Exploring The Mechanics Of Magic: The Gathering & Doctor Who Crossover

The Doctor Who/Magic: The Gathering universes beyond crossover, which is bringing us four commander precons, is in full swing. We recently got our first big batch of Dr. Who spoilers, which are pretty great. We have several new mechanics and a returning classic among these new cards. As popular as the beloved series is, plenty of eyeballs will come to the game for the first time. So, I want to take some time today to go over and explain the Doctor Who MTG mechanics. We'll tick things off with the new stuff.

Doctor Who - Magic: The Gathering Mechanics

Paradox

Paradox is triggered by casting spells from anywhere other than your hand. What happens when you trigger it varies from card to card. Some even keep a tally of how many cards you've managed to cast from some weird place and have their effects scale with that number.

You could trigger paradox cards by playing your commander from the command zone or casting spells from exile. For example, The Flux, Ignite the Future, and Light Up the Stage all give you a chance to play things from exile. The same is true for cards with adventure like Bonecrusher Giant and Brazen Borrower. These are just two options for creating a paradox; there are many more.

Villainous Choice

Villainous Choice gives opponents two choices. And most of the time, they're a "bad or worse option?" type of deal. That said, it is appropriately named. First, because it's the mechanic of the villain deck. Secondly, as mentioned, some of the choices are pretty cruel. Whenever an opponent is instructed to make a villainous choice, they can pick either option presented to them.

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Even if, as WOTC explained, "Davros points menacingly at an opponent with an empty hand, they can choose the discarding option and do nothing." Furthermore, if multiple players are made to make a choice, it happens in turn order, and each resolves before the next player's choice is made.

Time Travel

If nothing else, you'd expect a time travel mechanic in a Doctor Who MTG set, and there is! Anytime you're instructed to time travel, you may add or remove a time counter on each suspended card you own and each permanent you control with a time counter on it. This really has the feel of messing with time.

When you suspend a card, you put it in exile with some number of time counters on it. Then, at the beginning of your upkeep, you remove one of those counters. When you remove the last one, you can play the spell for free. In other words, you pay a very small cost upfront, and to balance out the cheap cost, you're delayed in casting the spell.

With the Time Travel mechanic in the Doctor Who precons, you can remove extra time counters from your suspended cards and get them out much faster than usual. It's also worth mentioning that you can add time counters if you so choose.

Doctor's Companion

If you know how " partner" works in Commander, you'll already know what this does. It's essentially partner but for the Doctors and their companions. After all, where the doctor goes in the show, the companion isn't far behind. Effectively, if your commander is "The Doctor," you can pair it with another card with the Doctor's Companion mechanic and have them both be your commander.

This only works with the actual Legendary Doctors from the Doctor Who precons. Cards with Changeling (such as Morophon, the Boundless) cannot be paired with Doctor's Companion cards. If you choose to have two commanders, their combined colors will form the color identity for your deck. And each one will have its separate commander tax.

Any cards that refer to you controlling your commander (such as Fierce Guardianship) will trigger if either of the two commanders is in play. However, anything that refers to a "target commander" you'd have to choose between the two for if you controlled them both at the time.

Planechase

Planeschase is a Commander variant that fits perfectly in the Doctor Who universe. Players use a "Planar deck" alongside their regular decks. This Planar which consists of 10 "Plane cards," each representing a unique plane within the Multiverse. Players can initiate "planar leaps" by rolling a special Planar die, which leads to a new plane and activates its unique abilities.

These effects of the active plane stay active until another one replaces it. They can significantly impact the game, from changing the rules to offering powerful Chaos abilities when specific symbols are rolled. The unpredictability and adaptability of Planechase make it an exciting and chaotic addition to Doctor Who and perfectly encompasses using the TARDIS.

Conclusion

The brains over at WOTC put a lot of time and effort into these cards, and it shows. The mechanics in these precons really bring the world of Doctor Who to life. Time travel, planechase, villainous choice, they're all nice fits for the world and will make for some fun games of Commander.