Magic: The Gathering is going to get timey-wimey later this year, as new details of the Unverses Beyond crossover with Doctor Who are revealed.
Debuting in 1963, Doctor Who is the BBC Network’s longest-running science fiction television show. The protagonist of the series, simply called The Doctor, is a Time Lord renegade, traveling the multiverse in a stolen TARDIS (which due to a malfunction in its Chameleon Circuit, perpetually looks like an old and blue British police box). In his adventures through time and space, The Doctor has made many allies, companions, and enemies.
Doctor Who joins the growing list of pop culture franchises with official crossover card sets for Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering trading card game.
The Doctor Who MTG set was announced on August 18, 2022 during the Magic Presents livestream with the following description:
Magic meets the TARDIS when the Universes Beyond Doctor Who collaboration arrives in 2023. With four Commander decks, special card treatments, Collector Boosters, and a Secret Lair as well, this collaboration has flavor and fun for fans of every Doctor from across 60 years of Doctor Who stories.
On May 5, 2023, more details were provided at the official Magic: The Gathering website. The official set logo for the Doctor Who cards was revealed, along with key art, and set distribution packages. This includes the Commander deck boxes.
#MTGxWHO Important Dates.
For non-Magic fans, these dates are when we next plan to reveal more about the decks and when you can buy them.
July 28, 2023 - First Look from #MCBarcelona
Oct. 3, 2023 - Debut
Oct. 13 - Launch pic.twitter.com/ZxUohWtXVU— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) May 5, 2023
The four Doctor Who-themed Commander decks will be:
- Blast from the Past – A Blue/White/Green deck featuring the most famous version of The Doctor, Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor, along with cards representing the first eight Doctors and their companions.
- Timey-Wimey – A Blue/White/Red deck that centers on the Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh versions of The Doctor.
- Paradox Power – This Blue/Green/Red deck highlights the Twelfth and Thirteenth Doctors.
- Masters of Evil – Not to be outshined, the villains of Doctor Who get their own Blue/Black/Red Commander Deck, which will include the Master, the Daleks, and the Cybermen.
Each Doctor Who MTG Commander Deck will include 1 deck box, 50 cards, 10 Planechase cards, 10 double-sided tokens, and a 20-sided lifetracker.
Plus, for the first time in MTG, there will be Commander Collector Boosters which are separate from the pre-constructed decks and will display alternate art. Wizards of the Coast also announced that there will be a first look of the cards on July 28. However, there are no new details revealed about the Doctor Who-themed Secret Lair cards or if there will be a tie-in with the popular Magic: The Gathering Arena digital version of the game.
Wizards of the Coast and parent company Hasbro have been experiencing a number of controversies this past year, including the unfortunate Pinkerton raid and harassment towards one YouTube MTG fan who accidentally leaked cards from the March of the Machine: The Aftermath expansion. However, this is also one of Magic: The Gathering’s biggest years of gaining mainstream attention, thanks to crossovers with major pop culture franchises. Aside from Doctor Who, 2022 to 2023 Universes Beyond and Universes Within card sets include The Transformers, Warhammer 40K, and The Lord of the Rings.
Preorders for the Magic: The Gathering Doctor Who Commander Decks are available via Amazon or through local game stores. The Doctor Who Universes Beyond set is set to be released on October 13, 2023.
