Doran, the Siege Tower MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 9 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityRare
TypeLegendary Creature — Treefolk Shaman
Power 0
Toughness 5

Key Takeaways

  1. Doran’s unique ability to swap attack and defense values can drastically enhance a deck’s board control.
  2. It offers strategic depth by altering combat dynamics and enabling toughness-based synergies.
  3. Despite being a strong card, its specific mana requirements and removal vulnerability must be considered.

Text of card

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

"Each year that passes rings you inwardly with memory and might. Wield your heart, and the world will tremble."


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Doran the Siege Tower provides a unique form of card advantage by redefining attack and defense values for creatures. This alters the board state in your favor, getting more utility from defenders with high toughness.

Resource Acceleration: Although not directly a resource accelerator, Doran’s ability to utilize toughness lets you effectively deploy underutilized creatures as offensive threats sooner. This can speed up your gameplay, indirectly affecting resource use efficiency.

Instant Speed: While Doran itself may not have an instant speed attribute, its presence can enhance the effectiveness of instant speed spells and abilities that rely on creature toughness, allowing for surprising combat tricks and board presence maintenance.


Card Cons

Specific Mana Cost: Doran the Siege Tower comes with a distinctive Abzan color cost, requiring one green, white, and black mana. This may make it difficult to cast in decks that aren’t committed to a three-color base, thus limiting its flexibility.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of three mana, Doran may come into play later than other aggressive creatures in the early game. Competing with other powerful three-drop cards, Doran might not always be the most efficient play on turn three.

Discard Requirement: While Doran itself does not require a player to discard as a direct cost, its deck-building constraints often force players to include cards that manipulate the library or graveyard to make the most of its ability. This might indirectly prompt higher discard demands within the deck’s overall strategy.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Doran the Siege Tower offers a unique twist to gameplay, allowing a shift in perspective that can strengthen defense-oriented decks. Its ability to make toughness the key factor for your creatures’ damage opens up a variety of deck-building options, creating opportunities for a defensive wall to become an offensive power.

Combo Potential: Doran pairs well with cards that benefit from high toughness values, such as Meekstone or Slagwurm Armor, unlocking potential for powerful combos. Additionally, its identity in Abzan colors (White, Black, and Green) offers a wide canvas for synergy with other toughness-based cards across these colors.

Meta-Relevance: In the shifting landscape of MTG, the meta can sometimes lean towards aggressive strategies. Doran the Siege Tower provides an excellent counterbalance, turning what would typically be passive cards into substantial threats. By altering the conventional attacking mechanics, it demands opponents to adjust their tactics, offering strategic advantage.


How to beat Doran the Siege Tower

Doran the Siege Tower presents a unique challenge in the MTG battlefield with its ability to shift combat dynamics by using toughness instead of power to calculate damage. To overcome this unconventional assailant, it’s essential to adapt your strategy. Control decks that leverage removal spells like Path to Exile can remove Doran efficiently, circumventing its ability to alter combat. Flying creatures are also a potent counter, as they can typically evade Doran’s ground-based influence, striking from the skies unimpeded. Cards like Arcane Teachings or spells that manipulate power and toughness ratios such as Inside Out also serve to disrupt Doran’s offensive and defensive capabilities.

Enchantment removal is another avenue of attack. By targeting Doran’s supportive enchantments, you reduce its battlefield impact significantly. Global effects like board wipes don’t discriminate by toughness, rendering Doran’s advantage null and void. Earthquake and similar cards deal damage to each creature equal to their power, bypassing the Tower’s defensive stronghold. Strategic blocks can also be arrayed if Doran’s support is cleared, allowing even smaller creatures to neutralize it during combat. Thus, while challenging, Doran the Siege Tower can be trumped with thoughtful play and card choice.


BurnMana Recommendations

Doran the Siege Tower offers a unique strategic pivot in MTG, fundamentally redefining combat roles for creatures. If you’ve been intrigued by the prospects of turning defense into a new form of offense, enhancing your MTG collection with Doran could unlock a whole new style of play. Adapting your deck to capitalize on the card’s strength could lead to refreshing victories against unsuspecting opponents. Discovering cards that sync with Doran’s toughness-centric approach can create formidable synergies and surprise tactics. Expand your deckbuilding horizons with this intriguing card—its potential is just waiting to be tapped into.


Cards like Doran, the Siege Tower

Doran the Siege Tower stands tall among unique cards in Magic: The Gathering, granting toughness-based power to your creatures. A comparable card is Assault Formation, which also allows creatures to deal combat damage equal to their toughness rather than their power. However, Doran’s ability is inherent, while Assault Formation requires mana investment to activate its similar effect.

Treefolk Harbinger offers a related synergy, helping you to tutor for cards like Doran or other Treefolk and Forest cards, thus enhancing your deck’s consistency. Additionally, Wave of Reckoning echoes Doran’s battle strategy, as it deals damage to creatures based on their toughness, turning defensive traits into offensive power.

Arcades, the Strategist is another card that champions defenders, granting them the ability to attack and drawing a card whenever a creature with defender enters the battlefield under your control. While Arcades requires a precise defender-centric build, Doran’s effect is more widely applicable across various creature types. When comparing these heavyweights, Doran the Siege Tower’s influence on gameplay is prominently felt through the effortless alteration of combat dynamics, reinforcing its distinctiveness in player strategies.

Assault Formation - Dragons of Tarkir (DTK)
Treefolk Harbinger - Lorwyn (LRW)
Wave of Reckoning - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Arcades, the Strategist - Core Set 2019 (M19)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Doran, the Siege Tower MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Magic Online Promos, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Doran, the Siege Tower and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Doran, the Siege Tower Magic the Gathering card was released in 7 different sets between 2007-10-12 and 2023-06-23. Illustrated by 4 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 314112003normalblackMark Zug
22002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 656582015normalblackRob Alexander
32007-10-12LorwynLRW 2472003normalblackMark Zug
42011-08-26From the Vault: LegendsV11 32003normalblackMark Zug
52017-01-01Judge Gift Cards 2017J17 52015normalblackRob Alexander
62020-09-26The ListPLST LRW-2472003normalblackMark Zug
72022-07-08Double Masters 20222X2 2012015normalblackMark Zug
82022-07-08Double Masters 20222X2 4862015normalblackMark Zug
92023-06-23Tales of Middle-earth CommanderLTC 5172015normalborderlessGreg Hildebrandt & Tim Hildebrandt

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Doran, the Siege Tower has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Doran, the Siege Tower card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2007-10-01 Doran’s ability doesn’t actually change creatures’ power; it changes only the value of the combat damage they assign. All other rules and effects that check power or toughness use the real values.
2007-10-01 Doran’s ability means, for example, that a 2/3 creature will assign 3 damage in combat instead of 2.
2007-10-01 This effect is mandatory and affects all creatures.

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