Timey-Wimey Upgrade Guide

Quick verdict

Timey-Wimey is the strongest of the four Doctor Who decks once it gets going, because every attack puts a free spell into your future. The Tenth Doctor exiles your next nonland card with three time counters whenever you attack, and a deck full of time travel effects brings those cards back sooner than suspend normally would. The weak spots are a mana base padded with colorless utility lands, a handful of symmetrical or very expensive cards, and no counterspells at all.

TurnZero HQ rates Timey-Wimey a 3 out of 5 on difficulty and a 4 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 Timey-Wimey decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.

How the precon plays

Whenever you attack, The Tenth Doctor exiles cards from the top of your library until it hits a nonland card, puts three time counters on it, and gives it suspend if it didn't have it. Each of your upkeeps removes a counter, and when the last one is gone you cast the card for free. Late in the game you can pay seven mana at sorcery speed to time travel three times, which can bring several suspended cards in at once.

Time travel is the deck's engine. Each time you do it, you may add or remove a time counter on every suspended card you own and every permanent you control with one. Wibbly-wobbly, Timey-wimey , Time Beetle and All of History, All at Once all do it, and The Ninth Doctor gives you an extra upkeep whenever it untaps during your untap step, so attacking with it each turn makes every suspended card tick twice.

Rose Tyler is the companion and grows with time counters, so she turns into a big attacker once a few cards are suspended. Cards like Star Whale , Judoon Enforcers and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship have cheap suspend costs, so you can set them up early and cast them for free a few turns later.

What works out of the box

The Tenth Doctor ↗

Every attack exiles your next nonland card with three time counters and suspend. Each of those is a free spell a few turns later.

The Ninth Doctor ↗

A three-mana haste creature. When it untaps during your untap step you get an extra upkeep, so if it attacked last turn, every suspended card loses two counters instead of one.

The Face of Boe ↗

Lets you cast a suspend card from your hand for its suspend cost at sorcery speed, which skips the waiting and still saves most of the mana.

Kate Stewart ↗

Makes a 1/1 Soldier whenever you put time counters on a permanent you control. Time travel, Rose Tyler's attacks and the vanishing cards all do that.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship ↗

Suspend it early and it makes a 2/2 flying, hasty Dinosaur every time a counter comes off. By the time it lands, it has built its own army.

Regenerations Restored ↗

Two mana that scries and gains life as its counters come off, then gives you an extra turn when the last one is removed. Time travel gets there much faster than twelve upkeeps.

What needs improvement

The land base gives up color for utility. Temple of the False God , Ominous Cemetery , Thespian's Stage , War Room and Rogue's Passage all tap for colorless, and the deck also runs three Temples, Mystic Monastery and a Thriving land that enter tapped. In three colors that adds up to hands where you can't cast the two-color creatures on curve.

There are a few cards that work against the plan. Wedding Ring gives an opponent a copy, Everything Comes to Dust costs ten mana before convoke, and Nanogene Conversion needs a board you rarely have. The deck also can't stop a spell on the stack, which matters because the payoff for suspend is a slow build that one board wipe can undo.

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. Trade colorless utility lands for duals

Three colors and several two-color cards mean the deck needs colored mana more than it needs land abilities. Swapping out the weakest utility lands makes your early turns far more reliable.

What to look for Lands that enter untapped and make two of your colors, or that fetch a basic of any type. Keep one or two utility lands if you value them, but not five.

Cut, for example

✕

Temple of the False God Taps for nothing until you control five lands, which is exactly when you need it least.

✕

Ominous Cemetery A colorless land whose ability costs five mana and only shuffles a creature away. Real removal does that better.

✕

Thespian's Stage Copies a land for three mana total. The deck has no land worth copying, so it is a colorless land in practice.

Add, for example

Sulfur Falls ↗

Enters untapped as long as you control an Island or a Mountain, and makes either color.

Shivan Reef ↗

Always enters untapped. It costs a point of life for colored mana, which is cheap next to a lost turn.

Fabled Passage ↗

Fetches any basic, including a Plains, and untaps it once you control four lands.

2. Suspend more cards and tick them down faster

The deck wins by having many suspended cards resolve for free. More ways to put cards into suspend, and more upkeeps to tick them down, make that happen in time to matter.

What to look for Cards that give nonland cards suspend, add or remove time counters, or give you extra upkeep steps.

Cut, for example

✕

Nanogene Conversion Four mana to make every other creature a copy of one of yours for a turn. It only matters if your board is already strong and theirs is weak.

✕

Adipose Offspring Four mana for two 2/2s, or more with emerge. Fine filler, but it does nothing with time counters.

Add, for example

Jhoira of the Ghitu ↗

For two mana, exiles a nonland card from your hand with four time counters and gives it suspend. Any expensive card becomes a free spell later.

Paradox Haze ↗

Enchant yourself and you get an extra upkeep each turn, which doubles how fast every suspended card counts down.

Shivan Sand-Mage ↗

Removes two time counters from a suspended card when it enters. You can also suspend it for one mana and get the trigger later.

3. Draw cards without helping the table

Several of the deck's draw effects also feed opponents. One-sided card advantage keeps your hand stocked with things to suspend without giving anyone else a boost.

What to look for Instants or suspend cards that draw two or more cards for you alone. Suspend draw spells are a bonus here, since time travel speeds them up.

Cut, for example

✕

Wedding Ring Four mana, and an opponent gets their own copy. You only draw when they draw on their own turn, so it is often a gift.

✕

Everything Comes to Dust Ten mana before convoke, and it exiles every artifact and enchantment, including your own. Farewell does the same job for six.

Add, for example

Ancestral Vision ↗

One mana to suspend, then three cards four turns later. Time travel can make that two turns or fewer.

Fact or Fiction ↗

Four mana at instant speed to look at five cards and take the better pile. One of the most reliable draw spells in blue.

Big Score ↗

Discard a card to draw two and make two Treasures. The mana helps you pay suspend costs on the same turn.

4. Hold up a counterspell

A suspend deck commits its next few turns in advance, so one board wipe or combo from an opponent costs it a lot. Blue gives you cheap ways to say no.

What to look for Counterspells for two mana or less, ideally ones that fit the time-counter theme.

Cut, for example

✕

Coward // Killer Coward stops one blocker and time travels once; Killer is a four-mana sorcery for 3 damage. Neither half is strong enough to keep a slot.

✕

Astrid Peth A two-mana 2/2 that makes Food and explores when you sacrifice it. It has very little to do with suspend or time travel.

Add, for example

Delay ↗

Counters a spell and suspends it with three time counters. The owner gets it back later, but you get three turns of breathing room and it plays well with time travel.

Counterspell ↗

Two mana to counter anything, with no condition.

Arcane Denial ↗

Two mana to counter any spell. The caster draws two later, so keep it for the spells that would end the game.

Win conditions

The deck wins by stacking free spells. Suspended creatures like Star Whale , Judoon Enforcers and Dinosaurs on a Spaceship arrive with haste, Kate Stewart fills the board with Soldiers along the way, and her attack trigger or Rose Tyler growing off time counters finishes the job. Regenerations Restored can add an extra turn on top. The upgrades make the engine faster and harder to disrupt.

Who should buy this precon

A good fit for someone who enjoys planning several turns ahead and doesn't mind tracking counters on cards in exile. There is more bookkeeping here than in most precons, since each time travel asks you to decide card by card whether to add or remove a counter. Players who want an aggressive deck that does everything on the turn it casts it will find this one slow.

Checked against the printed decklist on October 10, 2026.