If you like to turn the ancient sentinent trees and guardians of the forest into an unstoppable force of nature, then Treefolk tribal is the right deck for you. Let’s see how we can awaken the spirits of the “shepherds” of the trees and turn them into mighty warriors able to devastate our opponents.
I love tribal decks because they combine synergy and flavor and of course power. On top of that you can find many unique cards that support a tribe and can be great budget options as those cards work only on a specific tribal deck and are bad to unplayable to any other deck. That’s why I will try building and presenting a series of decks for all those who share the love for tribal decks.
Treefolk is an ancient tribe that firstly appeared in Magic in Alpha with Ironroot Treefolk. Although there were some treefolk scattered among the planes, the first time the tribe saw some serious tribal support was in Lorwyn block. For our build, the leader to unite all the treefolk is Doran, the Siege Tower, a Legendary Treefolk Shaman that has an abzan color identity (
) and thus supports all Treefolk.
Doran, the Siege Tower is a commander that has a special ability: “Each creature assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power.” It is an interesting ability to build upon since we can find great value in cards that were average to unplayable before. Since the effect applies to all creatures on the battlefield, Doran is known as a Toughness commander.
Treefolk usually have great toughness and low power so they are a natural choice for a toughness build. Although Doran can be build focused on toughness alone, our deck is build with a twist: We use toughness strategy on Treefolk tribal. There are some cards used on toughness builds that are superior to Treefolk cards, but our build rely heavily on tribal synergy and synergy may overcome individual power.
Ents are joining our deck! With The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth release, Treefolk Tribal is getting more support. The deck is now featuring some iconic Treefolk characters from LOTR and we will be able to revive the last march of the Ents! Come, my friends. The Ents are going to war!
Synergy Diagram
I always like to make a simple synergy diagram in order to deeply comprehend the potential and the strategy areas that are supported by the commander when I choose top-down building.
Let’s analyze the main goals of the deck:
- Add the best Treefolk. Our priority is to add the ones with high toughness and low power.
- Add Treefolk tribal support. There are few cards that support Treefolk tribal so most of them are almost an auto inclusion.
- Add cards that synergize with our strategies. To make the best out of our strategies, we can further amplify them by adding cards that boost toughness and take advantage of low power of creatures.
For the sake of flavor some of the choices are not optimal, but are (usually budget friendly) alternatives that fit greatly the Treefolk tribal theme.
The deck:
Treefolk Tribal
Comparative Analysis
Let’s see how the deck compares to the general ratios of my deckbuilding guide.
35 Lands
17 Ramp: Bosk Banneret , Leaf-Crowned Elder , Arcane Signet , Sol Ring , Faeburrow Elder , Ezzaroot Channeler , Harold and Bob, First Numens , Seedguide Ash , Everbark Shaman , Rampant Growth , Krosan Verge , Nature’s Lore , Herald’s Horn , Last March of the Ents, Fangorn, Tree Shepherd, Fecund Greenshell, Shriekwood Devourer
10 Target Removal: Woodfall Primus , Thorntooth Witch , Wickerbough Elder , Rootgrapple , Lignify , Crib Swap , Nameless Inversion , Masked Vandal , Abzan Charm, Old Man Willow
2 Board Wipes: Fell the Mighty , Sculpted Sunburst
4 Graveyard Recursion: Colfenor, the Last Yew , Mortuary Mire , Six, Reach of Branches (self-recursion)
2 Graveyard Hate: Bojuka Bog , Nemata, Primeval Warden (kinda)
1 Tutors: Treefolk Harbinger
3 Protection: Timber Protector , Black Poplar Shaman , Bedrock Tortoise
11,5 Card Draw: Sapling of Colfenor , Nemata, Primeval Warden , Ulvenwald Observer , Heartwood Storyteller , Abzan Charm , Lifecrafter’s Bestiary ,Last March of the Ents , Abzan Beastmaster , Rootgrapple (1/2), Harmonize , Fecund Greenshell, Herald’s Horn (kinda)
6 Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions: Tower Defense , Behind the Scenes , Sight of the Scalelords , Stoneskin, Unnatural Growth, Last March of the Ents
As we see form the comparative analysis, the rates per category are good. There is no score below the optimal low average and we see 4 categories that are above the optimal max average. We see a spike in Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions category at 6 and that is important because our deck needs ways to finish games consistently. Ramp is also a strong part of our deck and that is important since we have more high drops than usual.
Deck Highlights, synergy and flavor options:
Ramp
Bosk Banneret is a great Treefolk Tribal and Shaman Tribal support card, as it reduces mana cost for those tribes by 
. Our deck is full of Treefolk and even has some Shamans so it’s a great choice.
Leaf-Crowned Elder also supports both Treefolk Tribal and Shaman Tribal. It has “Kinship: At the beginning of your upkeep, you may look at the top card of your library. If it shares a creature type with Leaf-Crowned Elder, you may reveal it. If you do, you may play that card without paying its mana cost.” It work wonders in our deck that is full of Treefolk.
Faeburrow Elder is both an excellent ramp source and a nice colored mana producer for any deck with 3-5 colors. In our Treefolk Tribal it has extra synergy as it is a Treefolk so we get extra value.
Ezzaroot Channeler is an expensive Treefolk, but it can be very important mana cost reducer for our creature spells. With its ability to reduce casting cost by 
where X is the amount of life we gained this turn, it can alone reduce mana by 
as it taps for 2 life. It as great synergy with cards like Sapling of Colfenor, Orchard Warden, Fruit of the First Tree and Huatli, the Sun’s Heart that help us gain enough life to turn it into an amazing mana cost reducer for our Treefolk Tribal.
Seedguide Ash is expensive for ramp, but it can net us up to three Forests in play (even non-basic Forests) on death trigger so we can get enough value to go from midrange to end-game mana to play our most expensive Treefolk.
Everbark Shaman is also expensive for ramp, but it also can net us many Forests to help our Treefolk Tribal reach high mana, as by 
and removing a Treefolk card in our graveyard it nets us two Forests (even non-basic Forests) into play.
Nature’s Lore fits the flavor of Treefolk Tribal and help us with ramp. What is important is that it works even with non-basic Forests.
Herald’s Horn is great for every creature tribal deck. It works both as ramp and a kind of card draw, so it is very valuable for our Treefolk Tribal.
Fangorn, Tree Shepherd is an amazing Treefolk Tribal support card that greatly boosts our army, giving our Treefolk vigilance and turning them into great mana producers whenever they attack, as we add twice that much for each Treefolk attacking. Moreover, we don’t lose unspent green mana as steps and phases end. In addition, it has great synergy with our toughness strategy, as he can hit hard. Treebeard is a true legend!
Last March of the Ents is an amazing endgame card, that synergizes with our toughness strategy, combining crazy card draw and ramp, as it can bring our big Treefolk directly into the battlefield. Moreover, it fits the flavor of Treefolk Tribal, as we can actually call the Treefolk to our aid and prepare for an epic attack (possible finisher too)! Come, my friends. The Ents are going to war!
Harold and Bob, First Numens is a great addition to our Treefolk Tribal since it is a low mana cost Treefolk, that on death trigger becomes an aura that helps both in ramp and color fixing.
Fecund Greenshell is a great addition to our Treefolk Tribal since it has high synergy with our toughness strategy, working either as ramp or as card draw whenever a creature with toughness greater than its power enters, including itself. Moreover, it has Reach and buffs our creatures with +2/+2 as long as we control 10 or more Lands.
Shriekwood Devourer is a great addition to our Treefolk Tribal since it is a powerful Treefolk that can be used either as a finisher or as a powerful ramp engine. By attacking, it let us untap up to X lands, where X is the greatest power among our creatures. That sounds not very synergetic with a toughness build, but given the fact that it has 7 power, it can alone net us an amazing amount of extra mana and given the fact that Treefolk are mana-heavy, that ramp can be extra useful. Moreover, even an average Treefolk with 3-4 power can give us respectable ramp power on the same turn Shriekwood Devourer enters.
Target Removal
Woodfall Primus is very expensive for target removal, but it is a Treefolk so it fits Treefolk Tribal and it destroys any noncreature permanent both on EtB and death trigger.
Thorntooth Witch has amazing Treefolk Tribal synergy in our deck since whenever we play a Treefolk spell we may have target creature get +3/-3 until end of turn, which can be used either for buffing our Treefolk that have great toughness, or for removal of enemy creatures. We have a deck full of Treefolk spells so we can get extraordinary value from it.
Wickerbough Elder serves as artifact/enchantment removal, it is expensive for its mana cost, but it has Treefolk Tribal synergy.
Rootgrapple is a very expensive Treefolk Tribal instant that destroys target noncreature permanent and if we control a Treefolk, we draw a card. Although it seems much worse than cheap removal staples, the tribal synergy may make up for it, as it can both be tutored by tribal tutors and it counts as Treefolk and enables the tribal synergies of the deck.
Lignify is a much better Treefolk Tribal spell, an Enchamntment-Treefolk Aura that shuts down many dangerous threats by making them a 0/4 Treefolk with no abilities. A strong card that also can both be tutored by tribal tutors and it counts as Treefolk and enables the tribal synergies of the deck.
Nameless Inversion and Crib Swap count as Treefolk too, so they have great synergy with our Treefolk Tribal build. They can be tutored by tribal tutors and they count as Treefolk and enable the tribal synergies of the deck.
Masked Vandal is a staple for green creature tribal decks, but in our Treefolk Tribal deck it has even better synergy than usual since it fits our Treefolk and high toughness/ low power strategies.
Abzan Charm is a great flexible card as it can either be cast as a creature removal (by exiling at instant speed target creature with power 3 or greater) or as a card draw option (drawing 2 cards and losing 2 life). Both are great options. The third option to distribute two +1/+1 counters among one or two target creatures has no synergy with our Treefolk Tribal deck, but it is just a plus.
Old Man Willow on attack trigger let us sacrifice a creature or token in order to debuff target opponent creature with -2/-2 which can be used as a removal tool for small creatures.
Board Wipes
Fell the Mighty and Sculpted Sunburst are board wipes that synergize with our low creature power strategy. The have the potential to clear the board of our opponents while leaving ours intact. Greats picks for our Treefolk Tribal.
Graveyard Recursion
Colfenor, the Last Yew is an amazing card for grave recursion as it can repeatedly bring back from the graveyard to our hand, a creature with lesser toughness than a creature that died under our control. Moreover, it is a Treefolk with Vigilance and Reach and fits both our high toughness/low power strategies. A must-have for Treefolk Tribal.
Six is a great addition to our Treefolk Tribal since it is a low mana cost Treefolk, that gives nonland permanents in our graveyard Retrace as long as it is our turn. On attack trigger we mill three cards and we may put a land card from among them into our hand so it help us fill our hand with lands and it becomes a grave recursion engine.
Reach of Branches is a great Treefolk Tribal instant that let us repeatedly summon a 2/5 Treefolk Shaman, as it return from our graveyard to our hand whenever we play a Forest.
Graveyard Hate
Nemata, Primeval Warden exiles enemy creatures when they die and on top of that it creates a 1/1 green Saproling creature token. Saprolings can also be sacrificed for its other abilities. With and by sacrificing a Saproling Nemata, Primeval Warden gets +2/+2 until end of turn, while by paying and sacrificing two Saprolings, we draw a card.
Tutors
Treefolk Harbinger is our only tutor, but its an excellent one for Treefolk Tribal as it has very low mana cost and can tutor any treefolk or forest on the top of our library. It even synergizes well with our high toughness/low power strategies.
Protection
Timber Protector is one of the best cards of the deck. It is a Treefolk lord that buffs other Treefolk with +1/+1 but the most important part is that it makes other Treefolk and Forests indestructible which is a very strong ability for protecting our board but also helps offence. A must-have for Treefolk Tribal.
Black Poplar Shaman is another great Treefolk Tribal support card that helps protecting the tribe, as with , we regenerate at instant seed target Treefolk.
Bedrock Tortoise is a great addition to our Treefolk Tribal since it has synergy with our toughness strategy. Moreover, it gives Hexproof to all our creatures on our turn, which is great for protection. Essentially a 4 mana 6/6 that forces our opponent to play removal at sorcery speed.
Card Draw
Sapling of Colfenor is a very strong card for our build since it synergizes with many of our strategies. It has “Whenever Sapling of Colfenor attacks, reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a creature card, you gain life equal to that card’s toughness, lose life equal to its power, then put it into your hand.” that works wonders with our creature-heavy Treefolk Tribal theme and our high toughness/low power strategies. Moreover, it has Indestructible that makes it hard to be removed, so we can expect to draw many cards from it.
Ulvenwald Observer let us draw a card whenever a creature we control with toughness 4 or greater dies. The death trigger is not optimal for card draw, but at least in our Treefolk Tribal the 4+ toughness is not hard to find.
Heartwood Storyteller is an amazing card draw option, since it makes every opponent, of a player that casts a noncreature spell, to draw a card and it can shine in commander. It kinda reward our Treefolk Tribal for being a creature-heavy deck.
Lifecrafter’s Bestiary is a great source of card draw for creature-heavy decks and its scry 1 is very important for our Treefolk Tribal.
Abzan Beastmaster is a great fit for our toughness strategy and can be a great card draw source in our Treefolk Tribal. Furthermore, it is a shaman so it synergies with Bosk Banneret.
Finishers/ Surprise /Alternate win conditions
Tower Defense is an instant that gives our creatures +0/+5 and reach until end of turn, which with Doran, the Siege Tower can be translated as a +5/+5 so it is a very good cheap finisher for our Treefolk Tribal.
Behind the Scenes is an amazing evasion giver for our Treefolk Tribal that synergizes well with our high toughness/low power strategies and can let our Treefolk hit hard unblocked every turn.
Sight of the Scalelords works very well with our high toughness strategy and provides at the beginning of combat on our tun, most of our creatures with +2/+2 and vigilance until end of turn, making them minimun hit for 6 with Doran, the Siege Tower. A great enchantment for toughness builds and our Treefolk Tribal.
Stoneskin can buff at instant speed a creature with +0/+10 but with Doran, the Siege Tower in the battlefield that becomes like a +10/+10 and can be used for a lethal hit. A nice finisher for our Treefolk Tribal.
Unnatural Growth doubles the toughness of our creatures and in our Treefolk Tribal build, they have already high toughness. With Doran, the Siege Tower in the battlefield that becomes a crazy buff for our Treefolk both for defence and offence.
Other synergy pieces
Great Treefolk
Battlewand Oak has great synergy with our Treefolk Tribal deck since it gets +2/+2 until end of turn for each Forest or Treefolk that comes into play. It can easily get both in a turn (and sometimes even more) and get +4/+4 and become a 5/7 which is huge for a 3 drop.
Dungrove Elder has hexproof and its power and toughness are equal to the number of Forests we control. Dauntless Dourbark has power and toughness equal to the number of Forest plus the number of Treefolk we control and has trample as long as we control another Treefolk. Kalonian Twingrove on EtB creates a token clone of itself also with power and toughness are equal to the number of Forests we control. All scale with our Forest mana base and become better as long as they stay on the game.
Indomitable Ancients has top synergy with our high toughness/low power strategies. Simple, yet an extraordinary choice for our Treefolk Tribal.
Unstoppable Ash has Trample and Champion a Treefolk or Warrior, but the most important ability is the last one: “Whenever a creature you control becomes blocked, it gets +0/+5 until end of turn.” Combined with Doran, the Siege Tower it makes our creatures both deadly and extra tough when blocked. Great pick for our Treefolk Tribal.
Magnigoth Treefolk can potentially have landwalk on each of abzan colors and it also synergizes well with the high toughness/low power strategies of our Treefolk Tribal.
Orchard Warden is a great source of life gain since on Treefolk EtB, it lets us gain life equal to its toughness. A nice Treefolk Tribal support card.
Verdeloth the Ancient is a Saproling and Treefolk lord that gives both tribes +1/+1 and it has a Kicker were it creates X 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens. It is worthy to be mentioned here that it also synergizes well with Nemata, Primeval Warden.
Quickbeam, Upstart Ent is a great addition to our deck since it has amazing Treefolk Tribal synergy. In our deck we can constantly buff up to two target creatures with +2/+2 on Treefolk EtB and on top of that giving them trample is extra deadly and synergizes well with our toughness strategy.
Toughness Combat Damage Enablers
Ancient Lumberknot, Doran, the Siege Tower, Bedrock Tortoise and Assault Formation are our Toughness Combat Damage Enablers and are a core part of our deck, since Treefolk blend well with high toughness strategy. Our commander is always available and we have build the deck around him, but it is very important to have additional ways to follow the same strategy even if our commander is shut down.
Other
Primal Rage is a cheap enchantment that gives our creatures trample, which synergizes very well with our high combat damage through high toughness due to Doran, the Siege Tower.
Tree of Perdition is one of the few creatures of our deck that is not Treefolk, but at least it is a tree, so it fits the flavor of our Treefolk Tribal. The most important part is that it has “: Exchange target opponent’s life total with Tree of Perdition’s toughness.” which has extraordinary synergy with our high toughness strategy and can be a secret finisher. Can be a nightmare for our opponents with Assault Formation.
Brave the Sands is a cheap enchantment that gives our creatures Vigilance and the ability to be able to block two creatures each combat. It is a great tool for defence for our Treefolk Tribal.
Spidersilk Armor gives creatures we control +0/+1 and reach so now our Treefolk can even block flying creatures. A nice utility card for our Treefolk Tribal.
Dormant Grove // Gnarled Grovestrider fits both the flavor of our Treefolk Tribal and synergizes with our commander and our tribe. Even one +1/+1 counter on Doran, the Siege Tower is enough to trigger the transformation to Gnarled Grovestrider that gives all our creatures Vigilance and is a 3/6 Treefolk with Vigilance which synergizes with our high toughness/low power strategies.
Access Tunnel and Rogue’s Passage are great for making our big Treefolk unblockable so that we can hit for some serious damage. For example Indomitable Ancients with evasion and Doran, can be a huge threat that hits for 10 damage per turn! Great utility for our Treefolk Tribal.
By paying , Forbidding Watchtower becomes a 1/5 white Soldier creature until end of turn, and that greatly synergizes with Doran, the Siege Tower and our high toughness/low power strategies, as we can have a notable threat out of nowhere. Great pick for our Treefolk Tribal.
Land Color Fixers
Unclaimed Territory, Sandsteppe Citadel, Path of Ancestry and Murmuring Bosk are important color fixers for our 3-color identity. Murmuring Bosk has Treefolk Tribal synergy and it’s a great flavor pick too.
Let’s see some more statistics about our deck. Some important info to care about is the mana curve and the card type distribution, as it can help us understand better our deck and may indicate where there is space for improving it.
Mana Curve
The mana curve seems more middle-range centered that usual, with many drops on 4-6 drop positions and an absence of 9+ drops. That reflects the fact that there are many Treefolk at 4-6 drops and that makes our deck a bit slower than usual, but our high toughness strategy is able to protect us from early threats.
Card Type Distribution
The Treefolk Tribal Card Type Distribution shows the dominant tribal creature-heavy theme with 39 creatures. Enchantment follow at 10, while other categories have lesser presence with Sorceries at 6, Artifacts at 5 and Instants at 6. No Planeswalkers or Battles are present for the time.
Of course statistics and comparative analysis are great tools but they don’t always tell the whole truth, since many factors like synergy and combo pieces are hard to be measured numerically. For example in this deck, with all the deck build around Doran, the Siege Tower that supports both Treefolk tribal and Toughness Tribal theme , the true power of the deck lies in synergy and that is not reflected in statistics.
Update v1 (The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth)
Update v2 (The Lost Caverns of Ixalan)
Update v3 (Fallout)
Update v4 (Modern Horizons 3)
Update v5 (Bloomburrow)
Update v6 (Duskmourn)
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If you liked the deck, don’t forget to revisit the article after every major new release as I will try to keep my decks updated and examine any potential upgrades. If you want to keep being updated, you can follow mtgbudgetcommander.com on social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, linkedin, reddit, tumblr, medium).
If you like my tribal series, you can check my other tribal decks.
Keep this going please, great job!