Defense

Format: Commander

Commander: Doran, Besieged by Time

Bracket: 2

DeckCheck Threat Index: 18

Deck overview

This deck is an Abzan combat deck built around Doran, Besieged by Time. Doran reduces the casting cost of creatures with toughness greater than power and grants an attacking or blocking bonus equal to the difference between their power and toughness. The deck curves low-power, high-toughness creatures into Doran on Turn 4, turning defensive walls such as Great Forest Druid, Screeching Soulbreaker, and Foraging Wickermaw into potent attackers. It also incorporates a unique Empower Jace package with enchantments like Way of the Wildspeaker to generate loyalty on planeswalker tokens and churn out 4/4 Beast tokens. Lacking combo kills, fast mana, or mass evasion, the deck relies entirely on turning creatures sideways across consecutive combat steps. Its primary win condition involves building an unanswerable ground presence with heavy hitters like Blighted Blackthorn and Ghalta the Immovable, slowly bludgeoning opponents through combat while staying resilient with incidental lifegain.

Decklist (100 cards)

• 1 Academic Ascent
• 1 Almost Perfect
• 1 Bake into a Pie
• 1 Barbed Bloodletter
• 1 Bark of Doran
• 1 Blighted Blackthorn
• 1 Bloombrute
• 1 Blossom-Blessed Angel // Seed Suture
• 1 Blossoming Defense
• 1 Boggart Prankster
• 1 Budding Insurgent
• 1 Cast Away Doubt
• 1 Changeling Wayfinder
• 1 Chomping Changeling
• 1 Compel Brutality
• 1 Crib Swap
• 1 Dawnhand Dissident
• 1 Doran, Besieged by Time
• 1 Dwarven Shortsword
• 1 Eclipsed Realms
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Fateshaper Aspirant
• 1 Figure of Fable
• 1 Foraging Wickermaw
• 10 Forest
• 1 Ghalta the Immovable
• 1 Gnarlbark Elm
• 1 Goldmeadow Nomad
• 1 Great Forest Druid
• 1 Greenhouse Propagator
• 1 Hexhaven Battalion
• 1 Keeper of the Quiet Hour
• 1 Luminollusk
• 1 Massacre Girl, Most Wanted
• 1 Moonlit Lamenter
• 1 Personify
• 1 Pia, Aether Ascetic
• 12 Plains
• 1 Prideful Feastling
• 1 Prismatic Undercurrents
• 1 Reaping Willow
• 1 Rescue Girl, First Responder
• 1 Restore with Empathy
• 1 Reverent Howl
• 1 Rewrite Regrets
• 1 Riverguard's Reflexes
• 1 Rooftop Percher
• 1 Scarblade's Malice
• 1 Screeching Soulbreaker
• 1 Shatterwing Pegasus
• 1 Shimmercreep
• 1 Shimmerwilds Growth
• 1 Solve for Disappointment
• 1 Spiral into Solitude
• 1 Sun-Dappled Celebrant
• 12 Swamp
• 1 Tend the Sprigs
• 1 Tethermage's Advantage
• 1 Tributary Vaulter
• 1 Trystan's Command
• 1 Vampire Nighthawk
• 1 Vigorbloom Annex
• 1 Vigorbloom Vanguard // Seed Suture
• 1 Vinelasher Adept
• 1 Virulent Emissary
• 1 Way of the Deathbringer
• 1 Way of the Healer
• 1 Way of the Necromancer
• 1 Way of the Wildspeaker