Slivers are evil. Slivers are sly. And if you get eaten, no one will cry ~Mogg children's rhyme
Slivers were what got me into Magic in the first place. I started playing around the time of the Onslaught block and tribal was really the thing back then. I really liked the idea of a synergistic creature-type that just buffed everything else in play.
It was simple.
It was easy enough to build at the time.
And, as I soon learned, it was easy enough for opponents to dismantle.
By the time Timespiral started, Slivers were proving to be too unwieldy for a casual person such as myself thanks to their varied mana pool and vulnerability to removal. And at the time, I was of the mindset that the best decks were played with the biggest creatures. Never mind things like consistency and mana curves.
When M14 came around, I decided to devote myself to creating a decent Sliver deck that could--at the very least--stand up to some of the decent Standard decks around (American Control, Izzet Control.) Not a high ambition, I admit. But it has already won me some games so that keeps me content.
With this in mind, I scoured the net for some of the competitive Sliver decks in Legacy. The most known of which is Meathooks or "Counter-Slivers." Unfortunately, Force of Will was really out of my price range and a set of them was even worse.
The key to any sliver deck, I believe, is really the time to build and to build it quickly. So some form of stall or player disruption was necessary. I decided to look into some more modest budget alternatives for disruptions and ran across Death and Taxes decks. Since Aether Vial stands as the centrepiece of these decks (as well as Legacy Fish) I looked for ways to combine the two.
Note that this isn't the first deck of its kind as Channel Fireball has posted a similar list and much of their strategy was taken into account when making this deck.
The result is as you see here.
Featured Cards
Aether Vial : The obvious centrepiece of this deck as stated earlier. Because this deck runs no instants or sorceries, vialing in our creatures during our opponent's turn will allow us to respond in near-instant speed as well as disrupt our opponents when necessary.
Crystalline Sliver : THE sliver of any sliver deck. Once this is out on the second turn, targeted removal is instantly nullified. This needs no further explanation, I suppose.
ALL THE 2 CMC OR LESS SLIVER PUMP LORDS :
Muscle Sliver
+
Plated Sliver
+ Sinew Sliver +
Predatory Sliver
= a deck with consistent pump spells. 4 toughness is guaranteed per play at the very least. Also, because this deck is a tribute to slivers through the ages, I wanted to run slivers from each of the relevant blocks (Tempest, Onslaught, Timespiral, and M14.) Like Meathooks, I'm also considering playing Phantasmal Image as another 2-drop pump sliver lord in place of either Muscle and/or Plated depending on whether or not I would like to play a different format.
Cavern of Souls : This card along with Crystalline Sliver and Aether Vial combine to create the best opening hand, in my opinion.
Ancient Ziggurat : I initially chose Ancient Ziggurat because it was cheap to purchase and because my deck ran only creature spells. But I find that two of these in your opening hand make for a difficult play especially if I want to sideboard in non-creature spells like Immortal Servitude.
Hivestone
: Our surprise card addition! I noticed that the sliver decks I looked into didn't run it. (And why would they when their decks only played slivers?) But giving your non-sliver creatures a chance to mutate into Shrouded + Flying + Pumped fighters turned out to be a surprise win condition--increasing your horde! Most opponents might let
Hivestone
enter play un-countered simply because they might question why you're running it in a sliver deck in the first place. And for a 2-drop, this card fits well into a deck filled with 2 CMC creatures. However, this deck only runs two simply because Ancient Ziggurat makes it difficult to play consistently.
Immortal Servitude : The honourable mention. All over the net, it is agreed that the single greatest weakness to slivers are board wipes. Some legacy sliver decks run Patriarch's Bidding but since I don't really run black thanks to my mana, Immortal Servitude seems to be the best mass reanimator. It feels like something this deck should run. That said, the reason this is not in the mainboard is simply because all the Ancient Ziggurats make it difficult to cast this on turn 5 and forward. If people really recommend that I use this, I might switch my Ziggurats into City of Brass.
If anyone else has better recommendations for the lands I'm using as well as creatures, I'd be happy to look into them. Comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated.
