Timey-Wimey precon upgrade guide

Six of the 37 lands in this box tap for colorless mana only, and the calculator gives you {W}{W} by turn three just 69.4% of the time on the play.

The Tenth Doctor costs {3}{U}{R} and Rose Tyler costs {1}{W}, so the two commanders cover three colors before a land is played. Thespian's Stage, War Room, Temple of the False God, Ominous Cemetery, Rogue's Passage and Myriad Landscape don't help with that, because all six tap for colorless only. Six spells print {W}{W} or more: Atraxi Warden, Everything Comes to Dust, Farewell, Grasp of Fate, Out of Time and Wedding Ring. The box has 24 white sources for them. Red is the thinnest color at 22 sources, with three cards that print {R}{R}.

The second finding is about the clock. Every time Rose Tyler attacks she grows by one counter for each suspended card you own and each other permanent you control with a time counter on it. The box has six cards with suspend printed on them, nine permanents that put counters on themselves (Wilfred Mott, Four Knocks, Crack in Time, Regenerations Restored, Idris, Rotating Fireplace, Trenzalore Clocktower, The Moment and As Foretold) and eight cards that time travel. What it lacks is a way to suspend a card from your hand whenever you like. The Wedding of River Song does it once, as a sorcery, and The Eleventh Doctor needs combat damage to connect.

What are the best Timey-Wimey upgrades?

The suspend enabler first, then the instant-speed answers the box doesn't have, then the mana. Prices are October 2026 market prices at the cheapest released printing, which can be a promo.

1. Jhoira of the Ghitu ($0.26). Pay {2} and exile a nonland card from your hand at any time, and it gets four time counters and suspend if it lacks it. Every card she suspends is one more counter on Rose each attack, and a spell you couldn't afford arrives free four upkeeps later.
2. Swords to Plowshares ($0.92) and Path to Exile ($0.71). Exile target creature for {W} at instant speed. The box has four instants and none of them answers a single creature.
3. Hourglass of the Lost ($0.37). It taps for {W} and puts a time counter on itself each time. That's a permanent with a counter for Rose and, with Kate Stewart out, a 1/1 Soldier on every tap.
4. Taigam, Master Opportunist ($0.96). Your second spell each turn is copied, and the original is exiled with four time counters instead of resolving. It comes back free four upkeeps later.
5. Sulfur Falls ($0.18), Clifftop Retreat ($0.21), Adarkar Wastes ($0.34) and Hallowed Fountain ($6.90). Four lands that make two colors each, argued in the mana section. Hallowed Fountain is $6.90 of the $10.85 total, and it's the part to buy last.

Four lands that make no color become four that make two

The four lands that leave are the ones with the least to say for themselves. Ominous Cemetery taps for {C}, and for {5} more it shuffles a creature into its owner's library and exiles itself. Temple of the False God taps for {C}{C} only once you control five lands, and that's mana a three-color deck can't spend on colored costs. War Room draws a card for {3} and three life, one life for each color in the commanders' identity. Thespian's Stage becomes a copy of another land for {2}, so it's a colorless land that turns into a colored one after you've paid for the privilege. Rogue's Passage and Myriad Landscape stay, because a way to push the Doctor through a board and a land that fetches two basics are both doing something.

In their place go Sulfur Falls (blue or red, and it enters untapped if you control an Island or a Mountain), Clifftop Retreat (red or white, with a Mountain or a Plains), Adarkar Wastes (white or blue, always untapped, 1 damage when you tap it for color) and Hallowed Fountain (white or blue, untapped if you pay 2 life). Eight lands in the box carry the Island or Mountain type that Sulfur Falls looks for: the three Islands, the three Mountains, Prairie Stream and Irrigated Farmland. Eight carry the Mountain or Plains type Clifftop Retreat wants. The box already runs Sunbaked Canyon and Fiery Islet, so the extra life is not a new cost for this deck.

With those four, plus Hourglass of the Lost as a white source, the totals go from 22 red, 25 blue and 24 white to 24 red, 28 blue and 28 white. The chance of {W}{W} by turn three on the play moves from 69.4% to 78.5%, and {R}{R} by turn six from 80.1% to 84.5%. Blue needs a caveat. Flesh Duplicate was the only {U}{U} card below four mana, and it's one of the cuts, so the blue double-pip check now starts at turn four, where 28 sources give 83.7%. I'd be overselling it to call any of this solved. Getting {W}{W} on turn three to 90% takes 36 white sources, and this list ends at 28.

The always-tapped count stays at eight. The three Temples scry, Irrigated Farmland cycles, Mystic Monastery makes all three colors and Thriving Bluff and Path of Ancestry make two or three colors, so none of them is a free cut. Hallowed Fountain is reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so its $6.90 may fall, and it's the one add I'd wait on.

What Rose counts, what Kate doesn't, and what the Doctor costs

Three payoffs count time counters and each counts something different, which decides what is worth adding. Rose Tyler counts permanents and suspended cards, one each, however many counters sit on them. Kate Stewart makes a 1/1 Soldier each time you put counters on a permanent, and the ruling says that doesn't happen for cards in exile. Her attack pump counts counters on permanents only. The War Doctor gets a counter whenever other permanents phase out or other cards are exiled, and deals that much damage when he attacks. A single Tenth Doctor trigger exiles at least one card, so it feeds him on its own.

That's why the adds look the way they do. Hourglass of the Lost is a rock that gives Kate a Soldier every turn you tap it, and Trenzalore Clocktower does the same for blue. Jhoira is the on-demand version of what The Tenth Doctor does at random, and Taigam turns the second spell you cast each turn into a suspended card as well as a copy. The Millennium Calendar looks like the right kind of card and isn't. Doubling its counters does nothing for Rose, who counts the Calendar once.

The Tenth Doctor's trigger has a price. It exiles from the top of your library until it reaches a nonland card, and the ruling says any lands exiled that way stay in exile. With 37 lands among 98 library cards, an attack from a fresh library exiles 37 ÷ 62, about 0.6 lands. The attack also hands you a free spell three upkeeps later and a counter for The War Doctor, which I'd pay.

Five spells out, starting with the one that hands your opponents a copy

Fractured Identity exiles a nonland permanent and every player other than its controller creates a token copy of it. Aimed at an opponent's permanent in a four-player pod, that is three copies and one of them is yours. It costs {3}{W}{U}, and the two other opponents each walk away with a copy of the thing you spent the card to remove.

Nanogene Conversion makes each creature other than the one you choose a copy of it until end of turn, and that includes every other creature you control. Your own commanders and Doctors stop being themselves on a sorcery that costs four. Run for Your Life gives one or two creatures haste and keeps anything without haste from blocking them. Lightning Greaves already gives haste for {0} to equip, and Psychic Paper covers the evasion.

Wedding Ring gives one opponent a copy of itself, and from then on a card the other player draws on their own turn draws you one too, and the same goes for life they gain. In a four-player pod the other two opponents are untouched, and it's one of the six cards that print {W}{W}. Flesh Duplicate has a rules problem in this deck. It enters as a copy of any creature on the battlefield with vanishing 3 added, and 16 of the box's 24 creatures are legendary, so a copy of your own creature trips the legend rule. That leaves an opponent's creature as the only target, for {U}{U} on turn two in a three-color deck, and it is sacrificed at your third upkeep after it arrives.

Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile come in for two of those cuts. They're the only cards in the list that answer one creature at instant speed, which is what you want when something threatens a Doctor mid-combat. Swords gives the controller life equal to the creature's power, and Path lets them fetch a basic land.

A six-drop saga and two equipment stay, and so do the non-Humans

The Parting of the Ways is a six-mana saga with no evasion, which is the reason a deckbuilder would cut it. Chapter I exiles the top five cards and puts a number of time counters on each nonland card equal to its mana value, with suspend if it lacks it. Chapter II time travels twice, so you can strip up to two counters from each of them, and chapter III destroys up to one artifact per opponent. From a fresh library five cards means about 3.1 spells and 1.9 lands, and the lands are gone for good. That's a real price, but the spells arrive free and each is another counter on Rose every time she attacks.

Psychic Paper and Lightning Greaves look like single-creature attachments, which is how a go-wide list would see them. The Tenth Doctor's trigger needs one attacker, not many. Paper makes it unblockable with ward {1}, and on Rose, who is only a Human, choosing "Rose Tyler" and "Human" adds only the evasion and ward {1}. On a Doctor it would replace his types with the single one you choose, so put it on Rose. An unblockable Rose attacks every turn, and her attack starts the Doctor's trigger too. The two don't share a creature, either. Greaves gives shroud, and shroud stops the equip ability from targeting that creature, so move Greaves first (equip {0}).

The third instinct to resist is cutting the creatures that aren't Humans. 11 of the box's 24 creatures are Humans and nothing rewards them except Path of Ancestry, which only scries. The types with support are Time Lord and Doctor. Trenzalore Clocktower and TARDIS both check that you control a Time Lord, The Eleventh Hour fetches a Doctor and then discounts Doctor spells, and four of the non-Humans are Time Lords: The Ninth Doctor, The Eleventh Doctor, The War Doctor and Jenny.

Five board resets, and one of them can skip your own side

Five cards in the box clear a board, which is a lot for a commander that wants to attack. Gallifrey Falls // No More is the one that can be one-sided. It's a fuse card, so cast from your hand with both halves for {4}{R}{R}{2}{W} it deals 4 damage to each creature, exiling what would die, and phases out any of your creatures that you target. The ruling puts the damage first and the phasing second. Cast from anywhere but your hand, you get one half only. The Tenth Doctor and The War Doctor have toughness 5, so they take the 4 damage and stay.

Farewell exiles any combination of artifacts, creatures, enchantments and graveyards, and it's the deck's only Game Changer. Everything Comes to Dust costs ten with convoke and exiles every artifact and enchantment, yours included, plus every creature that doesn't share a type with one that convoked it. The Day of the Doctor chapter IV lets you choose up to three Doctors and exile every other creature, and you take 13 damage if you do. The Moment destroys each nonland permanent with mana value up to its counters, which is one more each upkeep, and it takes your own permanents with it.

I kept all five, and Everything Comes to Dust is the one I'd cut next. It exiles Sol Ring and every other rock along with the enchantments that carry your counters, and it needs the most things to go right.

What I left out, with prices

Shivan Reef ($0.22) and Battlefield Forge ($0.20) are painlands, 1 life per colored tap, that would replace Myriad Landscape and Path of Ancestry if you want fewer tapped lands, and they cost almost nothing. Steam Vents ($9.91) and Sacred Foundry ($10.28) would help red most, but they're reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026 alongside Hallowed Fountain, so wait. Raugrin Triome ($15.63) enters tapped and makes the same three colors as Mystic Monastery, which the box already runs. Mox Tantalite ($11.08) costs {0} to suspend and arrives three upkeeps later as a mana rock of any color, and it counts as a suspended card for Rose from the turn you exile it. That's the one card here I'd call good and still skip, because it's more than the whole list and it's slow. None of the cards in this guide is a Game Changer apart from the Farewell already in the box.

What the nine swaps change

The deck stays at 37 lands and the average mana value falls from 3.61 to 3.49. Cards costing four or more go from 26 to 23, cards costing one from 2 to 4, and the creature count rises from 24 to 25 counting the commanders, with legendary creatures going from 16 to 18. Always-tapped lands stay at eight. Sources of red, blue and white go to 24, 28 and 28. The bracket floor stays at 3 and the only reason is still Farewell.

The upgraded decklist

The Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler and the 98 with all nine swaps made, sorted by card type. Hovering any name shows the card.

Load into the deck builder Copy decklist Playtest the upgraded deck

“Load into the deck builder” opens this list in your account, pinned to the printings the box shipped, ready to edit or save. “Copy decklist” gives you plain text for Moxfield, Archidekt or Arena, with no account needed.

FAQ

Can I run Martha Jones, Donna Noble or Amy Pond instead of Rose Tyler?

Legally, yes. The Tenth Doctor is a Time Lord Doctor with no other creature types, so any Doctor's companion can sit beside him, and the box includes three besides Rose: Martha Jones, Donna Noble and Amy Pond. The cost is color identity. Pairing him with any of the three leaves blue and red, and 44 of the other 98 cards in the box have white in their identity, so nearly half the list would be illegal.

Does Rose Tyler grow once per card or once per counter?

Once per card or permanent. Her attack trigger puts a time counter on her for each suspended card you own and each other permanent you control with a time counter on it, so a card with six counters counts the same as a card with one. That's why a new suspended card is worth more to her than adding counters to an old one, and why The Millennium Calendar does nothing extra for her.

How many lands does The Tenth Doctor's attack trigger exile?

About 0.6 from a fresh library. It exiles cards from the top until it reaches a nonland card, the ruling says any lands exiled that way stay in exile, and 37 of the 98 library cards are lands, which gives 37 divided by 62. The nonland card it finds gets three time counters and suspend, so you cast it free three upkeeps later.

Is Timey-Wimey a Bracket 3 deck, and what would make it a 2?

It's Bracket 3 because of one card, Farewell, which is a Game Changer. None of the nine adds is one, and nothing else in the list sets a floor. A table that plays Bracket 2 would need Farewell out, and the list would otherwise be unchanged.

Does Gallifrey Falls // No More kill my own creatures?

Only if you cast Gallifrey Falls alone. It deals 4 damage to each creature, yours included, and anything that would die is exiled instead. Cast both halves from your hand for {4}{R}{R}{2}{W} and target your creatures with No More, and the ruling is that the damage comes first and the phasing second, so they are dealt 4 and then phase out until your next untap step. From any zone but your hand you can cast only one half.

What does upgrading Timey-Wimey cost?

$10.85 for all nine adds at October 2026 market prices, using the cheapest released printing of each. Hallowed Fountain is $6.90 of that, and the other eight together are $3.95. Hallowed Fountain is reprinted in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so its price may fall.

Do the two commanders' combat damage add up to 21?

No. They are tracked separately, so a player loses after 21 combat damage from The Tenth Doctor or 21 from Rose Tyler, not 21 combined. Casting one doesn't add the {2} tax to the other either. Rose is a 2/2 that gets +1/+1 for each counter on her, and The Tenth Doctor is a 3/5.