Did Doctor Who flop?

[RxPhantom]

The Doctor Who decks came out...last month? Last week? Yesterday? Time is meaningless. Product fatigue is permanent. What was I saying?

Oh yeah. Doctor Who. I have not seen much enthusiasm about these decks or commanders. My LGS had them all in stock this past Sunday. I have yet to play against a deck running any of them. Articles on EDHrec, including two yesterday, have received zero comments.

So I guess my questions are:

1. Have you built with any of them?
2. Have you played against any of them?
3. If yes to 1 or 2, thoughts?

Also, if you want to discuss anything else related to this product, let's hear it.

[BaronCappuccino]

I included Reverse the Polarity in Azami, but I saw nothing that even gave me a passing thought of a new deck. Considering Ixalan tempted me to switch commanders to Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch // Temple of Cyclical Time, it's not like the thought of scrapping and restarting is out of the question.

[Mookie]

There are a few people in my meta that got them, and I played against them once or twice. I don't have a firm opinion of them yet - The Tenth Doctor // Rose Tyler seemed strong but soft to disruption. Suspend is a fairly high-variance mechanic.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I went all in on them for the first time in a long time. I'm currently modifying them, but I plan to post my The Fourth Doctor/Sarah Jane Smith deck in the following week or so. I'm quite proud of how it turned out.

Generally I think the cards are cool (cooler than 40k or Fallout imo) and the decks play well out of the box. Can't ask for much more from a precon.

[NZB2323]

Not only have I not played with or against one of the decks, I haven't played with or against any of the cards.

I've never watched Dr. Who, they don't have a fantasy feel, and unless I'm missing something none of them are great cards.

[TheGildedGoose]

... none of them are great cards.

Cyber Conversion
Everybody Lives!

Well, I tried.

[duducrash]

Anedoctal, but my LGS said they were surprised by how much interest there was, and they even had a slight problem because under preordered.

I played a bunch this weekend, there were some Doctor Who decks yes

[ISBPathfinder]

I have seen a bunch of doctor decks running about and honestly, I don't know what is in this set for legends outside of the doctors and companions so I have no clue if I have seen one of the other legends. I have played with a number of the singles especially Everybody Lives! and a few of the non legend clones but not much else for play myself. I still haven't really gone through to look at all of the cards in it because well, I just don't care that much anymore what exists outside of when I deckbuild and look for specific things or stumble over something that exists that I didn't look at before.

[Serenade]

I made a Nyssa of Traken/The Ninth Doctor deck (focused on her; he is just there for red) and had no success with it.

Then I made Xavier Sal, Infested Captain sagas and used a few WHO sagas. I thought the sorcery speed heavily limited him, so while he was fun, I got nowhere with the deck. I want to try the W legends that benefit sagas in a different deck.

The Flux has been terrific in Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival.

My one buddy jammed some BR cards and cybermen into a Mishra deck with good results.

So some pieces here and there. I feel less great building with IRL humans on cards.

[Moxnix]

I would say from a sales perspective it was a home run lots of collectors buying the product and not even opening it sold out for almost a month everywhere near me. Lots of people using the parecons at my store so I would say it was great. One of the first non proxy products I've bought in awhile. As to how good they are meh no precon is that good and got some sweet new cards like everybody lives.

[yeti1069]

I've only watched one episode of Dr. Who, didn't enjoy it, so I haven't returned.

I followed most of the spoilers for the set, and noted a handful of cards I was interested in...but haven't so much as added them to my saved list anywhere, cannot now recall which they were, and am not sure I'll take the time to comb back through the set to find and purchase them. Part of me had considered changing my morph deck from Sultai (Kadena) to Grixis (Missy), but it would be too big a shift in approach (and I have 2 other Grixis decks already).

I've run into a small number of Dr. Who commander decks on Spelltable, and a slightly higher number of cards from the set in non-Doctor decks. Most have played somewhere between solid and strong, but it's been kind of irritating having to read them, since they're all rather wordy, and my lack of interest in the set means that I haven't committed any to memory. Normally I don't mind (modern) wordiness on cards, but if I'm not adding them to my Magic knowledge-base, they become something of a chore.

[Ruiner]

A friend of mine has been running a Davros, Dalek Creator deck and its generally a pretty solid threat. He's a big Dr Who fan.

I've bought a number of singles, despite not being terribly familiar with the show. There are definitely some neat cards in the set.

[Sinis]

Haven't built anything with it. Haven't played against anyone with it. Of the two Whovians I know, one of them doesn't even like the idea of Dr. Who x Magic in the first place (he says there's a conflict between the idea that the universe is vast, and that there are several universes; Dr. Who's ideas just kind of don't fit into Magic's narrative of planes, and plane-bound individuals).

[KitsuLeif]

I have built The Sixth Doctor + Romana II as a Historic deck. Missy as a Morph/Cybermen deck. The Ninth Doctor + Clara Oswald (White) as an Alternative Wincon via upkeep triggers deck. The War Doctor + Clara Oswald (Black) as an Exile/Chaos deck. And now Me, the Immortal as a Counters Matters deck.
So yeah. Five decks built from four precons (+ additional cards, obviously). I'm very happy with how the decks helped me in progressing my 32-deck challenge.

[RxPhantom]

This thread really oscillated from complete apathy to rampant enthusiasm. I may give these cards a shot, but UB is still a tough pill for me to swallow. The mental hurdle may be too much.

@KitsuLeif's The Sixth Doctor/Romana II deck seems really fun though.

[5colorsrainbow]

Gonna wait until after this upcoming Ravnica set but i like The Third Doctor with Romana II and/or Sarah Jane Smith for a clue deck.

[MAGUSZANIN]

I've been looking for a good Cast From Exile build that wasn't Prosper or Faldorn for a while now, and I liked some of the 13th Doctor Episodes.... Even if I disliked a few others. So I built 13/Yas and it's been decent.

I've seen a few other people do minor upgrades from the cards but only one person built a commander so far (Davros, which is admittedly excellent).

Cyber Conversion is great, the sheer number of Sagas added a lot of desperately needed depth to that section of that card pool, and Quantum Misalignment is great for any deck that wanted Irenicus' Vile Duplication 2: Twice as Hard.

The Historic Deck added some cool cards for that batch theme that hang together much better than they have any right to since that is 3 card types in a trenchcoat.

Edit: I think the big thing throwing off people's perception is the release pace. Wilds of Eldraine released on Sept8th, Doctor Who released on Oct13th, LOTR Scene boxes on Nov3rd, and Ixalan on Nov17th. Throw in some Secret Lairs either with or without mechanically unique cards? That is basically something new every week, and if you only play a couple times a quarter at the LGS or something? That means that you have 300+ cards to read and engage with roughly every month, of which you maybe pick up a half a dozen upgrades and build one or two new decks. If you pick, say, an Eldraine Commander you opened at Prerelease and one of the Ixalan Precons..... No room left for Doctor Who.

So yeah, I also haven't seen any Eldraine Commanders yet either. LOTR was barely really getting into my personal playgroup the last time we got together a month ago, and I expect that if I see anyone playing anything over the holidays it might be from any of the 5 major sets after that sprinkled around the group.

[3drinks]

I don't care, I have no interest in the IP so this isn't for me. I've seen some players with them but I don't understand any of the lore or what they represent. I can read the text on the card though. If people buy 'em cool, okay, that's great. If they don't, then cool, okay, that's great.

But can we go back to Magic IP, and how we're gonna help The Good Admiral take back the city and rebuild her fleet now?

[5colorsrainbow]

But can we go back to Magic IP, and how we're gonna help The Good Admiral take back the city and rebuild her fleet now?

Do you mean the good governor or have you not read the new ixalan stories?

[Hermes_]

But can we go back to Magic IP, and how we're gonna help The Good Admiral take back the city and rebuild her fleet now?

Do you mean the good governor or have you not read the new ixalan stories?

There's lore?

[3drinks]

But can we go back to Magic IP, and how we're gonna help The Good Admiral take back the city and rebuild her fleet now?

Do you mean the good governor or have you not read the new ixalan stories?

Huh? There's 17.3 releases every two weeks, I can't keep up on more than what decks are coming out. Especially if it's only on the %$#% that is the mothership, can't find anything on that site these days beyond ads for Arena.

[5colorsrainbow]

Yea thats what I thought.

[krakked]

I've never liked universes beyond stuff, since it's just a predatory way to get new players and make more money. But I wouldent really say that any universes beyond stuff has failed, since it always achieves its goal to make as much money as humanly possible. I played with the dalek precon thing a couple times when someone gave it to me, and I thought it was interesting, but overall it was fine. Someone I know made a deck that just created a million clue tokens to pump up his doctor (which is his commander), and used it to win.

[RxPhantom]

I just haven't seen them make much of an impact locally, nor have they appeared to have generated much excitement online.

[Dunharrow]

I think we will see a decline in product launches. Not related to Dr. Who though. Global inflation has a two-pronged impact on MtG - it costs more to make, and people have less money to spend.
I think we should see fewer commander decks per year. We don't need 4 new decks with each new set, especially with all the Universes Beyond decks.

All that to say, I would not be surprised if a few of the Q4 products underperformed.