The Best Magic Set of 2023 for Commander

Welcome back for another History, Restapled, a Commander-focused column that attempts to validate a newer card’s status as a staple by looking at how cards that are similar, synergistic, or competing have fared in the past financially. 

Last year was a banner one for Commander in every conceivable way, containing goofy and powerful new commanders, minted staples, utility players, and high profile reprints with a meaningful impact on prices. 

Among several all-stars, it was still the Universes Beyond: Doctor Who release that checked all the boxes for me. It showcased the game’s best and most novel aspects while covering new ground in a way that felt authentic to the show. It also introduced some of the best new cards of the year, many of which have become instant format staples even for players with zero interest in Doctor Who. The mechanics, though, are what put it over the top.

New Three-Dimensional Mechanics

My favorite thing about Magic: the Gathering is how the game remains innovative in spite of its 30+ year history iterating on every conceivable new or tweaked mechanic.

One of the most significant advances in this regard was when the design team began iterating on the fact that this is a game played with cardboard rectangles that can be physically manipulated. Not that there wasn’t precedent—Chaos Orb was printed in Alpha Edition—but MDFCs, Morph creatures, and abilities that trigger when other cards change zones “from anywhere” encourage the player to consider not only what the card does but also that it’s an actual object.

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The Doctor Who cards run down many of the game’s most memorable mechanics while introducing and codifying others that encourage interaction with the rectangles themselves. Suspend returns and gains support from Time Travel as a means to advance the game being played with cards not in the game. Paradox feels like the evolutionary peak of the cast-from-exile abilities found on Prosper, Tome-Bound and Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival, but expands its reach to include the graveyard, top of the library, and Manifested cards. 

And, though the action is not officially mechanic-ized, Cyber Conversion and Cybership herald the return of flipping cards upside down. The Doctor Who decks play best in three dimensions.

Classic Mechanics Get a Boost and a Buddy

The returning mechanics mesh well with the Doctor Who universe and are given a chance at new life on powerful cards. Vanishing, a major flavor win for this release, can be manipulated by Time Travel and appears on what is now one of the best clone effects in the format, Flesh Duplicate. Historic permanents increase their relevance thanks to cards like Displaced Dinosaurs and The Sixth Doctor. Cybermen Squadron and The Master, Multiplied push Myriad beyond its limit and encourage nothing if not shenanigans of the highest order. 

While Doctor’s Companion is technically a new mechanic, I’d say it falls pretty dang close to Friends Forever and represents a great middle ground between Choose a Background and straight-up giving these cards Partner. Choose a Background offered players a chance to customize their Command Zone within the Baldur’s Gate universe, but I find most of the Backgrounds unplayable because it’s very easy to render them useless and killing someone’s Commander now represents a two-for-one every time. 

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Doctor’s Companion unlocks deck personalization while placing a few necessary guardrails on what’s possible (Doctor/Doctor might be a bit much). Cheap companions like Sarah Jane Smith, Nardole, Resourceful Cyborg and K-9, Mark I offer a ton of value, perhaps alongside a Doctor with an explosive but less reliable effect. Some, like Clara Oswald, are tied closely to their Doctor pair while others (Dan Lewis) turns kitchenware into blunt weaponry on their own volition. Each offers something distinct and, most importantly, stands on its own. 

As a bonus, fans of the TV series can pair up their favorites from across time, space, and syndication agreements.

Plenty Still to Discover

While the Doctor Who cards build their own universe via exemplary artwork and a deep knowledge of the show, for Universes Beyond to be a successful initiative, Wizards has to hook players who know nothing about the aforementioned Universe (i.e. the cards have to be good and a few must be busted). 

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The list of excellent Doctor Who cards is long, but some of my favorites are Cyber Conversion, Flesh Duplicate, Reverse the Polarity, The Flux, Displaced Dinosaurs, The Master, Multiplied, Cybership, Psychic Paper, Trenzalore Clocktower, and Everything Comes to Dust. As far as staples, Cyber Conversion is a top three removal spell in blue and Everybody Lives!, a card I struggle to find remotely playable, is somehow finding its way to becoming one. 

Though chatter about the set has subsided, I think many of the Doctor Who cards will regain relevance further down the line. The mechanics of the set, like Paradox and the focus on Historic permanents, are generic enough to apply across a range of playstyles and keywords. In other cases, the set contains a card that’s very strong within a particular niche. For example, Barbara Wright is incredibly strong if you’re playing the Sagas game. Also, Dinosaurs will always be cool.

Set Ways

Like I mentioned at the top, the year was packed, so the margin of difference between sets is razor thin. It’s precisely for this reason that I’d be curious to hear what others think. Far better and more fun to have a conversation about good cards and sets than have to sift through infinite dreck. Plus, from what you can all probably tell, I’m not a huge Doctor Who person (though I very much admire the show), so I’m not the most qualified to delve deep into the specificity and the lore of the show. Help with that would be greatly appreciated, and I’ll be sure to step it up if a Legend of Zelda set ever arrives.

Further Reading:

Secret Lair Shakeup