Precon Upgrade Guide- Timey-Wimey
November 27, 2023 by
Beth Queen of Cardboard 
(The Tenth Doctor | Art By Luisa J. Preissler| Rose Tyler | Art by Luisa J. Preissler| The Millennium Calendar | Art by Zoltan Boros)
Hey friends. It's Beth, Queen of Cardboard here, with the Precon Upgrade Guide for the Universes Beyond: Doctor Who deck, Timey-Wimey. If you haven't yet had the chance to play this deck, or play against it, get ready for one of the most technically complicated preconstructed decks in Magic: the Gathering.
The deck focuses on time and the adding and removing of time counters. Prior to this release, this particular counter didn't see a lot of use in the game, and when used, was often overlooked. Going through upgrading this deck, I was surprised by the amount of cards in the Universes Within that deal with time counters.
Let's get into it.
Time. What is it Good For?
It would be easy to say that the deck flourishes because of how well synergized The Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler are together. He gives you more time counters, she gets bigger. Swing in for lethal commander damage, game over. While this is still the main way the deck will operate, it takes a true master of time to control how to use the time counters to cast the exact spell at the correct time.
This deck can be super fun; it can also be a huge headache. When choosing what to add, I focused purely on cards that would be useful in the deck and had time counters on them in one way or another. Cards with Suspend and Vanishing were my primary focus.
Pulling from newer sets, this deck feels incredibly complete with Gandalf of the Secret Fire from the Tales of Middle-earth holiday release, and The Millennium Calendar from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Gandalf's ability creates a delayed Rebound-effect on instant and sorcery spells cast from your hand during your opponents' turns, giving them Suspend and adding three time counters. While this isn't an ability I would normally build around, it's a big win in this list.
The amount of time counters you're able to put on cards really inspired me to put in the alternate win condition The Millennium Calendar. While it technically doesn't say "You win the game," I hope draining your opponents for 1,000 life is game-ending. Notably, because it's life loss instead of damage, and it doesn't target, it gets around some protection effects, like The One Ring.
And adding to the ramp package, I included Lotus Bloom and Mox Tantalite.
Timecrafting
In addition to the cards already in the deck, I wanted more ways to add or remove counters as needed. Filling this need is Jhoira's Timebug, Timecrafting, and Dust of Moments. A little out-of-pocket tech is using Delay to counter a spell of yours that an opponent has attempted to counter. Instead of the card going to the graveyard, you'll be able to get it later as a Suspended card.
Notably missing from this list is Jhoira of the Ghitu, and it's totally one you can add in if you want to be able to exile cards from your hand and Suspend them on the board. But I kept in the more thematic card, The Face of Boe, which fills this slot and is able to put most of the cards in the deck on the board this way.
Check out all the cards added to the deck below.
Timey-Wimey Cards Added
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Lost to Time
Removing cards from a deck, especially one as synergistic as the Doctor Who decks, is always difficult. In these Upgrade Guides, I try to add cards that synergize with what the commander is telling me the deck wants to do. This meant cards that didn't add time counters or remove them had to go.
The hardest cut was Wedding Ring, as this is one of my favorite cards to play in white and I'm constantly looking for more to add to decks. I was so happy it got a reprint, but in this case it had to go, because you'll already be digging through your deck with The Tenth Doctor. I also dropped Jenny, Generated Anomaly, even though I personally believe Explore is a busted mechanic.
When I first played against this deck, I mistakenly thought that a Saga lore counters were time counters as well, which would have been great for the deck. But since they're not, they're out of here. And Adipose Offspring, although cute, doesn't help our deck do anything with time counters.
Check out all the deck cuts I made below.
Timey-Wimey Cards Removed
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Clockspinning
With these changes, the deck really spins time. And while you have great supporting cards, I still believe that Rose Tyler is the true star of this show. With being able to get time counters extremely reliably, it's not going to take very many turns for her to get out of control, and I foresee you swinging in for five to nine commander damage on turn three or four with no problems.
Check out the entire deck list below:
Timey-Wimey Precon Upgrade Deck
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In Conclusion
This deck is my least favorite to play against out of the four Doctor Who precons because it can become very difficult to keep up with everything going on on the board. With the changes I've made, it's going to continue to spit out Suspended cards and time counters, and it takes an experienced pilot to cast spells and not cast spells at the correct time. Bringing in cards from other sets that also deal with Vanishing and Suspend will give you even more to pay attention to; I, for one, tremble to see this guy in action.
Let me know what changes you made to the Timey-Wimey deck and what's your favorite deck from Doctor Who in the comments.
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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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