Magic: The Gathering's Doctor Who set is a nostalgic road trip with hidden onions

This year is shaping up to be one for the Whovians. Not only are we getting a new Doctor, but we're sorta getting a returning one in David Tennant for the 60th anniversary.

Then there's the 60 years of Doctor Who that the BBC just made available (at least for the UK), which is a small consolation that the anniversary specials look like they won't be airing on the 60th anniversary.

For fans of both Doctor Who and Magic: The Gathering, there's also Wizards of the Coast's latest Universes Beyond set, which will likely thrill any Whovian (and also break your heart when you read some of the flavour text) with its massive look back at the series' rich history.

From some of the most iconic villains to every incarnation of the Doctor we've seen so far, the set is a lovely tribute to the series, though the fact that the cards aren't legal outside of certain Magic formats means this set is really for the fans and collectors.

Still, Magic's Doctor Who set does offer some unique chase cards for hardcore collectors, including serialised versions of each Doctor incarnation. There's also a lot of art covering the 60 years of Doctor Who, with both iconic characters and moments that will delight fans familiar with the series.

Subjectively, though, some cards stood out more than others. Here are those that caught our eye.

The Eleventh Doctor

Let's start with this. How is Matt Smith's The Eleventh Doctor ONLY a rare? Fish fingers and custard. Fezzes are cool. The Pandorica opens. The Wedding of River Song. The Predator of the Daleks.

AMY POND (played by Karen Gillan) WHO WOULD LATER GROW UP TO BE A GUARDIAN OF THE GALAXY, and also her husband Rory Williams (played by Arthur Darvill), who went off to join the Legends of Tomorrow for a brief season or so and had his own timey-wimey adventures, as companions.

The Doctor who found Clara Oswald (played by Jenna Coleman), the Impossible Girl.

The list goes on and on.

Clearly, I think the Eleventh deserved a bit more on the rarity scale. I'm also a little bummed that the newer Doctors that we know are on the horizon aren't making an appearance at this time, though this set was probably in the making way before Ncuti Gatwa's arrival and Tennant's return were set in motion. There are some future Secret Lair Drops tied to this... so one can hope!

Bonus points for including The War Doctor and The Fugitive Doctor.

Weeping Angels

How is a Weeping Angel only 2/2? There's no way those nightmare-inducing not-stone statues can be swatted away with a Lightning Bolt.

Also, maybe something more could've been done with the Angels' ability to psychically affect their victims, resulting in them turning into Weeping Angels themselves.

That being said, there is the Doctor Who Secret Lair Drop with a whole bunch of regular Angels with Weeping Angel art, so we can't say there aren't enough Weeping Angels in MTG now.

Astrid Peth

I never thought the day would come when Kylie Minogue was on a Magic card. Beyond Astrid Peth, though, the range of Companions (no matter how long their tenure) in the set is really something for the fans to enjoy.

A small gripe, though, is that some of the likenesses of the Companions may not come across. For example, the actual Amy Pond card doesn't look like Karen Gillan much, compared to her appearance in The Eleventh Hour.

That said, a few familiar faces are missing — such as the immortal Captain Jack Harkness (played by John Barrowman) and Mickey Smith (played by Noel Clarke), Rose Tyler's boyfriend and the first black Companion on the series.

Without venturing into too much speculation, both Barrowman and Clarke have had their share of controversy in recent years, so perhaps the absence of the characters they played is not surprising.

Farewell

I've got to admit, this card almost broke me, and not because someone dropped it during a three-hour long Commander game when I was one turn away from winning without a Counterspell.

By itself, it's an awesome boardwipe like the good friend from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty that it is.

But, in the Doctor Who set, it features what is probably one of the saddest - if not THE saddest - scenes in the revived series. Add to that the flavour text, and I can still hear Tennant's Tenth's haunting last words.

To the uninitiated, while the Doctor "regenerates" instead of actually dying, each incarnation has their own quirks and personality which changes when regeneration takes place.

Tennant's Tenth noted that this made regeneration akin to an actual death, and led him to utter the flavour text on the card: "I don't want to go".

There's a lot more to it, given the Tenth Doctor's story arc and character development, and I'm not sure text is doing that scene justice, so here's a clip of it.

Remember that, at the time this aired, the generation of Whovians who had not watched the earlier series pre-2005 would have had only a year of Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor... and five of David Tennant.

To this date, Tennant's tenure as the Doctor has been the second-longest in the entire series, falling short only to Tom Baker's seven seasons as The Fourth Doctor.

Tennant (like Baker), has also appeared as his incarnation of The Doctor in the special anniversary episodes, and is set to take up the role again as a different incarnation this year.

What I am trying to say is that he's a wildly popular Doctor with this generation, and seeing WHO's Farewell likely stung some Whovians who didn't know that scene could still hurt.

Overall, as a fan of both the Doctor Who series and Magic: The Gathering, this definitely brought some great memories when opening the packs.

Sure, the cards may not bring the same second-hand market value that other more tournament legal sets brought to the table, but they do tell the story of Doctor Who's legacy really, really well.

And, to quote Smith's Eleventh, "We are all stories in the end, just make it a good one eh?"

Magic: The Gathering's Doctor Who set is currently on sale now in Collector Boosters and Commander Decks.

GellyPanda is a casual gamer who occasionally dabbles into gacha games.

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