Blogtor Who has entered the world of Battles in Time with a fast growing collection of these fun and beautiful Doctor Who trading cards
Those who’ve been following along with Blogtor Who’s Instagram Reels and TikTok will already know how much he’s been enjoying the reinvigorated Battles in Time from Master Replicas. We’ve has now opened a whole box of the Obliterator set, along with the packs for the First Doctor and the Second Doctor.
The collectible card game originally ran from 2006 to 2009 and covered Series One to Series Four. Now it’s back, and expanding to cover all the seasons before those seasons and those since. Each character features a different character, object, or action, with the own power rating, as well as offensive and defensive strengths for intelligence, agility, stamina, special abilities, and fear factor. When competing against another player, these scores determine the winner, but objects like the sonic sunglasses or the Moment have special actions that can change everything.
However, the real appeal here is just how gorgeous all the cards look. Many of the modern eras of Doctor Who featured fantastic, high resolution photographs and they’ve rarely looked better than when produced on the glossy Battles in Time cards. But Master Replicas also do wonders with the photos from the 1960s. Wonderfully, they’re resisted any urge to colourise them, and the black and white image look simply beautiful here.
Building a complete set with depend on a great deal of trading with your fellow fans, but even an incomplete set is a lovely thing to behold
The Obliterator set consists of 142 individual cards, 92 of which are Common, 40 are Rare, and 10 are Super Rare. Each packet of six cards contains 5 Commons, either 1 Rare (in 9 out of 10 packs) or 1 Super Rare (in 1 out of 10 packs.) Although to add to the fun, or complexity, whichever way you want to look at it, there are also Vortex cards to be found in 1 in 720 packs, and 6 oversized Box Toppers, with 1 in every box of 36 packs.
If that that all makes building a complete collection sound like a daunting task, then you’d be right. You could spend over £2,000 on boxes and still only probably find an ultra-rare Vortex card. Leaving that aside, even putting together the full 142 cards on the main set will depend on some canny trading with other collectors. In Blogtor Who’s review box from Master Replicas, we wound up with 55 Commons, 15 Rares, and 2 Super Rares, with the rest of the box doubles of those cards. So more or less half of the entire set.
However, few things worth doing are easy, and the thrill of finding a new card, versus the good natured groan finding your twelfth Mr. Sweet from The Crimson Horror, is more benign and pleasant than a visit to the casino. In any event, even an incomplete set is a delightful thing to have between your Target Books and Blu-rays.
The Doctor sets, however, feature 15 cards in every packet, giving you their entire set of Rare cards in one go
There are no such concerns with the First Doctor and Second Doctor sets. Each is a single packet of 15 Rare cards, highlighting companions and monsters from their respective eras. Plus, of course, the Hartnell and Troughton Doctors themselves. Moreover, this is just the start, with more such self-contained sets for each classic Doctor arriving each month. Though it will be interesting to see how the team get 15 cards out of the Eighth Doctor era.
There’s also a full Dalek Invasion set, following fast on the heels of Obliterator, and even a new Doctor set for Circuit Breaker. It seems clear that the regenerated Battles in Time is here to stay. And while it may not be the most inexpensive hobby, whether you’re a Tennant baby looking for a hit of nostalgia, a dedicated gaming enthusiast bringing two interests together, or the newest of fans encountering Doctor Who’s long legacy in a fun and visually appealing way, it doesn’t disappoint.
You can follow along with Blogtor Who’s Battles in Time journey on Instagram and TikTok. Meanwhile, you can start your own Battles in Time collection by ordering from the Master Replicas page.
