Summary
If there’s one thing that definesDoctor Whoas a series, just as much if not more so than its titular lead and iconic blue TARDIS, it’s the constant presence of a companion. It’s always a human character, intended as a surrogate for the audience, through which we can vicariously experience the gamut of emotions that traveling in time and space presents.
Naturally, these companions made their way intoMagic: The Gathering’s Universes Beyond: Doctor Who series. Interestingly, they also received their own mechanic, which lets them partner up with any Doctor card to create a dynamic commander duo. There are countless combinations to choose from, but these are the ones that will serve you the best.
10The First Doctor And Susan Foreman
Take A Wholesome Family Trip Through Time
Beginning at the beginning, The First Doctor and his granddaughter Susan make for one of the best—and most unique—pairings the system has to offer. The First Doctor can search up the TARDIS, which you’re able to then make excellent use of thanks to both his and Susan’s abilities.
The First Doctor himself lets you buff up either one of your commanders or your TARDIS each time it cascades after attacking. Susan gives you greater control overthe planeswalking aspectof the effect, letting you avoid an unwanted crash landing. Together, they turn every attack step into a new adventure, and quite right, too.
9The Third Doctor And Sarah Jane Smith
This Just In: A Massive Trampler, Heading Your Way
The Doctor isn’t generally well-known for his combat prowess, quite the opposite, in fact, but his Third incarnation was an exception to this rule. This is reflected beautifully in his Magic form, which packs trample and the ability to scale up to huge proportions to make good use of it.
His power and toughness scale dynamically with the number of noncreature tokens you control, which can be bolstered by his own ability and that of Sarah Jane Smith. Her ability to investigate every turn gives you the option to draw your way out of dead zones later on or buff The Third Doctor’s stats.
8The Fourth Doctor And Nyssa Of Traken
Convert Food Into Disruption And Advantage
The Fourth Doctor is up to his usual jelly baby-proffering tricks in this series, creating Food tokens each time you play historic cards from the top of your deck with his ability. These tokens have a multitude of uses, but one of the best is to act as sacrifice fodder for the brilliant Nyssa of Traken.
For each artifact you sacrifice when she attacks, Nyssa lets you tap down a creature and draw a card. This allows you to play an unusually aggressive strategy for a blue/green deck, safe in the knowledge that you have a reliable engine for pushing through enemy lines and replenishing your resources across your two commanders.
7The Fifth Doctor And Adric, Mathematical Genius
Give Peace A Chance
Pacifism is one of the core tenets of The Doctor’s character in all of their incarnations, and none of his cardboard regenerations encapsulate this better than The Fifth Doctor. Each turn, he rewards each of your non-combative creatures with a +1/+1 counter and a free untap.
This plays very nicely with creatures with activated abilities, particularly Adric, Mathematical Genius. Adric can use his own ability to copy The Fifth Doctor’s ability while it’s on the stack and can do so as long as you havemana to fund itdue to the untap clause.
6The Sixth Doctor And Peri Brown
A Duo That Will Go Down In History
Historic is one of the easier Magic keywords to overlook since it covers a range of card types that can be tricky to remember, but in Commander, it encapsulates a huge percentage of the played cards in the format. This makes The Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown, a duo specializing in historic spells, very potent indeed.
With both in play, you can cast one historic spell a turn with convoke, then copy it for free. This can result in some huge tempo swings when combined withbig legendary creaturesor artifacts. It even works on your opponent’s turns, allowing for some surprise blowout casting.
5The Seventh Doctor And Ace, Fearless Rebel
A Heady Mix Of Chaos And Carnage
The Seventh Doctor’s quirky, volatile nature comes across perfectly in his ability, which lets you play mind games with an opponent with a free spell on the line. While this is a fairly inconsistent ability, the fact that you receive a Clue as a consolation prize if your opponent wins the game creates a powerful synergy with Ace.
You can sacrifice The Seventh Doctor’s Clues to Ace’s own ability, resulting in a nice buff and a free fight with a smaller utility creature you can’t quite get at. This combination lets you control the board and constantly scale up your own threats.
4The Tenth Doctor And Rose Tyler
In an interesting mechanical twist, The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler encourage you to keep your cards suspended. Instead, you should keep building up time counters on them rather than actually letting them resolve. This may seem counterintuitive, but there are sizable rewards in store if you pursue this game plan.
Chief among these is an absolutely monstrous creature for two mana in Rose herself, properly reflecting her incredible power during her Bad Wolf state in The Parting of the Ways. Both of The Tenth Doctor’s abilities support her incredibly well by suspending more cards and stacking up more time counters on Rose to boost her further.
3The Eleventh Doctor And Amy Pond
The Suspense Is Killing Us
The Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond are perhaps the most synergistic Doctor/Companion duo in the whole series. Together, they can sneak through for combat damage every turn before cheating out big cards from your handby suspending themand then whittling down their time counters.
This flexible combo works well in any deck, particularly with an aggressive bent, since anything that costs two or less mana can be cast immediately via their two abilities. The fact that Amy lets you grab Rory, an aggressive two-mana creature when cast, only bolsters this strategy further.
2The Twelfth Doctor And Bill Potts
Run Your Spells Through A Xerox Machine
The Twelfth Doctor and Bill Potts both help you copy, then benefit from copying, your spells. The Twelfth Doctor himself leads the charge here, letting you demonstrate the first spell you cast via suspend, unearth, rebound, etc. each turn, then gaining a counter from the copy.
Bill, on the other hand, rewards you for targeting her with combat tricks by copying them if they only target her. Copying spells this way will put more counters on The Twelfth Doctor and allow you to target him with whatever buff spells you were aiming at Bill, which he’ll be able to use to great effect.
1The Thirteenth Doctor And Ryan Sinclair
Scale Up And Stay Vigilant
The Thirteenth Doctor is a commander that can easily create apowerful combo enginewith its untap effect, and Ryan Sinclair can help jump-start that engine by letting you cast a card from exile when attacking, thus triggering The Thirteenth Doctor’s counter-placing effect.
You need look no further than Prophet of Kruphix, which is banned in Commander to this day, to see how powerful untapping your board additional times can be. This dynamic duo does just that, letting you win the game in whatever zany way you choose.
