Precon Upgrade Guide
Paradox Power Upgrade Guide
What to cut, what to add, and how to play the Temur cast-from-anywhere precon from Doctor Who, commanded by The Thirteenth Doctor.
Magic: The Gathering Doctor Who
Paradox Power
Counters and untapping ask you to track a lot at once. Out of the box, before any upgrades. How we rate precons
Buy Paradox Power on TCGplayer →Quick verdict
Paradox Power rewards you for casting spells from anywhere except your hand. The Thirteenth Doctor puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature each time you do and untaps every creature with a counter at your end step, so the team can attack and still be ready to block. The deck has plenty of ways to cast from exile and the graveyard, but it also carries several slow or situational cards, a colorless-heavy land base, and only one way to counter a spell.
TurnZero HQ rates Paradox Power a 3 out of 5 on difficulty and a 3 out of 5 on power, as it comes in the box. That is our editorial read, not an official Wizards rating. The full hundred cards are on the Paradox Power decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.
How the precon plays
The Thirteenth Doctor is a three-mana 2/2 with two abilities. Whenever you cast a spell from anywhere other than your hand (exile, the graveyard, the top of your library), you put a +1/+1 counter on a target creature. At the beginning of your end step, each creature you control with a counter on it untaps, which lets you attack with everything and still have blockers on the other players' turns.
Yasmin Khan is the companion that keeps the Doctor busy. She taps to exile the top card of your library, and you can play it until your next end step, so every spell you cast that way is a paradox trigger. The rest of the deck is built from the same idea: foretell cards like Surge of Brilliance and Impending Flux , cascade spells like Into the Time Vortex and Throes of Chaos , flashback from Think Twice and Wreck and Rebuild , and Return the Past , which gives every instant and sorcery in your graveyard flashback during your turn.
The payoffs care about paradox too. Iraxxa, Empress of Mars makes a 2/2 Alien Warrior for each one, Flaming Tyrannosaurus deals 3 damage, and Danny Pink gives every creature a draw trigger the first time each turn it gets a counter.
What works out of the box
The Thirteenth Doctor ↗
A +1/+1 counter for every spell you cast from outside your hand, and an end-step untap for every creature with a counter. Your team attacks and blocks in the same turn cycle.
Yasmin Khan ↗
Taps to exile your top card and lets you play it until your next end step. It is card advantage that also turns every spell into a paradox trigger.
Danny Pink ↗
Every creature you control draws a card the first time each turn a counter goes on it. Paired with the Doctor, each paradox spell can also draw you a card.
Clara Oswald ↗
Makes your Doctors' triggered abilities trigger an extra time. With The Thirteenth Doctor out, every paradox spell puts two counters on the board.
Return the Past ↗
Gives every instant and sorcery in your graveyard flashback during your turn. Each one you recast is a paradox trigger.
Flaming Tyrannosaurus ↗
Deals 3 damage to any target and grows each time you cast a spell from outside your hand, then hits every opponent for its power when it dies.
What needs improvement
Too many lands make only colorless mana or enter tapped. Temple of the False God , Ominous Cemetery , Reliquary Tower , Rogue's Passage and Desolate Lighthouse give up color, while three Temples, Frontier Bivouac , Sheltered Thicket and Myriad Landscape come in tapped. A three-color deck with several two-color cards stumbles on that.
Some of the spells are slow for what they do. Bigger on the Inside is a five-mana Aura, Truth or Consequences lets the table decide how much it does, and River Song makes you draw from the bottom of your library, which cancels the top-deck setup from Ponder and Preordain . The deck also has only Beast Within and Chaos Warp to answer a problem permanent, and nothing that stops a spell.
Upgrade ideas
Each upgrade below starts from something the deck does poorly and says what a replacement card has to do. The cards named are examples, not the only answer: if you own something else that does the same job, or a newer printing does it better, it goes in the same slot. Make one change at a time and play a few games between them, so you can tell which change helped. The general method is in how to upgrade a Commander precon →
1. Swap colorless and tapped lands for untapped duals
The Thirteenth Doctor costs three mana in two colors, and the deck wants to cast it on turn three. Lands that tap for colorless or enter tapped make that harder than it should be.
What to look for Lands that enter untapped and make two of your colors, or that fetch any basic.
Cut, for example
Temple of the False God Makes no mana until you control five lands. In the early turns it is a blank.
Ominous Cemetery A colorless land whose only ability costs five mana and exiles itself. Real removal does the job better.
Sheltered Thicket Always enters tapped. The cycling is a late-game option that rarely makes up for the lost tempo.
2. Cast more spells from outside your hand
Every paradox payoff in the deck is only as good as the number of spells you cast from somewhere other than your hand. Engines that cast from the top of the library do that every turn without spending cards.
What to look for Permanents that let you cast spells from the top of your library, or cheap cascade spells. Each spell cast that way is a counter from the Doctor.
Cut, for example
Bigger on the Inside A five-mana Aura that gives a land or artifact a mana ability with cascade. Slow, and easy to lose to removal on the permanent.
Truth or Consequences Four mana, and the opponents choose whether you draw or deal damage. It rarely does what you need it to.
River Song Makes you draw from the bottom of your library, which wastes your own top-deck manipulation, and its damage depends on opponents scrying or searching.
Add, for example
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter ↗
Your first spell each turn reveals the top card, and you can cast it for free if it costs less. A free spell from the library is also a paradox trigger.
Shardless Agent ↗
Three mana with cascade. The spell it hits is cast from exile, so the Doctor puts a counter down.
Vizier of the Menagerie ↗
Lets you cast creature spells from the top of your library, and each one is a paradox trigger.
Future Sight ↗
Lets you play lands and cast any spell from the top of your library. Five mana, but it can trigger the Doctor several times a turn.
3. Answer threats with foretell
The deck has almost no way to deal with a spell or a problem creature. Foretell cards cover that and still trigger the Doctor, since they are cast from exile.
What to look for Counterspells and removal with foretell or another way to be cast from exile or the graveyard.
Cut, for example
Decaying Time Loop Four mana to discard your hand and draw the same number. It fixes a bad hand but doesn't add any cards.
Flatline Turns opponents' creatures into 0/1s for a turn. It wins one combat, but it doesn't remove anything.
4. Draw cards you can cast twice
The deck needs a steady stream of cards to keep paradox going. Draw spells with flashback refill the hand and add a second trigger from the graveyard.
What to look for Draw spells with flashback or a similar way to be recast from the graveyard, or instants that let you recast other spells.
Cut, for example
Confession Dial Three mana for surveil 3 and a way to cast legendary creatures from the graveyard. The deck rarely has a legend there worth the escape cost.
River Song's Diary Exiles instants and sorceries that every player casts and occasionally gives you one at random. Slow and unpredictable.
Add, for example
Deep Analysis ↗
Draws two cards, then draws two more later with flashback. The second cast is a paradox trigger.
Memory Deluge ↗
Instant-speed card selection that digs deeper the more mana you spend. Its flashback digs even further.
Mission Briefing ↗
Surveils 2 and lets you cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard this turn, which triggers the Doctor.
Win conditions
The deck wins with a team of creatures carrying several +1/+1 counters, which the Doctor untaps every end step so you can attack without leaving yourself open. Iraxxa, Empress of Mars adds Warriors and gives attackers +1/+0, Flaming Tyrannosaurus burns blockers and opponents, and Last Night Together gives two of your biggest creatures an extra combat. The upgrades raise how many paradox triggers you get each turn, which is what grows the board.
Who should buy this precon
A good choice for a player who likes long, interactive turns and is comfortable with several zones at once: foretold cards, cascade, flashback and Yasmin Khan's exiled card all need tracking. It plays at a moderate level of difficulty and power. Someone who wants a straightforward creature deck may find the bookkeeping tiring.
Checked against the printed decklist on October 10, 2026.
Track how the upgrades actually perform.
TurnZero HQ keeps a win rate per deck version, so you can change a few cards, play some games, and see the difference instead of guessing.
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