Arcane Foundry › Commanders › The Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor
Legendary Creature — Time Lord Doctor · {4}{W}{U} · Blue/White commander
What The Eighth Doctor actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Triggered ability · etbWhen The Eighth Doctor enters, mill three cards.
- Replacement effect · otherOnce during each of your turns, you may play a historic land or cast a historic permanent spell from your graveyard. If you do, it gains "If this permanent would leave the battlefield, exile it instea
What a The Eighth Doctor deck needs
Plays as ETB value. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- blink and recursion aimed at the commander itself (its value is its own enter trigger)
- self-mill, discard and recursion (the graveyard is a resource its text reads)
The The Eighth Doctor deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 12× Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- 15× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- 12× Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 2× Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- 1× Answer a whole board at once
- 7× Refill your hand
- 2× Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
Best cards for The Eighth Doctor
Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.
Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- Airbender Ascension2 mana
- Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd2 mana
- Displacer Kitten4 mana
- Eldrazi Displacer3 mana
- Flickerwisp3 mana
- Soulherder3 mana
- Touch the Spirit Realm3 mana
- Conjurer's Closet5 mana
A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- Knight of the White Orchid2 mana
- Spirited Companion2 mana
- Solemn Simulacrum4 mana
- Thousand-Faced Shadow1 mana
- Loran of the Third Path3 mana
- Ranger-Captain of Eos3 mana
- Helpful Hunter2 mana
- Loyal Warhound2 mana
Put your own cards into your graveyard as a resource
- Emry, Lurker of the Loch3 mana
- Eden, Seat of the Sanctum0 mana
- Millikin2 mana
- Perpetual Timepiece2 mana
- Ghoulcaller's Bell1 mana
- Fraying Sanity3 mana
- Palantír of Orthanc3 mana
- Sequestered Stash0 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Path to Exile1 mana
- Swords to Plowshares1 mana
- Reality Shift2 mana
- Pongify1 mana
- Rapid Hybridization1 mana
- Resculpt2 mana
- March of Otherworldly Light1 mana
- Generous Gift3 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Reshape2 mana
- Mask of the Mimic1 mana
- Long-Term Plans3 mana
- Transmute Artifact2 mana
- Open the Armory2 mana
- Whir of Invention3 mana
- Merchant Scroll2 mana
- Enlightened Tutor1 mana
Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- Mindbreak Trap4 mana
- Fierce Guardianship3 mana
- Force of Negation3 mana
- Force of Will5 mana
- Flare of Denial3 mana
- Pact of Negation0 mana
- An Offer You Can't Refuse1 mana
- Arcane Denial2 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Vanquish the Horde8 mana
- Supreme Verdict4 mana
- Wrath of God4 mana
- Day of Judgment4 mana
- Shatter the Sky4 mana
- Split Up3 mana
- Winds of Abandon2 mana
- Depopulate4 mana
Refill your hand
- Esper Sentinel1 mana
- Mystic Remora1 mana
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Curiosity1 mana
- Wizard Class1 mana
- Rhystic Study3 mana
- Archivist of Oghma2 mana
- Faerie Mastermind2 mana
Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- Flowering of the White Tree2 mana
- Bastion Protector3 mana
- Gold-Forged Thopteryx2 mana
- Codsworth, Handy Helper3 mana
- Avacyn, Angel of Hope8 mana
- Lost in the Maze2 mana
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
Build this deck in the Arcane Forge →
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