It would depend on the build of course, putting Birthing Pod into the deck is clearly more of a control/midrange deck. Claiming that sacrefice slivers in order to find other slivers is very naive.
I am not shure if it is good enough to trade any of the 5cc for Megantic Sliver or Constricting Sliver is worth it. The five mana CC are just that good. But yeah: Birthing Pod backed by counter spells and removal, you bet it can work.
Ok, a massive brainstorm while I was watching Battlestar Galactica.
The Manaweft Sliver and Gemhide Sliver function as a Sakura-Tribe Elder until it gets killed. It unlocks our potensial to play more exspemsive spells. Can a desent controll deck use Gifts Ungiven? If the early slivers give us mana we can use the gift as a poor mans Fact or Fiction witch was awsome in it's time. Getting counter spells, creature removal or some good slivers would be nice. We can even pull off Sliver Hivelord + Unburial Rites.
I am sorry if I am bombing this thread. I started another one but a moderator closed it as it stoped being theoretical discusion and actual deck sugestions in the actual meta. I feel happy with the effeorts of the original writeup so I will re-post it here. It seems like a lot of us are thinking in the same direction. Again, I am sorry for any spelling mistakes but I am a dyslectic with english as my second language.
As far as I can see there are four possible directions to take the deck into. But before that I think it is important to talk about the modern format.
Modern is an insane format filled with a lot of combo decks. Both “Birthing Pod” and “Twin Exarch” can pull a win out from anywhere. Twin Exarch has instant speed, Pod is very consistent with a lot of tutors. Usually disrupt able by killing some of the key creatures. “UR Storm” and “Scapeshift” are combo decks with very little interaction with the opponent. UR Storm are just playing spells until it hits a sweet spot where it wins by playing tons of card draw and mana generation over and over. Scapeshift just want to get to 6 mana and cast Scapeshift, finding Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and kill us.
The control decks are “Rock” (good spells, card draw and big creatures, more of a midrange deck then control) “UWR midrange” (some with creatures, some with instant speed spells. Get better the longer the game lasts) “UrzaTron” (perhaps not a “control deck”, it just puts together 7 mana very easily and start casting the biggest badest artefacts and/or blue cards in the format.)
The agro decks are Affinity (kill you with archbound ravager or cranial plating fast) Jund (Kills you very fast and consistently with the best creatures per mana ratio possible) red deck wins (throws creatures at you and then spells, or just resolves 7 burn spells to the face.)
These 3 different decks are horrible to prepare against. Inn between the best agro possible, one and two card combo decks and consistent control decks it will not be possible to make a rogue deck. Instead of finding something that can counter the metagame we should make a deck that focuses on what we want it to do, and just do it better.
The sliver archetypes as far as I can see: “Sliver Poison”, “Agro Lord”, “Control Sliver” and “Big Sliver”.
“Agro Lord”: Apply pressure by playing fast good slivers and kill your opponent. Hopefully our speed and lords will make us able to compete with the speed of the other agro decks. I think this can be a competitive build but someone needs to play test it. Ancient Ziggurat, Cavern of Souls, Sliver Hive and Æther Vial will fix any mana problems. A suggested list follows, the bracket entries might be better but we do not know without a play test.
1cc: Galerider Sliver, Sidewinder Sliver, Æther Vial (Mindlash Sliver) these are good and you want bodies in the table as early as possible. The Mindlash Sliver is if you can somehow get rid of your opponents hand in some way and if you need more bodies earlier. It can be worth looking into.
2cc: Sinew Sliver, Predatory Sliver, Frenzy Sliver, Leeching Sliver, Phantasmal Image, Diffuion sliver[/card] (Two-Headed Sliver) Sinew Sliver and Predatory are good. We want as much of this if we want a sliver deck to be able to compete with the other agro decks. Frenzy and Leeching are just as good as the previous two, if they are not blocked. Sidewinder and Galerider will help in this fashion. Phantasmal Image is good because we want as many lords as possible. Two-Headed is in case 4 Galeriders are not enough. Several of the decks in the metagame run blockers.
3cc: Sedge Sliver, Mirror Entity (Firewake Sliver) 3cc is very expensive in my opinion as we need to be fast. Sedge is another lord (include some swamps) but the regeneration is not good enough to cost one mana more. Mirror Entity is a very good finisher. Play a vial on turn 1, play some sliver on turn 2 and 3 and turn 4 sneak the entity into play and pay 3 mana for an over run. (Although Ancient Ziggurat might be bad here.)
A deck like this would probably also try to run some disruption. Preferably Thoughtseize, Lightning Bolt, Abrupt Decay, Flame Slash and/or Path to Exile as they are the current bread and butter or the format. (Since we will be tapping a lot Slaughter Pact can also function.) If someone can please play test a deck along these lines and give us some information on this then that would be awesome. I think this can really be the way to go!
“Control Sliver” is the sliver deck that did well once upon a time. It was a very tight sliver deck with a few of the best slivers backed up by the best control cards that where available. Back in the day it was known as “Meathooks”.
A problem these days is that we have no Force of Will, Counterspell, Demonic Consultation and no pure Crystalline Sliver. I do not even know if the old decklist would function in today’s modern environment. I do however think that suck a list can be a very strong contender. We should start to identify cheap good slivers that can make this deck good. After all, they must be good enough to play over Snapcaster Mage and Young Pyromancer. The new Sliver Hive is good in this form of deck and I would appreciate any good results people can report with decks like this. It worked in the 90’s, why not in the 10’s?
“Big Sliver” is the deck we wish sliver decks where. We make them in casual but it carries over badly in the competitive scene. Agro decks are too fast for us (life gain might mitigate this) Combo Decks assemble their pieces and win while we play goofy slivers and Control Decks kill our key slivers, board wipe and/or outdraws us.
However if a deck that plays all the “good but to expensive slivers” we need to focus on the best slivers that give our deck a controlling edge. The bracket slivers are slivers that might be good, but I do not think they will be the back bone of the deck:
Perhaps a little light on the actual lords (Sidewinder Sliver helps) but the black Leeching Sliver and Frenzy Sliver might help. The Springleaf Drum and the Æther Vial are there to help ease the deck into the right spot. I think Springleaf Drum is an actual good card as you can play your sliver and them tap it for mana. A good head start, a Springleaf Drum and/or an æther vial on 2 can help fight the Blood Moon. Drum is also more rainbow colour. The Thoughtseize and Path to Exile are unfortunatly the only 7 spots dedicated to fighting ouer oponent, as I feel some cards should force them to play around us. Thoughtseize will help stop anger of the gods. Diffusion sliver will also make it harder for them to stop us. It has only 4 Galerider Sliver and 1 Two-Headed Sliverto come around blockers. If pod/afinnaty/jund/rock starts playing blockers Predatory Sliver, Sinew Sliver and Sidewinder Sliverwill hopefully be enough to function to push trhough. If we do not have enough mana problems it might justefy putting in some Mutavaults. I did not dare use them in the original draft as we need coming crashing out of the gates.
On a final note: Both Curiosity, Keen Sense and Warriors' Lesson are legal in modern and function very well with slivers, but not in the decks I sugested.
Perhaps a little light on the actual lords (side winder helps) but the black leeching and frenzy slivers might help. The springleaf drum and the vial are there to help ease the deck into the right spot. I think springleaf drum is an actual good card as you can play your sliver and them tap it for mana. A good head start, a spring leaf drum and/or an æther vial on 2 can help fight the blood moon. Drum is also more rainbow colour. The thoughtsieze and path to exile are unfortunatly the only 7 spots dedicated to fighting ouer oponent, as I feel some cards should force them to play around us. Thoughtsieze will help stop anger of the gods. Diffusion sliver will also make it harder for them to stop us. It has only 4 gale rider and 1 two-headed to come around blockers. If pod/afinnaty/jund/rock starts playing blockers predatory, sinew and sidewinder will hopefully be enough to function as a plan B. If we do not have enough mana problems it might justefy putting in some mutavaults. I did not dare use them in the original draft as we need coming crashing out of the gates.
The second one is a control version.
4x Sliver Hive
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Tropical Island
4x Breeding Pool
1x Temple Garden
2x Hallowed Fountain
3x Mutavault
1x Forrest
1x Island
This might seem like an odd one and it probably is. Try to keep control with your counter spells and the path of exile. Ouer winn condition is Mirror Entety and slivers. Sphinxes Revelation + deprive, path of exile and cryptic command will hopefully be good enough control cards. If you want to improve on the design I really think disrupting shoal can be worth adding. As can Dormant Sliver + Necrotic Sliver. Sliver Hivelord can also fitt into this deck. Return to the Ranks would be good if we had more slivers in the actual deck. If people have other takes on this deck, please post them!
On a final note: Both Curiosety, Keen Sence and Warriors' Lesson are legal in modern and function very well with slivers, but not in the decks I sugested.
Dimir Charm: Counter Sorceries can be good vs scapeshift and past in flames. Creatures with power 2 or less can be a lot of creatures, but not least the kiki jiki combo. Or it can be a scry cards (the weakest abilaty.)
Hindering Lights: A poerfull effect, but no home for it?
Voidslime: A functional counterspell at 3 mana. Can also stop a pod activation or function as stone rain vs a sackland.
I agree with your comparesing between fish, the meerfolk deck, and slivers. They both try to pile on lords until the other person is dead. Unfortunatly fish is currently a tier two or three deck. It is not tier 1.
If we balance the pro's and cons of each the merfolks are bigger then slivers usualy.
Slivers on the other hand reach critical mass quite fast and with the current mana base in modern we can add any singel colour mana spells to the deck to helpus out. Path to Exile, Vendetta, Flame Slash, Lightning Bolt, Thoughtsieze, Inquisition of Kozilek, Remand, Mana Leak, Dismember, Springleaf Drum, Abrupt Decay and Æther Vial can be added as needed depending on what mana base we build on. That is not something fish can do.
1) Virulent Sliver is an odd form of combo deck. If you have 2 of them on the table you only need to hit 5 times. If you want to do the same with the lords you need to pump them to 4 attack to get the same result. I do however agree that the deck is far to fragile as an archtype (As I discused in the first deck.)
2) I do not think you need to think colours when making the sliver deck. Talking about thinks like "naya" is not requiered. With fetchlands/shock lands, ancient zigurats, cavern of souls and sliver hive you should not have mana problems. If you want to ad manaweft/gemhide sliver then that is because you want to ramp it up the mana. If you want to play agresive (with lords) then you want to tap your creatures for attack, not making mana. In my opinion manaweft/gemhide belongs in the "big mana" type of deck where you try to get to the bigger (and slower) slivers.
3) Out of the four decks the agro lord deck is where Homing Sliver does not belong. Spending 3 mana to find another sliver is bad when you can just spend 3 mana or less to play another lord. Remember we are in aformat where playing a deciever excharch round 3 and splinter twin turn 4 is enough to go infinite and kill you. Be fast or be controll.
Hello fellow sliver enthusiasts. I want to make a sliver deck for modern. And I would really like for it to be a good deck. I am also a dyslectic and English is not my first language.
As far as I can see there are four possible directions to take the deck into. But before that I think it is important to talk about the modern format.
Modern is an insane format filled with a lot of combo decks. Both “Birthing Pod” and “Twin Exarch” can pull a win out from anywhere. Twin Exarch has instant speed, Pod is very consistent with a lot of tutors. Usually disrupt able by killing some of the key creatures. “UR Storm” and “Scapeshift” are combo decks with very little interaction with the opponent. UR Storm are just playing spells until it hits a sweet spot where it wins by playing tons of card draw and mana generation over and over. Scapeshift just want to get to 6 mana and cast Scapeshift, finding Valakut and kill us.
The control decks are “Rock” (good spells, card draw and big creatures, more of a midrange deck then control) “UWR midrange” (some with creatures, some with instant speed spells. Get better the longer the game lasts) “UrzaTron” (perhaps not a “control deck”, it just puts together 7 mana very easily and start casting the biggest badest artefacts and/or blue cards in the format.)
The agro decks are Affinity (kill you with archbound ravager or cranial plating fast) Jund (Kills you very fast and consistently with the best creatures per mana ratio possible) red deck wins (throws creatures at you and then spells, or just resolves 7 burn spells to the face.)
These 3 different decks are horrible to prepare against. Inn between the best agro possible, one and two card combo decks and consistent control decks it will not be possible to make a rogue deck. Instead of finding something that can counter the metagame we should make a deck that focuses on what we want it to do, and just do it better.
The sliver archetypes as far as I can see: “Sliver Poison”, “Agro Lord”, “Control Sliver” and “Big Sliver”.
“Sliver Poison”: We try to find Virulent Sliver, preferably in multiples. Attack and apply poison counters. If you have 2 Virulent Slivers in the table each attack that hits will deal 2 poison counters and it can add up fast. Use Predatory Sliver or other Poison/Infect/Proliferate cards to supplement as plan B. I do think it is very fragile.
Key Cards: Virulent Sliver, Chord of Calling, Summons’s Pact, Galerider Sliver, Phantasmal Image.
“Agro Lord”: Apply pressure by playing fast good slivers and kill your opponent. Hopefully our speed and lords will make us able to compete with the speed of the other agro decks. I think this can be a competitive build but someone needs to play test it. Ancient Ziggurat, Cavern of Souls Sliver Hive and Æther Vial will fix any mana problems. A suggested list follows, the bracket entries might be better but we do not know without a play test.
1cc: Galerider Sliver, Sidewinder Sliver, Æther Vial (Mind Lash Sliver) these are good and you want bodies in the table as early as possible. The mindlash is if you can somehow get rid of your opponents hand in some way and if you need more bodies earlier. It can be worth looking into.
2cc: Sinew Sliver, Predatory Sliver, Frenzy Sliver, Leeching Sliver, Phantasmal Image (Two-Headed Sliver) Sinew and Predatory are good. We want as much of this if we want a sliver deck to be able to compete with the other agro decks. Frenzy and Leeching are just as good as the previous two, if they are not blocked. Sidewinder and Galerider will help in this fashion. Phantasmal Image is good because we want as many lords as possible. Two-Headed is in case 4 gale riders are not enough. Several of the decks in the metagame run blockers.
3cc: Sedge Sliver, Mirror Entity (Fire Wake Sliver) 3cc is very expensive in my opinion as we need to be fast. Sedge is another lord (include some swamps) but the regeneration is not good enough to cost one mana more. Mirror Entity is a very good finisher. Play a vial on turn 1, play some sliver on turn 2 and 3 and turn 4 sneak the entity into play and pay 3 mana for an over run. (Although Ancient Ziggurat might be bad here.)
4cc: (Bone Scythe Sliver, Bone Splitter Sliver) both of these are oh so aggressive but alas I think they cost too much.
A deck like this would probably also try to run some disruption. Preferably Thoughtsieze, Lightning Bolt, Abrupt Decay, Flame Slash and/or Path to Exile as they are the current bread and butter or the format. (Since we will be tapping a lot Slaughter Pact can also function.) If someone can please play test a deck along these lines and give us some information on this then that would be awesome. I think this can really be the way to go!
“Control Sliver” is the sliver deck that did well once upon a time. It was a very tight sliver deck with a few of the best slivers backed up by the best control cards that where available. Back in the day it was known as “Meathooks” I believe, and one of the deck lists can be found by googling meathooks + demonic tutor. (I was not allowed to post a link.)
A problem these days is that we have no Force of Will, Counterspell, Demonic Consultation and no Crystalline Sliver. I do not even know if the old decklist would function in today’s modern environment. I do however think that suck a list can be a very strong contender. We should start to identify cheap good slivers that can make this deck good. After all, they must be good enough to play over snapcast mage and young pyromanser. The new Sliver Hive is good in this form of deck and I would appreciate any good results people can report with decks like this. It worked in the 90’s, why not in the 10’s?
“Big Sliver” is the deck we wish sliver decks where. We make them in casual but it carries over badly in the competitive scene. Agro decks are too fast for us (life gain might mitigate this) Combo Decks assemble their pieces and win while we play goofy slivers and Control Decks kill our key slivers, board wipe and/or outdraws us.
However if a deck that plays all the “good but to expensive slivers” we need to focus on the best slivers that give our deck a controlling edge. The bracket slivers are slivers that might be good, but I do not think they will be the back bone of the deck:
Sliver Token -> Galerider Sliver or Striking Sliver and from there it just gets better. Dormant Sliver is very good with Birthing Pod. Mesmeric Sliver can even be a one of. Trading any 4cc for Might Sliver, Sliver Overlord or Sliver Legion does seem very good indeed.
I am not shure if it is good enough to trade any of the 5cc for Megantic Sliver or Constricting Sliver is worth it. The five mana CC are just that good. But yeah: Birthing Pod backed by counter spells and removal, you bet it can work.
Speaking of progress, we (sliver decks) can also runn Birthing Pod. It will be a good way to progress ouer slivers forward.
The Manaweft Sliver and Gemhide Sliver function as a Sakura-Tribe Elder until it gets killed. It unlocks our potensial to play more exspemsive spells. Can a desent controll deck use Gifts Ungiven? If the early slivers give us mana we can use the gift as a poor mans Fact or Fiction witch was awsome in it's time. Getting counter spells, creature removal or some good slivers would be nice. We can even pull off Sliver Hivelord + Unburial Rites.
Bonescythe Sliver and Syphon Sliver will also lead to a ridicules amount of life. Unfortunatly two of the best decks in Modern is pod and Splinter Twin do not care about life total.
As far as I can see there are four possible directions to take the deck into. But before that I think it is important to talk about the modern format.
Modern is an insane format filled with a lot of combo decks. Both “Birthing Pod” and “Twin Exarch” can pull a win out from anywhere. Twin Exarch has instant speed, Pod is very consistent with a lot of tutors. Usually disrupt able by killing some of the key creatures. “UR Storm” and “Scapeshift” are combo decks with very little interaction with the opponent. UR Storm are just playing spells until it hits a sweet spot where it wins by playing tons of card draw and mana generation over and over. Scapeshift just want to get to 6 mana and cast Scapeshift, finding Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and kill us.
The control decks are “Rock” (good spells, card draw and big creatures, more of a midrange deck then control) “UWR midrange” (some with creatures, some with instant speed spells. Get better the longer the game lasts) “UrzaTron” (perhaps not a “control deck”, it just puts together 7 mana very easily and start casting the biggest badest artefacts and/or blue cards in the format.)
The agro decks are Affinity (kill you with archbound ravager or cranial plating fast) Jund (Kills you very fast and consistently with the best creatures per mana ratio possible) red deck wins (throws creatures at you and then spells, or just resolves 7 burn spells to the face.)
These 3 different decks are horrible to prepare against. Inn between the best agro possible, one and two card combo decks and consistent control decks it will not be possible to make a rogue deck. Instead of finding something that can counter the metagame we should make a deck that focuses on what we want it to do, and just do it better.
The sliver archetypes as far as I can see: “Sliver Poison”, “Agro Lord”, “Control Sliver” and “Big Sliver”.
“Sliver Poison”: We try to find Virulent Sliver, preferably in multiples. Attack and apply poison counters. If you have 2 Virulent Slivers in the table each attack that hits will deal 2 poison counters and it can add up fast. Use Predatory Sliver or other Poison/Infect/Proliferate cards to supplement as plan B. I do think it is very fragile.
Key Cards: Virulent Sliver, Chord of Calling, Summoner's Pact, Galerider Sliver, Phantasmal Image.
“Agro Lord”: Apply pressure by playing fast good slivers and kill your opponent. Hopefully our speed and lords will make us able to compete with the speed of the other agro decks. I think this can be a competitive build but someone needs to play test it. Ancient Ziggurat, Cavern of Souls, Sliver Hive and Æther Vial will fix any mana problems. A suggested list follows, the bracket entries might be better but we do not know without a play test.
1cc: Galerider Sliver, Sidewinder Sliver, Æther Vial (Mindlash Sliver) these are good and you want bodies in the table as early as possible. The Mindlash Sliver is if you can somehow get rid of your opponents hand in some way and if you need more bodies earlier. It can be worth looking into.
2cc: Sinew Sliver, Predatory Sliver, Frenzy Sliver, Leeching Sliver, Phantasmal Image, Diffuion sliver[/card] (Two-Headed Sliver) Sinew Sliver and Predatory are good. We want as much of this if we want a sliver deck to be able to compete with the other agro decks. Frenzy and Leeching are just as good as the previous two, if they are not blocked. Sidewinder and Galerider will help in this fashion. Phantasmal Image is good because we want as many lords as possible. Two-Headed is in case 4 Galeriders are not enough. Several of the decks in the metagame run blockers.
3cc: Sedge Sliver, Mirror Entity (Firewake Sliver) 3cc is very expensive in my opinion as we need to be fast. Sedge is another lord (include some swamps) but the regeneration is not good enough to cost one mana more. Mirror Entity is a very good finisher. Play a vial on turn 1, play some sliver on turn 2 and 3 and turn 4 sneak the entity into play and pay 3 mana for an over run. (Although Ancient Ziggurat might be bad here.)
4cc: (BoneScythe Sliver, BoneSplitter Sliver) both of these are oh so aggressive but alas I think they cost too much.
A deck like this would probably also try to run some disruption. Preferably Thoughtseize, Lightning Bolt, Abrupt Decay, Flame Slash and/or Path to Exile as they are the current bread and butter or the format. (Since we will be tapping a lot Slaughter Pact can also function.) If someone can please play test a deck along these lines and give us some information on this then that would be awesome. I think this can really be the way to go!
“Control Sliver” is the sliver deck that did well once upon a time. It was a very tight sliver deck with a few of the best slivers backed up by the best control cards that where available. Back in the day it was known as “Meathooks”.
4 Hibernation Sliver
4 Muscle Sliver
3 Winged Sliver
2 Acidic Sliver
4 Aura of Silence
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Annul
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Demonic Consultation
4 Tundra
4 Underground Sea
2 Scrubland
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Flood Plain
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
4 Erase
2 Swords to Plowshares
4 Pyroblast
2 Hydroblast
3 Worship
A problem these days is that we have no Force of Will, Counterspell, Demonic Consultation and no pure Crystalline Sliver. I do not even know if the old decklist would function in today’s modern environment. I do however think that suck a list can be a very strong contender. We should start to identify cheap good slivers that can make this deck good. After all, they must be good enough to play over Snapcaster Mage and Young Pyromancer. The new Sliver Hive is good in this form of deck and I would appreciate any good results people can report with decks like this. It worked in the 90’s, why not in the 10’s?
“Big Sliver” is the deck we wish sliver decks where. We make them in casual but it carries over badly in the competitive scene. Agro decks are too fast for us (life gain might mitigate this) Combo Decks assemble their pieces and win while we play goofy slivers and Control Decks kill our key slivers, board wipe and/or outdraws us.
However if a deck that plays all the “good but to expensive slivers” we need to focus on the best slivers that give our deck a controlling edge. The bracket slivers are slivers that might be good, but I do not think they will be the back bone of the deck:
Galerider Sliver, Gemhide Sliver, Manaweft Sliver, Necrotic Sliver, BoneSplitter Sliver, Dormant Sliver, Telekinetic Sliver, Constricting Sliver
(Striking Sliver, Predatory Sliver, Sinew Sliver, Diffusion sliver, Frenetic Sliver, Harmonic Sliver, Homing Sliver, Sedge Sliver, BoneScythe Sliver, Psionic Sliver, Might Sliver, Thorncaster Sliver, Megantic Sliver, Sliver Hivelord)
This deck would also need to run some of the previous mentioned spells. Return to the Ranks can also be good in this type of deck.
I also have 2 sugested decks:
4 Sliver Hive
4 Mana Confluence
1 Watery Grave
1 Temple Garden
1 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
1 Swamp
4 Sidewinder Sliver
4 Predatory Sliver
4 Sinew Sliver
4 Diffusion Sliver
4 Leeching Sliver
1 Two-Headed Sliver
2 Frenzy Sliver
2 Springleaf Drum
4 Thoughtseize
3 Path to Exile
Perhaps a little light on the actual lords (Sidewinder Sliver helps) but the black Leeching Sliver and Frenzy Sliver might help. The Springleaf Drum and the Æther Vial are there to help ease the deck into the right spot. I think Springleaf Drum is an actual good card as you can play your sliver and them tap it for mana. A good head start, a Springleaf Drum and/or an æther vial on 2 can help fight the Blood Moon. Drum is also more rainbow colour. The Thoughtseize and Path to Exile are unfortunatly the only 7 spots dedicated to fighting ouer oponent, as I feel some cards should force them to play around us. Thoughtseize will help stop anger of the gods. Diffusion sliver will also make it harder for them to stop us. It has only 4 Galerider Sliver and 1 Two-Headed Sliverto come around blockers. If pod/afinnaty/jund/rock starts playing blockers Predatory Sliver, Sinew Sliver and Sidewinder Sliverwill hopefully be enough to function to push trhough. If we do not have enough mana problems it might justefy putting in some Mutavaults. I did not dare use them in the original draft as we need coming crashing out of the gates.
The second one is a control version.
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Mutavault
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Gemhide Sliver
4 Diffusion Sliver
4 Mirror Entity
4 Serum Visions
4 Path to Exile
3 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Deprive
4 Cryptic Command
This might seem like an odd one and it probably is. Try to keep control with your counter spells and Path to Exile. Ouer winn condition is Mirror Entity and slivers. Sphinx's Revelation + Deprive, Path to Exile and Cryptic Command will hopefully be good enough control cards. If you want to improve on the design I really think Disrupting Shoal can be worth adding. As can Dormant Sliver + Necrotic Sliver. Sliver Hivelord can also fitt into this deck. Return to the Ranks would be good if we had more slivers in the actual deck. If people have other takes on this deck, please post them!
On a final note: Both Curiosity, Keen Sense and Warriors' Lesson are legal in modern and function very well with slivers, but not in the decks I sugested.
OK, here are two ideas. The first one is an agro version.
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Sliver Hive
3x Mana Confluence
1x Ancient Zigurat
1x Watery Grave
1x Temple Garden
1x Godles Shrine
4x Mars Flats
1x Swamp
4x Galerider Sliver
4x Sidewinder Sliver
4x Æther Vial
2x Springleaf Drum
4x Thoughtsieze
3x Path to Exile
4x Predator Sliver
4x Sinew Sliver
4x Diffusin Sliver
4x Leeching Sliver
1x Two-Headed Sliver
2x Frenzy Sliver
Perhaps a little light on the actual lords (side winder helps) but the black leeching and frenzy slivers might help. The springleaf drum and the vial are there to help ease the deck into the right spot. I think springleaf drum is an actual good card as you can play your sliver and them tap it for mana. A good head start, a spring leaf drum and/or an æther vial on 2 can help fight the blood moon. Drum is also more rainbow colour. The thoughtsieze and path to exile are unfortunatly the only 7 spots dedicated to fighting ouer oponent, as I feel some cards should force them to play around us. Thoughtsieze will help stop anger of the gods. Diffusion sliver will also make it harder for them to stop us. It has only 4 gale rider and 1 two-headed to come around blockers. If pod/afinnaty/jund/rock starts playing blockers predatory, sinew and sidewinder will hopefully be enough to function as a plan B. If we do not have enough mana problems it might justefy putting in some mutavaults. I did not dare use them in the original draft as we need coming crashing out of the gates.
The second one is a control version.
4x Sliver Hive
4x Cavern of Souls
4x Tropical Island
4x Breeding Pool
1x Temple Garden
2x Hallowed Fountain
3x Mutavault
1x Forrest
1x Island
4x Manaweft Sliver
4x Gemhide Sliver
4x Diffusion Sliver
4x Mirror Entety
4x Serum Vision
4x Path of Exile
3x Sphinxes Revelation
4x Deprive
4x Cryptic Command
This might seem like an odd one and it probably is. Try to keep control with your counter spells and the path of exile. Ouer winn condition is Mirror Entety and slivers. Sphinxes Revelation + deprive, path of exile and cryptic command will hopefully be good enough control cards. If you want to improve on the design I really think disrupting shoal can be worth adding. As can Dormant Sliver + Necrotic Sliver. Sliver Hivelord can also fitt into this deck. Return to the Ranks would be good if we had more slivers in the actual deck. If people have other takes on this deck, please post them!
On a final note: Both Curiosety, Keen Sence and Warriors' Lesson are legal in modern and function very well with slivers, but not in the decks I sugested.
Dimir Charm: Counter Sorceries can be good vs scapeshift and past in flames. Creatures with power 2 or less can be a lot of creatures, but not least the kiki jiki combo. Or it can be a scry cards (the weakest abilaty.)
Hindering Lights: A poerfull effect, but no home for it?
Voidslime: A functional counterspell at 3 mana. Can also stop a pod activation or function as stone rain vs a sackland.
If we balance the pro's and cons of each the merfolks are bigger then slivers usualy.
Slivers on the other hand reach critical mass quite fast and with the current mana base in modern we can add any singel colour mana spells to the deck to helpus out. Path to Exile, Vendetta, Flame Slash, Lightning Bolt, Thoughtsieze, Inquisition of Kozilek, Remand, Mana Leak, Dismember, Springleaf Drum, Abrupt Decay and Æther Vial can be added as needed depending on what mana base we build on. That is not something fish can do.
2) I do not think you need to think colours when making the sliver deck. Talking about thinks like "naya" is not requiered. With fetchlands/shock lands, ancient zigurats, cavern of souls and sliver hive you should not have mana problems. If you want to ad manaweft/gemhide sliver then that is because you want to ramp it up the mana. If you want to play agresive (with lords) then you want to tap your creatures for attack, not making mana. In my opinion manaweft/gemhide belongs in the "big mana" type of deck where you try to get to the bigger (and slower) slivers.
3) Out of the four decks the agro lord deck is where Homing Sliver does not belong. Spending 3 mana to find another sliver is bad when you can just spend 3 mana or less to play another lord. Remember we are in aformat where playing a deciever excharch round 3 and splinter twin turn 4 is enough to go infinite and kill you. Be fast or be controll.
As far as I can see there are four possible directions to take the deck into. But before that I think it is important to talk about the modern format.
Modern is an insane format filled with a lot of combo decks. Both “Birthing Pod” and “Twin Exarch” can pull a win out from anywhere. Twin Exarch has instant speed, Pod is very consistent with a lot of tutors. Usually disrupt able by killing some of the key creatures. “UR Storm” and “Scapeshift” are combo decks with very little interaction with the opponent. UR Storm are just playing spells until it hits a sweet spot where it wins by playing tons of card draw and mana generation over and over. Scapeshift just want to get to 6 mana and cast Scapeshift, finding Valakut and kill us.
The control decks are “Rock” (good spells, card draw and big creatures, more of a midrange deck then control) “UWR midrange” (some with creatures, some with instant speed spells. Get better the longer the game lasts) “UrzaTron” (perhaps not a “control deck”, it just puts together 7 mana very easily and start casting the biggest badest artefacts and/or blue cards in the format.)
The agro decks are Affinity (kill you with archbound ravager or cranial plating fast) Jund (Kills you very fast and consistently with the best creatures per mana ratio possible) red deck wins (throws creatures at you and then spells, or just resolves 7 burn spells to the face.)
These 3 different decks are horrible to prepare against. Inn between the best agro possible, one and two card combo decks and consistent control decks it will not be possible to make a rogue deck. Instead of finding something that can counter the metagame we should make a deck that focuses on what we want it to do, and just do it better.
The sliver archetypes as far as I can see: “Sliver Poison”, “Agro Lord”, “Control Sliver” and “Big Sliver”.
“Sliver Poison”: We try to find Virulent Sliver, preferably in multiples. Attack and apply poison counters. If you have 2 Virulent Slivers in the table each attack that hits will deal 2 poison counters and it can add up fast. Use Predatory Sliver or other Poison/Infect/Proliferate cards to supplement as plan B. I do think it is very fragile.
Key Cards: Virulent Sliver, Chord of Calling, Summons’s Pact, Galerider Sliver, Phantasmal Image.
“Agro Lord”: Apply pressure by playing fast good slivers and kill your opponent. Hopefully our speed and lords will make us able to compete with the speed of the other agro decks. I think this can be a competitive build but someone needs to play test it. Ancient Ziggurat, Cavern of Souls Sliver Hive and Æther Vial will fix any mana problems. A suggested list follows, the bracket entries might be better but we do not know without a play test.
1cc: Galerider Sliver, Sidewinder Sliver, Æther Vial (Mind Lash Sliver) these are good and you want bodies in the table as early as possible. The mindlash is if you can somehow get rid of your opponents hand in some way and if you need more bodies earlier. It can be worth looking into.
2cc: Sinew Sliver, Predatory Sliver, Frenzy Sliver, Leeching Sliver, Phantasmal Image (Two-Headed Sliver) Sinew and Predatory are good. We want as much of this if we want a sliver deck to be able to compete with the other agro decks. Frenzy and Leeching are just as good as the previous two, if they are not blocked. Sidewinder and Galerider will help in this fashion. Phantasmal Image is good because we want as many lords as possible. Two-Headed is in case 4 gale riders are not enough. Several of the decks in the metagame run blockers.
3cc: Sedge Sliver, Mirror Entity (Fire Wake Sliver) 3cc is very expensive in my opinion as we need to be fast. Sedge is another lord (include some swamps) but the regeneration is not good enough to cost one mana more. Mirror Entity is a very good finisher. Play a vial on turn 1, play some sliver on turn 2 and 3 and turn 4 sneak the entity into play and pay 3 mana for an over run. (Although Ancient Ziggurat might be bad here.)
4cc: (Bone Scythe Sliver, Bone Splitter Sliver) both of these are oh so aggressive but alas I think they cost too much.
A deck like this would probably also try to run some disruption. Preferably Thoughtsieze, Lightning Bolt, Abrupt Decay, Flame Slash and/or Path to Exile as they are the current bread and butter or the format. (Since we will be tapping a lot Slaughter Pact can also function.) If someone can please play test a deck along these lines and give us some information on this then that would be awesome. I think this can really be the way to go!
“Control Sliver” is the sliver deck that did well once upon a time. It was a very tight sliver deck with a few of the best slivers backed up by the best control cards that where available. Back in the day it was known as “Meathooks” I believe, and one of the deck lists can be found by googling meathooks + demonic tutor. (I was not allowed to post a link.)
A problem these days is that we have no Force of Will, Counterspell, Demonic Consultation and no Crystalline Sliver. I do not even know if the old decklist would function in today’s modern environment. I do however think that suck a list can be a very strong contender. We should start to identify cheap good slivers that can make this deck good. After all, they must be good enough to play over snapcast mage and young pyromanser. The new Sliver Hive is good in this form of deck and I would appreciate any good results people can report with decks like this. It worked in the 90’s, why not in the 10’s?
“Big Sliver” is the deck we wish sliver decks where. We make them in casual but it carries over badly in the competitive scene. Agro decks are too fast for us (life gain might mitigate this) Combo Decks assemble their pieces and win while we play goofy slivers and Control Decks kill our key slivers, board wipe and/or outdraws us.
However if a deck that plays all the “good but to expensive slivers” we need to focus on the best slivers that give our deck a controlling edge. The bracket slivers are slivers that might be good, but I do not think they will be the back bone of the deck:
Galerider Sliver, Gemhide Sliver, Manaweft Sliver, Necrotic Sliver, Bone Splitter Sliver, Dormant Sliver, Telekinetic Sliver, Constricting Sliver
(Striking Sliver, Predatory Sliver, Sinew Sliver, Frenetic Sliver, Harmonic Sliver, Homing Sliver Sedge Sliver, Bone Scythe Sliver, Psionic Sliver, Might Sliver, Thorncast Sliver, Megantic Sliver, Sliver Hivelord)
This deck would also need to run some of the previous mentioned spells. Return to the ranks can also be good in this type of deck.
Thanks for the patience. I would love to see some Sliver Modern deck, so let us build one!