What I would like to see in surge cards... mine are quite high in power level, but I like that in non-creature/non-planeswalker spells.
Tide Calling - 1UU - Uncommon Instant
Surge UU
Return target permanent to it's owners hand. If Tide Calling's Surge cost was paid, untap up to two Islands you control.
Flames of Purphoros 1R - Uncommon Instant
Surge R
Deal 2 damage to target creature or player. If Flames of Purphoros's Surge cost was paid, deal 3 damage to target creature or player instead.
Death's Gaze - 2BB - Uncommon Instant
Surge 2B
Target creature gets -5/-5 until end of turn. If Death's Gaze's Surge cost was paid, that creatures controller discards a card.
Fury of the Gods - 3WWW - Rare Sorcery
Surge 1WWW
Destroy all creatures and planeswalkers. If Fury of the Gods' Surge cost was paid, exile all creatures and planeswalkers instead.
Bear Hug - 4GG - Rare Sorcery
Surge 3GG
Put 3 2/2 Green Bear tokens onto the battlefield. If Bear Hug's Surge cost was paid, put in 3 3/3 Green Bear tokens with trample into the battlefield instead.
Scowl of the Eldrazi - 10 - Mythic Sorcery
Surge CCCCCCCC
Destroy up to three target colored permanents. If Scowl of the Eldrazi's Surge cost was paid put a colorless 8/8 Eldrazi token with trample into play for each permanent destroyed this way.
Snapcaster mage was broken in the last standard format.. cards like wild slash/shock or remember vapor snag? Snapcaster is ridiculously powerful even in todays format. I counter your argument saying snapcaster is at least equal to current jace in this standards power level if he were to be in the format... if not stronger. Snapcaster is better than Abbot cause its easier to control... although in modern I do agree they are very close because of the sheer volume of redundant cards. Also, Snapcaster counterspell in a dragons deck? Ugh.. no ty.
My favorite matchup to play is Burn vs. Miracles (slightly favors burn but very balanced). I like playing it from both sides.. setting up the stack vs. counter lock to eke out the win or trying to stabilize as miracles is super fun.
I also really like Goblins vs. RUG Delver... its a pretty balanced matchup, as both players run manabases to cripple the opponent.. you can have some really degenerate games and some really fun ones too. Goblins has legitimate ways to answer goyfs, and the delver player has a gameplan to stall goblins enough to fly over with delver.. its great.
That would be great, but like Damnation's "mysterious" removal from FTV:Annihilation I have a feeling Liliana of the Veil has moved to that unofficial list where cards go when they become expensive and need to get saved for selling a set. She'll be the first card they tease for Modern Masters 2017.
They won't print damnation in a standard set ever, they hate universal 4 mana sweepers and will never do it again. Lilly is a more recent set price hike card, they don't want any new cards entering this area.. so I truly expect her to be printed. Snapcaster will never see a standard set again either.. so don't expect him.
Liliana of the Veil seems likely... she was just cut out of a recent standard set, and has been stated they wanted to put her into a standard legal set but her power is a question to the devs I'm sure. They would have to make sure she is put into an environment where she won't be extremely oppressive like she was right before she rotated out of standard the previous time. 4 Bonfire 4 Liliana, and rakdos returns... *cringe*
Legacy is traditional Dark Ritual Force of Will Magic. Modern is, well, modern Magic with insane goodstuff creatures and Cryptic Commands. Both are different, both are fun.
I like Modern's format diversity. You can show up playing anything like Restore Balance combo to Jund and Top 8 a tournament. There are at least 20 entirely different strategies that are capable of winning a major event.
Jund
Tron
Twin
CoCo
Grixis Control
Affinity
Burn
Grishoalbrand
Amulet
Infect
Merfolk
Bogles
Zoo
Storm
Scapeshift
BW Tokens
Lantern Control
Living End
Restore Balance
UW Value Control
This list doesn't even include the variants like UR/Temur/Grixis Twin: it's just archetypes.
Legacy has a huge number of viable decks as well, but many of the best decks are slight variant on each other(for example, Temur/Jeskai/Sultai Delver variants), whereas all the listed Modern strategies employ very different win cons and card bases and play differently. UW Value Control only has like 4-5 cards in common with Grixis Control.
Legacy has a large number of decks as well.. but as with modern
Legacy GP viable top 8 decks:
Miracles, Elves, RUG Delver, Grixis Delver, BUG Delver, Infect, Storm, Esper Stoneblade, Jeskai Stoneblade, Shardless BUG, Death and Taxes, Sneak and Show, Lands
Possible decks after ban: Reanimator, Goblins, Maverick, Nic Fit, Omni-Tell, Grixis Control, Punishing Jund, MUD, Painter Stone
All of the decks you listed are not top 8 viable at a GP, although most are... both formats have a lot of viable options, and even though 3 delver decks are named delver they are radically different from eachother and most share only the delver in common. My deck stomps 2 of them, yet can't really beat BUG delver. And even if you want to collapse it down then there are still a lot of options... I didn't even list about 30 decks that could top 8 a smaller event like a PIQ but not a GP that do have these radically different wincons like you were talking about: Aluren, Dredge, Loam Pox, Goblin Prison, Merfolk, etc.
Legacy has more viable decks, and more decks that attack from different angles than modern, so please don't spout nonsense. If you like modern more then more power to you. I really enjoy both formats quite honestly
Cavern of Souls is pretty much a required card if you want to take this to a legacy event and do reasonably well. A really budget deck can do this, unfortunately caverns have gotten a bit more expensive. But I would say they are as deal breaking for a creature deck to not have as Force of Will is for a blue deck in legacy. If you are just playing to play, against non blue decks your deck will do just fine without them.
Additions
+2x Harmonic Sliver - Mainboard Artifact/enchantment removal, this is super good in legacy in particular
+3x Hibernation Sliver - Avoid sweepers like Terminus or Toxic Deluge, pay the life and reflood the board
+2x Syphon Sliver - Makes racing slivers impossible once this lands and you have protection for it in the form of Shroud or Return to hand.
+4x Mana confluence or City of Brass, if you can afford it use Cavern of Souls instead
Remove from deck
-4 Rupture Spire
-2 Hive Stirrings - Too slow for what you want to do, you want your slivers to impact your board more than generic slivers that take buffs from your other slivers
-2 Two-Headed Sliver - You are already giving them flying, this is overkill.
-1 Plated Sliver - Don't need a butt as much as you need the offense
-1 Sentinel Sliver - You should just be faster than everybody else.
-1 Striking Sliver - Same as above, and you have flying.. first strike not that needed.
Sideboard - Optional depending on how/where you are playing this deck, prioritize getting your maindeck first
1 Hibernation Sliver - you want 4 of these against control/sweeper decks, this would be #4
2 Harmonic Sliver - Enchantment or Artifact heavy opponent? Board up to 4.
2 Ethersworn Canonist - Playing against storm? Just beat it with this card, it's pretty cheap
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - Same as above
4 Swan Song - Sideboard into countermagic, who cares if you give them a 2/2 flier? You probably have 4 4/4 fliers! Currently 50 cents each on TCG.
3 Spell Pierce - More countermagic, but this time soft, beat that pesky combo player with ease.
2 Relic of Progenitus - Graveyard hate
Long term Goals to make it less budget and more competitive over time(this can be done slowly or not at all)
4x Aether Vial
4x Cavern of Souls
Trying to think of recent cheap cards you can add... if you happen to have any Gravecrawler cards I would add those in. Gravecrawler enables a lot of synergy with Zombie decks.
High tide is a pretty hard budget deck to make competitively (even the cheaper solidarity version, as it generally uses 10 fetches to power Dig Through Time), the version you are looking at, a guy earlier stated Augur of Bolas, I am in pretty heavy agreement with that statement, he will block early for you as your deck will take some time to build up to go for the combo. Even without fetchlands, you should be running at least 1-2 Dig Through Time which will help you dig better mid combo. 4x Gitaxian Probe is a must in this deck, it lets you see what you have to fight to win with combo, and allows you to cut some of your counterspells. You are already not running full instant speed Tide, so I don't see why probe isn't in the list. Just my two cents.
The problem is without brainstorm and fetchlands you will have issues with flooding and not hitting enough lands. Impulse is a 2 drop spell meaning you need at least 2 mana to cast it. But with Gprobe/ponder you should be ok to at least find 2 mana to impulse for the 3rd. I would still cut to 18 lands, I think 19 is going to cause you to flood too often, and I would still -2 Crystal Vein and +1 Island, as I can see some awkward hands of all colorless losing you games with your current setup occasionally. Once you can trade for fetches you should be ok... I would run WAY more fetches than islands too, like 10 fetches to 5 or 6 islands once you aquire them.
Also another thing I can't believe I overlooked, is 4 Dig Through Time, without fetchlands powering this card I think you need to cut the number to 3.
Honestly I think they should just make the dual lands with
If X land was not played from your hand, ETB tapped and you add one mana that the land produces immediately as it enters the battlefield.
This will result as no real downside (you will still stifle the fetchland) and you will just fetch it when you want to use it. And if you play it from your hand its the exact same as a fetch. This should also be put into commander sets and not allowed into modern. This would heavily revive legacy.
I might consider running 1-2 Intuition without Brainstorm and fetches. From what I recall omni-show generally runs a full playset of all Brainstorm, Ponder, and Preordain. You have way too many lands in your deck for all the cantrips you have.. you are probably getting flooded way too often.
What I would do (however Intuition also costs more than the cheap blue fetches a la Flooded Strand/Delta):
Also of note, the youtube video is old, but you should have 2x Containment Priest in the board against Dredge/Reanimator/Sneak and show as they pretty much cannot beat you if you land that card. Even though it hits your own vial, it frees up your sideboard to hate on truly bad fair matchups.
What spooky said is true, but I would with ALL of my power try to obtain 4 Cavern of Souls, it's the card that makes tribal decks legitimate in legacy. You are basically a slightly better version of Merfolk (in current meta at least) massing a bunch of +1/+1 slivers and trying to get flying. Crystalline protects against targeted removal as does Hibernation, but Hibernation allows you to do things like Vial it in in response to say a Terminus, bounce everything and reload on the miracles player or X deck.
I recommend watching "MTG Legacy: Slivers - Inside The Deck #128" on youtube for some insight on budget slivers on legacy. This is lose to what a guy runs locally here and it can give me fits at times. I play miracles, and Hibernation is just a blowout against me. If he lands lifelink + hibernation I actually can't win usually, I still come out on top most of the time but its just awkward.
Cheap $ Creatures -
4x Monastery Swiftspear - No less than 4 here
Spark Elemental - Sub-par creature, probably more efficient to use hellspark
Hellspark Elemental
Keldon Marauders
Hell's Thunder or Chandra's Phoenix as a 2 of or so possible.
Cheap $ Spells -
Flame Rift
4x Searing Blood - Don't play with less than 4
Fireblast
Skullcrack
Sulfuric Vortex
Incinerate
Rift Bolt
Moderate priced creatures you could eat your budget on -
Grim Lavamancer - I would probably play 1 or 2 of this guy if can fit budget
Moderate priced spells you could eat your budget on -
Chain Lightning or Lightning Bolt
Lava Spike
Sideboard -
Smash to Smithereens
Pyrostatic pillar
Pyroclasm
Tormod's Crypt - Also pumps swiftspear for free once as a nice side bonus
Tide Calling - 1UU - Uncommon
Instant
Surge UU
Return target permanent to it's owners hand. If Tide Calling's Surge cost was paid, untap up to two Islands you control.
Flames of Purphoros 1R - Uncommon
Instant
Surge R
Deal 2 damage to target creature or player. If Flames of Purphoros's Surge cost was paid, deal 3 damage to target creature or player instead.
Death's Gaze - 2BB - Uncommon
Instant
Surge 2B
Target creature gets -5/-5 until end of turn. If Death's Gaze's Surge cost was paid, that creatures controller discards a card.
Fury of the Gods - 3WWW - Rare
Sorcery
Surge 1WWW
Destroy all creatures and planeswalkers. If Fury of the Gods' Surge cost was paid, exile all creatures and planeswalkers instead.
Bear Hug - 4GG - Rare
Sorcery
Surge 3GG
Put 3 2/2 Green Bear tokens onto the battlefield. If Bear Hug's Surge cost was paid, put in 3 3/3 Green Bear tokens with trample into the battlefield instead.
Scowl of the Eldrazi - 10 - Mythic
Sorcery
Surge CCCCCCCC
Destroy up to three target colored permanents. If Scowl of the Eldrazi's Surge cost was paid put a colorless 8/8 Eldrazi token with trample into play for each permanent destroyed this way.
I also really like Goblins vs. RUG Delver... its a pretty balanced matchup, as both players run manabases to cripple the opponent.. you can have some really degenerate games and some really fun ones too. Goblins has legitimate ways to answer goyfs, and the delver player has a gameplan to stall goblins enough to fly over with delver.. its great.
They won't print damnation in a standard set ever, they hate universal 4 mana sweepers and will never do it again. Lilly is a more recent set price hike card, they don't want any new cards entering this area.. so I truly expect her to be printed. Snapcaster will never see a standard set again either.. so don't expect him.
Legacy has a large number of decks as well.. but as with modern
Legacy GP viable top 8 decks:
Miracles, Elves, RUG Delver, Grixis Delver, BUG Delver, Infect, Storm, Esper Stoneblade, Jeskai Stoneblade, Shardless BUG, Death and Taxes, Sneak and Show, Lands
Possible decks after ban: Reanimator, Goblins, Maverick, Nic Fit, Omni-Tell, Grixis Control, Punishing Jund, MUD, Painter Stone
All of the decks you listed are not top 8 viable at a GP, although most are... both formats have a lot of viable options, and even though 3 delver decks are named delver they are radically different from eachother and most share only the delver in common. My deck stomps 2 of them, yet can't really beat BUG delver. And even if you want to collapse it down then there are still a lot of options... I didn't even list about 30 decks that could top 8 a smaller event like a PIQ but not a GP that do have these radically different wincons like you were talking about: Aluren, Dredge, Loam Pox, Goblin Prison, Merfolk, etc.
Legacy has more viable decks, and more decks that attack from different angles than modern, so please don't spout nonsense. If you like modern more then more power to you. I really enjoy both formats quite honestly
Additions
+2x Harmonic Sliver - Mainboard Artifact/enchantment removal, this is super good in legacy in particular
+3x Hibernation Sliver - Avoid sweepers like Terminus or Toxic Deluge, pay the life and reflood the board
+2x Syphon Sliver - Makes racing slivers impossible once this lands and you have protection for it in the form of Shroud or Return to hand.
+4x Mana confluence or City of Brass, if you can afford it use Cavern of Souls instead
Remove from deck
-4 Rupture Spire
-2 Hive Stirrings - Too slow for what you want to do, you want your slivers to impact your board more than generic slivers that take buffs from your other slivers
-2 Two-Headed Sliver - You are already giving them flying, this is overkill.
-1 Plated Sliver - Don't need a butt as much as you need the offense
-1 Sentinel Sliver - You should just be faster than everybody else.
-1 Striking Sliver - Same as above, and you have flying.. first strike not that needed.
Sideboard - Optional depending on how/where you are playing this deck, prioritize getting your maindeck first
1 Hibernation Sliver - you want 4 of these against control/sweeper decks, this would be #4
2 Harmonic Sliver - Enchantment or Artifact heavy opponent? Board up to 4.
2 Ethersworn Canonist - Playing against storm? Just beat it with this card, it's pretty cheap
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - Same as above
4 Swan Song - Sideboard into countermagic, who cares if you give them a 2/2 flier? You probably have 4 4/4 fliers! Currently 50 cents each on TCG.
3 Spell Pierce - More countermagic, but this time soft, beat that pesky combo player with ease.
2 Relic of Progenitus - Graveyard hate
Long term Goals to make it less budget and more competitive over time(this can be done slowly or not at all)
4x Aether Vial
4x Cavern of Souls
If there was any non-budget card I would tell you to get it would be Aether Vial then Cavern of Souls
Other cards if you have or can trade for in passing that are relatively cheap which are great for these fun type of zombie decks:
any number of Liliana's Reaver
1x Army of the Damned
4x Endless Ranks of the Dead
You can also drop both Radiant Fountain go up to 24 Swamp and drop 1-2 Hex and add in 2-4 Corrupt
Also another thing I can't believe I overlooked, is 4 Dig Through Time, without fetchlands powering this card I think you need to cut the number to 3.
If X land was not played from your hand, ETB tapped and you add one mana that the land produces immediately as it enters the battlefield.
This will result as no real downside (you will still stifle the fetchland) and you will just fetch it when you want to use it. And if you play it from your hand its the exact same as a fetch. This should also be put into commander sets and not allowed into modern. This would heavily revive legacy.
Upside - Amulet of Vigor
Downside - Back to Basics
What I would do (however Intuition also costs more than the cheap blue fetches a la Flooded Strand/Delta):
-2 Crystal Vein
-2 Daze
+1 Spell Pierce
+2 Intuition
+1 Impulse
If the Intuitions are a no go due to cost then I would just go:
-2 Crystal Vein
-2 Daze
+1 Spell Pierce
+3 Impulse
I recommend watching "MTG Legacy: Slivers - Inside The Deck #128" on youtube for some insight on budget slivers on legacy. This is lose to what a guy runs locally here and it can give me fits at times. I play miracles, and Hibernation is just a blowout against me. If he lands lifelink + hibernation I actually can't win usually, I still come out on top most of the time but its just awkward.