Legendary Creature — Treefolk Shaman

Doran, the Siege Tower

Mana value3EDHREC#5,344

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The Commander

Each creature assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power.

Guide

Gameplan

Doran turns toughness into offense, so you flood the board with high-toughness, low-power creatures and beat down with bodies that also block exceptionally well. You ramp into Doran early, protect him, and convert a sturdy defensive board into lethal damage—often via a wide attack or one big toughness creature swinging for huge numbers.

Strengths

Defensive creatures double as threats, making your board hard to attack into while still applying pressure
Abzan colors give access to premium removal, ramp, and recursion
Synergizes with damage-doubling and toughness-boosting effects for explosive turns
Walls and defenders that normally can't attack become real win conditions

Weaknesses

Heavily commander-dependent; without Doran your toughness creatures hit for little
Board wipes and -X/-X effects undo your work quickly
Slow against dedicated combo decks that don't care about your blockers
Power-based pump and trample effects are largely dead cards here

Key Cards

Assault Formation — A redundant Doran effect that also lets Defenders attack and pumps toughness, crucial backup if Doran is removed.
High Alert — Another Doran-style anthem that untaps creatures, enabling defenders to attack and block.
Wakestone Gargoyle — Lets your defensive creatures attack and can grant the team that ability.
Sun Titan — Recurs Doran-style enablers and toughness creatures with low mana value, providing resilience.
Tetzimoc, Primal Death — A 10-toughness body that swings for huge damage under Doran while clearing blockers.
Doubling Season — Pairs with token strategies to flood the board with toughness-based attackers.

Upgrade Path

Add redundant Doran effects (Assault Formation, High Alert) and toughness pump like Unbreakable Formation and overrun-style effects to enable explosive turns. Improve the mana base with Abzan duals/fetches and add efficient ramp and tutors (Worldly Tutor, Eladamri's Call) to find Doran or backups. Lean into a focused plan—either Defenders synergy or a wide token shell—rather than a generalist pile to raise consistency.

Core Cards

The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.

Win Conditions

▸Alpha strike with a wide board of toughness-based attackers
▸Pump a single defender's toughness and swing for commander damage
▸Combat damage doubling via cards like Gratuitous Violence or Dictate of the Twins effects
▸Grind value and win through attrition with recursion and removal

Archetypes

Toughness Tribal/Voltron — Doran makes a single high-toughness creature a one-shot threat when pumped.
Defenders/Walls — Enablers like Assault Formation let your Walls swing while remaining great blockers.
Go-Wide Tokens — Many small but tough bodies become a lethal alpha strike under Doran.
Midrange Value — Abzan removal and recursion grind opponents out while sturdy creatures stabilize the board.