As I mentioned last week, my knowledge of the Doctor Who TV series is pretty shallow; my partner Wendy is a fan of the show and has had me watch maybe ten episodes, which I certainly enjoyed, and it gave me a feel for the flavor behind the card mechanics of many of the Doctor Who Commander cards and The Doctors in particular.
Because I don’t have a particular Doctor that’s my favorite from the series, instead I’ll rank them from my least to most favorite in terms of the gameplay each promises. I’ve got all thirteen primary Doctors plus The Fugitive Doctor and The War Doctor on the list.
Note that these are my subjective opinions, given the style of Commander decks and games I prefer to play. I like interactive games where everyone gets a chance to “do the thing” before the game winds down with a victor, preferably after Turn 10 or so. I’m not looking for which Doctor does the most busted thing possible; in fact, if a Doctor does suggest some gross infinite combo, that will likely push it further down my list. But Commander is a hugely popular format with players who enjoy all sorts of gameplay, so I fully expect your opinions will vary from mine.
I’m also including the popularity ranking of each Doctor on EDHREC as a comparison. Let’s jump in!
15. The Thirteenth Doctor
The Thirteenth Doctor ranks #6 on EDHREC, but I’ve got it at the bottom of my list because the mechanics are two of my least favorite in Magic. There are so many +1/+1 counter synergies these days that it’s incredibly easy to make an oppressively powerful deck with that strategy, and I personally don’t like the mental energy required to keep track of all the various triggers those strategies accumulate on the battlefield. Plus, I’m also not a big fan of “playing cards from exile” cards that Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has been pushing lately, at least not in Commander.
I expect that, most of the time, The Thirteenth Doctor will pick a Doctor’s companion with red in the color identity to unlock the various red “draw into exile” cards like Reckless Impulse. Yasmin Khan seems like the perfect choice.
14. The Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor ranks #15 on EDHREC, so I’m apparently aligned with the general feeling on this card. I can imagine the knobs on this card had to be adjusted quite a bit to keep it from being absolutely busted, and it ended up being mostly safe but also quite weak. Self-milling strategies aren’t something I’m overly excited about, but I acknowledge that the ability is on the card so that you have a chance to mill over a historic permanent you can play even if your graveyard has been nuked.
I imagine you’d want to pair this with a green Doctor’s companion so that you’d have access to mana ramp to cast your six-mana commander, in addition to a bunch of historic good-stuff cards you can recast for value. In particular, you might want to run a fair number of Sagas, which count as historic permanents; they naturally put themselves in the graveyard and typically have some sweet effects for a Commander game. Elspeth Conquers Death, The Mirari Conjecture, and War of the Last Alliance come to mind.
13. The Seventh Doctor
The Seventh Doctor is #11 on EDHREC, and I have to admit I’ve ranked this pretty low myself because I worry that my opponents will constantly beat me at The Doctor’s guessing game, and I’ll get frustrated. I know you can just build the deck as an “artifacts matter” synergy deck, so even when you “lose” you’ll still win with a new Clue token. Cards like Academy Manufactor, Tamiyo’s Journal, and Five Hundred Year Diary seem like good cards to include that specifically care about Clue tokens.
12. The Eleventh Doctor
The Eleventh Doctor is #8 on EDHREC, but I definitely can see some fun ahead in decks built around suspend cards, especially using cards with the time travel mechanic from the Doctor Who Commander decks like Time Beetle and All of History, All at Once. I appreciate the trigger is connected to dealing combat damage to a player, and it has built-in evasion with its activated ability. Keep an eye out for the keyword paradox that appreciates you casting cards from zones other than your hand, such as with suspend.
What makes for an interesting deckbuilding challenge is that most cards that actually have suspend have a pretty high mana cost, so you’ll not want to exile those with The Eleventh Doctor’s triggered ability. One card that stands out an exception to that is Aeon Chronicler, which will get five time counters and feed you a free card each time a counter is removed.
11. The Fourth Doctor
The Fourth Doctor is #7 on EDHREC, and I like it better as a “historic matters” commander than The Eighth Doctor. Blue and green have a lot of ways to manipulate the top of your deck with cards like Sylvan Library, Brainstorm, Augur of Autumn, and Ponder. Fetchlands like Misty Rainforest are great ways to reset the top of your library to get a fresh look with The Fourth Doctor, but I’d also recommend trying out cards like Bant Panorama and Shire Terrace which enter the battlefield untapped and tap for colorless mana in the early-game, and then you can “cash in” for a basic land and shuffle your library later when you need it.
If you pick Clara Oswald as your Doctor’s companion, you can add black to your color identity and run some sweet Food synergies, including historic ones like Gyome, Master Chef; Greta, Sweettooth Scourge; and Pippin, Warden of Isengard.
10. The Second Doctor
The Second Doctor is #13 on EDHREC, so I seem to like it a little better than most. If you like “group hug” strategies, this Doctor makes a solid choice. Magic players love few things better than drawing an extra card, especially when it doesn’t cost them a resource, so I expect you’ll find yourself safe from attacks from at least one opponent each turn.
I can see having cards in your deck that tap potential attackers, like Icy Manipulator and Opposition, so if an opponent doesn’t draw a card from your commander’s ability, you know you can keep your tap-down effects ready for potential attackers from their side of the battlefield.
Leela, Sevateem Warrior seems like a good Doctor’s companion that will grow each time an opponent decides to draw an extra card from your commander.
9. The War Doctor
The War Doctor is the #2 Doctor on EDHREC, and it very much feels like a Boros aggressive commander. This card seems bonkers with the cascade mechanic; each card you exile from the top of your library while looking for a nonland card to cast with cascade will add a time counter to The War Doctor.
Imagine giving your Sol Ring cascade with TARDIS and not having a nonland permanent for zero mana in your deck! You’d give The War Doctor time counters equal to the size of your deck, which should make The War Doctor capable of killing a player each time it attacks. Seems awesome, right? Yeah, but it also seems really easy to make an oppressively powerful Commander deck around The War Doctor, which is why I personally have this much lower on my picks than the EDHREC crowd.
8. The Fifth Doctor
EDHREC has The Fifth Doctor at #10, and I think it’s a very interesting card to build around. If you want to make a “creatures with tap abilities” deck, this seems like an excellent choice as a commander. Have you ever wanted to have an army of pingers like Prodigal Sorcerer? Here’s your chance! Other creatures that could be useful here are Crashing Drawbridge to give your newly cast tapping creatures haste; Mikaeus, the Lunarch to grow your team even faster; Jace’s Archivist to draw new cards; and Hangarback Walker, which can quickly grow and eventually produce a ton of Thopters when it dies.
Susan Foreman makes an excellent Doctor’s companion, coming down on Turn 2, and if your mana works out, you can cast The Fifth Doctor on Turn 3. This unlocks green and access to cool tap abilities like Kiora’s Follower, Ulvenwald Tracker, and Selvala, Explorer Returned.
7. The Tenth Doctor
EDHREC has The Tenth Doctor at #1, which may be in part because David Tennant’s Doctor is one of the most popular of the series. The abilities are quite appealing, and I especially like that the first one is tied to combat but doesn’t need to deal combat damage to an opponent to get the benefit. In this case, it can work well to put other suspend cards in the 99, like Inspiring Refrain and Rousing Refrain. If your Doctor’s companion has white in the color identity, you could tap into cards like Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, Atraxi Warden and Judoon Enforcers.
The Timey-Wimey ability is expensive but powerful: time travel three times is huge when you have multiple suspend cards or other cards that care about time counters. I’d definitely want to make use of red’s temporary mana rush from cards like Jeska’s Will, Mana Geyser, Irencrag Feat, and Seething Song to activate that ability ahead of time.
6. The Sixth Doctor
The Sixth Doctor is #3 on EDHREC and for good reason—its effect is quite powerful. At six mana it’s expensive, but with green in its color identity and the mana ramp available, that shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve got this lower on my personal list because I feel like it’s another Simic legendary creature with a powerful ability tied to game actions that you already want to do, and that just feels too easy and less interesting than other options. The only restriction is that you’ll want to fill your deck with historic spells that you’d like to copy, and since even legendary spells can be copied, in reality there’s little restriction here.
Of course, it’s so wide open you could lean towards a particular type of historic spells; there are endless types of artifact decks, or maybe you want to be a three-color Saga deck rather than full-blown five colors like Tom Bombadil, or maybe you could have a pile of powerful legends. Imagine casting Sakashima of a Thousand Faces copying The Sixth Doctor! Or getting an extra copy of Koma, Cosmos Serpent? Add white with a Doctor’s companion and slot Gandalf the White in the deck!
5. The Ninth Doctor
I see that the folks who populate the EDHREC deck database and I both have The Ninth Doctor at #5, and that’s because the card is so cool – it’s a Paradox Haze for yourself that sits in the command zone! After I pick my Doctor’s companion, the second card I slide into the deck will be Sphinx of the Second Sun to get more upkeep triggers. Of course, we’ll need to ensure The Ninth Doctor untaps during your untap step outside of attacking, and Vehicles are perfect for this—so the next card to add will be the TARDIS. Relic of Legends is another good one.
From there, simply look in your favorite card database for cards with “at the beginning of your upkeep” and fill out the deck with your favorite effects! There’s Midnight Clock, Thopter Spy Network, Court of Ire, and (if you’re a maniac) Descent into Avernus.
Clara Oswald seems like a good companion here, since she can double the Doctor’s trigger.
4. The Fugitive Doctor
EDHREC has The Fugitive Doctor way down at #12, and there’s no doubt she’s a bit less powerful than some of the others. Me, I’ve been very partial to a lot of Gruul legendary designs in recent years, and this one gives me completely different vibes fromother Gruul options, which is awesome! Martha Jones seems like the perfect Doctor’s companion, unlocking blue cards you’re probably going to want to run like Duggan, Private Detective; Lonis, Cryptozoologist; and Erdwal Illuminator.
But let’s not overlook the potential for cheating expensive instant or sorcery spells from the graveyard if you’ve got ways to put them there so that they can gain flashback for just four mana. Cards with cycling seem great here, like Lórien Revealed, Treacherous Terrain, Boon of the Wish-Giver, or Decree of Savagery. Or you could use cards like Merfolk Looter and pitch big, splashy spells into the graveyard you can flash back for cheap, like Ezuri’s Predation, Clone Legion, or Insurrection!
3. The Twelfth Doctor
EDHREC has The Twelfth Doctor #4, so we’re pretty much aligned here loving this card for a commander. It’s quite flexible in what you can do with it, from busted things like Pact of the Titan to silly fun like Guff Rewrites History or Creative Technique. Twinning Staff is a slam-dunk inclusion, and I might even run Chaos Wand just to see what happens!
Cascade seems like the perfect approach to populate a Commander deck built around The Twelfth Doctor, and Throes of Chaos seems like the perfect cascade card, along with Aurora Phoenix, Etherium-Horn Sorcerer, and Flamekin Herald. You can also use cards that let you cast from the top of your library, like Magus of the Future and Melek, Izzet Paragon.
2. The Third Doctor
The Third Doctor shows up as #9 on EDHREC, but to me this seems like a very cool and much more interesting build-around than most Simic legends. Sure, token strategies are a dime a dozen, but what I love about The Third Doctor is how big you can grow him, and with the trample ability, you can smash through defenses. I personally like the idea of pairing up with Sarah Jane Smith and leaning into Clue tokens, since you can generate them to grow the Doctor large, and then post-combat you can sacrifice one or two to draw some more action. Cards like Five Hundred Year Diary, Tireless Tracker, and Ethereal Investigator work great here.
Since the Doctor is inherently large depending on the token count, you can even do things like blinking him to get his enters-the-battlefield trigger again and have him stand at the ready for blocking duty if need be. Have you been looking for a home for your Displacer Kitten? You know The Third Doctor probably loves Cats! [Copy Editor’s Note: That’s more of a Sixth Doctor thing.]
1. The First Doctor
The folks at EDHREC have The First Doctor way down at #14, but one thing makes it #1 in my book – it searches up your TARDIS when it enters the battlefield and can even rescue it from the graveyard if it has been destroyed. So not only do you have a Doctor and the Doctor’s companion in the command zone, but you’ve also got a virtual third card you can count on, the iconic TARDIS! So yeah, The First Doctor is going to be a cascade deck, and if you like Planechase cards, you can planeswalk too!
The First Doctor’s ability to add +1/+1 counters is likely to mostly be used on creatures, but it’s nifty to think about putting it on Vehicles – like the TARDIS! – and you can also put it on Mirage Mirror for future copying! Overall, it just feels to me like The First Doctor exemplifies the flavor of Doctor Who, and that’s as it should be, you know?
Which is your favorite Doctor from Doctor Who Commander? Are your rankings similar to mine or way different?
Talk to Me
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And lastly, I just want to say: let us love each other and stay healthy and happy.
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