Doran, Besieged by Time: 5 Cards Nobody Is Playing (But Should Be)

The Commander and What It Wants

Doran, Besieged by Time is the evolved version of the original Doran, and it brings with it a dual design axis of remarkable power. On one hand, it discounts creatures whose toughness exceeds their power — incentivising you to build a boardstate full of "living walls" that cost less than they appear. On the other hand, whenever one of these creatures attacks or blocks, it receives a +X/+X pump where X is the difference between its toughness and power.

The practical result? A 0/4 becomes a 4/8 in combat. A 1/6 becomes a 6/11. The deck wants creatures with disproportionate toughness, knows how to use them both offensively and defensively, and can assemble boardstates that are impossible to clean up with conventional burn.

The creative danger zone isn't "find the biggest Treefolk" — it's building around the pump mechanic with pieces that most players never even consider.

5 Hidden Gems to Try

1. Master Symmetrist

The most technical gem on the list. Master Symmetrist gives all creatures whose power equals their toughness the ability to be blocked only by creatures whose power equals the attacking creature's toughness. But that's not even the main point here: with Doran active in combat, your creatures temporarily become symmetrical (power = toughness after the pump). This opens situational evasion windows that need to be played with surgical precision. The synergy multiplier is especially high in mid-power brackets where boards are packed with vanilla 2/2s and 3/3s. It performs best at four-player tables with few flying creatures.

2. Sapling of Colfenor

Indestructible, 2/5, and whenever it attacks you draw a card and gain life equal to the toughness of the revealed card. With Doran on the battlefield, Sapling attacks as an indestructible 5/5 that almost certainly brings you another creature off the top of your library every time it swings. It's a passive card advantage engine that pays for itself through life gain — and nobody considers it because it seems "too slow." In brackets 3–4 with heavy wrath effects, however, it's practically a guaranteed survivor. Synergy with Doran's cost reduction: a 2/5 for five mana becomes four mana.

3. Timbermaw Larva

This is the single most underrated gem on the list. Timbermaw Larva is a 0/3 that, whenever it attacks, gets +1/+1 for each Forest you control. But with Doran, it already functions as a 3/3 in combat thanks to the pump, and then you add the counters from your Forests: in a mid-game scenario with 8–10 Forest lands, you're swinging with something like an 11/14 for four mana. The power/toughness asymmetry is enormous, and Doran's pump stacks with the Forest bonus within the same combat calculation. It shines in bracket 3 alongside landfall or Forest-heavy strategies.

4. Felothar the Steadfast

The synergy here is less obvious but devastating: Felothar gives all your creatures the ability to deal defensive damage to opponents when they block, based on their toughness. With Doran pumping your creatures during blocks by the power/toughness difference, your blocks become asymmetric punishments. An opponent attacks with a 4/4 and runs into your 0/7 — which with Doran becomes a 7/14 while blocking and deals 7 damage to the opponent through Felothar. It's an active deterrent that completely changes how your opponents calculate their attacks. Excellent in brackets 2–3, where combat is still highly relevant.

5. Freelance Muscle

A 4/4 for five that in your deck becomes an X/X where X is the highest toughness among creatures you control — but it needs to be read in the Doran context. If you have even a single 1/8 on the battlefield, Freelance Muscle becomes an 8/8. With Doran in combat, it becomes a 16/16. It's the classic "boardstate multiplier" that scales non-linearly, and most casual players overlook it because "it's too situational." But in a deck built around high toughness, the ideal situation is simply your normal game state. Synergy with cost reduction: if your highest-toughness creature has toughness greater than its power, Freelance Muscle also costs less than five.

What NOT to Add

Doran, the Siege Tower: yes, it's thematic, yes, it's obvious. But it does something different — it makes everyone attack using toughness instead of power, but without the pump. In your deck, the old Doran creates stacking conflicts with the new one and muddies the combat math. It's not a hidden gem; it's a trap.

Sol Ring and generic ramp: Doran already discounts your heavy, high-toughness creatures. The real bottleneck isn't mana — it's finding the right creatures at the right moment. Every slot spent on generic ramp could instead be a targeted tutor or draw spell.

Timber Protector: it protects your Treefolk, sure. But if your deck isn't a pure Treefolk tribal build, it's a card that does one thing in a mediocre way. Every slot deserves more impact.

Verdict

Doran, Besieged by Time is one of those commanders that rewards players who build with intention rather than those who jam staples at random. The five gems above don't do "the same thing" as the commander — they multiply it along different axes: evasion, card advantage, defensive deterrence, explosive scaling. The ideal deck isn't a generic Treefolk tribal build: it's a war machine that uses toughness as its currency in every phase of the game.