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The rules ofMagic: The Gatheringare pretty straightforward; draw cards into your hand, play cards from your hand, dead cards go to the graveyard. The vast majority of decks abide by these rules. And then Doctor Who comes along and shatters that rule with the Paradox Power commander deck.
In Paradox Power, the goal is to play cards from anywhere other than your hand. The more cards you play from exile, or your graveyard, or your library, or anywhere else, the more you’ll benefit thanks to the Thirteenth and Twelfth Doctors. There are lots of ways to break the rules, so read on to learn how to play a true maverick of a deck.
Wreck and Rebuild
Truth or Consequences
Bigger on the Inside
Fugitive of the Judoon
The Drum, Mining Facility
Paradox Power Commander Deck Key Themes
Paradox Power is doing a lot. First, there’s themain theme defined by the “paradox” keyword, which triggers an effect whenever you play a card from anywhere other than your hand. Cards likeThe ThirteenthandTwelfth Doctors,Graham O’Brien, andFlaming Tyrannosaurusall have powerful effects that you’ll want to maximize.
The problem is that the deck hasa bunch of other themes that are getting in the way. Graham O’Brien makes Food tokens, Dan Lewis, Osgood, Operation Double, and Strax, Sonataran Nurse all like artifacts, and Bill Potts wants you to play as many instants or sorceries that specifically target Bill Potts.
You also have amind-boggling number of potential commander/companion combinations. The standard combo isThe Thirteenth DoctorandYasmin Khan. Number 13 is the paradox source and an escalating threat, while Yasmin consistently triggers that paradox effect. It’s simple and gets all three of the Naya colors of red, white, and green.
Or you could go withThe Twelfth DoctorandGraham O’Brien. This combination is less effective as Graham doesn’t contribute much to number 12’s success, but The Twelfth Doctor is a great card with a paradox effect that plays politics in multiplayer Commander games and a built-in synergy every time he copies a spell. He’d be better in a deck that focuses on both paradox triggers and copying spells, however, making him a less effective combination than Yasmin and 13.
Then there’sThe Fugitive DoctorandNardole, Resourceful Cyborgas a potential combo, but these two have the least amount of synergy with the other cards in the deck. You could also just forgo the Doctor/Companion dynamic and playMe, the Immortal, but Me is relatively disappointing for having a steep cost to playing itself from the graveyard.
There are a ton of other combinations, like 13 and Ryan Sinclair or Bill Potts, but they’re frankly all less synergistic thanThe Thirteenth DoctorandYasmin Khan, sostick with these two.
There are10 Plane cardsin the deck, something that isn’t too common in casual Commander games. Be sure toask your group if Planes are allowed, and if not, consider replacing TARDIS and Start the TARDIS as they’ll have less of an effect without any Planes to jump to.
Paradox Power Commander Deck Analysis
While many of Wizards' more recent Commander Decks offer a focused strategy, Paradox Power seems like a return to the older style of pre-con Commander decks that attempt to do a bunch of different things without being able to do any of them particularly well.There are too many cards that care about Clues and Food and Treasures without actually enabling their usefor Paradox Power to be effective.
The plan is tofocus on the paradox ability. Unfortunately, there aren’t quite enough potential triggers of paradox to make this strategy effective. Besides Yasmin, which admittedly offers a reliable way to trigger paradox every turn, there are just 21 other ways to trigger paradox, and most of those aren’t repeatable. That means an average of one every five cards helps the strategy, which is far too few.
Cards withflashback,foretell, andcascadeareall great ways to trigger paradox.
Take out the cards that don’t fit the strategy and replace them with cards that do. Also, Paradox Power has asevere lack of board-sweepers, which will be corrected when we get to the next section.
Carpet of Flowers
There are a lot of cards in Paradox Power that simply don’t fit the theme.Dan Lewis,Bill Potts,Jenny Flint,Madame Vastra,Strax,The Fugitive Doctor,Graham O’Brien, andOsgood, Operation Doubleare all fine cards on their own, but theyreally need decks focused on their abilitiesto shine.
Other cards being cut just have no synergy whatsoever.River Songis fun, but nothing she does will help trigger paradox. Ditto withFugitive of Judoon, which is a very expensive card that ultimately just tutors a doctor.Psychic Papersis just plain bad and should be replaced by a pair of boots, andBecome the Pilotcould be replaced by better removal overall.
Truth or Consequencesis a lot of fun, but it sadly just doesn’t help the deck in any way. AndCarpet of Flowersis a potent card, but it occasionally misses depending on your opponents. Sell it to help purchase some of the cards discussed in the next section.
Paradox Power Commander Deck Budget Upgrades
We’ve taken a Sonic Screwdriver to Paradox Power by removing 17 cards. The 17 cards we replace them with willfocus the deck toward paradox triggersand add more flexibility to reset the board when things aren’t looking good for our heroes.
Reason
Battle Mammoth
Battle Mammoth has three benefits. First, it’sa big efficient threat. Second, ithelps draw cards. Third, it has foretell, whichhelps trigger paradox. Bring on the angry Elephant.
Blasphemous Act
First of our board sweepers,Blasphemous Act is a great way to clear the boardof anything that can’t take a significant amount of damage. Against a token swarm, it’s essentially one red mana to sweep the board clean.
Chain Reaction
Chain Reaction isn’t quite as good as Blasphemous Act, but it’s still a very good red spell thatmore often than not gets rid of a stale or losing board stateand replaces it with a crater that you can build from.
Etali, Primal Storm
Etali is fantastic on its own, buta repeatable source of paradox triggersattached to a big scary Dinosaur just cannot be ignored.
Evacuation
Our blue board sweeperhits even indestructible, warded, or protected creatures, and so is an auto-add for our Paradox Power deck.
Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald
The way Faldorn creates 2/2 Wolf tokens isn’t quite the same as a paradox effect, but it’s close enough. Plus,she can trigger paradox repeatedlymerely by discarding a card.
Flux Channeler
The Thirteenth Doctor will eventuallycreate a lot of +1/+1 tokens, and Flux Channeler is a great way tomake a lot more. It turns a slightly worrying escalation into a very worrying escalation that could potentially upend games.
Galvanic Iteration
This would work even better with The Twelfth Doctor, but there are enough spells and instants in this deck that Galvanic Iteration can see use. Itsflashback ability will also ensure a paradoxtrigger or two.
Green Slime
Foretelltriggers paradox, and the Slime willshut down an artifact or enchantment. A great way to add an instant-speed answer.
Laelia, the Blade Reforged
Just like Etali, Laeliahelps trigger paradoxevery time she attacks, but unlike Etali, she’san escalating threatas she gets a +1/+1 counter every time she exiles a card. Another perfect fit for Paradox Power.
Incubation Druid
With the Thirteenth Doctor, Incubation Druid willoften turn into a three-mana source without having to pay the adapt cost. Plus, Paradox Power could use a little bit more mana after taking out Carpet of Flowers.
Maelstrom Wanderer
Maelstrom Wanderer isa great way to set up some big, splashy plays. It can cascade into any card in the deck, and it triggers paradox twice in row. Throw in all creatures gaining haste, and Mr. Maelstrom can be a potential win condition.
Mass Diminish
Mass Diminish is a great way toget rid of an army for a turn, or outright kill it with the help of Chain Reaction or Blasphemous Act. If you’re lucky, you might even kill your opponents' creatures while leaving yours relatively unscathed. Either way, theflashback helps trigger paradox.
Ravenform
Ravenform is already agreat removal spellfor blue, butflashbackalso makes it a greatparadox trigger.
Saw It Coming
It’s acounterspell, and it hasforetell to trigger paradox. An easy add.
Swiftfoot Boots
Psychic Paper really wanted to be Swiftfoot Boots,a staple of Commander decksthat can’t afford Lightning Greaves. So here it is.
Thrummingbird
Like Flux Channeler, Thrummingbird offers a way ofdoubling tokensfor very little. It also offers an early-game play that becomes a problem later.
Other Budget Upgrades To Consider
Paradox Power could use a little ramp to get into a solid mana position.Felwar StoneandSakura Tribe Elderare good choices here.
Beast Within is good, but if you find your playgroup is fairly creature-heavy,PongifyandRapid Hybridizationare better.
And if you find your opponents are big on artifacts,Ancient Grudgeoffers an instant-speed answer along with flashback to help trigger paradox.
