Precon Primer - Masters of Evil
October 24, 2023 by
Beth Queen of Cardboard 
(Davros, Dalek Creator | Art by Simon Dominic | Missy | Art by Ekaterina Burmak | Ashad, the Lone Cyberman | Art by Eric Wilkerson)
Hello again friends, this is Beth, the Queen of Cardboard, with the Masters of Evil Precon Primer from the Universes Beyond: Doctor Who Commander and Planeschase deck set. If you, like me, are not a Whovian, you may have been thinking about skipping this release entirely. But I'm here to say that these decks are powerful and synergistic, and the cards within are perfect for any deck if you choose to break them apart. Unlike the past Universes Within decks, the Masters of Evil deck contains 50 new cards plus 10 Doctor Who-themed planes should you wish to try Planeschase. Check out the deck list below:
Masters of Evil Precon
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The face commander for this deck, Davros, Dalek Creator, creates a 3/3 black Dalek artifact creature token with menace at your end step if an opponent lost three or more life during your turn. In addition, for each opponent who lost three or more life during your turn, they will be faced with a villainous choice at your end step: either they discard a card or you draw a card. It's pretty clear that this deck wants your opponents to lose life for your benefit, and in addition they may face some difficult decisions that can lead to your advantage.
Villainous Choices
In a deck named "Masters of Evil", it's not hard to imagine that you'll be playing some pretty disgusting cards, but the ones with Villainous Choice among among the worst of them for your opponents. Villainous choice is a mechanic that forces your opponents to make a choice directly in your favor or to their detriment. In many ways, these choices can add insult to injury, as some of them happen after something bad has already happened. The Valeyard is an option as a commander if you specifically like this mechanic.
Villainous choice is reminiscent of the voting mechanic, with no upside to your opponent. Offering card draw for you are Missy, Great Intelligence's Plan, and Davros. Removal comes from Midnight Crusader Shuttle, This Is How It Ends, Hunted by The Family, and Genesis of the Daleks.
Additional tactics from this mechanic include forced discard, targeted damage, and free spells from your opponents' decks.
Time Lords: They're Not Always Good Guys
Messing with time has its consequences. Enter the main villains: renegade Time Lords, any of whom could lead an army on their own. These Time Lords each have an ability that leads to the sinister tactics. Rassilon, the War President breaks Magic's most common assumption, that a card in exile should not return. The Rani creates an enchantment, Mark of the Rani, which Goads an opponent's creature and buffs it.
In addition to these Time Lords, there is the Master.
These Time Lord Rogues are regenerated incarnations of The Master, the recurring arch-nemesis of the Doctor, and each card has its own unique talents. Breaking another rule of Magic, The Master, Multiplied removes the legend rule from your tokens, which is important for its Myriad skill, as you're no longer forced to sacrifice legendary creature tokens created by Myriad, or any other spells or abilities. This card on its own can produce an overwhelming amount of 4/3 creatures to beat down your opponents extremely quickly.
The Master, Mesmerist focuses on goading your opponents' creatures, making it so you're never hit in combat. Missy is similar to Davros, but instead of creating Daleks, she returns dead creatures to the battlefield repurposed as Cybermen. She also gives your opponents a villainous choice, giving you a card draw (and chaos if you're playing Planeschase) or having your artifact creatures each deal one damage to that opponent. If you're building a Dalek and Cyberman army, you've got a lot of those on the field.
Similarly to Missy, The Master, Gallifrey's End takes advantage of your creatures' deaths by giving an opponent the villainous choice of allowing you to create a token copy of each dead creature or lose four life. The Master, Formed Anew exiles a creature you control with a takeover counter on it upon cast, then can enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature that is in exile with a takeover counter on it. As this Master doesn't have flash, how well it works is entirely dependent on the creature you've chosen to exile.
Daleks, Cybermen, and Aliens, Oh My!
If you're a typal player, this deck features a variety of creature types, including Daleks, Cyberman, Alien and Time Lord. Unfortunately, there are so many types in this deck that there's not a good way to focus on any single type. Representing the Daleks, we have six cards and two planes. This type focuses on the creation of more Daleks, with Myriad making an appearance here on Dalek Squadron. The Daleks also represent three of the removal spells in the deck, Genesis of the Daleks, Doomsday Confluence, and Exterminate!. Additional removal is included on the creature cards Dalek Drone and The Dalek Emperor. The final Dalek, Cult of Skaro, has a little bit for everyone on each attack.
Leading the Cybermen in this deck are Missy and Ashad, the Lone Cyberman. Cybermen have several unique abilities among them. Furthering the Myriad mechanic, Cybermen Squadron gives it to all nonlegendary artifact creatures. As Daleks and Cybermen are both artifact creatures, this can get out of hand fast. Cyberman Patrol gives artifact creatures Afflict 3, making your opponents suffer whether they block or not. Using Daleks and Cybermen together is the best synergy that this deck has.
One of the two Vehicles in the deck, Cybership, forces your opponent to mill upon combat damage, turning any creatures milled this way into cybermen on your board. Similarly, The Cyber-Controller forces your opponent to mill on entering the battlefield and then turns those creatures milled into 2/2 cybermen, in addition to pumping your artifact creatures.
The rest of the new creatures, other than Clockwork Droid, Vislor Turlough, and The Beast, Deathless Prince, are stuck in the Alien type, and each has their own special effect. Goading your opponents comes from Renegade Silent and Sontaran General. Auton Soldier provides another piece of Myriad, again breaking the legendary rule by copying any creature on the battlefield and removing legendary from it. The Flood of Mars has Islandwalk and Water Always Wins, a new mechanic that puts flood counters on lands and creatures, turning them into The Flood of Mars and notably, turning lands into Islands each time you attack with it.
Time Reaper seems to be a direct counter to the Timey-Wimey deck, removing cards in exile to the bottom of their library upon combat damage. Having seen the amount of cards Suspended in that deck, this seems incredibly useful. Weeping Angel has a Norin the Wary vibe, instead of leaving the battlefield, Weeping Angel becomes a noncreature if an opponent casts a creature spell. Completing the creature package for the deck are Vashta Nerada, Zygon Infiltrator, and the one reprint creature, Solemn Simulacrum.
Over the Planes We Go
Planechase is a format originally released in 2009. It brought to life the idea of the planeswalkers crossing the planes of Magic, each one with a unique benefit or detractor to the board state. It's something that, prior to the Commander decks from March of Machine, hasn't been seen since 2016 with no new Planes as of 2012. March of the Machine introduced 25 new Planes cards, while Doctor Who has added 10 per deck (40 in total). In Masters of Evil, the Planes are as follows:
As this deck is only 10 cards, it's preferable to include cards from other Planechase products, but not necessary. To stay in theme, you can include the Planechase cards from Doctor Who, or if you just like the format, you can include any of the Planar cards available.
Conclusion
This is not a deck that I would suggest to beginners. I've been referring to it, along with the other Warhammer and Doctor Who decks, as Precon level 3, with the Commander Starter decks as level 1 and other set Commander decks as level 2. That doesn't mean it's a bad deck. Rather, it's very good - almost too good compared to the precons in the Universes Within. These decks can be a lot of fun but have complicated new mechanics that can confuse a player looking to get into Magic. However, if you're looking for something a little spicier than your average deck, this is definitely the one for you.
While it's got familiar mechanics like token creation, targeted removal, and Goad, it also includes new tricks like villainous choice, takeover counters, and milling your opponents to create Cybermen. It's very flavorful and does a great job of including many of the villains from the Doctor Who series. You'll be sure to recognize some of these cards even if you've not watched a lot of the show itself.
Though there are a lot of different mechanics and abilities with these new cards, they all do a great job of sticking to the overarching villain theme and is one of the best ability crossovers I've seen in the Universes Beyond sets thus far.
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Beth Queen of Cardboard
Beth is an casual Commander player who's passionate about silly decks, creating safe community spaces, and crowns. She loves to travel and play magic with friends. When not playing Magic, she's probably snuggling her dogs or playing some video games.
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