The Abzan clan often prioritize graveyard and attrition strategies to systematically deplete their opponents’ resources until they create an opening for the decisive final blow.

However, Doran, Besieged by Time, brings forward an unorthodox style of play in abzan, by channeling the power of the forest, and all the defensive, but harmless creatures that live on it. We’re looking into a Kindred Toughness-matter style aggro deck, bringing forward the forest to overwhelm your opponents in a swift but brutal way.

Doran’s Premise

Doran, Besieged by Time. By himself it seems pretty underwhelming, a 0/5 for four mana seems like a passive defensive creature. That’s until you look at his abilities. First off, he’ll act as a cost reductor for every creature you cast that has more toughness than power, allowing you to stay ahead of the curve just by having it on the battlefield.

His second ability, a trigger that will give +X/+X to any creature you control that is attacking or blocking, where X is the difference between their power and toughness. Just with this ability, Doran turns himself into an effective 5/10 every time he’s in combat.

Thanks to these abilities, we will be using low power, high toughness creatures, often overlooked by opponents because of their defensive nature, to maximize Doran’s Ability

This deck is classified as a Bracket 3, with high chances of performing decently as a Bracket 4. This makes it a perfect fit for mid-power pods where interaction is frequent but not oppressive.

Core Gameplay

Being in Abzan colors gives you access to green spells, allowing you to ramp up your mana base in a way to keep you ahead of the curve more often than not in every single game.

Early Game, Plant the Seeds

Your early game should be focused on ramping up your mana base, this deck comes with the staples Arcane Signet and Sol Ring to help you with that, it also comes with ramping spells like Cultivate, Farseek, Nature's Lore and Three Visits to help you gather your mana as quickly as possible.

Finally, creatures like Treefolk Harbinger or Bosk Banneret are there to help you to stay ahead, by tutoring a land or by reducing the cost of all your Treefolks.

All of this is to ensure that you could cast Doran as soon as possible.

Mid Game, Tend the Seedlings

The mid game is where you should be making your hard plays. With Doran, Besieged by Time, already on the battlefield. Even a single high-toughness creature like Indomitable Ancients becomes a major threat.

Spells like Assault Formation or Doran, the Siege Tower brings something extremely powerful to the table, by making each creature assign combat damage equal to their toughness rather than their power. Effectively doubling the damage your creatures deal. Keep in mind, Doran, the Siege Tower is a symmetrical effect, so he’ll also, more often than not, lower the damage your opponents creatures do.

There’s an interaction between Orchard Warden and Treebeard, Gracious Host, as most of your creatures are Treefolks, you’ll be gaining hefty amounts of life thanks to Orchard Warden, while using Treebeard to distribute +1/+1 counters on your Treefolks thanks to that. 

Late Game, Deploy the Forest Wrath

In the late-game, you’ll be dominating the battlefield with your massive, high-toughness threats. The game will end through overwhelming combat damage. 

If the board becomes cluttered and difficult to traverse, Akroma's Will will grant your forest with evasion and protection to ensure they’ll deal with your opponents. 

If you need a final push to end the game, Tower Defense is a powerful combat trick for that purpose. This spell frequently results in a game-ending state. If a player needs a more clinical finish, they execute the infinite life-loss combo. This interaction is provided by specific pieces in the decklist.

Decklist

• Recommended Bracket: 3
• Price: $245.00

We’re looking at a Bracket 3 deck that would perform decently good in a Bracket 4 pod thanks to the synergies it has. It is a high-velocity deck for the Abzan colours. The price is in the middle of the road because we’re using specific high power utility cards like Akroma's Will and Formidable Speaker. This deck is designed to keep your dominance of the board while being resilient enough to reach the late-game.

Creatures that will Guard the Grove

The creatures in this deck were chosen to bring out the power of the forest, either by being strong Treefolks by themself, or by being small folks that will tend to the forest.

Slow and Steady Treefolks

When thinking of the Treefolk kin, we often see slow and defensive creatures, with high mana values, and we almost never think of them as aggressive creatures. But the forest never sleeps, and its Treekin are always prepared to defend it.

Ancient Lumberknot is a perfect example of this. Reinforcing the style of play of this deck by allowing your creatures to assign their damage through their toughness rather than their power.

Black Poplar Shaman will help you tend your Treefolks by regenerating them, making it almost impossible to remove them from the battlefield. 

In case one of your creatures dies, Colfenor, the Last Yew, provides incredible recursion by returning another target creature with lesser toughness than the creature that died to your hand from the graveyard.

Everbark Shaman will assure you that even if a Treefolk dies, it will still be part of the forest, by exiling a Treefolk from the graveyard, it will fetch you two forest cards from your deck and will put them on the battlefield tapped.

Fangorn, Tree Shepherd might seems like a difficult creature to play, costing a wooping seven mana for a 4/10, but it will provide your Treefolks with vigilance, giving you two green mana per treefolk that is attacking and ensuring that you won’t lose that mana as phases end.

Remember what I said about the hefty mana cost of the Treefolk Kin? Leaf-Crowned Elder comes in a clutch to allow you to look at the top of your library at the beginning of your upkeep, if the card is a creature that shares a type with him, you may reveal it, and then you may play it without paying its mana cost.

Thorntooth Witch is a powerful way to deal with your opponent creatures, as it will give +3/-3 to target creature every time you play a Treefolk spell, allowing you to circumvent indestructible creatures. 

The Trees Provides a Safehouse to Anyone

A forest is an ecosystem of its own, having a vast amount of fauna in it that lives with the trees in a symbiotic way. These creatures were selected because they will tend the forest and keep it alive.

Utility Creatures

Arasta of the Endless Web is here to punish those greedy spellslinger players, as she will be creating small 1/2 spider tokens with reach any time an opponent casts an instant or sorcery. These spiders might seem small, but they will provide you with a safety net against flying creatures.

Abzan Beastmaster allows you to draw an extra card every turn. This trigger is almost guaranteed due to the high toughness of your creatures. Beast Whisperer is also included to ensure you’ll have a full hand most of the time as this is a creature heavy deck. 

Baldin, Century Herdmaster provides you with more options to allow your creatures to deal damage with their toughness rather than their power. Being a 0/7 by himself seems pretty underwhelming, but Doran will turn him into a 7/14, and also, when Baldin attacks, he will give +0/+X to up to one hundred creatures, where X is the number of cards in your hand, profiting on keeping your hand full.

Formidable Speaker one of the new Lorwyn Eclipsed creatures will tutoring you a creature card when it enters by the measly cost of discarding a card.

Voice of Victory finds his home in the forest by preventing your opponents to cast spells during your turn.

Commanding the Forest from the Shadows

There’s moments in a game of commander that your commander can’t be casted that easily, this two creatures will work as commanders of sorts for this deck when needed.

Betor, Kin to All will work as a second in command of sorts, by giving you three powerful effects based upon the combined toughness your creatures have at the beginning of your end step:

• If your creatures have a total toughness of 10 or greater. Draw a card
• If your creatures have a total toughness of 20 or greater. Untap every creature you control 
• If your creatures have a total toughness of 40 or greater. Each opponent loses half of their life, rounded up.

Keep in mind, these effects are cumulative and will turn your forest into a more oppressive battlefield to deal with.

Felothar the Steadfast will work as a third in command. A 0/5 for four mana that will allow your creatures to deal damage with their toughness rather than their power. While also allowing your defenders to attack as if they aren’t defenders.

Lastly, by sacrificing a creature, you’ll draw cards equal to the toughness and then discard cards equal to the power of the creature, in most cases, only drawing you cards.

A Magical Forest Awaiting to Unleash It’s Wrath

This deck tries to strike a good balance between instants and sorceries to keep the battlefield under your control.

Blooming Sorceries

As the Treekin that compose this deck, this spells are naturally slow to cast, but will provide a good resource of power in a pinch, these sorceries were chosen to guarantee that you always have access to lands and ways to deal with your opponents’ battlefield.

Bloodline Bidding is a powerful kindred mass reanimation spell that Lorwyn Eclipsed brought and will help you regrow your battlefield in the case that you suffer some major losses between Treefolks.

Crippling Fear and Expel the Interlopers grants you a way to deal with your opponents board, keeping them as a barren field open to your creatures to wander in and deal some good damage without having to worry about losing yours.

What is a good ol’ green deck without their ever faithful ramp spells? Cultivate, Farseek, Nature's Lore, Tend the Sprigs and Three Visits are some of, if not, the most powerful sorceries you could have in this deck, by allowing you to fetch the lands you need.

Finally, a good commander deck needs ways to draw cards, Pact of the Serpent allows you to draw cards equal to the number of creatures of the chosen type you control, at the cost of that same amount of life, but then again, we’re looking at gaining life in this deck.

Also, Spry and Mighty, another new addition from Lorwyn Eclipsed, allows you to choose two creatures you control and then draw X cards and give two creatures you control +X/+X and trample, where X is the difference of power between the creatures you’ve chosen.

Swift Measures Against Threats

The living forest if nothing without its commander, the instants you’ll find in this deck were chosen to give you a way to deal with targeted threats or to protect your most important creatures from harm.

Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile are the staples of targeted removal in white, for a single mana they will deal with any creature your opponent controls. 

Overkill will help you deal with any creature with indestructible your opponents might have.

Beast Within and Despark are there to deal with permanents other than just creatures, helping you deal with disruptive artifacts or enchantments.

Akroma's Will is the ultimate finisher. It grants your entire board protection, lifelink, double strike and flying, to mention some of the benefits it provides that will help you deal the last points of damage to your opponents, or even, protecting your creatures from a boardwipe. 

Revitalizing Repast, your only MDFC in the deck, for one mana it will give a +1/+1 counter to target creature and give it indestructible until end of turn, serving as a good protection spell for one creature, and if needed you could play it as Old-Growth Grove, a dual golgari land.

Restoration Magic more often than not we will cast it by its tiered cost of zero providing target permanent of Hexproof and Indestructible until end of turn.

Crop Rotation is our game changer, providing you with land at instant speed, by the cost of sacrificing a land.

Tower Defense acts as a massive buff. For two mana, the player adds +0/+5 to every creature you control. This can result in an additional 40+ damage in a single turn.

Artifacts and Enchantments: Ruins of Civilization Overgrowth by Nature

Finally, we need to speak of our Artifacts and Enchantments that will provide us with the correct amount of static buff for our creatures.

Artifacts Left to Rot

There’s only five artifacts in this deck, but all of them were chosen to help you develop the wrath of the eternal forest. 

Sol Ring and Arcane Signet, at this point if a deck doesn’t run them they better have a good reason to, these mana rocks will provide you with early mana production

Chronicle of Victory another Lorwyn Eclised powerhouse projected to become a staple in kindred decks, by giving +2/+2, first strike and trample to all creatures of the type you choose when it enters while also making you draw cards whenever you cast a creature of the chosen type.

Don’t let the six mana cost deceive you, this artifact will enter the battlefield earlier than you might suspect. 

There’s no kindred deck that doesn’t want Herald's Horn in it, as it will not only reduce the cost of the creatures of the chosen type by one generic mana, it also allows you to look the top card of your deck in your upkeep, and if that card is a creature of the chosen type, you may reveal it and put it into your hand, and then draw your card of turn.

Colfenor's Urn is a unique addition. It exiles your creatures with 4 or more toughness when they die. 

Then, at the beginning of the end step, if there are three or more creatures exiled this way, you’ll sacrifice the urn and return all those creatures to the battlefield under their owner’s control. Effectively countering the effects of any boardwipe that doesn’t deal with artifacts.

Whimsical Enchantments Leftovers

Enchantments also come in a low count in this deck, just enough to provide the correct amount of support for your forest.

Assault Formation is the last form of redundancy to give your creatures a way to deal damage using their toughness. 

Garruk's Uprising will give your creatures trample, and will be providing you with cards any time a creature with power 4 or greater enters the battlefield under your control. 

Glorious Sunrise offers several options to choose at the beginning of combat on your turn.

• Gives your creatures +1/+1 and trample until end of turn
• Gives one target land you control the capability to give you three green mana until the end of turn.
• Draw a card if you control a creature with power 3 or greater.
• Gives you 3 life points.

While it can seem a little underwhelming at times, Glorious Sunrise will always give you what you need every turn.

Jaws of Defeat is a critical piece for the deck’s only combo. We’ll talk about it later. But if you don’t have the combo pieces together, it will deal damage to target opponent equal to the difference between power and toughness of any creature that enters the battlefield under your control.

Finally, another addition from Lorwyn Eclipsed, Sapling Nursery, don’t let its hefty cost fools you, it comes with Affinity for Forest, meaning it will enter the battlefield sooner rather than later.

It’s our only landfall card in the deck, and will create a 3/4 green Treefolk creature token with reach, helping you grow your battlefield by every land you play.

It also works as an emergency button by giving indestructible to every Treefolk and forest you control until the end of turn, at the cost of exiling it.

Feeding an Opponent to the Jaws of the Forest

This deck features one combo that will remove one player from the game instantly. Relying on the synergy between Overkill and Jaws of Defeat. This combo works as follows:

This combo requires Overkill in the hand and Jaws of Defeat on the battlefield. The combo also needs a creature to enter the battlefield under your control. 

Once you have all those requirements, follow the next steps:

• Cast a creature spell, or trigger any effect that will put a token in play.
• This triggers the ability of Jaws of Defeat.
• Holding priority, casts Overkill targeting the creature that has entered the battlefield.
• The creature will be given -0/-9999 until the end of the turn. Dying as a state-based action due to having less than zero toughness.
• Jaws of Defeat resolves. Making target opponent lose life equal to the difference between the creature’s power and toughness, using the last known information of the creature. Meaning they will loss more than 9900 points of life.

This results in a near-infinite lifeloss for the target opponent. They lose the game immediately. This interaction utilizes the last known information of the creature. It is a decisive method to eliminate the biggest threat at the table. The player must ensure they have the mana available to cast the spell in response to the trigger.

Mana Extracted by the Forest

When it comes to your mana base, Doran and his Treekin draw the mana you’ll need from the lands chosen for this deck.

Canopy Vista, Fortified Village, and Sunpetal Grove are included. Isolated Chapel and Woodland Cemetery are the perfect dual lands for this deck as you’ll be running a total of 11 basic lands that will help you play these lands untapped and ready to be used.

The deck also includes lands like Sungrass Prairie, Desolate Mire, Viridescent Bog, Fetid Heath and Twilight Mire that will serve you as a filter lands allowing you to turn any mana you don’t need at the moment, into the color you’re looking for.

We’re also running the three Bounce lands tied to the Abzan Color Identity Selesnya Sanctuary, Orzhov Basilica and Golgari Rot Farm to help you return Old-Growth Grove to your hand allowing you to cast Revitalizing Repast later on.

To assist with deck thinning, Evolving Wilds and Deceptive Landscape are included for fetching purposes. 

Murmuring Bosk is a flavorful tri-land inclusion that more often than not will come untapped to play. 

Sandsteppe Citadel is the only true tri-land of the deck. 

Access Tunnel and Rogue's Passage are critical offensive lands. They allow a massive tree to become unblockable. 

Bonders' Enclave is utilized for card draw in those turns where you keep mana free before your next turn. 

The deck runs a solid count of basic lands. Spread in 5 Forests, 3 Plains, and 3 Swamps. Allowing you to capitalize your ramp spells.

Closing Words

While most of the high toughness creature decks are based as some sort of pillowfort where you won’t be doing much apart from controlling your opponents and deal with them when they don’t expect it.

Doran, Besieged by Time brings an aggro approach by overwhelming your opponents with hard to remove high toughness creatures that will become even more powerful every time they attack. Bringing doom to everyone who dares to challenge the forests of Lorwyn.