MTG Salvation

I have to share this one... Played against jund online, in game 3 I had 2 Sinew, 1 Diffuson, 1 Manaweft and 1 Frenetic in play. Opponent cast Damnation. I flip 5 coins. Called all 5 correctly. Opponent scooped immediately.

Epic finish!

SCG Dallas this weekend... hoping to make day 2 and possibly get on camera!

Alright, here we go... Mt list is in my signature or https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/27-04-16-modern-slivers/ for those who cant see it.

Round 1, humans 2-1.
Game 1, kept a suspect hand with a basic forest and watery grave for lands... didnt pan out, couldnt build a board with the poor land base and lost the game quickly.
Game 2, Sided in 2 syphon slivers in place of diffusion slivers. Dropped syphon on turn 3 after a sinew and went to town attacking and gaining life. My life gain out paced his deck completely.
Game 3, this was a risk for me, I kept a slow hand without the life gain but I had a TON of lords. I stabilized at 5 life but eventually got 5 lords into play and there was nothing for him to do but chump block until his board was gone and I swung with an alpha strike for the win.

Round 2, valuetown 2-0.
Game 1, Kept a great hand with a perfect curve out, T1 Galerider, T2 lord, T3 sedge, etc. I took 2 hits from a voice but it was over quick.
Game 2, Didnt sideboard at all, just ran it back main. VERY similar to first game except vial instead of Galerider. A Collected company dropped double lord on turn 3 due to a path giving me a basic a turn early.

Round 3, RB Hollow one 2-0.
Game 1, He cast 2 burning inquiries early on, the first really hurt, the second fixed the damage. This guy was fairly new to modern and was not prepared, made many mistakes.
Game 2, brought in 2 Relics from side, he had a better game and got me down to 5 life before my alpha strike killed him from 18.

Round 4, Titan Shift 2-0.
Game 1, Simply out raced the combo, I took 1 point of damage from my own fetch and killed him from 10.
Game 2, brought in syphon slivers and warping wails, opponent managed to cast a titan and brought in the first valakut and a mountain with it, he chose to deal 3 to my sedge... who happened to be a 4/4 at the time. I killed him with exact damage from 14 the next turn.

Round 5, intentional draw into top 8 at the #1 seed.

Round 6, UW control 2-1.
Game 1, on a mulligan to 5 I kept a 2 land hand with a sedge predatory and a 5th card I cant rememeber right now. The only damage I manage to take that game is from a fetch and shock... I won on a mull to 5!!!
Game 2, brought in Frenetics hivelord and warping wails. His mass removal was found in this game, he had to hard cast terminus but I killed his colonade with necrotic at the same time.
Game 3, Found frenetic this game... in response to a verdict I was able to save 3/6 of my slivers and that was basically the end of things from there.

Round 7, RB Hollow one 2-1. Rematch from round 3.
Game 1, curved out perfectly and won on turn 4. Galerider into lord into sedge into lord.
Game 2, Same side plan as round 3. I had a slower start and was unable to get out quick enough to match up with a turn 1 Hollow one.
Game 3, Very close game but in the end hollow one simply cannot stop a field full of flyers.

Round 8, humans 2-0.
Game 1, Saw some reflector mages but thankfully I had a vial out to replay everything, vial is also good against meddling mage... getting around that card was fun!
Game 2, ground humans cannot stop flying slivers. I saw galerider and was able to not be blocked the whole game.

Played a PPTQ today in Springfield MO... The improbable has happened guys...

I won the event!

2-1 vs humans
2-0 vs value town
2-0 vs hollow one
2-0 vs titan shift
ID

Top 8, 2-1 vs uw control
Top 4, 2-1 vs hollow one
Finals, 2-0 vs humans

14-3 in games, 7-0-1 in matches.
Playing the RPTQ in December near Kansas City!

Did some research on valakut triggers... Timba is absolutely right. Here is an article that explains it better.

https://blogs.magicjudges.org/articles/2013/10/01/modern-rules-problems-valakut-the-molten-pinnacle/


Fnm report
Played at a smaller venue this week for fnm, 16 players

4-0
Round 1, 2-1 vs elves
Round 2, 2-0 vs bant company
Round 3, 2-1 vs ponza
Round 4, 2-1 vs naya company

Took home 1/3 box of masters 25.

Full report as promised:

Round 1: Dredge, W 2-1. On the draw, never really developed a board presence due to sub par draws, and it didnt help my opponent had very good dredges. He eventually swarmed me with 3 amalgams and 3 bloodghasts. Sideboard: +1 Relic +2 Syphon -3 Diffusion. On the play, I dropped a Galerider turn 1 and proceeded to lord turn 2 and Syphon turn 3 and gained up to 40 life. He eventually managed to kill the Galerider, but was unaware I had another in hand and as soon as I managed to kill his fliers, vialed it in and finished him. Game 3 on the draw was almost the exact same game as game 2. Galerider early into lord and Syphon. He didnt stand a chance with his very poor dredges.

Round 2: Kiki-Deceiver Exarch combo, W 2-1. I lost the die roll again, so on the draw. He plays a basic island turn 1 and passes, I had no clue what to expect. Dropped a turn 1 vial off a hive and passed. He eventually got a deceiver out and I realized what he was doing, and followed up the following turn with kiki jiki and the win. I did not sideboard. Game 2 on the play, I got going early with galerider and was happy to see a dismember in opening hand. He went for the combo on around turn 6, but I was ready with dismember, he remanded it so I played it again to ensure he didnt win instantly. He had no other plans and died shortly after. Game 3, my opponent saw very little interaction and I simply beat face for 5 turns to a win.

Round 3: Eldrazi Tron, W 2-1. This gentleman was a very sore loser, I was quite happy with my victory here. Game 1 on the draw (I cant win dice rolls to save my life). I end up watching him durdle looking for threats while having tron early but having no payoffs, while I beat face with 1/1s and 2/2s because I saw no lords but I still got the win. Game 2 on the draw, an All is Dust really set me back when I had him on the ropes and he followed it up with Ulamog and I quickly scooped. Game 3 on the play, again with the no lords but I managed to get there with flying 1/1s and 2/2s and hit both my Syphons off a coco with blur on the board. That attack sent the game to a point where I was up 29 to 2 and sealed the match.

Round 4: Grixis Shadow, L 0-2. Game 1 started off unusually, I won the die roll and got to play first however that was the only thing I won this round. I quickly ran out of gas as I flooded out on lands. Sideboard: +1 Colossus +1 Hivelord +2 Frenetic +1 Relic -4 Vial -1 Striking. Game 2 was not a game, I mulliganed to oblivion going down to 4 cards, it didnt seem too bad as my opponent was down to 5 himself, but I didnt see land #2 until turn 8.

Round 5: Bant Spirits, L 1-2. This match I am still kicking myself over, I should have made better choices and taken a mulligan. Game 1 on the play (getting better at this die roll thing...) I drop Striking into lord lord lord and easily overwhelmed him. Game 2 was the mistake, I should have mulliganed but the experience with shadow really dissuaded me from doing so. My 7 was 1 land, 1 vial, 3 2-cost slivers, 2 3-cost slivers; and I kept it. I struggled to find lands again and lost handily. Game 3 was also a error laden game. I got a necrotic out and took out a cavern, but he replaced it the following turn so I decided that land destruction was not the right plan. When I got my 4th land i cast coco main phase and fell into a trap, his coco in response hit a Queller and exiled mine and left me tapped out unable to activate necrotic and him with lethal on board.

Round 6: Eldrazi tron, W 2-0. This was nearly a bye for me, as my opponent mulled to 5 each game. I played my best magic this round. Game 1, Turn 1 Vial, Turn 2 manaweft, turn 3 Coco into a Blur, Sedge, and then Vial in a Darkheart with a swamp on play and swing for 9. Game 2 was a slaughter, I ended the game with 7 lords on board.

Round 7: Lantern Control, L 1-2. This started off as strangely as possible, my opponent failed to play a land until turn 4 and when I ended up winning I had no idea what he was playing, so no sideboarding. Game 2, he played spells, starting with an Inquisition on turn 1. Still had no idea at that time what he was on, but it became apparent the next turn when he dropped a mill rock. Once the bridges came down it was locked as my main only ran a single necrotic for this event. Side board: +1 Necrotic +3 harmonic -3 Diffusion -1 vial. Game 3 I made a mistake in not mulling to a Harmonic and ended up locked out by turn 5 because I had coco but only 3 lands, my opponent focused on keeping me off a land the rest of the game and ended up having all 4 cocos in hand at the end.

Round 8: Vizier Combo Abzan, L 1-2. Game 1 was simple, I failed to see my dismembers and fell prey to the combo on turn 5. broungh in 2 Warping wails from the side. Game 2 was also simple, I wailed his druid in response to a vizier and won the game. Game 3 was excruciating, he managed to take my dismember with Tidehollow Skuller and keep it gone with another when I killed the first. He eventually found the combo and used ballista burn.

Round 9: Figured I'd finish it up since I was already 8 rounds deep even though my chance at day 2 was gone. I sat there for 10 minutes and no one ever showed, got the 2-0 win due to no show.

I am pleased with how I played for the most part, I did make some mistakes that I will correct in the future. I feel we are kind of at the peak of our potential until we get some better slivers. We need cheaper more interactive abilities on our slivers. A cheaper Necrotic effect, a graveyard hate effect, maybe even a cheaper tutor, etc... I greatly look forward to April and the hope for more slivery shenanigans.

I would also like to extend congratulations to a couple locals from my area for making the top 8 of the GP. Michael Byars and Julian John are both people I play on a regular basis at one of the LGS's here in Northwest Arkansas.

Ok, he finished 13th. Lots to discuss here's the list.

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=115351

Psionic sliver in side? How'd that do?
Urborg in main?
Dormant in side, when does this come in?

I had a tough night at FNM...
27 players (4 capped rounds)

Round 1 - Ad Nauseum, 1-2. Kept a poor hand in game 1 and was punished thoroughly. Game 2 I saw my boarded in Harmonic and destroyed all of the mana rocks. Game 3 was the interesting one. Opponent got several rocks out but couldnt go off for a while, eventually went off to Lightning Storm but I had 2 lands in hand and a Diffusion in play, I had to use both lands to redirect and still had 1 card left in hand and opponent had 3 more mana so if he pays I die. He doesnt pay for the second Diffusion trigger and allows the Storm to be countered and then uses his 3 mana to cast Laboratory Manaic and wins by forcing a draw card.

Round 2 - Gixis Shadow, 2-1. Game 1, slivers did slivery things... got wide and was a pretty easy game. Game 2, got stuck at 3 lands with a Hivelord in hand and it never came down. Game 3 was a pretty good game, waited til my opponent tapped out to cast CoCo and hit exactly what I needed to take away his last 4 life.

Round 3 - Death & Taxes, 1-2. Game 1 I kept what I thought to be a GOD hand, 2 Predatory 2 Sinew, 1 Sedge Cavern Hive... a turn 3 Ghost Quarter with a Leonin Arbiter ruined any chance of winning this game. Game 2, mulled to 5 cards and kept a 1 lander with a vial, managed to top a land and followed that up with lords and a coco, swung for 26 on turn 5. Game 3, fell prey to a Dusk/Dawn removing my 3 slivers and leaving a Mirran Crusader alone on the board.

Round 4 - RG Titanshift, 0-2. Lost to back to back turn 3 Anger of the Gods. Saw it coming but could do nothing to prevent them.

Still had a good time playing, but didnt have the luck required to win.

Just 1 more masterpiece Aether Vial to get. I have decided to not go after the full art Mutavaults, they are far too rare. After the last Vial, its as pimped as I am willing to go.

Finally made it back out to play last night. Took me a round to shake the rust off...

3-1, 5th/15
Ran the list in the above link.

Round 1 - 1-2 vs Burn. All started off ok, I kept a hand that against any other deck would have been fine. Things were not fine, the hand was simply too slow to compete with the speed of burn. Game 2, sided in 2 Syphon Sliver and 1 Homing Sliver to help find them, didnt need them due to the 1 copy of Darkheart Sliver I had opening hand. Game 2 was able to keep his stuff in check and won pretty quick. Game 3, the sideboard choice from game 2 bit me here. Definitely made a mistake removing the 3 Diffusion Sliver for the sideboard stuff. He was able to kill my creatures and get in with Goblin Guide and Eidolon of the great revel.

Round 2 - 2-0 vs Grixis Delver. Figured this would be a long grindy match and it pretty much lived up to the reputation. Game 1 on the play, he starts his removal shenanigans almost immediately however he was unable to answer a turn 1 aether vial which was his undoing. Game 2, sided in Hivelord, Homing, 2 Cautery, 2 Frenetic - sided out 2 Blur, 2 Dismember, 2 Darkheart. Frenetic was MVP of game 2, got him out via Vial and immediately won 2 coin flips to save a sedge and himself. My opponents inability to remove my slivers proved too much for him.

Round 3 - 2-1 vs merfolk. Typical fish vs sliver matchup. Won the die roll, won game 1... helps having an opponent stuck at 1 island and 1 mutavault that eventually got dismembered. Game 2 on the draw, fish go 1 drop, lord, lord, spreading seas, good game... Game 3, much better game for me since I remembered to side in 3 harmonic sliver and homing. Destroyed his turn 2 spreading seas that was on my cavern and just rolled it from there.

Round 4 - 2-0 vs Eldrazi tron. ***New player with budget deck*** This was not even close. My opponent never formed tron and the only creature he cast in either game was a Matter Reshaper. This was not a match, this was gold-fishing. On a side note, he is considering building a budget sliver build now...

Overall 7-3 in games, 3-1 in the event. 5th out of 15 players.

Gratz!

We don't have any card draw besides horizon lands, and the Unearth that Dregscape provides is a kind of virtual card advantage (since we are recycling slivers where the opponent, presumably, spent removal) for an acceptable cost. Reanimating one or two slivers in a turn (more or less the average I have been reanimating) could be devastating, even if it is for a lord, a key ability like flying or just one more beater. Besides, mind that the reanimated sliver has haste.
Against control and grindy matchups, it shines. Against aggro decks, is just a decent beater that can provide value in case one of our slivers gets killed. Basically, we are more resilient to removal in a way that fits the beatdown plan.

Mariner is like Diffusion, but with two important differences: stats are better (which matters a lot) and protection covers all our permanents and ourselves.
The problem with Diffusion was that it was weak, and its ability would be useless in non-point-removal matchups. Mariner solves both problems nicely. Even when the opponent is not targeting our slivers, Mariner could be useful: hand hate (discard, Thought-Knot Seer), land destruction (Field of Ruin, Ghost Quarter), Liliana -2, direct damage (Mariner is basically a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben against burn), Valakut, Ballista, artifact hate... the list is very long.
And if its role is relegated to lower the opponent lives, it truly does a better job than Diffusion.

I don't think Dregscape and Mariner could be compared one with the other. They fill different roles in the deck, and I think both are a nice inclusion. Numbers can vary, but I would not be less than 3 of each (and I am very comfortable with 4 mariners). If I have to choose, I think will bet for Mariner, but I am not sure.

About lands: Gemstone and Ziggurat are poor replacements of Cavern of Souls. Gemstone is somewhat acceptable, Ziggurat is horrible when we try to activate mutavault, unearth, sliver hive or cast Aether Vial.
Horizon Lands have been very good (card drawing helps a lot) but I would set the number to 3. Don't think of them as color fixers: they are just card drawers that don't provide tempo loss. I would not rely on them to construct the manabase.
If you can afford them, pick x4 Caverns, x4 Sliver Hives and x4 Unclaimed Territory. With 3 Horizon lands and 1-2 Gemstone Mine if there are still slots, the manabase is perfetcly fine. If you can, avoid ziggurat.

(sorry for the multiple post, I was making updates as I was playing, and I thought some activity will be good for the forum)

Tried very similar list to ekienhol's one, wanting to test new meta.
Very surprised to see how solid it is. Fast, consisten and with a lot of outs.
Swapped one Dregscape Sliver and three Diffusion Sliver for four Unsettled Mariner
Beat 2-0 UW Control and WB Stoneblade, 1-2 against Burn.

-List is very solid, kills fast and has good recovery. All slivers are good. The weakest one is, as far as I tested, Leeching Sliver, but it gives a lot of reach.
-Chalice is, what a surprise, an all-star
-Hollowhead Sliver is surprisingly good, specially when topdecking. Between him and horizon lands, the deck draws a lot.
-Dregscape Sliver also rocks, giving virtual card advantage in grindy matchups while still being a decent beater.
-Unsettled Mariner is a hell of a card. Decent stats while protecting lands, vial and chalice, and being a nice edge against burn and storm.

Considering adding more 1-drops to side/Hivelord or First sliver for grindy matchups. Testing will tell.

Good sensations about this list. Feels powerful and with a lot of options. After refining, could be a decent Tier 3 or 2.
I still miss Manaweft Sliver explosive starts, but we can't have everything, I guess

Oh the possibilities! X-mas have came way earlier this year

Whelp, we have new incorporations in the hive
I don't know you, but i am pretty excited with the Unearth one

So theorycrafting,

Harmonic x 3
Frenetic x 2
Warping Wail x 2
Chalice x 3-4
Telekinetic x 1-2
Syphon x 1-2
Striking x 1-2

What is Damping Sphere for that Chalice can't cover? Tron or Storm? Storm isn't as good as it once was and I am not sure how reasonable Storm hate is in the side. Tron is rough, but I think we can just perhaps Chalice/Telekinetic and rush um. Necrotic and Mutavaults are good in that match up.

Main

20 Lands

4 Galerider
4 Manaweft (Gemhide)
8 Lords
4 Diffusion (i think is better than 3 now)
4 Sedge
2 Blur
2 Necrotic
1-2 Darkheart
1-2 Striking

4 Collected Company
4 Aether Vial
2 Dismember

This is just probably something that I would play at the moment.

As for Grixis Whirl - its basically lantern control with better card selection and less mill.

So Harmonic/Necrotic/Telekinetic are probably the biggest winners. For the matchup, Flying, Mana, Sedge, Blur, Necrotic are the only main deck cards after sideboard that probably matter. Diffusion might matter as well.

Be prepared to for example for them to get Torpor Orb for Harmonic, Pithing Needle for Vial/Mutavault/Necrotic (although it does work all that well, they have to name each and every sliver type for it to truly work), and Ensnaring Bridge. Whirl works as an instant so Warping Wail isn't great. Chalice can be good on Zero, 1, or 3.

They have a faster clock with Thopter Sword Combo, but that can dealt with and we could probably cause a draw with Syphon Sliver, galeride rand lords. They heavily rely on Whirl to get them what they need as they don't have a huge ton of filtering. Its a race, but we tools to defeat them.

Not sure we need new slivers, but a crystalline sliver reprint (or a 1 sided version as the new slivers are) would certainly be a welcome addition.

Modern slivers!!!

As for traditional Slivers, I feel that the big issue into getting at least tier 2 is that every other deck has been getting goodies but we did not. For example, one of our big niches was that we had such a huge versatillity of creatures to handle many different situations. But look at decks like counters company or G/W Value Company. They too abuse Collected Company into getting their toolbox creatures in play, while having acces to stuff like unlimited mana combo, Chord of Calling etc. They got new goodies like Excavator, Vizier etc. It's hard to not think there are decks that do what we do but better.

On top of that, it's not an easy deck to stsrt playing. Yes, slivers are every kitchen table players favorites. However, the deck is not cheap, and when spending that money, why not go for something more competitive? To add to that, it's a surprisingly hard deck to play. Because about every card in the deck interacts with another, there are many many tricks inexperienced Sliver players just don't see. I've cringed so many times when watching pro players give Slivers a try and then losing games due to not seeing the tricks that would win them the game. And Im not even good, I just played the deck a long time. Many peoole I met liked the deck, played some rounds, thought it felt underwhelming and tried something else. If they practiced more, they would have ao much more succes.

To top it all off, the current meta is quite harsh. Storm and Valakut feel unwinneable with all but the perfect scenarios. Tron is very hard, as is Lantern Control. We have very little interaction vs Elves and Counters Company.

All is not grim, however. There still is a niche (imo) in the Slivers deck. Although not consistant, we are still much more explosive than most toolbox decks and more versatile than most explosive decks. I feel it would take 1 or 2 sick sliver reprints or just value tribal card advantage cards to push us that little bit higher towards T2. Despite all flaws I listed, I seldom feel like my drck lacks power in modern. And heroes like Paul and Adam give at the very occasional succes I need to keep brewing with it. Ixilan seems to open up tribal cards, Dominaria and the Core set might give us Slivers. I believe.

I think that ghostflame is too narrow, but I had a foil one and considered using it. Mutavaults only block etched champion if you remember that you have them too (still can't believe I forgot about the 3 I had in play). I am going to an IQ today and am running pretty much the same 75 except that I have -1 Dormant Sliver, -1 Psionic Sliver, +2 Warping Wail in the sideboard.