Diving into the World of Doctor Who with Nathan Jones
Hey PlayEDH readers! You might remember that time that PlayEDH sent me to MagicCon Las Vegas. I’m back again with an article about a topic that I’m really passionate about: the ludonarrative design of some of the cards from the Doctor Who Commander decks.
Author’s note: If you’re wondering why I’m here, it’s because this is a picture of me dressed as the Doctor with K9 over a decade ago when I was in my early 20s.
I hope that hearing about some of these characters and episodes will inspire you to check out the show. I hate talking about myself, so let’s get right into it!
Oh, and it goes without saying…
Blink (Series 3, Episode 10)
For me to explain this episode, you’re going to have to understand the story that these cards are trying to tell. This is the episode that features the Aliens known as The Weeping Angels, a fan favorite. The Weeping Angels have one of the best natural defense mechanisms in the universe. If someone can see them, they go into stasis and become like statues. This can also be a weakness because they can’t do anything if someone’s looking at them, but they have flash and first strike because they’re able to move extremely fast if no one’s looking. Faster than you can blink.
The reason why Weeping Angel doesn’t deal combat damage and shuffles the creature into the library is because they don’t actually kill anyone. The Weeping Angels are known as the kindest sociopaths in the galaxy because they send you back in time and let you live to death. They do this so that they can feed on the psychic energy that’s left behind by the life that you never had in the present. The reason why they don’t fly is because they’re not actually Angels, even though the Secret Lair was a fun reskin.
Don’t Blink is the card that actually shows the Weeping Angels sending someone back in time. The name of this card actually became a meme among Doctor Who fans and you’ll see them lock eyes with statues in real life and whisper this phrase. This card is genius and it’s also really funny that it’s named this way and dunks on blink decks extremely hard. Whoever made this really went hard on the design.
Blink is the Saga that explains the premise of the episode. I didn’t notice it at first, but the chapters aren’t in order. This is because the narrative of the episode involves time travel and the plot doesn’t happen in order. You could be talking to somebody and they get touched by one of these Angels and they get sent back in time, so this is essentially the last day of their life in the present.
The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones are investigating a disappearance when they get sent back in time, but they’re able to leave behind hints with the help that they received from the present. The chapters repeat because the narrative goes back and forth between the past and the present multiple times and people are sent back to the past multiple times throughout the course of the episode.
The reason why the chapters are set up as they are is explained by the Doctor in the flavor text for Wibbly-wobbly, Timey-wimey. I don’t want to get too deep into this one, but it basically means that time doesn’t have to exist in a straight line, especially when it’s being manipulated by Time Lords and Weeping Angels. This is also one of the most iconic lines of the modern era of Doctor Who.
Sally Sparrow ends up in the middle of these disappearances and she actually winds up giving the Doctor the information that she’s collected—partially from him that he left in easter eggs on video tapes—about what’s happening before he gets sent back in time, but it happens at the end of the episode because the events in the episode are chopped up and out of order because of the Angels sending people back in time. As far as storytelling goes, this card @#$%ing slaps.
The Doctor Dances (Series 1, Episode 10)
The Ninth Doctor is his first regeneration after the Time War and he still has a lot of leftover trauma from the events that took place. In order to save the galaxy, he committed mass genocide of his own people and then he kinda just wanted to disappear after that. He didn’t like his new form, which comes up a lot. The reason that this episode is so important to his story with his companion Rose Tyler is because he needed a W so hard since he was just so completely exhausted by the way that things went for him up until now.
Author’s note: The Ninth Doctor also seems really @#$%ing stupid with Descent into Avernus lmao.
A Nanogene technology was released during World War II when a space ambulance crash landed right in the middle of the Blitz. It wound up killing a young boy and it tried to fix him, but it didn’t understand Humans and it ended up turning everyone that it came into contact with into versions of the kid all wearing gas masks because it thought that’s what Humans were supposed to be. This is why Nanogene Conversion turns every creature into copies of the same creature. That’s every creature, including creatures that you don’t control. Do with that information what you will.
The Doctor and Rose were able to undo the effects of the Nanogene Conversion, which is exactly the type of win that the Doctor needed since he was still carrying all of that trauma from the Time War. The fact that he was able to save everyone moved him to give that impassioned speech that you can see in the flavor text. Everybody Lives!, but nobody can win the game this turn.
The Eleventh Hour (Series 5, Episode 1)
Author’s note: This one is for me and I refuse to be normal about it.
Okay, so The Eleventh Hour is the Saga that tells the story of the first episode featuring the Eleventh Doctor. It’s one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who and it’s the beginning of my favorite Doctor. The reason why you search your library for a Doctor card is because he regenerates and crash lands in Amelia Pond’s garden when she’s still a child. She’s fascinated by his strange behavior and will remember him forever…but we’ll talk about that soon.
Amelia Pond is the the Human Token that makes Doctor spells cheaper to cast. The Doctor asks her to make him some food because he’s been through a lot, but he hates everything that he asks for because he has a new mouth with new rules. In the end, the only thing that he does enjoy is the strange combination of fish fingers and custard, which you can see on the Food Token.
An Alien called Prisoner Zero has escaped from a Crack in Time in Amelia Pond’s bedroom wall. It has the ability to mimic any living thing that it comes in contact with, which is why it can copy a creature in the third chapter of the Saga. If you look at the art, you can also see that it’s being hunted by an Atraxi Warden.
The Atraxi are a species of Aliens that are like space cops, which leads to the iconic scene when the Eleventh Doctor helps them capture Prisoner Zero and then gives them a simple set of instructions to escape from his anger: Basically…run. This sets the tone for this Doctor’s run. He knows who he is, a real cocky son-of-a-@#$%^ with anger issues that all stem from the fact that the Tenth Doctor was a good boy who died way too soon.
The Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond, and Rory Williams
Author’s note: Before we continue, watch this video. It has nothing to do with the mechanics. I just love it and you will watch it. 👀
Remember Amelia Pond? Amy Pond is her all grown up as one of the Doctor’s companions. When you play her and The Eleventh Doctor as your commanders, you can also use her to find her soulmate Rory Williams in your deck.
This is basically like having three commanders! It’s @#$%ing genius. Amy is a completely unique card. You could run her and Rory as your commanders or you could run her and the Doctor as your commanders and put Rory in your deck. I don’t want to spoil too much, but their love has taken them across time and they’ll always wait for each other.
Mechanically, Rory Williams represents the guardian of The Pandorica. In an episode called The Pandorica Opens, Amy gets injured and they put her inside of the Pandorica in order to put her in stasis—phasing her out in Magic rules—so they can save her and Rory stands guard over it. The Pandorica was originally supposed to be a time prison that could house the Doctor. The Pandorica can only hold one person at a time, which is why it doesn’t untap until you’re ready to release whatever’s been phased out.
This version of Rory is actually an Auton Soldier, but his love for Amy is real and he was willing to guard her for thousands of years. You’ll have to roll with me here and you should probably watch the episode to really get it. It’s more timey-wimey bull@#$%.
River Song
Author’s note: Screaming and crying noises.
River Song’s first appearance is in an episode called Silence in the Library, alongside the Tenth Doctor. You should definitely watch this one. She actually dies in this episode—and I can’t stress how weird this was at the time for a lot of reasons including her allusions to knowing a different version of the Doctor, but she goes on to be one of the most important characters to the Eleventh Doctor. She’s a big-time fan favorite.
River Song travels through time in the opposite direction from the Doctor, which is why she has you draw cards from the bottom of your library. Again, timey-wimey stuff. River Song’s Diary is what she uses to keep track of where her and the Doctor are in each other’s timelines. She doesn’t like to give out spoilers, which is why she deals damage to opponents who scry or tutor to get information about their decks out of order.
If you thought it was a bit weird that Amy was so interested in the Doctor, it gets weirder when you realize that River Song is actually the Doctor’s wife and Amy and Rory’s daughter. She was conceived on the TARDIS, which is why she has so much weird timey-wimey stuff going on. The Wedding of River Song represents when her and the Doctor tie the knot on Trenzalore and, frankly, I do not have enough time to cover that in just one article. Some things are also just better experienced for yourself. WATCH IT.
Author’s note: This card was just previewed while I was working on this article. The Renegade Silent is an Alien that people can only remember while they’re looking at it. You should check out the episode called The Impossible Astronaut to learn more about this thing. It’s really weird.
I really want to spend even more time talking about these cards—including the sword-wielding lesbian Lizard lady from the dawn of time that makes food tokens and her maid wife—but I think that we’re running out of time. If you want to hear about more Doctor Who lore or the super cool mechanics involving different game zones on these cards, let the people from PlayEDH know on Twitter. Maybe they’ll let me come back.
I also got some preview cards for this set from Wizards of the Coast. Please check out the video and let me know if you liked it. You can find my content on Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. If you like what you see or you want to sign up for cooking lessons, you can support my content on Patreon. You should also considering throwing some money to PlayEDH on their Patreon so that they can continue to work with people like me in the future. They even offer things like playing on streams with Eliana and other special guests and deck consultations including advice from experienced brewers like Rebell Son.
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