This is a deck intended to maximize the potential of the new M14 Slivers. It is an extremely fast aggro creature deck that was potential to deal more than 50 damage on turn 7. It doesn't really stray too far from the old Sliver decks but this one is vamped to be a very fast powerhouse that will leave slow decks crying in fear. I like to think that it will be a pretty competitive standard deck until M15 (All of these cards are M14 cards except for
Evolving Wilds
and Transguild Promenade) and after cycling will be a very fun, very powerful modern deck. Now to the breakdown.
Your green Slivers are the lifeblood of the deck. Without them this deck withers and is pathetic. The first Sliver that I'm sure many know is the
Predatory Sliver
which grants a +1/+1 buff to all of your Slivers (which, by the way, is an important concept for veteran Sliver users to understand. Unlike the old Slivers these new ones only affect your side of the battlefield meaning this deck vs an old Sliver deck will almost certainly come out on top).
Predatory Sliver
is a major staple and can win games in very few turns when fighting beside its White and Red brethren. The next Sliver you encounter is the Megantic Sliver. A six-drop in this deck means that it will be played fairly late game (relative to this decks pace) which is why only two are provided on the roster. However, their ability is a tripled version of its two-drop lesser that that makes 4/4 one drops and causes your opponent to lose almost all creatures when defending a wave of Slivers with this giant on the field. The final Green Sliver you find is the Manaweft Sliver. Now this card does not grant a combat buff but instead grants its fellow hive members a powerful ability; this being that you may tap them for one mana of any color. If this effect does not excite you then allow me to explain how this ability can really bring the deck together as a siege machine. Most of the Slivers used in this deck are low drops with only 6 of the 29 creatures being more than 3 mana to cast. What this means in terms of Manaweft Sliver (who is a two drop herself) is that you can multiply your forces by gargantuan amounts in a single turn by tapping the Slivers that you summon (For example: first turn you play a mana and cast one of your one drops. Second turn you place a mana and cast Manaweft Sliver which now allows you to tap your one drop Sliver and your Manaweft Sliver to bring out an additional two drop which in turn can bring out another one drop or you can bring out two one drops that then allow you cast another two drop. Essentially this means on turn three you then have six mana to work with casting your Slivers which means 2 or 3 more Slivers with dangerous abilities with the mana tap on them as well. Bottom line is that Manaweft Sliver causes your army to grow in massive size within the first few turns). Those of you concerned about being left open to attacks by tapping your creatures should consider that the creature growth that Manaweft Sliver acts as a catalyst for thrives most within the first 5 turns in which some decks do not even produce a creature and those that do cannot produce one to destroy you before your Sliver swarm is ready to strike. Because of this amazing effect my roster has 4 Manaweft Slivers but you may choose to run 3 or 2 but I recommend a couple because the amount of stimulation it causes for creature summoning or even spell casting is invaluable in a low land deck like this.
Next Slivers you want to look at are your Red Slivers. Unsurprisingly, these are going to be your hitters and some of your best basic tools for choking out your opponent. First up is Striking Sliver who is a one-drop that grants all Slivers first strike. Now in a pure Sliver deck like this, his effect is pretty much worthless (it's obviously intended for a hybrid deck that provides heavy non-sliver attackers), but his effect is not his function in this case. What he does is provide a Sliver for one mana which in this deck, or any Sliver deck really, every Sliver body is a potentially catastrophic weapon. So in that regard he is pretty straight forward; a one-drop 1/1 that usually becomes a 3/3 and acts as another deadly little creature that stabs your opponent repeatedly until death. He also acts a nice mana card when paired with Manaweft Sliver. Because of the overall utility of this little guy, I've included 4 in the roster but many of you will probably choose to run fewer of them. Blur Sliver is the next one to look at who is three-drop 2/2 that provides haste to all Slivers. This card is pretty easily understood for what function it provides the deck. When summoning all these Slivers (sometimes as many as 3 or 4 per turn) and erecting an army, you want to be able to hit your opponent as quickly as possible before they may react. That nice ability and a sturdy 2/2 body (which is pretty good as far as Slivers go) for only three mana has earned himself 3 copies in this roster. The final red Sliver is
Thorncaster Sliver
. It can be compared quite a bit to
Battle Sliver
who costs five mana like Thorncaster and serves the function of increasing damage output. However, I've found Torncaster Sliver is more versatile in what it does. Instead of granting a +2/0 bonus like
Battle Sliver
it allows any attacking Sliver to deal 1 damage to either a creature or a player which then allows you to break down potential defenders as well as deal extra damage to an open opponent in a single match or whittle down one or more opponents while your swarm devours another opponent in multi-way matches. Because of a highly useful effect I've included 2 of these bad-boys in the roster which is a pretty common count (at least personally) for any Sliver that's more than 3 mana. Some of you may choose to run two
Battle Sliver
s instead of
Thorncaster Sliver
or one of each; all possibilities can be argued as practical for the deck that you are using.
The final big color for this deck is the White Slivers. These two types of Slivers turn your rambunctious rabble into a deadly army through two key effects. First up is Sentinel Sliver who is a two-drop 2/2 that provides all Slivers with vigilance. What this essentially means is that by one creature being summoned you turn your devastating offense into an equally unmovable defense that protects you while stepping on your opponent's throat. This ability paired with a sturdy 2/2 body and only costing two mana to summon has earned Sentinel Sliver 3 spots on this roster. The second type of white Sliver is Bonescythe Sliver. This horror is arguably the deadliest of all the Slivers as it provides all of its comrades with double strike. You combine this with a Striking Sliver a
Predatory Sliver
and a Megantic Sliver and you have 4 creatures hitting for 46 damage against a single opponent. Bonescythe Sliver is a game-ender and all around badass. His mana cost is a bit on the higher side at a four-drop and that insulted by that it costs about four bucks a card (twenty if you want the limited edition promo) earns him only 2 spots in the roster, but even getting just a single copy of him on the field can be the difference between a moderate hit and overkill.
I'm combining the section on Black Slivers and Blue Slivers because in the M14 release there are only one in each color. The blue is Galerider Sliver who is one-drop 1/1 providing Slivers with flying. Wow. Not only does this allow your Sliver army to surpass most defenses without trouble, it also makes your Sliver brigade (made possible by Sentinel Sliver) to defend you on all fronts. Now this amazing effect coupled with unbelievably low mana cost makes this card rather expensive at three bucks a pop but is highly worth it (in my opinion) which is why I run 3 in this deck roster. The solitary Black Sliver and the last Sliver to be talked about in this deck is the Syphon Sliver. This three-drop 2/2 provides all of your precious Slivers with the dreaded lifelink. This card adds a third aspect to your Sliver force (granted they have vigilance from Sentinel Sliver) by buffing your life every time you attack or defend which, in a large sliver strike, can boost your life well over 50 and can make victory utterly unattainable for your poor opponent. Now This card isn't horribly expensive at only two bucks each but the strange thing is how scarce Syphon Sliver appears to be. I understand that it is a rare but I've pulled at least one of every Sliver except for Syphon Sliver. That fact paired with his low essentialness in the deck's overall production grade grants Syphon Sliver 2 slots in the deck roster.
Time to talk non-creature spells. Now just short of half the deck (literally 1 card short) is made up of creatures but that still leaves a handful of spells to support them. First up is sorceries. There are 7 spells (only 2 distinct) that are meant to support your Slivers and increase their growth. One of those is
Hive Stirrings
which is a nice three drop to gain two 1/1 Sliver tokens. Now in most decks 1/1 tokens serve little more than a defense but in a Sliver deck they become devastating utilities. With a Megantic Sliver and a Bonescythe Sliver these tokens become 4/4 with double strike which means those wee little tokens that were only hitting for 2 by themselves are now hitting for 16. Not to mention, any Sliver bodies you get on the field benefit the hive overall. Slivers are a number game and
Hive Stirrings
is a numbers card. The second sorcery is
Lay of the Land
. This card allows for you to grab that basic land that you're missing to bring out one of your badasses. It also helps to make sure that you don't get mana screwed because the longer you have to wait for mana by drawing the less effective the deck becomes overall.
There are two enchantments that are designated as a fairly high drop (relative to the rest of the deck) that provides a permanent buff to your swarm. First up is Into the Wilds which plays on the desired effect of
Lay of the Land
. It allows for not only an extra land to be played during your turn but also it makes it so your draw is always a spell. In this deck there are only 5 cards out of 38 that do not a Sliver onto your battlefield so Into the Wilds is a card that makes the Sliver siege machine that much more devastatingly efficient. The other enchantment is Path of Bravery (FUN FACT: Adding this card is what gave me the idea for the deck name); this is a spell that plays on the numbers like
Hive Stirrings
. If your life is higher than your starting count then all your creatures get a +1/+1 buff which in any creature deck is a beautiful gift but in a Sliver deck it can be game changing. To put more icing on this delicious cake any time a creature attacks it grants you an additional life, which in a number deck like Slivers that always attack with 5+ creatures at peak efficiency will make sure your health bar remains in the clouds.
Finally, we get to lands. The land configuration for this deck is the part where you get to be most creative. I use basic lands in this one because I like the mono taps that can be used as soon as they hit the field. You may pick whatever lands you like but the ratio of G:W:R:U:B spells is 6:4:4:1:1 which is how the basic lands are currently set up. Now, I've included Transguild Promenade because it is the cheapest alternative to Cavern of Souls and I wanted to keep this deck budget oriented (also, with the release of Theros in about month, Cavern of Souls will be cycling out and I want to keep this deck as standard for as long as possible. This is the same reason I am not using cards like Farseek in place of
Lay of the Land
. I've also included
Evolving Wilds
which allows you to grab the basic land you need for your specific hand. Between that card, Transguild Promenade,
Lay of the Land
, and Manaweft Sliver you should almost always have the mana color you need and rarely be screwed on amount of mana needed to pull of some insane combos. Because of this, and the low mana cost (Only 16 spells are above two mana to cast) I've only included 22 lands to make way for other Sliver spells. You may of course adjust accordingly to your modifications (which I'll get back to in a moment).
So that's how the decks. Now a few of you (and I mean few) may be wondering how I decided to use what I used. Obviously, these are not the only Slivers in the M14 set. There is also
Groundshaker Sliver
,
Battle Sliver
,
Steelform Sliver
and perhaps another Sliver or two that slips my mind. The reason I didn't use any of these was not so much because their abilities are bad or anything like that but rather their abilities were not worth the cost. For example
Steelform Sliver
is a three-drop that buffs all your slivers 0/+1. It was impractical to utilize this Sliver in this particular deck because for three many you can get so many better abilities and Slivers than
Steelform Sliver
. It's not unusable by any means but it doesn't fit into a highly aggressive fast deck like this one. Along the same lines falls
Groundshaker Sliver
. He grants trample which is fantastic until you see that he costs seven mana to cast. By the time you have the available mana to cast him, you don't have any need for his trample effect because your Slivers are already running around on your opponent (if played correctly). If he was a bit cheaper like Megantic Sliver or
Thorncaster Sliver
then I probably would have used him but his cost was not what he was worth. As I said earlier I don't use
Battle Sliver
because I feel
Thorncaster Sliver
is a better way to spend five mana.
So let me talk about modding real quick. Obviously these numbers as far as what you want to use is going to vary. The biggest weakness of this deck is that there are no counters. If you don't hit fast then you can potentially be wiped out later on by a powerful spell that clears the board. you may choose to sub out some of the extra Slivers like the fourth Manaweft Sliver and what not for some spells to keep your Slivers protected. You may also choose to remove Syphon Sliver so that you only have to worry about 4 colors of mana instead of 5, and if you have an idea that makes Galerider Sliver unneeded then you can remove them to make it a Naya Sliver deck which could run really well potentially. Also, I'm sure many of you have ideas for how you would run the land set up. Obviously, the most effective land card to put into this deck would be Cavern of Souls but just keep in mind that a deck using that card will become modern in September, not to mention that a single copy costs upwards of 20 bucks and I want this deck to be kept within a very doable budget.
Now that you have your deck set up the way you want, just let me talk briefly about how to use it. Assuming that you kept the same basic set up that I provided, you are just going to want to summon your Slivers as soon as you get them and hit any time you get an opening. Even if your only swinging for a few, the more openings that that you capitalize on the quicker your opponent is going to reach the point of no return. Use your tokens from
Hive Stirrings
and your Striking Slivers to block blows since it won't harm the hive if they're destroyed other than being down a Sliver. Don't cast Galerider until you're ready to strike. The reason I say this, is because my friend loves using his
Gruul Charm
which can potentially wipe out an entire wave of Slivers if they have flying so be cautious. Other than that, it's pretty straight forward. Happy hunting!
For those of you concerned about price, I'll break it down for you really quick (because at this time TappedOut doesn't have the pricing for most new Slivers). This deck costs about 40 bucks if you were to just buy all the pieces off of Amazon. It would cost about 100 if you were to use Cavern of Souls and Farseek. I wouldn't recommend buying everything online because you'll get a lot of the commons like
Predatory Sliver
or Blur Sliver in packs frequently. The ones I would recommend buying online would be Bonescythe Sliver, Syphon Sliver and Manaweft Sliver. I pulled all my others from packs (technically I got lucky and pulled one Bonescythe Sliver from a pack and got the 20 dollar promo version from a local card shop owner who is really really awesome). For those of you interested, here's a quick (and pretty rough) pricing guide for the individual spells:
Megantic Sliver - $1.50 x 2 = $3.00
Predatory Sliver
- $0.30 x 4 = $1.20 Manaweft Sliver - $0.90 x 4 = $3.60 Sentinel Sliver - $0.30 x 3 = $0.90 Bonescythe Sliver - $4.00 x 2 = $8.00 Striking Sliver - $0.30 x 4 = $1.20 Blur Sliver - $0.30 x 3 = $0.90
Thorncaster Sliver
- $1.65 x 2 = $3.30 Galerider Sliver - $3.00 x 3 = $9.00 Syphon Sliver - $2.00 x 2 = $4.00
Lay of the Land
- $0.30 x 4 = $1.20 Into the Wilds - $0.70 x 1 = $0.70
Hive Stirrings
- $0.30 x 3 = $0.90 Path of Bravery - $1.20 x 1 = $1.20 TOTAL = $39.10
And that's it. Brave Little Slivers. If you actually read all of this then good on ya. You now know the ins and outs of this deck and how to make it work. I wish the best and hope you have as much fun using it as I did building it! I will leave you now with a fun math fact about the deck:
~If every Sliver (including tokens) in this deck were to attack at one time, they would deal 802 combat damage with 35 damage to distribute among either defenders or additional damage to opponent life~
