Here’s Five New Cards From Magic: The Gathering’s Doctor Who Crossover

Magic: The Gathering’s next major collaboration is coming soon, as the Doctor Who Commander Decks are set to launch October 13. Three of the decks will feature the 13 different Time Lords throughout the show’s history, while a fourth will focus solely on the villains, including Davros Of The Daleks, Missy, and The Valeyard.

We have five exclusive card reveals which showcase a variety of cards coming to the commander decks, which range from a pivotal moment in the history of River Song to one of the franchise’s most popular companions.

First up, here’s All Of History, All At Once:

• All Of History, All At Once (Sorcery)
  • Costs two generic and two blue mana to cast
  • Ability 1: Time Travel (For each suspended card you own and each permanent you control with a time counter on it, you may add or remove a time counter.)
  • Ability 2: Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn.)

This card technically only has three words of text–the rest explains the two mechanics this card uses–but the two keywords together could make a powerful pair. First is Time Travel, a new mechanic introduced in this Doctor Who set, which lets you add or remove a time counter to any cards you control currently using them–whether they’re in play or suspended in exile waiting to be played when the counters are gone.

The other keyword is Storm, which is one of most notorious in MTG history. Storm allows the player casting a spell with the keyword to immediately copy it once for each spell they’ve already cast this turn. For instance, if this card is the third spell cast in a turn, its controller will be able to add or remove three time counters from cards they control.

The ability to remove all time counters from Ancestral Vision or Lotus Bloom–or add more to As Foretold–with one card will be a hard move to counter, even if it requires a few spells to be cast beforehand. The combo potential is massive, which makes this an interesting card right from the jump.

Next, take a look at Regenerations Restored:

• Regenerations Restored (Enchantment)
  • Costs one white mana and one blue mana to cast
  • Ability 1: Vanishing 12 (This enchantment enters the battlefield with 12 time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from it. When the last is removed, sacrifice it.)
  • Ability 2: Whenever one or more time counters are removed from Regenerations Restored, scry 1 and you gain 1 life. Then if Regenerations Restored has no time counters on it, exile it. When you do, take an extra turn after this one.

Regenerations Restored takes a while to pay off–12 turns, to be exact–but the fact it lets you scry one–a keyword meaning you can peek at the top card of your deck–and gains you one life for each one of those 12 turns is a nice reward for your patience. However, combine it with the previously revealed card, and you’ll be getting that extra turn much sooner–and all of that life gain to boot–in spellslinger decks with high storm counts.

Our third preview card is one of the Eleventh Doctor’s most trusted companions: Rory Williams

• Rory Williams (Legendary Creature – Human Soldier)
  • Costs one white mana and one blue mana to cast
  • 3 power/3 toughness
  • Ability 1: Partner with Amy Pond
  • Ability 2: First strike, lifelink
  • Ability 3: The Last Centurion: When you cast this spell from anywhere other than exile, exile it with three time counters on it. It gains suspend. Then, investigate.

Rory Williams is a powerful creature, as his three power and toughness for only two mana is a solid rate on its own without adding first strike–which lets him damage any creature who blocks him before taking damage himself)–and lifelink, which gains his controller one life for each point of damage he inflicts.

The only problem with Rory is, as with many cards in this set, you’re going to have to wait for him thanks to the suspend keyword. At least here you get a token which lets you draw a card for two colorless mana, and again the previously revealed All Of History, All At Once can free him from suspension much sooner if need be.

Best of all, that Partner mechanic means if you play Amy Pond, you can immediately search your deck for Rory and put him into your hand. If Amy Pond is in your command zone, you can plan ahead to have both enter play at once–even if Rory then blinks away for a bit.

Here’s card number four, The Pandorica:

• The Pandorica (Legendary Artifact)
  • Costs two generic and one white mana to cast
  • Ability 1: You may choose not to untap The Pandorica during your untap step.
  • Ability 2 (costs one generic and one white mana): Tap The Pandorica to untap another target nonland permanent, then it phases out. It can’t phase in for as long as The Pandorica remains tapped. When The Pandorica becomes untapped or leaves the battlefield, that permanent phases in. Activate only as a sorcery.

In the Doctor Who saga, the Pandorica is a prison hidden underneath Stonehenge built by a secret alliance of villains in an attempt to ensnare the Doctor permanently. It fails, as most villainous contraptions do, but here in Magic: The Gathering, its card seems much more effective in its lockdown task.

After casting the card, you can pay one generic and one white mana to take one of your opponent’s cards in play, remove it from the game, and keep it out until either The Pandorica is untapped or removed from play itself. However, its controller gets to choose when The Pandorica is untapped, as they do not have to untap it during the designated step each turn.

This means a player can remove the biggest threat on an opponent’s board at little cost, and keep it removed for potentially the rest of the game. The ability to remove threats in a game of Magic is always appreciated, but being able to permanently keep it out of play with one card is a particularly dangerous effect.

The final card of this preview is The Wedding Of River Song:

• The Wedding Of River Song (Sorcery)
  • Costs two generic and one white mana to cast
  • Ability 1: Draw two cards, then you may exile a nonland card from your hand with a number of time counters on it equal to its mana value. Then, target opponent does the same. Cards exiled this way that don’t have suspend gain suspend.
  • Ability 2: Time Travel (For each suspended card you own and each permanent you control with a time counter on it, you may add or remove a time counter.)

We’ve spoken a lot about how the suspend mechanic can warp a game should the time limit be circumvented somehow. Removing counters at will should become a powerful part of the format, but The Wedding Of River Song takes things one step further by allowing players to give every card time counters.

Say you draw a Blightsteel Colossus on turn four, but you don’t have anywhere near the mana needed. Send it into exile with The Wedding Of River Song, slap the 12 time counters on it, and then use cards like All Of History, All At Once and other time-travel spells to whittle those counters down and get that massive monster out on the battlefield sooner than you would have.

That’s the last of our preview cards, but we’re not done yet: We also have two Planechase planes from the commander decks to reveal as well. Planechase is a specialized format which adds interdimensional travel to a standard game, as players can activate powers or send things into chaos based on which plane they’re on.

With explanations out of the way, here’s New New York and the Prime Minister’s Cabin Room!

• New New York
  • At the beginning of combat on your turn, until the end of the turn, noncreature artifacts you control become 3/3 Vehicles in addition to their other types and gain flying, haste, and crew 1.
  • Whenever chaos ensues, creature a Treasure token and a 2/2 white Alien creature token.

This plane lets you animate all of your artifacts into damaging creatures for a turn, and when chaos breaks out, it gives every player two tokens, one for mana and one for attacks. Artifact-heavy decks will enjoy playing on this plane, as it gives them even more attacking options during each turn.

• The Prime Minister’s Cabinet Room
  • At the beginning of combat on your turn, up to one target creature you control becomes a copy of one target creature an opponent controls.
  • Will of the Council: Whenever chaos ensues, starting with you, each player votes for a creature you don’t control. Exile each creature with the most votes or tied for most votes.

The Cabinet Room offers two separate, but equally viable, abilities. First, it allows a player to copy a single creature from another opponent’s board, which gives every player access to every other player’s strongest creatures during their turn, which could affect the types of creatures you’ll summon. Then, when chaos ensues, democracy breaks out and players vote for the creature they’d like to see ousted the most. The Cabinet Room is an interesting plane, as it allows for some truly wacky outcomes depending on which creatures are on the board.

The Magic: The Gathering Doctor Who Commander Decks and Collector’s Booster packs will be available at local game stores on October 13, with preorders available now.