Doctor
- The Flux for The Thirteenth Doctor
Basic Land References
- Plains 0197 showcases the TARDIS amongst the mud pools on Androzani Minor. (TV: The Caves of Androzani)
- Island 0199 showcases the TARDIS on an island beach next to the pyramid on Marinus. (TV: The Keys of Marinus)
- Swamp 0201 showcases the TARDIS in a jungle swamp on Tigella. (TV: Meglos)
- Mountain 0203 showcases the TARDIS on a mountain cliffside close to the Citadel of Peladon on Peladon. (TV: The Curse of Peladon, The Monster of Peladon)
- Forest 0205 showcases the TARDIS in a jungle on Zeta Minor. (TV: Planet of Evil)
Token References
- The Human token art of Token 005 showcases young Amy Pond frying some bacon and eggs (TV: The Eleventh Hour). Featured in the Timey-Wimey deck.
- The Dalek token art of Token 0012 showcases a generic Bronze Dalek. Featured in the Masters of Evil deck.
- The Alien Insect token art of Token 0019 showcases a Menoptera in flight (TV: The Web Planet). Featured in the Blast from the Past deck.
- The Clue token art of Token 0023 showcases The Thirteenth Doctor's reflection in the bell jar containing the suspended biodata module with their memories that were wiped by The Division. (TV: The Timeless Children, Survivors of the Flux) Featured in the Paradox Power deck.
- The Food token art of Token 0025 showcases a paper bag of jelly babies. Featured in the Blast from the Past deck.
- The Food token art of Token 0026 showcases The Eleventh Doctor shortly after his regeneration in Amy's house, still dressed in The Tenth Doctor's clothes, eating fish fingers and custard out of a glass bowl. (TV: The Eleventh Hour) Featured in the Timey-Wimey deck.
- The Treasure token art of Token 0028 showcase Romana II in a painting posing as Mona Lisa (TV: City of Death). Featured in the Blast from the Past deck.
Notes
- The cards were first shown off at the San Diego Comic-Con panel on 20 July 2023.[4]
- Initial reactions to the set were decidedly mixed, with prominent Magic content creators being negative[5] and Lawrence Miles criticizing the product.[6]
External links
- Doctor Who product page at the official Magic: The Gathering website.
- Doctor Who at the Magic: The Gathering wiki.
- Commander Masters and Doctor Who Sneak Peek! | Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond MTG at Good Morning Magic on YouTube.
- The BIG Doctor Who Commander Reveal! New Cards, Art, Deck Themes, & More! | Magic: The Gathering MTG at Good Morning Magic on YouTube.
- THE NEXT YEAR OF MAGIC FROM WIZARDS PRESENTS at the official Magic: The Gathering website
- ALLONS-Y! ON OCTOBER 13, CELEBRATE 60 YEARS OF DOCTOR WHO™ THROUGH MAGIC at the official Magic: The Gathering website
- CATCH UP WITH THE Magic: The Gathering® – DOCTOR WHO™ SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON REVEALS at the official Magic: The Gathering website
- The Preview Panel at MagicCon: Barcelona at the official Magic: The Gathering YouTube channel